The celebrations are coming back! So, if you love planning parties and making them look great, why not turn your skills into your dream business? You can start a party design business with very little money, help people have fun, and make a nice living at the same time.
The event planning business, which is worth a whopping $3 billion in the United States and is growing as the disease dies down, depends on party improvements. So, now is the time to join the group and gain entry to that market.
But starting a business takes time, work, and, most importantly, knowledge. This step-by-step guide will teach you everything you need to know to start a profitable business decorating parties.
Step 1: Find Out if this is the Right Business for You?
Positives Vs Negatives
| Low costs to get started – Only time and a website are needed. Work as much or as little as you want. Good money – $500 to $750 per party is not a bad deal. Creativity means sharing yourself and making other people happy. | Market Problems: Slowly getting better after a big drop due to an outbreak Customers can be picky, especially around important events. |
Industry Trends
- Size and Growth of the Sector: The party and event planning industry in the US is worth $3.2 billion.
- Growth is expected to be steady in the party planning business over the next five years.
- In the US, there will be 61,047 party and event planning businesses in 2022.
- According to the most current figures, 66,882 people were working in the party and event planning business in 2022.
Cost of Starting Party Decorating Business
You can start a business selling party decorations for as little as $2,000 to $5,000. A marketing fund and a website are the two biggest expenses. There will be no need for stock, since the buyer will pay for all of the decorations.
You could also get better at planning parties by taking an online course on Udemy.
Is Party Decorating Business Profitable?
Your skills at decorating parties could usually be sold for $60 to $80 per hour. About $600 is the average salary for a party designer. After paying for the show, your net profit should be around 90%.
In your first year or two, you might prepare for two parties a week and make $62,400 a year. If the percentage was 90%, the profits would be about $56,000. As word gets out about your business and people start to suggest it to others, you might start getting 10 parties a week. At this point, you would hire people to help you, which would cut your profit margin to about 40%. With an annual income of $312,000, you would make a nice profit of about $125,000.
Entry Barriers
- Having great skills in decorating
- Competition from other companies that make party decorations
Step 2: Create a Strategy
Identify a Gap
Find out about the services, prices, and customer feedback of area party decoration companies. You want to make up for a gap in the market. For instance, there may not be a company in the area that specializes in decorating for business parties.
This might get people talking about you again and bring you business right away.
Solutions
Including how much you are willing to prepare and if you are willing to take down the decorations. Make sure your website lists all of your services and products.
Pricing
You could start out by charging $60 per hour, or you could set flat rates based on the size of the change and the client’s budget. Since your only costs will be gas and advertising, you should aim for a 90% profit margin.
Once you know your costs, you can use our Step-by-Step Profit Margin Calculator to figure out your rate and final price points. Remember that your shipping prices should be able to change whenever the market calls for it.
Target Market
Most likely, your target group will be older people you can find on Facebook or LinkedIn. You could also ask area party planners, business planners, wedding planners, and party stores for recommendations.
Location
At first, you might decide to run your business from home to save money. But if your business grows, you might need to rent an office area and hire people to do different jobs. You can use Craigslist, Crexi, and Instant Offices to find business space to rent in your area.
If you are looking for a place for your business, you should follow these basic rules:
- A good place to be with easy access to public transportation
- Ventilation and light from the outside
- You can extend your lease as your business grows.
- A space that is ready to be used and doesn’t need any big fixes or changes.
Step 3: Write a Business Plan
A business plan is essential. This will assist you in guiding your new firm through the launch process while keeping your primary goals in mind. A business plan also assists potential partners and investors in better understanding your company and its objectives:
- Executive Summary: A brief outline of the whole business plan that should be written after the plan is done.
- Business Overview: A summary of the company’s goals, vision, purpose, assets, and control structure.
- What we make and what we do: Explain in detail what you’re selling.
- Do a SWOT analysis and look at market trends like changes in demand and growth opportunities.
- Competitive Analysis: Look at your key rivals’ strengths and flaws and make a list of what makes your services better.
- Sales and Marketing: Look at the unique selling points (USPs) of your business and come up with sales, marketing, and promotion plans.
- Management Team: An overview of the team’s tasks and professional backgrounds, as well as a business structure.
- Operations Plan: Your company’s operational plan includes how it will get supplies, where it will put its office, what its most important assets and tools are, and other practical details.
- Financial Plan: A three-year plan for money, including start-up costs, a break-even analysis, predictions of profits and losses, cash flow, and a balance sheet.
- Appendix: Add any other papers related to money or business.
Step 4: Create a Marketing Plan
Even though some of your business will come from people walking by or finding you online, you should still spend money on advertising. Getting the word out is especially important for new businesses because it brings in more customers and makes more people aware of their brand.
Connect your website to your social media accounts once it’s up and running. Social media is a great way to get the word out about your business because you can make fun content and sell your goods.
- Facebook is a great place for paid ads because it lets you target specific groups, like guys under 50 in the Cleveland area.
- Instagram has the same benefits as Facebook, but it is used by a different group of people.
- Website: Search engine optimization (SEO) will help your website rank higher in relevant search results, which is a key part of getting more sales. Make sure there are clear calls to action on your website. Change the size, color, and placement of calls to action like “Book Now.” This could bring in a lot more people.
- Google and Yelp: Getting listed on Yelp and Google My Business can be very important for getting people to know about your business and buy from you.
- Flyers: Hand out flyers in your neighborhood and at work events.
- Offer your decorating skills to people who plan weddings and parties.
- Email newsletter/advertising – Send basic texts to customers and potential customers. Take care of them.
- Start a blog and update it often. Change up your content and share it on different channels.
- By giving rewards, you can get customers to recommend new clients.
- Paid social media ads: Choose sites that have the people you want to reach and run focused ads on those sites.
- Pay-per-click marketing: To improve your search engine results, use Google AdWords. First, learn as much as you can about your watchwords.
- Influencer marketing is when you pay people with a lot of followers on social media to promote your party decorations. There are micro-influencers with a small number of fans and a low rate of interaction.