As a wedding and event planner, clients buy into you as a person as
well as the service you are offering and place their trust in you to
organise what can be a highly important personal event," she says. "You
need the ability to make your clients feel at ease with you, and this
stems from having a very personable character, which is essential in
this line of work."
An initial consultation meeting with her client provides Phipp with
some insight into their character and the sort of look and feel they
want for their event.
This inspires her to come up with the creative
ideas for their special day. However, she adds that one of the few
drawbacks of running a business like this from home, is having to
generate that creativity in isolation.
She says: "In an office environment, you are surrounded by colleagues
who are all working in the same field and whom you can ask for an
opinion on a colour scheme or for their view on a particular supplier,
and so on. Working from home on your own means there is likely to be no
one else to ask for ask for a second opinion, so often you have to trust
your own instinct.
Event planning can be a seasonal business; demand for Christmas
parties creates a festive peak season, while enquiries about wedding
planning services frequently follow prime engagement periods of
Christmas, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day.
Phipp
adds: "If you are open to the prospect of organising a broader range of
events then you are more likely to stay busy all year round. So that
might include providing planning services for non-seasonal events such
as conferences, corporate dinners, staff training days and celebration
parties."
Anyone who is thinking about turning their talents to becoming a
freelance wedding planner needs to be aware of how time consuming the
work can be, says Caroline Smith, who set up her business, London-based Do Events.
She says: "It's said to take an average of 250 hours to plan a
wedding.
Once I've met with the bride, groom and their immediate
families, I put together a proposal and a fee based on their
requirements and how I can help them. Also, I find that most brides and
their families want help on the day of their wedding, someone to look
after the suppliers, the guests and be on hand to oversee everything
runs smoothly."
Smith finds her home-based business quite flexible to run and she is
able to fit it around her son and family life in general.
Having a
husband who is a drummer in a successful band can come in useful when
she needs to find a good band that she can trust to put on a show at a
wedding or party.
She adds: "Finding new business is a constant challenge as the events
industry is a very crowded market to be in. However, I do use a lot of
social media; Facebook and Twitter, blogs and listings to win business,
and I also take part in cross promotions with other small businesses in
the events and wedding industry.To know more visit our site http://allindiayellowpage.com.