STARTING YOUR EVENT MANAGEMENT COMPANY

Event Management can be fun!

The Event Management Industry in Nigeria is a growing one and it is full so many opportunities such that you'll be lost if you don't find your niche right.

Starting up is as good as starting up any other kind of business. It requires that you find your core competence (ies) to start with. Yes, you want to start an Event Management company and yes you are very good at everything. However, the error most start-ups have is combining so much together that end up a Jack or Jill of all trade but master of none.

1. WHAT SERVICE DO YOU WANT TO SELL?

Nigeria today, even a sound Engineer is an event manager. You have to decide what aspect of the event management services you want to sell, what kind of events are you interested in planning? Opportunities abound. Wedding planning, party planning, music concerts, sports festivals, fashion shows, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) and so on. What alot don't know is that you can take one of these and become a professional at it. In the world now, you can actually be a professional wedding planner and be certified for it.

Know that starting a business just because you want to can be a disaster. You must know what you want to do. That's how you can deliver essential professional service to your clients.

2. GETTING STARTED

Experience counts with most clients. The industry is a growing one in the country and there isn’t so much opportunity to work for a company as an Event Manager, so you can gather experiences. If you are one of such that do not have a company to work with and needs to gather experience, my advice is that you start by planning events for your friends and families. This will give you experience in planning a variety of events as well as build up your portfolio for future clients to see your work. I will also advice you attend Event Management workshops and trainings. There are a lot of it around these days. Join Event Management groups on the internet or maybe on your blackberry. This helps you to stay on top of events and happenings within the event planning industry. It will also help you to network and learn from seasoned professionals in your industry.

3. THEN WHAT . . .?

CARVE YOUR NICHE MARKET. To do this, you need market research. Your market is your target audience, the people you wish to sell to and the clients who might be interested in hiring your event management service.

Therefore it is very important that you find out in advance who are your target audience (i.e. their age group, sex, qualification, profession, lifestyle, income, liking, disliking, customs, religions, traditions etc), where there live and what are their desires and expectations from your event. To do market research you will have to do survey in the area (town/city/state/country) where you wish to organize the event. If you wish to open a wedding planning company and there are hardly two or three weddings in a year in your area, then selling such type of services is not commercially viable.

From your market research, you also determine who your competitors are. Asking questions such as the one below helps you to gather data for developing a good business plan for your event management company.

Competitors' Analysis

Find out:

• - who are your competitors

• - Where they live?

• - What are their employee base (i.e. number of employees)

• - Client base (i.e. number of clients)

More Next week . . .