How To Plan A Corporate Event On Budget

Planning a corporate event can be a daunting experience, especially if you’re working on a tight budget. There is always too much to prepare for. Even though budgets are important for any kind of event, one of the greatest worries is how to plan a successful event without being too frugal. The most important things to do is to stick to the budget in order to see a return on investment. Thankfully, there are some really great tricks and tips for a planning a corporate event on budget. Here are some of them.

Identify Your Key Expenditure

This is one of the first steps when planning a corporate event. While this may seem obvious, without a clear outline it’s all too tempting to overrun your budget and suffer from a loss. Whether you’re arranging for a conference, a trade show or a seminar, it’s important to keep track of your basic expenditure. These include;

• Cost of paid guests and speakers
• Cost of hiring the venue
• Cost or renting equipment; the cost of the sound system, staging, internet access, projectors etc.
• Cost of furnishings and decorations
• Cost of catering, namely service staff and wet bar
• Cost of promotion and marketing
• Cost of travel

Determine Your Budget

You have likely set budget to work with, or perhaps the corporation you work for would like you to include an itemised list of all expenditure in your budget before making any decisions. Whatever the situation, it’s important to understand your budget before making any reservations or purchases since this is the key to staying profitable. Before you decide on the approximate budget, it’s crucial to first establish the type of event that you are hosting as your budget will vary accordingly. It’s also important to know what you want to achieve by hosting the event. For instance, if you are collecting an entry fee in order to profit from hosting the event, weigh your expenditure against the set charges for admission.

Think of How To Cut Costs

It may seem difficult to cut costs but there are some ways to do this. If you want to ensure that costs are under control, consider the following:

Keep A Check On Your Expenditure – While planning, there may be different people who are in charge of organizing different things. It’s, therefore, important to keep an eye on them to make sure that they do not spend above the budget.

Avoid Impulse Buying – It’s too easy to be overwhelmed during the initial stages and feel the need of buying something that you did not purchase earlier. Stick to your original budget and stay clear from impulse purchases that might ruin your budget.

Cut On Your Catering Costs – Typically, most event planners always order more food than they need. It’s normal to want to buy enough food but this might only lead to wastage if you’re not careful. You can set preliminary budget and then cut it by 10% to save the money on catering.

Save On Transportation – If you are responsible for transporting guests to the event, instead of hiring taxis which are costly, consider arranging a charter bus from a company like LA Charter Bus Company for transporting your guests to the event. This can help you save a lot when it comes to transportation.

Choosing A Venue

If your corporate event is going to take place offsite, you will do yourself a lot of good by carrying out some research. When doing this consider the following:

• The venue
• Provided amenities, services, and procedures
• The amount and type of event space that is needed
• The chosen dates

After finding a few possible options for venues, it’s advisable to compile a list of requests for each. By doing this, you will be able to weigh the pros and cons and come up with the best deal for the event.

Be Creative

After considering all the above, it is very important to be creative. Although there are many stresses involved with planning such events, do not allow these to prevent you from being creative. Do not be afraid of trying out creative ideas thinking that they might flop or eat into your budget. Remember, you can actually save by doing this if you do it correctly.

Wrapping Up

Planning any event on a budget can be complicated. Before settling down with the final plan it is very important to have a working outline. Moreover, consider cutting costs to save money and avoid wastage, but don’t let it affect your creativity and guest experience too much.