Should You Be In Charge of Everything That Happens in a Party?
Once you live the lifestyle of a party planner, you realize two things.
First, you understand the meaning of hard work. You’re building a party from the ground up, and in the process, you need to coordinate with everyone who’s involved (the celebrant, the guests, the caterers, the decorators etc.). You also have to think a few steps ahead of everyone, and you must foresee a lot of what’s going to happen in the party before anyone else.
You also need to be in the know about the things that happen behind the scene…
Who’s going to emcee? What time should the ushers stand at attention? Does the prepared program allow dance time for the guests? Who’s in charge of what? What should we do when the bridesmaid doesn’t want to wear a dress that exposes her shoulders because she’s receiving eczema treatment?
Why does a party planner take all these issues under her wing?
The second thing you realize when you become a party planner is this… although you can’t prevent small problems from cropping up, you must exert all your effort to avoid these because sooner or later someone will say the party was terrible and blame you. They won’t say it directly of course, but there’s always a reason for any mishap and you’re supposed to be the one in charge, right?
We can say that a party planner’s real job is to coordinate with everyone and assure all the people involved in a party that there’s no need to panic; and that there’s a calm person on the helm overseeing things.
Party Planning Business: Do Not Lose The Trust of Your Friends
Party planning is just like any other business – you need to run it by managing your money wisely and building the whole thing brick by brick. Sure, the start-up expense might be lower than say putting up a restaurant, but what you save on cash you will have to put out in effort. Rome definitely wasn’t built in 24 hours and if you try and rush the earning process of a party planning business, you will find yourself time in the poor house and your investments will go to waste.
Why? This is because you need to rely on word of mouth as well as advertisements to be able to survive. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that if you can avoid advertising fees, avoid them at all costs. In this business, social skills matter more, but if you’re not a social person there are still many ways to advertise without spending a lot.
Some party marketers ‘go all the way’, quit their jobs and burn their bridges. Most of the time, this won’t work because you need to be around people all the time to effectively build a reputation. Being self-employed as a party planner takes practice, and who can you better practice on than your colleagues at work? Sealing their fate in a do or die situation (that is, investing all of your time and money on a party planning business while you’re just starting and learning the ropes) will cost you.
Here’s one of the ways to never burn your bridges… don’t lose your friends through MLM scams.
There are so many ways to do this, and one of them is forcing your friends to exchange favors with you through MLM scams. What you must understand is that a lot of people will do you favors because they like you, but if you abuse this too much or use it wrongly, they may just ditch you when you really need them (like when you want to tap into their networks because yours has run out). Earning off your friends might seem like a survival technique, but nobody praises a business owner who exploited his friends’ tendency to grant favors more than few times. So, let me put it this way. If you have the talent for it, you’re better off doing diet supplement reviews online if you have a tendency to compromise friendships for money making ventures.
Party planning is a business built on favors (forgive the pun). Even if you spend everything including your mortgage cash, your business will depend on the goodwill of your friends who will continually send you leads and ultimately, more profit.
Welcoming the Spring With a Short Family Vacay
How about a short family vacation to celebrate spring? Set aside a weekend or two and visit several places. You can go as far as Europe (Spain would be an ideal place to visit during this time), or you can choose a local tourist spot.
Wherever you go, just make sure that the place you’re going to visit has a wide selection of tourist spots and fun places to visit from beaches to family friendly amusement hubs. You can take the “historical and educational” route if you have kids and visit museums. Look for architectural structures that’s unique to the city you’re visiting.
Even if you’re not a family of artists, it’s best to let your kids experience art in various forms. For instance, look at sculptures and teach your kids art appreciation while they’re young and un-jaded by modern definitions of what’s artistic and what’s junk.
Remember how you always think about where you went as a kid? Your kids are the same. They should be able to recall good memories of travelling with you even when they have their own families. If vacation cost is an issue, avail of travel packages that are offered with a lot of perks and extras. For instance, if you’re looking for a local tourist spot to visit, you can look at some Branson vacation packages for inspiration on what comprises a short vacation package.
How to Throw a “Group Effort” Direct Selling Party
How can you turn your usual direct selling party into a success? Divide the tasks among your friends! Of course, you have to understand that they won’t work for free so you’d better have a nice incentive for your party helpers.
First, you can offer to split the profits with them. Which means they won’t be coming as buyers but as merchants themselves. The advantage of doing this is that you can be sure they’ll invite more friends over to get more buyers.
Speaking of invitees, always remember to give out elegant invitations that focus on the party per se, and not the profiteering that will happen in the party. Most people detest being “forced” to buy something, but they LOVE attending a party that seems exciting, regardless of what type of party it is. However, always remember to add subtle indications that the invited guest should bring cash to pay for purchases because it is, after all a “selling” party.
Since this is a group effort party, let your friends handle the food (pot luck style) while you handle the venue decorations and chair rentals. You can assign one friend to take care of the entertainment, and the guest relations. One pal can act as an usher to your guests, while you circulate making sure that everyone is comfortable and mingling.
You shouldn’t need to hard sell to your friends, even if you’re marketing something like high end wrinkle creams or diet supplements. Focus instead on creating a party that will make the trip to your venue worth it.