The recipe for winning at business event planning

This excerpt is part of Entrepreneur.com’s Second-Quarter Startup Kit which explores the fundamentals of starting up in a wide range of industries.

In Start Your Own Event Planning Business, the staff at Entrepreneur Press and writer Cheryl Kimball explain how you can get started in the event planning industry, whether you want to work part- or full-time planning anything from a first-birthday party, bar mitzvah or wedding to political fundraisers and product launches. In this edited excerpt, the authors talk about the things that will help you succeed — and those that will make you fail — in the event planning industry.

Here are some of the pitfalls specific to the event planning industry:

Misunderstanding your client’s require­ments. If your client wants a con­servative business meeting and you deliver a Roaring Twenties theme party, you’re in trouble. Although this is an extreme example, remember that you need to know all your client’s requirements in detail before you can arrange a successful event.

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