By: Victoria Wilegus
Events Made Simple - The Downtown Social -
July 8, 2023
Wow, It's kind of hard to believe that I am actually typing this. By the time this will be getting to some of you it will probably be a year or longer - who knows it could be sooner but typically these blogs take a while to reach people.
This journey as a wedding planner for destinations and locally has been a dream for me, I loved it so much that I left a career that I had been in for 6 years - although it was never my intention to run a business like the one I was in it was such a transition coming into weddings and events. However I quickly learned that in this industry it is a Feast and Famine type of beast where there is seasonal highs and seasonal lows - all of this really depends where you are and what your niche is however that is besides the point.
Last week I started to try a new type of advertising and I was going around town and networking with people that I could give my card and have referrals for. I stepped into a Bridal Salon in a quirky part of town where the places were vacant and the rent was in my budget - so as I was talking to the salon owner she said - "Sometimes this little square makes me sad because it isn't what it used to be where people would come down to socialize" It made me think this. The reason people aren't there is because they don't see places that appeal to their needs. We needed not only to have money coming in - but also that special kind of client that is willing to invest in themselves and their loved ones.
I looked in my bank account - had a few God sends - and ran into the owner of the building next door and talked to him about his luck with prior tenants. None of them had enough marketing for the area, or it just wasn't a good time for them, ect. To me that was music to my ears because that meant that it was possible to be up for grabs and I could have events there since my blog is currently getting about 500 views a month - which in blog world is not a lot BUT it is enough to have traffic coming into a Venue that I add onto my wedding planning company.
So within 2 days, I looked at the spot, talked to my boyfriend, and ran the numbers for my current clientele and the outreach and although it was scary - I was like "I have to sign this lease" Everything checked out - from the walls to the size to the location and of course the landlord's agreement was so great I was beyond excited.
I am writing this because I think that there are a few things when considering to open a wedding venue or if you are searching for a venue yourself you should ask 5 questions.
Is it in the size bracket that you need - realistically you are going to need a minimum of 1000 sq feet to do an event space and that would be pretty small.
Is it within 30 minutes of your home? (This one was the hardest part for me) Although it may seem silly - I kept hearing from lots of coaches that getting a venue far away was just not the way to go and we needed to steer clear in case things went wrong or something happened.
Does your landlord or your location allow for events to be held? My location was pretty open with everything to do what they needed but not every event is like that so you will want to make sure that you keep that in mind.
What kind of budget do you need or want to start in? This took a long time for me - not because things were too expensive to get the space but because of everything else. I started collecting rentals for my weddings a little over 2 years ago now so I felt confident to get started with everything I already had.
Do you have the time to commit to a new type of business starting out? This business can totally be passive AFTER you have things setup - but you may have to train the ropes first in order for that to happen.
Hope that these tips are something that will help you on your journey either as a planner or a future event space owner.
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