Finding a Location Part 3

Any successful event must meet the budget. It is important to calculate your budget.

With an open-ended budget, anyone can plan a great event but when your financial resources are limited you must be resourceful and creative. A professional event planner with experience can always plan a great event with any reasonable budget.

Ask yourself these questions:

- Do the venues fall within your budget parameters for space, technical and catering expenses?
- Have you negotiated a favorable rate for services and demonstrated the value your role?
- Have you allowed flexibility in your budget in case line item expenses exceed plan?
- Incorporate what management prefers.

At the end of the day, event planners must present their recommendations to their internal client and obtain approvals.

And finally;

- Will the management team approve my recommendation(s)?

If the answer is no, go back to 'Finding a Location Part 1' in our series and start over. The perfect location may be hard to find but it's there if you keep looking. With all things considered; date(s), budget, availabilities and image simply pick the best location you can afford. If you are not 100% pleased start the process earlier next time, plan accordingly and keep your files, contacts and Database up to date.

Creating the budget is the most critical element of any event. In fact we say the budget is the event. Every event has a budget, or should have a budget and planning one is no easy task.

You can reverse engineer your budget by proclaiming the total amount you have to spend and work backwards with the elements of your event that are essential or you can prioritize the elements of your event putting the least important things (your wish list) at the bottom and shop smart.

We find that reverse budget planning works best when you have the right tools, know your market and have the experience to understand the marketplace you are working in. Being organized is your best asset.

Here is a handy and inexpensive way to help you plan a budget for any sized event. It has many pre-made event templates created by professional event planners and maximizes your efforts. You can also customize the software for your individual needs and it allows you to reverse engineer, create To-do lists, can be exported into excel or emailed and when you are ready you can print everything out and put it all into a binder. We think you'll find this tool invaluable.

Happy planning.

Ref: About.com