No matter if you want to launch a new product, strengthen relationships with your customers or attract new investors, hosting an event is something you just can’t go wrong with. Although we live in the age of social media and video calls, nothing beats a well-organized small business event. Still, you can’t just send out invitations and hope everyone has a good time.
Instead, it’s up to you to plan the entire thing and ensure everyone who shows up creates a memorable experience they relate to your business. But how exactly do you make your small business event a success? Here are five tips to have in mind.
Table of Contents
Define your goals
You can’t host a small business event without knowing what you want to achieve through it. Well, you can but it’ll just be a waste of money and that’s something most small businesses aren’t able to afford. Therefore, one of the first things you need to do when organizing your event is to outline your purpose. Maybe you want to use it to encourage your current customers to come back or maybe you want potential investors to see where you see the company in a few years.
Once you know what you want to achieve, deciding on the means for doing so will be a lot easier. For instance, freebies can turn just any customer into a loyal follower of your brand while a carefully-designed presentation can draw investors to your business.
Think about money
Ask any Australian business owner who recently hosted a small business event and they’ll tell you how expensive it can all get. Still, this doesn’t mean you should decide not to do it. Instead, you need to do your homeowner and use your money as wisely as possible. This will prevent you from overspending once you start organizing the event and ensure there’s enough of it left for the details that are yet to be dealt with.
In order to be able to do this, it’s recommended that you break down your budget and determine a smaller budget for every aspect of the event. It’s also a good idea to set some money aside since unexpected costs always arise when hosting this type of events.
Order food and drink
Food and drink have to be present at every event your small business hosts. After all, you can expect people to spend hours at your event without something to bite on. When it comes to food, don’t forget that people nowadays maintain different diets and ordering different options for your employees is recommended. When it comes to drinks, it’s a good idea to come up with your alcohol policy and let everyone know about it before the event takes place.
That should help them decide on the means of transportation they use to get to your venue. Also, if you plan to serve alcohol, you need a local company that can provide you with it. For instance, if you need a professional alcohol delivery service in Sydney, there are local companies you can turn to.
Delegate responsibilities
Hosting an event is a complex process and as much as you’d like to do everything yourself, you need help from your employees. You may believe that organizing everything on your own is a good idea but delegation allows you and your team members to focus on even the tiniest details which can be of huge importance. For example, if there’s a graphic designer in your team, have them prepare visuals for you to use when giving a presentation.
Or if someone in the office is really into music, having them choose the band or make a playlist for the entire evening is a great idea. You can also use this opportunity to see who in your team is capable of taking a more important role in the company.
Don’t forget about marketing
If you want people to show up at your event, you have to promote it. Luckily, in this day and age, there are so many ways you can make sure everyone find out about your event. For example, if you want potential investors to attend your event, send them an email with a well-designed signature that’ll help them remember your business.
Tweeting about your event is another great idea since most influential people are on this platform. Twitter and email can still be used when attracting customers to your event but nothing seems to beat creating a Facebook event page for it. For local businesses, promoting your event on the radio can also work.
Final thoughts
Hosting a small business event isn’t easy no matter what your goals are. This is why it’s important to start preparing on time and have every little detail planned. Have the five tips covered earlier in this post in mind and there should be nothing stopping you from making your next small business event a real success.
About Carson Derrow
