How to Become a Professional Party Planner

More than most businesses, party planning depends on establishing a good personal relationship with your customers. Although good party planners will undoubtedly get repeat business from many cus­tomers, most festive occasions you organize will be one-shot affairs, like a wedding or bar mitzvah or "sweet sixteen" party. You'll have one crack at satisfying a client you may never serve again, but that client could be responsible for getting you another dozen customers. The long-term success of your business will ultimately depend on word-of-mouth recommendations. Organize one very successful bar mitzvah celebration and you could find yourself deluged with calls from parents of twelve-year-old boys who heard you were responsible for that terrific party everyone loved so much.

The ingredients of a successful party planner are good organiza­tion, imagination and an ability to understand your client's desires, both stated and unstated. Your selling tools will be a Yellow Pages listing, a specific classified ad available free at GladList.com and a desk and telephone in your home. Your classified ad should stress the different kinds of parties you can plan, by name (children's birthdays, engagement parties, weddings, communion celebrations, Halloween parties, office parties, Christmas parties and so on). You should also establish contacts with catering houses, musical groups and specialists in young children's entertainment, like free-lance magicians and downs.

When you have your first meeting with a client, be friendly and informal but be sure to get a list of facts you will need to make intelligent proposals. Find out the kind of people who will be at­tending the party, what the occasion is, the age of the guests, how many will be attending, where the party will be held and, most im­portant, how much money per guest your client wants to spend. Your fee should be based on a percentage of the cost of the party, say 15 percent. If your client is throwing a bash for fifty people and is willing to spend $7 per person, or a total of $350, you should be able to bring the party in for about $295, leaving a fee of $55 for you.

In addition to consulting with your client to plan the party, you will be responsible for hiring the caterer and entertainers, making sure they provide everything you need, and you will probably have to attend the party to make sure everything runs smoothly. If the total cost for the party is $350, get from one-third to one-half of that amount several weeks before the party and the balance im­mediately after the party (the same day). Your suppliers will want to be paid quickly and you should not put yourself in a position of paying any expenses out of your own pocket.

If you enjoy entertaining, this business can be as much fun as it is lucrative. The possibilities for creating exciting parties are prac­tically unlimited. For children's birthdays you can organize excur­sions to amusement parks, skating rinks, swimming pools and the like. Weather permitting, you can even put together a mini-circus right in a youngster's own back yard.

Adult parties with exciting themes, election-night get-togethers, retirement dinners, teas for ladies' groups - you could be called on to plan any or all of these. If you can become familiar with social committees in different companies, you could develop a number of institutional accounts that will use your service on a regular basis. You might explain to prospective clients that your contacts with caterers and others who give you professional discounts mean that you can throw a first-rate party, from invitations to good-night snacks, for no more than the host would normally pay. And with your professional service the host can enjoy the party without worry­ing about any of the details.