Whether you’re planning an in-person, virtual or hybrid event, there are many moving parts that make up an event strategy. One of the first key steps to take before planning any piece of the event is to create a budget.
While numbers and spreadsheets may not be your favorite activity, creating a budget up front will provide realistic view of what things costs, how to prioritize and allocate your budget and where you may be able to save money.
Once you’ve created the budget, it serves as a guide throughout the planning process to make sure you’re on track and make adjustments necessary.
Having a budget mapped out will also help you determine ticket pricing for the event and estimate the number of guests that need to attend in order to cover your costs. This can be a valuable exercise as you may realize the event you have planned may not be profitable. Then you have the opportunity to adjust the budget and design the event to meet your goals while not breaking the bank.
How to Approach Your Budget
Evaluate past events
Your past events can provide a lot of information and be a great resource when developing a new event budget. Review your past events to determine the average cost of audio/visual, venues, and staffing. You can also identify unplanned expenses or where you may have overspent. Then you can scale back the budget or perhaps source new vendors more in line with your budget.
Do Your Research
So what if you’re launching a new event and don’t have old budgets to rely on? Doing some research will provide an average price range. Industry publications, associations or networking groups are great resources to gather this information.
Create a High Level Budget
Developing an event budget can be overwhelming when trying to think of every single cost you may incur. Begin by creating a high level list of expenses you know you will invest in. Here are a few categories to get you started:
- Venue
- Food
- Beverage
- Staffing
- Registration platform
- Event marketing
- Speaker fees
- Audio/visual services
- Travel
Create a Detailed Estimate of Your Costs
Once you’ve developed a high-level list of event costs, then you can begin filling in the details by breaking items into separate line items. For example, the “venue” category should be drilled down to include room rental, venue staffing, wifi and other costs associated with the venue. Event marketing can be broken down to include paid ads, social media and design costs.
Remember to include items such as shipping or printing costs, which often get overlooked.
And finally, build in a contingency of 10-25% for unexpected expenses. You may need to add A/V on site or order more food than expected. Having the contingency in place reduces the stress of going over budget and helps you stay on track throughout the event.
Do you need help with your event budget? We’d love to help! Schedule a time for us to meet. Whether we give you some quick tips, or you need more in-depth help, you’ll walk away with valuable ideas.