Event Planner/Wedding Planner?
Answer:
Event planning is a fun and great career, I've been doing it for nearly ten years and every day is fun and different. I very highly recommend that you look for work as a planner's apprentice or some other kind of entry level position where you can learn from others. Starting your own business is certainly something to think of for the future, but right now you don't have the experience that clients will be looking for, so you would be better off working for and learning from someone else, at least for a little while. There are lots of companies out there who plan events that you may not find in the yellow pages under 'event planning', so try looking into destination management companies (they look after conventions and large groups coming into your city) and incentive houses (they plan events and trips for sales teams and other groups that have lots of fun events. Advertising agencies, public relations firms and catering companies also do a lot of event planning these days too, so be sure to look into them as well.
Also, find some industry groups, such as ISES, the International Special Event Society (www.ises.com) and MPI, Meeting Professionals International (www.mpi.org) - these groups have chapters in most major cities in North America (and some other locations as well) and the local chapters hold monthly meetings where you can actually go and meet with meeting and event planners in person. Some of those organizations also have job posting boards, which could help you land your first gig. Also, many of these groups even have student rates, if that applies to you. You will be surprised how much you learn just going to one evening meeting and the contacts you will make there will be invaluable.
Special events can be a very difficult industry to break into, because there are always more people who want jobs, than there are jobs available. This also means that entry level event jobs usually don't pay all that well, but if this is really your passion you will likely be able to climb the ladder pretty quickly.
So be creative and start thinking outside of the box in terms of even getting your foot in the door, that will be a great place to start. 25 is the perfect time to really go after your passion and try to find work doing what you love, so that you can do that for the rest of your life and not waste time on a job that doesn't inspire you. Best of Luck!
Join professional associations; network with their members, read their literature and attend their workshops and conferences. For example:
http://www.acep.com/
http://www.afwpi.com/
Good luck!
This is a growing field and (if you're professional, passionate, sensitive, and creative) I'd encourage you to start this business. There are many ways to make money as a wedding planner. The first thing you should do is research, research, and more research, see what services other planners are offering in your area and (more importantly) why. Read lots of books, join your chamber of commerce, advertise (not direct mail) phone book.. probably Yellowbook USA and whatever utility book you have in your area (AT&T or SBC).
btw- i am a small biz/start up biz consultant if you'd like to put something together with me I'd love to work with you directly. Feel free to drop me a line.
Slainte,
-D
Giving advise and helping out is not exactly what and event planner does. It means taking the responsibility of everything from beginning to end and in addition to this also being able to deal with people who have no clue about what they want. I would suggest for you to become and assistant to an experienced event planner. This is how you will learn the tricks of the trade. It is not a complicated job to find especially in Hotels. I would also advise you to take some classes in regards to time management, budgeting and dealing with people.
Good luck!
i am a wedding planner in austin texas, and i love my job, allthough i am doing something else on top of the wedding planning, i find time for it all. to get in the business you need a business license.. go to the tax office and get one.. then you will need to have good credit to go get a bank loan to start up your business probably in the neighborhood of 60 thousand dollars to get started. you will only get back what you put into your business.. it takes money up front to be sucessfull contact me via messenger (same as my name on this page) and we'll talk
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