NYC event planners need to hustle to make it happen. Maybe you’ve been hustling, but your NY event planning business isn’t bustling. If so, we’ve put together a list of 10 small tweaks that yield big results for your event planning business.
Set Better SMART Goals
You wouldn’t be an event planner in New York, of all places if you weren’t setting goals. And you’re probably familiar with SMART goals, you know, that suggests goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
But are your SMART goals as effective as they could be? Minor tweaks to your goal-setting process could yield big results for your NYC event planning business.
1. Be really specific when setting goals. A Forbes study found that people are up to 1.4x more likely to hit their goals when they describe them “very vividly.” So, break out your craft glue sticks and magazine to create a vision board that illustrates how you want your NY event planning business to look. Then, fill a page with a detailed description of your goal, what it means to you, and how it will look when you achieve it.
Pro Tip: Use pen and paper because studies also show that handwriting activates more brain activity than typing.
2. Write down the actions you need to take to achieve your goals. Breaking down the actions required to achieve a goal is just as important as making it measurable. For example, if your goal is to reach an income milestone, write down how many hours you’ll need to work, how many events you need to plan, how many new clients you need, etc.
Pro Tip: Anticipate obstacles and create a plan to overcome them.
3. Enlist an accountability partner. One study found that 76% of people who wrote down their goals, created an action plan, and updated a friend on their progress weekly achieved their goals.
Pro Tip: Invest in your future by joining a mastermind group or hiring a life coach to keep you accountable.
Adopt a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset is simply that - the belief that you can build the necessary skills you need for success. It’s faith in yourself that drives you to seek out areas where you can improve and then take the steps to be better. Studies consistently show that students with a growth mindset achieve better grades than students with a fixed mindset. Here are some ways you can adopt a growth mindset in your NY event planning business.
4. Send out customer surveys. After each event, send out a customer survey to find out if there are any areas in which you could do better.
Pro Tip: View negative feedback as opportunities for growth.
5. Find a mentor. A mentor can advance your career. One study found that people with a mentor are promoted five times more often than those without.
Pro Tip: Find a free mentor from your local SCORE chapter.
6. Assess your weakness. Having a growth mindset empowers you to face your weaknesses head-on. You can honestly assess if something like your time management or communication skills is holding you back. Then, you can create a plan to improve or work around your weakness.
Pro Tip: Identify patterns when you keep a journal to assess at the end of each day what went well and what didn’t.
Expand Your Network
An event planner’s network is her bread and butter. And for that reason, even a social butterfly should look for ways to improve her networking skills.
7. Arrive early to networking and social events. Fashionably late isn’t a thing when you’re networking for business. When you habitually arrive late, you’re locked out of groups and conversations that started without you.
Pro Tip: Perform a little Google-stalking before the event to learn more about the participants.
8. Overdress—always. You’re not 90s-era Mark Zuckerburg. Underdressing makes you appear less confident, less serious, and, most importantly, less successful.
Pro Tip: Avoid bright and flashy fashion in a networking setting that gives the impression (not judging) that you’re self-interested and less likely to be a beneficial addition to someone’s network.
9. Follow-up with key people. Meeting someone at a mixer doesn’t put you in their network. Instead, cement the connection by following up with a message that recalls a bit of your conversation and ask them to meet for coffee.
Pro Tip: Offer a specific reason that you want to meet that is “other focused.”
10. Attend The Event Planner Expo 2024
Boost your event planning business when you attend The Event Planner Expo. You’ll have a chance to meet and network with more than 2,000 other event-planning professionals and vendors. You’ll learn from a collection of speakers who are leaders in their fields. And you’ll see the latest developments in NYC event planning and be creatively inspired when you visit hundreds of event planning vendors and exhibitors. Register today and don’t miss out on this one chance you have to make a big difference in your business!
