Tip Of The Week: Event Budgeting

The event budget is an essential part of event management and fundamentally important to determine the desired outcome, ensure a successful event, profit, lose or to break even. The best way to achieve this is to identify, compare and total all the expenditures and expected revenues. 

The event budget exercises financial control therefore it should be well structured in order to monitor the costs over time, identify what is affordable within that budget and most of all keep it under control so that you do not go over budget.

Things to consider (for an average event):

Expenditures 

Venue

Music/Speakers/ Performers

Transport 

Catering

Insurance 

Decor 

Advertising/ Promotions/ PR

Accommodation

Staff

Equipment Hire 

Revenue
Ticket Sales

Sponsors

Public Funds 

Kick backs 

Web marketing (e.g. sponsors on the site)

Merchandising Sales

Raffles 

The preparation of the event budget is one of the earliest tasks undertaken in the event management process. In fact, there could be several drafts with the proposed costs vs actual costs. That way the event manager can make sound decisions on the expenditures. It is expected that there will be several adjustments and refinements during the event cycle.

Here are a few tips & tricks to help you avoid financial issues:

~ Budget- this is vital for any event and should not be avoided (regardless of the size)
~ Be realistic about expenditures and the income 
~ Have a plan B (in case certain revenues fall through e.g. sponsorship ) 
~ Go big or go home - planning 2 smaller events vs one large event could be more costly 
~ Trust your suppliers - event managers use experienced suppliers with whom they work with on a regular basis and therefore receive better rates
~ Use online resources for marketing vs printed 
~ Plan a revenue strategy ahead of time & lock in sponsors early 
~ Search for government funds 
~ Negotiate!

PS. In case you missed here are a few specific posts on budgets;
~ Corporate Event Management 
~ Wedding Planning Budgets & a typical budget breakdown 
~ Honeymoon Planning Budgets