Event Creators: How to Start an Event Management Business

Hosted your first event and now you’re yearning to set up your own event management business?

Creating, promoting, and managing events can be incredibly fulfilling and exciting. It’s undoubtedly hard work, but if you dream of being your own boss, it’s a fantastic industry to work in. 

At Eventbrite, we’ve helped thousands of event creators succeed with their events and have given them the tools to level up and start their own businesses.

So we’ve created this comprehensive guide to help you learn how to start an event management business of your own. This resource will help you navigate the entire process, from developing the initial concept to growing your business to its full potential. 

First things first: Is starting an event business for you? 

If you’ve already worked in event management, you’re likely familiar with the excitement (and stress!) of putting on live events. Chances are, if you’re reading this article and have events-industry experience, you’re well suited to working in event management.

But are you a good fit for starting an events business? 

Starting a business is a significant undertaking. Here’s what you should keep in mind:

• Traits like entrepreneurship and creativity are important. As a business owner, you’ll largely be in charge of shaping the success of your business. Being a self-starter, well-organized, and interested in business or entrepreneurship is essential.
• There will be some startup costs. Having some savings before starting a business is a good idea. You’ll calculate how much you need when you make your event management business plan (more on this later). 78% of people with a startup business use personal savings, but you can consider microlenders, personal business loans, small business grants, and more.
• Income can be inconsistent. With your own business, you might not have a steady paycheck to rely on, especially at first. It’s best to have a day job to keep your bills paid or have enough personal savings to support you while you build your business. 
• A business can offer huge opportunities as well as risks. Between March 2020 and March 2021, 1.1 million US establishments opened and 965,995 closed. Being comfortable with risk, uncertainty, and inconsistency in your work life is important. 

There are many great reasons to start an event management business, but like with any new business, it’s good to be realistic about what going solo might look like so that you can plan accordingly. 

How to start an event management business 

Ready to start an exciting new chapter? This detailed guide will cover the steps to start an events management business.

1. Do your homework 

First up, it’s time to do some research and planning. The main avenues to explore include:

Niche/specialty selection: What type of events do you want to run? You may be interested in hosting professional/corporate events, managing large-scale conferences, or putting on live concerts. While you can certainly manage multiple event types eventually, starting with a primary focus area is helpful. 

Market and competitor research: What target market do you plan to serve, how big is it, and who will your main competitors be? You can decide on the geographic area you plan to target and dig into what other creators are doing in your region. Research ways to stand out from the competition and offer something unique.

Training and certifications: While not strictly necessary, completing training programs and certifications like the CMP can help you prepare your business, gain confidence, and operate more efficiently.

2. Get your feet wet 

Maybe you’ve hosted your own small events, but you’ve never put on a large conference or concert. Or perhaps you’ve managed events for others but never managed an event of your own design. 

Whatever your specific circumstances, this phase is about gaining experience, testing new strategies, and making connections in the industry that can serve you throughout your career.

It’s also about “leveling up” or taking your events career to the next level. Here, creators should start thinking about transitioning from managing the occasional event to making a living from their events business.

A good first step is to set some goals for your new business. How many events would you like to host in the next six months? How many attendees would you like to attract, and what revenue targets do you aim to hit?

Thoughtful consideration of the brand you’d like to build is important, too. Do you want to host fun, edgy events for a hip young crowd, social events for young adults, or professional networking and mixers for older professionals? 

This type of strategic thinking and actionable goal-setting can help support your transition from occasional event host to full-time event management professional. 

3. Identify your target audience and clientele

Identify the event types you want to manage and the attendees you want to attract. 

You can choose to niche down into a specialty (like “tabletop gaming tournaments”) or keep things more general (like “concerts”) to cast a wider net. 

From there, it’s helpful to develop audience personas to help you identify effective marketing strategies, determine appropriate ticket price points for your audience, and attract the right kind of attendees to your events. 

Developing audience personas includes brainstorming, gathering demographic data from the Census Bureau or other sources, figuring out your target audience’s pain points, and ultimately visualizing who you’re trying to attract to your events. 

Looking at competing events or venues can help identify gaps in the current event industry in your area. Maybe you’re in a college town, but all the music events are at 21+ venues, leaving a big group of younger college students without all-ages shows to attend. Or perhaps your community is full of young professionals but lacks professional networking events and mixers. 

It’s all about thinking more broadly about the needs and wants of your community and strategizing on how your events could potentially fill that gap.

For example, Alissa Seymoure, a successful Eventbrite creator, DJ, and yoga enthusiast, found that her audience for Deep House Yoga wanted to enjoy house music in a safe environment, without the hard-partying atmosphere common in the club scene. 

So she started an event series that provides a fun, lively, and safe space for yogis to move their bodies and enjoy electronic music. 

By identifying a market gap, getting clear on her target audience, and setting up a recurring event series with Eventbrite, Alissa has found success in her business venture and hosted dozens of fun events for her community. 

4. Create an event management business plan 

Next, it’s time to outline your strategies in a detailed events business plan. 

Business plans can help to:

• Clarify your business goals
• Determine pricing structure
• Forecast revenue and expenses
• Identify potential risks and opportunities

In your plan, illustrate your event’s financial potential and plan the resources and operating structure you’ll need to deliver. If you plan to get business loans or sponsorships, you can prove your new business is worth investing in.

5. Complete all the necessary paperwork 

Next comes the logistics: It’s time to set up your business! 

Some steps you’ll likely need to take include:

• Getting a business license from your state or city.
• Setting up a limited liability company (LLC) with your state. LLCs are recommended because they protect your personal assets in the case of a lawsuit.
• Obtaining business insurance protects your company and event attendees from accidents and other mishaps.
• Getting funding for your business from a bank or other lender, if necessary.

You may need help with setting up an LLC. You can work with a local accountant for this or an online business filing service. 

6. Prepare your business’s finances 

Next comes a series of steps to prepare the financial side of your business. You’ll need to:

• Open a business bank account to keep your business and personal finances separate.
• Set up a bookkeeping system to track your revenue and expenses (you can use Excel/Google Sheets or a program like QuickBooks).
• Make a budget for initial operations, including event expenses, marketing, staff/contractor salaries, etc. 
• Choose an events management platform to set up, market, and sell event tickets. Eventbrite is an all-in-one event management software with solutions for events businesses of all shapes and sizes.  

This is also the stage where you should consider whether you need to hire staff or temporary workers for your events and the financial impact this will have on your business.

7. Assemble your team

Hiring people to help run your events (or looking for volunteers) may be necessary, particularly for larger events. 

There are a few different approaches here:

• Hiring employees is the most expensive, so it may not be a good fit if you’re just starting out. Employees may make sense if you plan to host frequent events (or if you need regular help with administrative, marketing, and management tasks).
• Hiring contractors for specific events is cheaper, but finding the right people every time you need them requires effort.
• Finding volunteers may be best if you are on a tight budget. Start with friends and family before broadening your search to people interested in your event type (a local trail running club might be a good source of potential volunteers for a 5K race, for instance). 

If you can, keeping your expenses low at the start of a new business venture is wise. Consider your short- and long-term costs when making hiring decisions.

8. Begin operations! 

Now it’s time to start planning, running, promoting, and managing events! Remember that you can post events to Eventbrite for free, helping preserve your budget to promote your event to attendees. Events with up to 25 tickets are free to host.

Invest time and resources into marketing your events as you run and grow your new business. Eventbrite makes social media and email marketing simpler with a host of tools like Canva integration (for designing promotional materials), customizable AI-assisted email templates, Eventbrite ads, social media ad tools, and more. 

Finally, don’t forget to track which promotional methods work best for your events so you can learn and tailor your approach as you grow.

Grow your event management business with Eventbrite

Owning your own business can be exciting, fulfilling, and, yes — a bit scary! But with the right team and the right tools on your side, you can grow your business to its full potential. 

With Eventbrite, you can manage your entire event management process. Plan events, sell tickets, engage with your community, manage marketing efforts, and much more — all in one place.