As a consumer, you would rarely purchase a product or service without knowing the total cost. Think about when you go grocery shopping for example. At the supermarket, each item is priced individually and you can generally estimate your total bill. This is true for the majority of your bills as well, such as your rent or mortgage.
When clients book an Event Planner they also expect to have a set total of what to pay for your services. But how can you do this if you only charge an hourly rate and you are not quite sure how long it will take to plan their event?
Simple, create event planning pricing packages to make it easier.
Here’s what the process looks like:
STEP 1: Determine your hourly rate
If you don’t know the hourly rate for your event planning services, now is the time to get this calculated. To accurately create a pricing package you need to have a clear idea of what your time is valued – per hour.
To help you determine this, download a copy of our Pricing Worksheet to get started.
STEP 2: Calculate how long it takes
The best way to know how long it takes you to plan an event is to track your hours. If you are new to the industry and haven’t planned any events, then use an hourly rate until you’ve completed your first few events. Alternately, you could also create a package based on the average prices in your area and adjust your rates in 3-6 months once you’ve added more events to your portfolio.
Client management tools such as Dubsado will usually have a time tracking feature included. This allows you to allocate a set time to each task your complete for each event. You can also explore apps such as Due to track of your hours.
STEP 3: Multiply and Apply
Now that you know your hourly rate and the numbers of hours it takes to plan each event, the next step is to multiply. Your hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours will provide your package price.
Hourly Rate x No. of hours to plan = Base Package Price
With this foundation, you can now review and edit your prices as needed. For example, if your client’s event will require additional travel and overnight accommodations, remember to add those to your base package price. Or if your client would like to add additional services not included in your core list of services for that package, then be sure to add the additional amount to your base package price.
This is the simple 3-step process that can be applied to create event planning pricing packages.
