Becoming a Self Employed Wedding Planner Part 1

Becoming self employed is an attractive option for many people and, particularly within the event management and wedding planning industry, offers an opportunity to be creative and run a business simultaneously.

However, setting up an event management company has many implications practically, financially and legally.

Arguably one of the most important issues would have to be understanding what you know about organising events and analysing where your skills lie and which areas need development. Without being honest about this and having a good understanding of event management, there is potential for the business to never get off the ground or to fail.

One way to do this is to complete a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It provides a framework which is particularly useful for business planning. The main benefit of a SWOT analysis is that it "provides proactive thinking rather than relying on instinctive reactions" (businessballs.com, 2010).

In addition to this, and probably equally important, is to have commitment to the venture, and to be realistic about what will be required in terms of time and effort.

With regards to my own venture, I will set up my business whilst maintaining another full time career. This requires a large amount of hard work and effort which will inevitably have an effect on close relationships therefore it is important to have the support of family and friends as it can take a number of months or even years to establish a new business.

A career such as event management allows some degree of flexibility when in the initial start up stages so continuing with a full time career is a viable option. Business Link (2010) recommend this as an approach in the early stages to ensure there is still some income but also warn of the extra hours and work which will be necessary.

It is also crucial to take into account some of the practicalities of moving from working in a team to being a lone worker, especially if working from home. This requires good organisational and time management skills as well as self discipline. Blackmore (2009) states that certain characteristics rather than qualifications are essential to be successful in business and lists self discipline and organisational skills amongst the most important.

Once you have established that becoming self employed in event management is right for you it is important to understand the financial and legal implications.