3 Steps to Planning Your 2022 Events Budget
Hey everyone! For those who are returning to my blog this new year, it’s great to see you again, and for the new visitors, welcome! For those who are new here, my name is Courtney, and I am the brains and smiling face behind Planit Events Inc. I have been in the events industry for years now. I started my blog about six months ago to share industry knowledge and experience to help people just like you with planning events, learning tips to make your events even more spectacular than they currently are, and of course, budgeting. I know, I know, budgeting can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time creating or implementing one, but rest assured, I am here to help.
Now that it’s the start of a brand new year, it’s great to get your budgets in place for the coming months. Having a solid budget at the start of the year can help you stay organized and on track! So, let’s get right into it. In this blog, I am going to lay out a step-by-step process that you can use to help plan your 2022 events budget.
Step 1: The Overall Budget
The first step is figuring out what your overall events budget is. Many of my clients work for large organizations, where a specific dollar amount is assigned to different departments. The events budget typically falls under the Marketing department, however, this may vary. Check with the respective people in your organization; has there been a certain dollar amount allocated towards events? If so, great you are done with step one and ready to move on. If a dollar amount has not been assigned to events, you will need to work with different people in your organization to find the number.
It is up to you to decide how much money should be allocated to events, here are a few questions to help:
- What was the previous year’s budget?
- Was the entire budget used?
- How many events are you planning to host and attend this year?
- What is the cost of each of these events?
- Do events have a high return on investment (ROI) for your company?
- If you have a high ROI, do you want to consider a larger budget?
Step 2: Goals
It’s important to keep in mind the goals of your organization and what kind of return is expected from hosting and attending events. It can be beneficial to speak with other decision-makers in your organization to understand goals at an organizational level, and department level to see how events can help meet these goals. Perhaps the trade show your company hosts yearly drums up a lot of extra business. Maybe it’s time to think about allocating more resources to this event.
Once you have a strong understanding of the organizational goals, it’s time to develop goals for your events. You don’t need to think about each event in specific, but more of the events in general. Need help setting goals? Follow the SMART goal system!
Step 3: Allocating Your Budget
The next step is to allocate your budget towards specific events. Perhaps last year had a great turnout at Event A and Event B is slowly dwindling. Consider adding more of an investment to Event A as the ROI is higher!
Perhaps you have a new event in the works! Do your research and determine how much of an investment the event requires. In this case, it is better to over-budget for the event since there are always costs that are not apparent right away.
One of my favorite tactics is keeping a certain amount as a float. This float is used for when events go over budget (and trust me it happens sometimes). You can also add to the float when an event is under budget. It’s a great way to ensure that you are always covered when unexpected costs arise.
During this process, if you have the ability, take a look back at previous years. Look for trends and patterns as these can help in your decision-making process.
Tips for Implementing Your Budget
Fantastic! You’ve created your events budget for the year, now what?
- I can’t stress this enough, but it is KEY to track your spending. There are plenty of Excel templates to explore from, or you can create your own. I like to start with an Excel template and then modify it to suit my needs. Tracking will be important when it comes time to present the year and create next year’s budget. The tracking sheet will show you where each penny of your event’s budget was spent.
- Stick to a plan! Always ensure that you have a plan for each budget. This plan will help you stick to your budget and when there are lapses, you will be able to see WHY events went over budget and WHERE the costs were.
Budgeting can get complicated and time-consuming. As a seasoned veteran in the events world, I can help you plan your events for the upcoming year to ensure that they stay on track and within the budget. To learn more about Planit Event Inc.’s services, contact us!
Looking for more tips on planning events, check out the Planit Events Inc. blog page, for tips on multiple topics!