Starting A Venue Business: 7 Things To Know When Opening a New Event Space

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Congrats! You are opening a new event space.
You now have the opportunity to host incredible events and help your clients create unforgettable memories. The event industry is booming with about 18 million events and meetings organized in the US every year and $280 billion in spending.

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Here are 7 key elements to consider before opening your doors that will make you succeed in the long run:

1. WORK ON YOUR VENUE BRANDING

One of the most exciting stages of starting a venue is choosing the name. It is important to come up with the right type of venue branding that works best for your target audience without limiting yourself. For example, branding yourself as a “wedding venue” may result in limited interest from corporate clients or customers looking to throw a social event. Once you have come up with your name make sure the name is not already in use and a domain is available. This will be very important to establish a solid web presence.

2. BUILD A SOLID WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

The first thing you want to do is to secure your domain name before someone else does. Once you have your domain you can hire an expert to build your website or create one by yourself using popular websites such as WordPress, Squarespace or Wix. The next important step is to secure your social media handles. Having a Facebook page, Instagram and LinkedIn account with your venue name is key to establish a solid presence online and execute effective digital marketing campaigns.

3. IDENTIFY YOUR VENUE SPECS AND YOUR SELLING POINTS

People visiting your website will likely be interested in renting your venue for an upcoming event and you want to make sure to take advantage of the few seconds of attention they are willing to dedicate to you while browsing on your page. Sharing the right information is key.
Here is a list of venue specs you need to make sure to include in your venue website:

-  venue contact information
- venue capacity
- venue location
- venue floor plan
- venue pictures
- photos and videos of previous events hosted

On top of the basic venue information, we recommend to highlight your selling points. Ask yourself, what sets my venue apart from the rest of the event spaces in my area? What is special about my space? Why should clients choose to host their event at our venue and not somewhere else?

4. GET PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS OF YOUR SPACE

One of the biggest mistakes venue owners make when opening an event space is not giving the right importance to the quality of the venue pictures used to promote it. Venue pictures are a key factor in attracting potential clients and convince them to tour the space in person. Sometimes the right kind of pictures can even allow venue owners to rent the space even without a walk-through. This is how powerful photos and videos can be in selling an event space. 

5. BUILD THE RIGHT EVENT TEAM

A venue does not run itself. The success of an event space depends on the team in place and its capacity to run and execute a flawless event. Whether you are an experienced event planner or exploring the event industry for the first time, hiring the right team of event professionals is key. Choosing and carefully training any team member from your cleaning crew, maintenance and labor team, AV techs, bartenders and bar backs, valet attendants can really make a difference between running a successful venue for years or closing doors within a few months. 

6. CHOOSE A COMPETITIVE PRICE POINT

Choosing the right price point to rent your venue in Los Angeles is extremely important. Pricing is generally based on the venue location, square footage, guests’ capacity, and the types of amenities already included in the rental fee. Some venues choose to charge a venue booking fee on top of their Food & Beverage packages, others are willing to waive or discount the venue fee as long as the client meets a specific minimum. Make sure to choose the model that works best for you and your venue. Venue consulting companies like PIOVRA GROUP will be able to assist you in identifying the right pricing model for your event space and generate the highest profit based on what your venue has to offer.

7. MARKET & PROMOTE YOUR EVENT SPACE

Now you are ready to promote your event venue space and start attracting potential customers. It is too early to count on word-of-mouth as you have no event booking history and you may not have a huge marketing budget after investing lots of money in building and designing your space. So, what is the best and most effective strategy to promote and market your venue and turn leads into venue bookings today? 

The most important strategy involves identifying marketing tools and strategies that allow you to generate qualified event leads. The more qualified event leads you are able to bring in the more event bookings you will generate. 

Now that you know the ins and outs of starting a venue business, see how PIOVRA GROUP Venue Consulting services can help you bring your venue to the next level!