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Architecture Guide
Cost vs. Value Report
Good Neighbor Awards
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Top 100 Companies
Take a Quiz
30 under 30
Young Professionals
REALTOR® Emeritus |
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BUILDING REFERRALS | |
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Tips for Painless Events Plan ahead. If you want to use a public facility, you may need to submit a request months in advance. Choose an “off-season” time for your event, away from major holidays. Restaurants and caterers often have less business in early winter and fall. They may be willing to give you a better price then in the middle of a holiday rush. TIP: If you’re short of cash, ask guests to bring a dish or pay their own admission to the event; you provide drinks or entertainment. Develop a budget early in the planning stages and stick to it. Costs should include food, cost of the facility, invitations and postage, decorations, entertainment, and clean-up. TIP: Use last year’s receipts to help estimate costs; enter fixed costs, such as the cost of leasing the space, into a computer spreadsheet to make calculations easier. —Kerry Kidwell, “Celebrate With Events That Say Thank You,” Real Estate Today, January 1995 Do it yourself. Whether it’s printing all the invitations on your laser printer or baking and freezing cookies for the event, use your sweat equity to keep costs down. TIP: Avoid last-minute exhaustion by beginning any work you plan to do yourself well in advance. For example, if you select a date, you can print and address 10 invitations a week and have the whole job done well in advance of the event. Enlist your family and friends. Whether it’s tending bar, organizing games, or helping with clean-up, you can usually get your friends, or your children’s friends, to work for a nominal amount. TIP: Don’t allocate too many jobs to yourself on the day of the event. This is your chance to talk with past customers, so allow enough time to meet, greet, and chat. Save postage by including your invitation in your newsletter or other regular mailing. For the Advanced Salesperson: Great Parties From a Professional Party Planner Pam Howie, president of The Event Network, a major event-planning firm in Washington, D.C., gives you some insider ideas on what makes a great professional event. Q: What are the best times for parties? Howie: Holidays aren’t really a good time because there’re too many competing events. I think fall is a great time, particularly September. People are back from vacation and they’re feeling social. Q: Should you hold a client-appreciation event at your home? Howie: No. That’s too personal. I think it’s great to do it at your office if you have nice offices. And if you don’t, it needs to be some place special, some place people don't normally go—maybe a great restaurant or a small museum or an historic house. Q: Should you serve dinner? Howie: You have to have enough food to feed everyone, even if it’s not a formal meal. Never let people leave hungry. Beyond that, entertainment of some kind—live background music, maybe a speaker, or performer, or a celebrity guest—is also important. Q: How many people should you invite? Howie: It depends on the size of your staff. You want the size of the gathering small enough so that you or someone on your staff can personally greet and spend a few minutes speaking with every guest. In general, I think 80 to 125 people is a good size. Q: How far in advance should you plan your party? Howie: You should probably start thinking about the date and the venue six months ahead. Then, probably three months out, you plan the actual event. Q: How far in advance should invitations go out? Howie: No more than two to three weeks before the event. Beyond that, people forget about it. Q: Is an e-mail invitation enough? Howie: No. You need a printed or a handwritten invitation. Frankly, I think the right invitation is 90 percent of the battle. It has to be creative and exciting. People get lots of invitations, and most go right into the trash can. You want people to look at it and think, “If the invitation is this neat, the party will be even better.” Bright Ideas: Keeping Customers for Life > |
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