How to Launch a Party Planning Business from Home

You can launch and succeed in operating a party planning business from home, if you’ve ever found yourself really enjoying the planning of your kid’s birthday parties, your best friend’s bridal shower, or your parent’s golden anniversary.

The outlook for this market is pretty good as well. In fact, the children’s party industry alone is a multi-million dollar industry with parents spending an average of $500 per party no matter the age of the kid. Imagine how well your business will make if you corner the market in your neighborhood or at your kid’s school.

This post should jump-start your dream of opening a party-planning business and give you a checklist of everything you’ll need moving forward…

Before You Start for Your Party Planning Business…

Like any kind of business, you have to be with the right mindset once you decide to set up an event planning business. This won’t be a piece of cake, and the success won’t be overnight either.

While the returns of a party planning business can be high, you’d need a ton of experience to withstand the ever-changing economy. Here are three major considerations:

  • Zooming in on a niche – Do you want to be an all-in-one party planning business? Would you prefer intimate events? children’s parties? garden weddings? Decide on this early on, so you can prepare the equipment, costs and effort involved in that particular niche.
  • Competition and Market Research – Even if you’re operating the business mostly from home, your market is important because it is the area where you’ll be targeting clients. Identify how many direct competition you’ll have in town once you decide to stick with children’s party planning, or just weddings. Once you’ve list down your competition, answer this question: do you offer something they’re not offering?
  • Employed to business owner – If you’re giving up your job to launch this business, you have to prepare for the inevitable days when you don’t earn a cent for yourself. How much money will you need to survive month to month? This is the reason many small business owners will advice that you start your party planning business from home “on the side” and work your way to full-time once the business pulls in as much as you were making from your day job.

You should understand what it takes to set-up this kind of business because they could make or break your chances of becoming a successful business owner.

Event Planning Equipment

Once you’ve decided on the type of events your business will focus on, gathering the equipment is going to be an easy step.

Because this business is service-based, you’d likely be investing more on hiring good people than things.

You do have to have the essentials, such as a working computer, printer, WiFi, phone, a place you can call your office (even if it’s only just a desk and chair), answering machine (or service provider), a van, marketing supplies (such as business cards and posters).

A FUNCTIONAL WEBSITE: This isn’t technically an “equipment,” but you’ll be using the website as your storefront because your business is home-based. And there’s no better way to give an impressive first impression than to launch a professional website with a user-friendly navigation, pleasing-to-the-eye design, and content that includes the business’ complete info, contact details and useful tips.

6 Steps to Launch a Party Planning Business from Home

Businesses, whether they have a storefront or not, must be planned properly from the start. This way, you’ll just be focusing on the day-to-day operations once you launch your party planning business from home.

1. Create a solid Business Plan

There are plenty of tutorial on how to create a business plan. You can make it as comprehensive, or as simple as you prefer. Just don’t forget these 3 things:

  • Business name – This will be your product, your brand, your income-generating name. Make it count. Don’t rush the process. Brainstorm for days and whenever you pick a name, put it aside and brainstorm some more. Once you’ve had several names placed on the side, compare and choose from that list.
  • Pricing – One major clue that a company isn’t organized is when you ask about fees and they answer with confusing or missing information. When building your business plan, make sure to identify what kind of pricing structure your company will follow. Do you want to separate a commission for your services on top of all the supplier costs? Do you charge by-the-hour and settle payments across all suppliers? Are you going to offer packages? Spy on your competition’s pricing to get an idea of what you’d like for your own business.
  • Marketing Plan – Marketing may seem like an overwhelming task if you’re all alone operating a party planning business from home, but don’t fret. You can take baby marketing steps and still reap rewards. Of course, the first step of your marketing should always be your website. From there, expand your online presence, pinpoint ways to market your business locally, and explore other techniques that would be perfect for your niche. For example, showcase a children’s party that you planned by inviting classmates of your kids with their parents, and then networking after the party.

 2. Become Legal and Insured.

Even if you’re operating your event planning business from home, you still have to fulfill legalities, such as registering your business.

  • Business permits: The process will vary between cities and countries, so better check your local government about required paperwork. If you have partners, they would have to be present when filing documents since everyone must sign and complete the forms.
  • Insurance: It is important to be insured so that your personal assets won’t be included if ever someone sues your business. Take to an insurance broker for other relevant insurance you might need.
  • Company bank account: Open a separate bank account for the business. Not only will this help you organize accounting, it will also ensure your personal finances will not mix with the business finances and vice versa. 

3. Hunt for an Army of Reliable Contractors.

As the event planner, you will lead a host of suppliers (flowers, cake, venue, musicians, clowns, balloons, and so on) and ensure that everything the client paid for falls into place.

Unfortunately, if there’s a weak link within your group, this will affect your company and not the vendor. This is the reason you should find reliable vendors that provide quality services and products consistently.

And once  you’ve found them, nurture these relationships. The more trustworthy people you have as part of your contact list, the better your chances of expanding your business.

4. Create a Portfolio.

With every event you complete, make sure to take pictures, save event details, and try to ask for testimonials from your current clients.

Do this every time, then post event details on your company website. If you compiled enough testimonials, upload them as videos (or audios) with their permissions, the publish as you please.

5. Build Your Online Presence

Your website isn’t the only marketing tool you should work on. You should also open accounts for the major platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and other relevant social media accounts..

Invest in logo design, so the graphics will be uniform across all platforms.

And create a content calendar, so you’d remember to check messages and post every now and then. If possible, make it interactive by hosting giveaways, contests, and surveys.

6. Market Your Business Like Crazy

Like building your online presence, you should also be continuously marketing your business online and offline.

Referrals are important, so announce to everyone you know about the event planning business you’ve just opened up. Your family or friends may not need your service right now, but they could recommend you to other people they know.

You are the number 1 endorser of your company, so learn how to advertise your business everywhere.

*** These same steps apply if you’re planning to launch a baked goods business, candle-making, brewery, or any kind of business operating from home.

The Bottom Line

Once you’ve taken care of the initial preparations and footwork, most of the communication between clients would be done remotely (via text, chat, video chat, and even by e-mail). Even marketing efforts can be done at the comforts of your own home.

You do have to get to the party on the day. It helps with closing the deal with your current client, and networking to party guests who might be interested in your event-planning services in the future.

If you feel that an event planning business is a little too much for your taste, you can still take advantage of your organizational skills by setting up a travel planning service from home.

For at-home moms who are interested in earning extra cash, but can’t work yet, this list of work-at-home jobs for moms could be a lifesaver.

16 Legit Apps that Pay You Real Cash Fast

Looking for ways to earn some apps that pay you side cash, but don’t have time to start a business or even a part-time side hustle?

Don’t fret! You can make some side money through your smartphone.

There are a number of apps you can download that allow you to perform simple tasks for cash.

In today’s blog post, we run down some of the best tasking apps that pay you actual money, through PayPal, Venmo, direct funds transfer to your bank account, digital or physical gift cards to your favorite stores.

Tasking Apps That Pay You Real Money

Tasking apps are those that pay you to do simple tasks.

Some of these tasks can be done on your phone, while others require you to do some minor errands.

They generally don’t ask you to buy something to participate, but in case you are, they compensate you immediately for your purchase aside from paying you.

The amount you can expect to be paid varies depending on the app, how much time you’re willing to dedicate to doing these tasks, and how difficult an individual task is.

Here are our recommended tasking apps that pay you.

1. InboxDollars

The InboxDollars app partners with companies that want crowdsourced insights and pay users of the app for opening and skimming emails, answering surveys, and more.

InboxDollars pays you $5 just for signing up. It’s also one of the rare apps that pay you in real dollars, not in points.

Website: InboxDollars
Examples of tasks you can do: Read emails, answer surveys, watch videos, redeem free food and grocery coupons, play games, get cashback for online purchases
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States

2. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is perhaps the most well-known app on this list and is mainly famous for its surveys.

Other tasks you can do include voting in their daily poll, watching videos in their in-house app, and playing games through their app.

This is also one of the few apps that pay you for simply using them for searching on the internet.

Earning points for doing these tasks and you can exchange these points for cash or gift cards.

Website: Swagbucks
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer surveys, set Swagbucks as the default search engine, print and redeem coupons, vote in the daily poll, watch videos through the Swagbucks TV app, play games
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States, most countries in Europe and Asia

3. Field Agent

Field Agent acts as a platform for crowdsourced customer insights.

One of their unique tasks is having workers do a Digital Demo, which involves them buying the product in-store or online, trying out the product at home, answering questions, and rating the products from 1 to 10.

If the products are rated 7 or higher, the answers to the questions are styled into an article by Field Agent’s in-house creative team and are shared on websites that feature curated products.

Website: Field Agent
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer surveys, act as a mystery shopper, take photos of products in stores, create Digital Demos
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Ecuador

4. Shopkick

Shopkick allows you to earn reward points called kicks that you can then redeem for free gift cards.

Some tasks simply require you to walk into select retail stores, no purchase necessary. Others require you to make purchases, which pay more.

Website: Shopkick
Examples of tasks you can do: Walk into stores, scan barcodes of select products, make in-store or online purchases, watch in-app videos
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States

5. Streetbees

Streetbees pays their so-called “bees” for sharing insights about products and services they use every day.

They then pass this information on to the businesses that they work with so they can learn about current trends and use that to improve their products and services, make better decisions, and predict future trends.

Website: Streetbees
Examples of tasks you can do: Participate in polls, answer surveys, recruit other ambassadors
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: 87 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom

6. Mobeye

Mobeye makes it easy: open the app, find an available task around you, do the task, and get paid.

Tasks are added weekly, but only a limited number of users can participate at a time, so it pays to regularly check back.

Website: Mobeye
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer surveys, take photos, collect information on products and promotions, check stock levels in-store
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Japan

7. CheckPoints

CheckPoints is a fairly straightforward app, offering various tasks you can do through the app in exchange for rewards points.

You can then exchange these rewards points for gift cards, as well as non-monetary goods such as airline miles, gadgets, and more.

Website: CheckPoints
Examples of tasks you can do: Check-ins at local stores, watch videos, take quizzes, shop online, scan keywords, answer surveys, search for keywords
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States

8. Surveys On The Go®

Surveys On The Go® is a market research tool that asks users to answer surveys and pays them for their opinions.

They typically send out two new surveys every week, and you’ll have options to receive the payment through PayPal, Virtual Visa, Amazon Gift Card, or Starbucks Gift Card.

Website: Surveys On The Go®
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer surveys on products, services, entertainments, sports, technology, and many others
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States

9. Gigwalk

Gigwalk lets you pick Gigs from their app that takes anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours, with varying payouts as well.

The Gigs are designed to provide their partner businesses with as much information as possible on their products, which they use to make marketing and promotion decisions.

Website: Gigwalk
Examples of tasks you can do: Audit retail stores, act as a mystery shopper, test digital apps, spot check customer workflows, answer surveys, collect data
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States and Canada

10. Fetch Rewards

Fetch Rewards is a receipt scanning app that lets you earn points for items you were buying anyway.

When you buy your groceries at any grocery store, save the receipt and scan it in the Fetch Rewards app, which automatically determines which products you can earn points for and credits you.

You can exchange the points for gift cards to plenty of retail stores, restaurants, as well as through MasterCard or Visa gift cards.

Website: Fetch Rewards
Examples of tasks you can do: Scan receipts
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States

11. Mobee

Mobee offers mystery shopping assignments (called “Missions”) to its users, who can then accept one of these missions and get reward points.

The amount of your purchase is reimbursed plus some extra, and you can then exchange these points for cash or gift cards.

The app keeps track of whether you’re in the right store through your phone’s GPS, but they sometimes also ask for photos of the store or your timestamped receipts.

Metropolitan areas have more retail stores, and thus have a higher number of missions you can choose from and a lot more earning opportunities.

Website: Mobee
Examples of tasks you can do: Act as a mystery shopper
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States

12. Roamler

Roamler assigns tasks that are geared toward businesses that need help with their market research and promotions.

However, depending on your location, you might need to be sent an invite code to start using the app and doing tasks.

Website: Roamler
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer short questionnaires, take pictures of products in stores, act as a mystery shopper, refill shelves with products, boost promotional displays
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and Chile

13. EasyShift

EasyShift pays its users to complete quick tasks at your local stores and shops.

Each set of tasks is called a “Shift” and you’ll be required to submit photos, opinions, or survey questions.

Website: EasyShift
Examples of tasks you can do: Take photos of products in-store, check prices and promotions, answer surveys
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States, United Kingdom

14. Make Money

You can’t get any more literal than this; the app is really called “Make Money.”

Like many of the other apps on this list, the tasks on Make Money are online and you can do the tasks inside the app.

Website: Make Money
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer surveys, watch and share videos, play mini-games
Available on: iOS
Countries available: United States

15. MooCash

With thousands of users around the world and the potential to get $250 a month, MooCash is one of the popular apps that pay you in cash (or gift card, bitcoin, and cashback, if you shop online).

Their website actually lists the tasks and how many points you can earn per task, which is refreshingly straightforward.

Website: MooCash
Examples of tasks you can do: Install and review apps, watch videos and ads, post and share on social media, play games, buy online
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and over 100 other countries

16. cashKarma

cashKarma offers Karma Points for answering surveys, completing various offers, watching videos, and other tasks.

What makes them unique is that you still earn rewards even though you’re not qualified for a survey.

They’re also generous in awarding bonus points when you achieve specific milestones in their app.

cashKarma pays through PayPal and gift cards.

Website: Cashkarma
Examples of tasks you can do: Answer surveys, watch videos, sign up for trials, subscribe to services, turn on location (US only)
Available on: iOS, Android
Countries available: Worldwide (except Vietnam)

Final Thoughts

Installing a few apps on your smartphone can turn it into a real moneymaker.

Hopefully, you find one or a few apps that are a good fit for you so you can maximize your income.

Other Apps That Pay You Real Cash

There are plenty of other apps that help you earn some side cash while using your phone.

Here are some of these apps.

Have you tried any of these apps? How was the experience? Can you recommend other apps that pay you? Share your experience with us in the comments.