Event Budget: Cutting the Right Corners

Most event planners ignore what I’m about to tell you. Whether you want to believe it or not, I’ve seen clients get back half their event budget just from doing one of these. All it takes is making the decision to do it.

I want to go ahead and preface everything I’m about to say with one thing: this is not just for planning an event budget. This is for planning an event budget that will include entertainment. I’ve been doing magic shows for events all over the country for more than 20 years. What I’m about to tell you is not market specific. I see it everywhere and it will make or break your event. I’m basing this on the thousands of events I’ve been a part of in my career.

Common costs for an event:

1. Food
2. Drinks
3. DJ
4. Entertainment
5. Decorations
6. Venue

All of these are important. But more importantly than all of those put together is the “P” word…PRIORITIES!

Before you spend one dollar…

If you ask yourself this question before you start event planning, cutting corners will be much easier:

What do I want people talking about after this event?

Understand this right now…Most everything on that list will never be talked about! Trust me, I have performed at events of major Fortune 500 companies where Filet Mignon was served and I’ve never heard one person rave about the food. The only time the food is talked about is when it’s bad. And while we’re at it, I’ve never heard people say, “This alcohol is amazing” or “The decor made my whole night!”

To be fair, in select venues, I’ve heard people speak highly about the location of the event. But when I say select venues, I’m talking about venues that rent out starting at $25,000 a night.

Accept this or not, entertainment, magician/comedian/other, will be the most talked about, if not the only talked about, part of your event…good or bad. Trust every word I’m telling you, because I’ve never seen evidence to the contrary.

Why is this the case?

It’s the only part of your event that is truly in the spotlight. A show on stage literally has no competition. Everything else on the list is in constant competition with not only each other, but also with the many conversations being had by your attendees. During a stage show, everything else freezes and all attention is directed to the exact same place at the exact same time by every single guest in the room. It has no competition.

Nonprofits and Fundraisers…you need to read this!

If you’re doing an event where you’re trying to raise money, good entertainment should be the very last thing you cut! Otherwise, you’re eliminating the one thing that has the best chance to alter everyone’s mood simultaneously. The reason I have returning nonprofit clients try to book me as much as three years in advance is because they’ve seen the irreplaceable result when people are in a good mood.

On the other side, I’ve heard on multiple occasions of an event tanking because low budget entertainment was brought in. If your entertainment is nothing but an awkward joke, don’t expect your attendees to take your event seriously. While good entertainment for a fundraiser should be a top priority, I will always advise clients to cut entertainment all together before going the low budget route. Way too many bad stories to sign off on booking cheap entertainment.

With that in mind, what’s the best way to cut these corners?

1. Food

You have to trust me….no matter how good the food is, no one will be talking about it. Just accept it. I’ve seen food budgets cut in half just by switching from steak to chicken and no one batted an eye.

2. Drinks

Open bars are nice, and if you’ve had them at your events, I don’t have to tell you about the cost. You already know that this can easily take half your budget. Give each person a free drink ticket. After that, they pay for their own. You’ll save thousands, if not much more.

3. DJ

I’ve got no issues with DJs. However, at a recent event I was hired for, the venue staff told me that the group from the previous week hired a DJ…for $40,000. The punchline is, they said they couldn’t tell the difference between him and every other DJ they had seen in the same venue that was a tenth of that cost. So ultimately, was the high price tag worth it?

4. Decorations

Keep decorations simple! In other words…keep decorations simple!!! Am I clear? You won’t impress people with decorations. I can understand in rare cases that decor is important. However, if you’re blowing thousands on decor and no one comments, what’s the point? Besides, if you’re shelling out money for a great venue, don’t cover it up. Let the character of the venue stand on its own. Keep decorations simple!

5. Venue

It’s hard to find a corner to cut here. The only common way of getting a venue at a lower price is to avoid having your event on a Friday or Saturday. At my own wedding, two-thirds of the venue price was cut just by having the wedding on a Sunday rather than a Saturday.

You might think, attendance will be terrible if it’s not on a Saturday. I can tell you that after years of doing company events, especially during in-demand times like December, attendance is often higher during the week. Mainly because you pretty much have a one in six chance that your employee’s spouse has their Christmas party on the same Saturday night in December.

Side note: Depending on the entertainment you book, they may have great venue recommendations for you. For example, even though I perform all over the country, I’ve been a Charlotte magician for more than 20 years. Since I’ve performed magic shows in Charlotte at every venue imaginable, you just about can’t name a venue in the area that I can’t give you detailed notes on.

FYI…How much does a magician cost?

Obviously, there’s lots of types of entertainment. But I wrote an article all about how much a magician costs…since that’s what I have the most experience with. If you’re looking to book a magician, I would first strongly encourage you to book a good one. Second, I would strongly encourage you to read that article. The cost of a magician…if they’re good…won’t be cheap, but it will be worth it.

Again, I will always recommend staying away from entertainment rather than going the cheap route. There is no worse feeling after an event that you’ve planned than realizing you spent the whole entertainment budget on cheap, subpar entertainment that looked to everyone like cheap, subpart entertainment.

Remember…

Priorities. That’s it. I’m not saying cut these things out entirely. All I’m saying is, remember what people are going to be talking about when your event is over. Doesn’t it make sense that the most talked about part of your event should be the part you don’t cut corners on?