How to make money organising trips and entertainment for business clients
Here's an enterprise you can easily operate part time from home, earning from £500 to £20,000 - or even more - for organising just one event.
If you're looking for an opportunity that's easy to start, profitable and enjoyable, then you need to look at the corporate hospitality business. You can start off working part time from home with very little capital, yet it offers the chance to earn from £500 to £20,000 (or even more) for organising just one event!
So What Is Corporate Hospitality?
Businesses everywhere know the importance of keeping their customers happy. Corporate hospitality is simply another term for business entertaining.
The simplest kind of corporate hospitality is handing out a bottle of wine to customers at Christmas. Many bigger companies provide much more lavish hospitality than this. They entertain their customers with days at the races, VIP boxes at football matches, weekends away, and even conferences and seminars in exciting and exotic places around the world.
In most cases, companies who run corporate hospitality do not do the organising themselves. They just don't have the time - or know how. Instead, they pay specialist organisers - such as you - to make all the arrangements for them. It's the ideal part time or full time opportunity if you're looking to make money and have fun too.
Success Stories: Could This Be You?
Here are just three success stories I've heard about in the world of corporate hospitality.
1. Sam and Chris Lazzari
They formed a corporate hospitality business back in 1991. They organised events for London's merchant bankers and stockbrokers and thought nothing of hiring Concorde for their wealthy clients! Last year they sold their corporate hospitality and travel business for £2,000,000 - yes, two million pounds!
2. Gregor Webb
He organised shooting and fishing trips in Scotland. His events are a hit with his clients, who book Gregor to entertain their American and Japanese visitors. He charges from £1,000 for a day trip, up to £5,000 or more for a weekend event.
3. Jame Marsden
He specialises in corporate hospitality at race meets. She organises executive travel, gourmet catering and Champagne receptions for several firms in her area who use these events to entertain and impress their clients.
Easy To Start
It costs very little to set up your corporate hospitality business. You can work from home, part time. All you will need is use of a phone and, preferably, a car. By taking deposits from your clients when they order you won't necessarily need working capital.
With this type of enterprise it's vital to give a good impression. You could easily end up dealing with some very important and influential people. So, invest a little money in some good quality business note paper and business cards.
Finding Your Customers
It's not difficult to find customers for this business. Most of the companies in your area are in the market for corporate hospitality of some kind, whether it's a small event like a dinner party, or a major event like a foreign trip.
The best way to market your service is to send out a Mailshot. Write a letter telling companies about yourself and what you do. Send them to local companies in batches, until you get the response you want.
You can get information about local businesses on the web or even at your nearest main library. In particular, ask them for membership lists of local Chambers of Commerce and Chambers of Trade.
Tip: if you can, find out the name of someone at the firm to address your letters and future correspondence to - the managing director or head of marketing will be the best person to target.
A few days after sending your mailshot, telephone each company and ask if they're interested. All you need is one or two companies to say "yes" and your new business is on its way!
Organising The Hospitality
The first step to organising corporate hospitality is to meet with your client and decide exactly what sort of event they require. Remember that the aim of the event is to promote good relations with their customers and encourage them to place more and bigger orders with a little wining and dining, or some other social event. So, the event they choose should be popular with the type of people who will be attending it. It also needs to be memorable and, if possible, distinctive or special in some way.
There's no limit to what you can organise, so just use your imagination. Below are a few ideas you could suggest. Ten Corporate Hospitality Ideas
Profit Secrets: What You Need To Know
The secret of corporate hospitality is simple: don't do all the work yourself! Just do the organising and contract out as much of the actual work as possible to specialists. When it comes to charging for your services, simply charge what these suppliers charge you, and add a margin on top.
Take this typical example. You're organising a corporate hospitality trip for 12 to a top football match. You're asked to organise executive coach travel, which you arrange with a coach firm. You're asked to organise lunch en route, which you arrange with a local hotel. Finally, you contact the football club to book VIP boxes, complete with after match drinks. At the end of the day you'll have organised a fabulous corporate hospitality event for your client but not actually had to operate any of the services yourself.
Finally, simply add a margin on top of whatever the individual suppliers charge you. This is typically between 30% and 70% on top of the cost of organising an event. So, if the trip above costs £2,000 or organise, you might charge the customer a minimum of £2,600, generating a £600 profit for yourself - mostly for sitting down with your phone and organising everything!
All you need to do is sit down and shop around to get the best prices. By ensuring that whoever you use is properly experienced, qualified, licensed and insured to provide that service, you can't go wrong.
Whether you want to join in the trip you've organised yourself, as the official host or hostess, is up to you - some organisers do, some don't. However, whichever way you look at it you'll have earned yourself a tidy profit from this exciting business opportunity.