Events aren’t just corporate hoo-ha like many small businesses do. They are just as important for small businesses. Maybe even more if you’re just breaking out.

Events provide opportunities to connect with business partners and potential leads, and are also a great way to build a brand’s reputation. But planning an event is no different than organizing a Thanksgiving dinner, even if the total attendance roughly matches your family members. You still need to manage:

• budgets
• logistics
• Venue
• Invites

All at the same time.

Think virtual event planners have it easier? Reports suggest otherwise. After all, planning virtual events involves coordinating schedules across time zones, sending out invites, hosting the event and most importantly – making it as engaging as a physical event.

Even an events professional would think twice about taking on the responsibility of event planning beyond their regular job. The good news is you don’t have to. You can outsource event planning to a professional event planner virtual assistant instead of this.

This blog explains the most common planning problems small businesses face and how an event planning assistant solves them for you.

Common problems when planning an event for a small business

planning

You might find yourself in one of these planning situations when dealing with events.

location 1: Suppose you have decided on the event dates and they are scheduled to take place in a month. You must now decide how to manage logistics, invitations and marketing during this period. In addition, you need to assign tasks to your team members in addition to their regular responsibilities so that neither projects nor the event encounter obstacles.

location 2: On the other hand, if you have not yet decided on your event dates, you must first find out when it is possible to hold the event. How much time do you need to plan the event? How many employees do you have to support? When can your business partners or leads attend the event?

Figuring all of this out can take a lot of time out of your daily chores.

budgeting

As a small business owner, you most likely have a limited budget. That means you need to figure out how to manage event costs – venue, catering, marketing and hospitality. Besides, you must also decide how to hire photographers, decorators, and other staff within your budget.

Think you could cut costs by hosting a virtual event instead? think again Virtual events require all of your attendees to have a stable internet connection. If you are planning to host a larger virtual event to promote your small business, you will need to increase your marketing budget for PR and promotions on different platforms. But that’s not all.

When creating a budget, you don’t just have to think about where you can save costs. You need to carefully consider which areas of your organization could use fewer resources in the short term, so that you can allocate more resources to event planning, depending on the scope.

logistics

In order for your event to be a complete success, you need to plan everything down to the smallest detail by D-Day. This includes who is attending your event, what they may need, and reaching out to them in a timely manner.

Also, dealing with vendors at unusual times can require a lot of back-and-forth communication. Doing all of this on top of day-to-day tasks can be exhausting, even for a generalist entrepreneur like you.

marketing

Today, the success of an event depends on the effectiveness of the marketing campaign behind it. No wonder that up to 18.8% of offline marketing budgets will reportedly be spent on event marketing in 2022.

Simply put, you need to create an effective marketing campaign and run it across all the platforms your potential attendees are on to ensure your event is a success. And both creating a marketing plan and executing it can take a lot of time.

An event planning assistant can take on the burden of all of this, giving you time to fill your existing workload.

Who is an Event Planning Assistant?

A virtual event assistant is a professional event planner offering its services virtually. They take over all event planning tasks, from supplier management to event coordination, and reduce the effort involved in organizing an event.

Most virtual event assistants today are equipped with the skills needed to manage an event and are proficient in using the latest event management tools. This ensures that the entire process is streamlined and trouble-free.

To top it off, you can hire an event planning assistant on a project basis instead of a full-time event planner for a fraction of the cost.

How can an event planning assistant help you plan a successful event?

manage logistics

An assistant for event planning streamlines event logistics. They decide which vendors to select based on the company’s budget constraints, handle communication with vendors, contract and negotiate with them. Not only that.

Because an event planning assistant is a trained professional, they systematically manage all of the above tasks. This means they keep records of communications, submit invoices and store copies of contracts.

They go the extra mile to ensure all logistical activities are streamlined and you don’t have to search for records to verify expenses later.

Sending invitations

No small business wants the event they are planning to be boring. Instead, they want it to nurture new connections (read Investors), revitalize old ones, and bring them more revenue. Well, organic marketing approaches can get you some traffic, but most businesses still rely on the age-old way of sending out invitations to ensure a good turnout.

A virtual event planner ensures your event, no matter its size, is a success by sending invitations to the right people. This includes narrowing down potential donors, checking the dates of relevant speakers, and ensuring potential leads are in attendance.

Creating a budget

Creating an event budget is crucial to allocating sufficient funds to an important event. But getting it right is infinitely more difficult, not to mention it takes a lot of time. But a virtual event assistant can do it on your behalf.

These virtual assistants evaluate your past events, thoroughly researching your industry and key players and speakers before setting a rough budget. Once they have bought in, they select the appropriate providers and even factor in funds for contingencies.

By taking care of all of this, you can rest assured that you won’t have to stretch your budget to plan the perfect event.

Market your event on different platforms

Finally an event planning assistant manages event marketing tasks for your team. This includes creating accounts, scheduling social media posts to promote the event, overseeing the development of the conversion-optimized event website, sending out passes, surveys and feedback forms, and identifying the audience for your upcoming events.

With all these activities, you never have to worry about your event. Instead, you can spend your time doing other tasks that require your attention.

Why Hire a Wishup Event Planner Virtual Assistant?

Get access to world-class talent

When you decide to hire a Wishup virtual assistant, you can rest assured that you are only getting the best talent. Here’s why.

Virtual assistants on our platform make up the top 1% of all applications we receive. So you can put your worries to rest, knowing that your hire is qualified, professional and a good fit for your business.

Benefit from a risk-free trial period

At Wishup, we understand that hiring talent through a third-party platform carries a reasonable level of risk. For example, if the employee has the required skills, they may not be a good fit. Worse, since they work remotely, it may be impossible to track them down if they quit abruptly. That’s why we at Wishup offer you a 7-day risk-free trial period.

You can subscribe to the virtual assistant with us for seven days free of charge. This gives you enough time to check whether you would like to continue working with our candidate. Do you think someone is wrong? You can request a replacement, no questions asked.

We do the paperwork for you

If you’ve ever subscribed to a virtual assistant service on another platform, you know that hiring doesn’t end with candidate selection. Instead, it’s about negotiations, contracts and lots of paperwork. At Wishup, we make onboarding seamless by handling all of the legal, financial, payments, and arrangements for you.

Steps to Hire a Virtual Assistant for Wishup Event Planners

You can hire a Wishup virtual assistant in just three simple steps.

1. Schedule a call with customer success.
2. Choose an appropriate profile based on your budget and needs.
3. Onboard your qualified virtual assistant within 24 hours.

Plan your next event easily with a virtual assistant!

As a small business with limited practical platform, planning an event can be a tiring task. But a virtual assistant can take care of these tasks and save you time and effort.

These event planning professionals will take care of everything from logistics to marketing ahead of the event, and will even handle post-D-Day reviews and recording for you.

Do you want to quickly hire a virtual assistant? Email us at [email protected] or arrange a free consultation appointment today.