Planning a successful corporate event can be a daunting task, especially when the company is running on tight financial restrictions. It is imperative to remain conscious and careful when budgeting for a corporate event to avoid pitfalls that may negatively affect the financial position of your business. The following are some of the common budgeting mistakes that event planners should avoid.
Guessing and estimating
Making guesses or estimates about anything on the budget is a mistake that can dearly cost you during an event. The company might end up spending much more money if the estimates were below the market values.
Failing to have a buffer or contingency
Just like any other business activity, corporate events may have unexpected occurrences that were not considered as part of the main budget. Lack of a contingency or cushion makes it challenging to handle unforeseen circumstances. You may end up blowing the budget and going off track with your event by spending money meant for one activity on another.
Heavily relying on paperwork
Corporate events can usually take up substantial printing costs. With modern technology, your corporate event can go green and paperless by using event apps where guests or attendees can access everything they need without spending money on printing.
Forgetting taxes and gratuities
Failing to consider small expenses such as taxes and gratuities may adversely affect your budget. Some sales taxes can be large enough to damage your budget buffer. It is essential to conduct due diligence about taxes through event vendors and double-check from other sources to ascertain the accuracy of the quotations.
Wrong selection of dates
Selecting the date of an event may seem to be the simplest thing to do but can actually affect the costs involved. Dates may lead to conflicting events that may cause a skyrocketing of bookings. Specific periods such as holidays may also sometimes lead to higher prices.
Limited flexibility
Being rigid on a particular vision of what a corporate event should turn out like can make you miss on budgeting opportunities that can lead to cost savings. Flexibility makes the management of deadlines possible and also ensures strategies can be re-evaluated. With modern corporate event budget software, you can address most of your budgetary needs with considerable flexibility and precision.