Speaker 1: Planning great events can be a lot of fun. What's not fun is blowing your budget and overspending on things you don't need. It can be really easy to go way over what you thought you were gonna spend when you start planning, especially if you don't know what you're doing. And I think it goes without saying, but diving in without a budget is an absolute no-no. So in today's video, I'm gonna give you some basic tips on how to make an event budget. Let's get into the video. Hey, welcome back to the Experience Lab. I'm Joanna, your Experience Navigator, and on this channel, I share experiential tips for everyday brands. Now, on my very first video on this channel, I went through the five stages of planning your first marketing event. If you haven't seen that video, I'll go ahead and link it in the description for you. But basically, step number two was to write out your dream vision in extreme detail. If you did that, you should be in pretty good shape to start making a budget. The first thing you wanna do when you start making an event planning budget is to take that vision that you wrote out and write down all of the categories that those details start to fall into. The way I like to put it is must-haves before nice touches. So really ask yourself, what do you consider a must-have at your event? For example, don't put a DJ in your budget if you're okay with a pre-made playlist or just playing Spotify in the background. The key here is to really think about what you're prioritizing and why you're prioritizing it. Is a good photo backdrop really important to you where people can take pictures and share on social media? Did you highlight on your flyer how awesome your food is gonna be? Because if so, prioritize catering in your budget. Look, the point is you get to decide. But ultimately, as Kimberly Hayden put it, every single time you say yes to something, you're inadvertently saying no to something else. So choose wisely. When you think about your priorities, think about what that means you're saying no to. That is going to help you make sure that you're making an informed decision about what you need to be spending money on. My second key tip is to make sure that you have a bucket of money for your miscellaneous items. It's those little things that you don't think about that always end up adding up really quickly and in turn, eating up your budget. Unless you're having your event at a place that you're not paying for, the next big category that you're gonna wanna account for is your venue. And typically, if you wanna spend money on a really good space, unless your budget is more than $20,000, your venue is going to take up more than 50% of your budget. So if you know you only have $12,000 to spend, make sure that $6,000 of that goes towards a good venue. Your venue is just bound to be a large investment. And it should be if you're committed to creating an immersive environment. So just trust me on this one. Make sure you're putting aside 50% and then go ahead and spend on everything else. If you missed the video I did on questions you should ask a venue owner before you sign your contract, I'll go ahead and link that in the description also. Tip number four is to set aside 10% for contingency. That's gonna cover your emergency spending, your rush fees, any unforeseen charges, damage fees after you leave your venue, and all of the things that you can't possibly think about that are bound to pop up. And with the venue being 50% and contingency being 10%, you can see we're already at 60%. So it makes sense that you wanna have those must haves before you dive into the nice touches. Tip number five is to make sure that you put aside a couple hundred dollars for event insurance. Wedsafe is a really great place to get your event insurance. They basically take you through a checklist and based on the complexity of your event and the likelihood that there's gonna be some liability issues, spit out a charge for you, you print out the insurance, and then you give it to your venue owner. Please don't skip this step. It's one of those things where you're better safe than sorry. Okay, so now let's talk about how to manage the budget once you've actually created it. Chances are this isn't going to be the first or last event that you ever produce. When you're setting up your budget, make sure that you have an estimated amount and then put just another column or something next to that estimated amount so that you can actually track what you really end up spending at the end. This way, you can compare the two costs at the end and over time, it'll help you make better predictions and more accurate estimates, which in the long run will show you what's an actual must have and what you just think is a must have. The second thing you should know about managing your event budget is that you need to track everything you spend. Yes, everything. Keep all of your receipts in one place, including your online transactions. And don't just hold onto them. Actually add them up every week or every two weeks so that you know you're on track against the estimate that you started with. And to that point, make sure you're adjusting as you go. That means that at the end of the week, if your estimate was $800 and you're completely finished with that category and you've only spent $500, where can you put that other $300? Do you wanna save it or do you wanna move it around to something else that might be a next priority for you? Remember that a budget is a document that needs constant grooming. You can't just make it in the beginning and then tend to it when you're finished. It's not gonna work. The last thing that I wanna talk about in this video are the pros and cons of doing your budget on paper versus using a spreadsheet. If you're someone who loves writing things down, then the paper route is for you. Some people just retain information better when they write it down with their own hands. And if you're using a notebook or a binder, you can tape your receipts in, staple them in, or just keep them in a folder. The biggest con with doing your budget on paper is that you have to manually add up the numbers. So if math is not your thing, this is probably not a route that you wanna take, especially if you know there's gonna be a lot of different tiny things that you have to pay for where you're gonna have to do a bunch of math. Now let's talk about spreadsheets. If you're someone who loses little pieces of paper easily or shoves your receipts down in your pocket to never be found again, spreadsheets are for you. And like I was saying before, if you don't wanna manually tally up your numbers, then you can just set a formula that can automatically do it for you. And on the flip side, if you're not good with technology, then of course a spreadsheet isn't gonna be good for you. But also, if you're not someone who's constantly on your phone, your laptop, or your tablet, you're not going to update it regularly. And the whole point, again, is that this is a live document that you can update as you go along so that you have a good picture of where your money is going. Like I said in my video about floor plans, it doesn't have to be fancy. It just needs to be functional and get you over the finish line. And of course, if you have any other questions or need any further advice, leave it in the comments and I can get back to you. For more event planning advice and experiential tips, make sure you subscribe to the channel. And to keep this video for reference, of course, give it a like. As always, I'm Joanna, your experience navigator. This is the Experience Lab and I will catch you in the next one.