March 31, 2025
Growing Your Event Service Business: Five Essential Skills You Need
Welcome to another insightful episode of The Event Pro Show, where we take a closer look at the skills that help event service businesses thrive. Today, our host Seth Macchi is unpacking the five essential components that are pivotal for growth and...
Welcome to another insightful episode of The Event Pro Show, where we take a closer look at the skills that help event service businesses thrive. Today, our host Seth Macchi is unpacking the five essential components that are pivotal for growth and success in the corporate events world. Whether you're a small business owner or part of a leadership team, Seth covers the crucial roles of sales and marketing, operations, project management, logistics, and finance, and why each is integral to your business strategy. Plus, Seth shares a bonus skill set - the importance of building a network of trusted production partners to ensure consistent and excellent service delivery. Join us as we explore how mastering these areas can help transform your business into a well-oiled machine, ready to deliver exceptional experiences every time. Tune in and discover the key to creating lasting client relationships in multiple locations.
1
00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:04,104
Welcome to the Event Pro show your ultimate guide to the world of corporate
2
00:00:04,152 --> 00:00:07,736
events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing
3
00:00:07,768 --> 00:00:11,384
pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional
4
00:00:11,432 --> 00:00:14,968
events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights,
5
00:00:15,064 --> 00:00:17,864
expert tips and inspiring stories from the industry's leading
6
00:00:17,912 --> 00:00:18,940
professionals.
7
00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:29,750
Many event pros are small business owners
8
00:00:29,830 --> 00:00:33,638
or they're involved in the leadership of
9
00:00:33,694 --> 00:00:37,526
a team that's trying to grow their service business, their event
10
00:00:37,598 --> 00:00:41,238
service business. And so if you
11
00:00:41,294 --> 00:00:44,918
find yourself in an event service business
12
00:00:45,054 --> 00:00:48,454
and you want to see it grow, but you can't seem to work any harder,
13
00:00:48,502 --> 00:00:52,342
first of all, you're not alone. And second of all, you
14
00:00:52,366 --> 00:00:55,980
need to develop a core team or skill sets at least to help
15
00:00:56,020 --> 00:00:59,532
shoulder the load. So I want to talk about the five
16
00:00:59,636 --> 00:01:03,372
essential skill sets to do this to
17
00:01:03,396 --> 00:01:06,732
help grow your business. But those skill sets often turn
18
00:01:06,836 --> 00:01:10,476
into other people as your team grows. And then those
19
00:01:10,548 --> 00:01:14,284
people that are masters of those skill sets often
20
00:01:14,372 --> 00:01:17,628
become leaders themselves of departments. They turn into
21
00:01:17,684 --> 00:01:21,228
departments. And so I like to think of event service
22
00:01:21,284 --> 00:01:24,620
businesses in five components. So the first
23
00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:28,508
component is sales and marketing. Look, if you're not talking about
24
00:01:28,564 --> 00:01:32,332
your business, no one else is. And that's the
25
00:01:32,356 --> 00:01:35,080
truth. And what happens in
26
00:01:36,580 --> 00:01:40,268
events industry is that we sell
27
00:01:40,324 --> 00:01:44,140
a project, then we go out and we do it, and everybody's consumed by doing
28
00:01:44,180 --> 00:01:47,836
it. And while we're doing the service,
29
00:01:47,988 --> 00:01:51,740
nobody's thinking about the future and doing sales marketing
30
00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:55,280
efforts. And so we kind of
31
00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:58,560
create what we everybody likes to call seasonal
32
00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,792
or a volatile
33
00:02:01,936 --> 00:02:05,744
schedule and say that's just the way it is. And the truth
34
00:02:05,792 --> 00:02:09,632
is you can do a lot to mitigate that volatility or
35
00:02:09,656 --> 00:02:13,504
the seasonality of our industry by super consistent
36
00:02:13,552 --> 00:02:17,344
marketing and sales efforts. And so developing
37
00:02:17,392 --> 00:02:20,490
that core skill is essential. And there's so much
38
00:02:20,530 --> 00:02:23,850
material out there that can help you do
39
00:02:23,890 --> 00:02:27,658
that. It is something that you can kind of jump in and there's
40
00:02:27,674 --> 00:02:31,370
a lot of resources to do it. So I would recommend sales and marketing. And
41
00:02:31,490 --> 00:02:35,306
if your sales and marketing team is successful, you have a lot of projects
42
00:02:35,338 --> 00:02:39,018
coming in. So the next skill set number two
43
00:02:39,074 --> 00:02:42,190
I would recommend working on is operations.
44
00:02:42,850 --> 00:02:46,488
So operations is, is the component that focuses on
45
00:02:46,544 --> 00:02:50,152
providing exactly what you promised in the sales cycle.
46
00:02:50,216 --> 00:02:53,380
And you do it every time. We're in a business where,
47
00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,128
I don't know if I love the phrase you're only as good as your last
48
00:02:57,184 --> 00:03:00,856
show, but there is something to that impression that's left
49
00:03:00,928 --> 00:03:04,568
every time you do a live event. You know, it's, it happens.
50
00:03:04,664 --> 00:03:08,392
Everybody has feelings about it so you want them to have good feelings every time
51
00:03:08,496 --> 00:03:12,104
and that's how you build your brand. So operations, you need somebody thinking solely
52
00:03:12,152 --> 00:03:15,926
about operations. So the different mindset here, sales and marketing, is thinking
53
00:03:15,958 --> 00:03:19,622
about the future all the time. You're always going out, you're really consistent with
54
00:03:19,646 --> 00:03:23,174
that. Operations is thinking about day to day, how are we going to
55
00:03:23,182 --> 00:03:26,902
deploy, how are we going to do it consistently over time to
56
00:03:26,926 --> 00:03:30,678
our standards. Some people might call number three
57
00:03:30,734 --> 00:03:34,182
here part of operations, but I like to think of it as a separate component.
58
00:03:34,246 --> 00:03:37,654
So project management will be the third component, the third skill
59
00:03:37,702 --> 00:03:40,780
set or person that you hire on your team.
60
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:45,264
You need to develop a great team of company representatives.
61
00:03:45,392 --> 00:03:49,232
At lemg, that's what we think of our project managers as is they
62
00:03:49,256 --> 00:03:52,976
are the on site representatives of our brand. We have developed
63
00:03:53,008 --> 00:03:56,608
a system where they have a lot of autonomy and authority to make decisions on
64
00:03:56,664 --> 00:04:00,352
site. That's very important to us and they're an extension of
65
00:04:00,376 --> 00:04:04,172
our team on site to our clients. It allows us to delegate our,
66
00:04:04,216 --> 00:04:08,052
our brand across the country at any given time and know
67
00:04:08,076 --> 00:04:11,732
that we're delivering a consistent service. And so that's the goal here, right?
68
00:04:11,756 --> 00:04:15,492
As like service providers in the events industry is that no matter
69
00:04:15,516 --> 00:04:19,028
where your brand shows up, people know what they're getting. And I think it really
70
00:04:19,084 --> 00:04:22,756
centers around that project manager, you might call it something else,
71
00:04:22,868 --> 00:04:26,260
production manager or whatever, whatever name you have for it. But
72
00:04:26,300 --> 00:04:29,948
somebody did us that on site representative. That's
73
00:04:29,964 --> 00:04:32,440
super important for event services.
74
00:04:33,780 --> 00:04:37,500
So as you're selling, your operations team
75
00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:41,400
is getting it done. Your project manager's on site is representing your brand.
76
00:04:41,940 --> 00:04:45,148
Somebody has to be thinking about logistics or
77
00:04:45,204 --> 00:04:48,988
warehouse. So depending on what you call that, if you use
78
00:04:49,044 --> 00:04:52,860
any kind of things to deliver your service, somebody has to be thinking about how
79
00:04:52,900 --> 00:04:56,610
those things are acquired, stored, delivered, set
80
00:04:56,650 --> 00:05:00,178
up, put back away. So you really need somebody
81
00:05:00,354 --> 00:05:03,682
to develop that skill set or bring that skill set to your team
82
00:05:03,866 --> 00:05:07,586
where you are taking care of your things, you are
83
00:05:07,658 --> 00:05:11,282
prepping them well, you're sending them out well, you're deploying them on
84
00:05:11,306 --> 00:05:14,882
site well, you're recollecting them well, you're qcing and
85
00:05:14,906 --> 00:05:18,482
repairing them well. So you have a great inventory. As you grow your inventory,
86
00:05:18,546 --> 00:05:20,670
somebody's taking care of those things. Very important.
87
00:05:22,100 --> 00:05:25,852
The last component is arguably to
88
00:05:25,876 --> 00:05:29,240
me, I think is the most important component to
89
00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:32,520
all these five skill sets that I'm laying out.
90
00:05:32,980 --> 00:05:36,748
Finance. I can't overstate the importance of managing
91
00:05:36,844 --> 00:05:40,444
cash flow, Arkansas ap other financially related
92
00:05:40,532 --> 00:05:44,268
functions of your business. It's so
93
00:05:44,324 --> 00:05:48,140
essential to have that data and that management of
94
00:05:48,180 --> 00:05:51,940
money. And also the finance department should be the
95
00:05:51,980 --> 00:05:55,732
least dramatic department of your business. That's what I like to call it.
96
00:05:55,756 --> 00:05:59,204
And what I mean by that is that we live in a fairly
97
00:05:59,252 --> 00:06:02,724
dramatic industry where things pop up, you have to respond
98
00:06:02,772 --> 00:06:06,484
quickly on site, things never go quite as planned and you have to shift
99
00:06:06,532 --> 00:06:10,292
and manage. You know, great project managers know how to do that. They plan really
100
00:06:10,316 --> 00:06:13,764
well, but they also know how to pivot really well. Finance
101
00:06:13,892 --> 00:06:17,220
should be none of that drama. You should be
102
00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,928
well aware of what's happening with the money going in and out
103
00:06:21,984 --> 00:06:25,768
of your business. And if you get this right,
104
00:06:25,904 --> 00:06:29,256
your overall quality of life, I. E. Stress,
105
00:06:29,448 --> 00:06:33,288
will improve exponentially. Exponentially.
106
00:06:33,464 --> 00:06:37,096
So I have a bonus skill set here. Here's my bonus
107
00:06:37,128 --> 00:06:40,760
skill set is you need to develop your network of partners, your
108
00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:44,270
production partners. These are the AV providers, caterers,
109
00:06:44,350 --> 00:06:47,502
venues, speakers, CVBs, transportation
110
00:06:47,566 --> 00:06:51,358
companies, many others. Who are your go to service
111
00:06:51,414 --> 00:06:55,182
providers that will help you achieve your goals and who also, you know, want
112
00:06:55,206 --> 00:06:58,622
to see you succeed. And you want to see them succeed because what they do
113
00:06:58,646 --> 00:07:02,302
is excellent. So you kind of bring them, bring them into the
114
00:07:02,326 --> 00:07:06,126
fold. And who are those people? Build out your network of
115
00:07:06,198 --> 00:07:09,944
production partners. So building a great service business is all about
116
00:07:10,032 --> 00:07:13,640
creating consistency. If clients can see that you
117
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:17,464
deliver a great service consistently over
118
00:07:17,552 --> 00:07:21,192
time and in multiple locations, you've got a
119
00:07:21,216 --> 00:07:24,460
client for life. So I hope this helps
120
00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:26,900
and I'll see you on the next one.
121
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,392
The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG
122
00:07:32,536 --> 00:07:36,190
video by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by
123
00:07:36,230 --> 00:07:38,990
Prince Thompson. You can learn more about us at
124
00:07:39,030 --> 00:07:40,550
LEMG Live.
00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:04,104
Welcome to the Event Pro show your ultimate guide to the world of corporate
2
00:00:04,152 --> 00:00:07,736
events. Whether you're a corporate event planner, experiential marketing
3
00:00:07,768 --> 00:00:11,384
pro, producer, technician, or anyone involved in creating exceptional
4
00:00:11,432 --> 00:00:14,968
events, this podcast is your go to resource for valuable insights,
5
00:00:15,064 --> 00:00:17,864
expert tips and inspiring stories from the industry's leading
6
00:00:17,912 --> 00:00:18,940
professionals.
7
00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:29,750
Many event pros are small business owners
8
00:00:29,830 --> 00:00:33,638
or they're involved in the leadership of
9
00:00:33,694 --> 00:00:37,526
a team that's trying to grow their service business, their event
10
00:00:37,598 --> 00:00:41,238
service business. And so if you
11
00:00:41,294 --> 00:00:44,918
find yourself in an event service business
12
00:00:45,054 --> 00:00:48,454
and you want to see it grow, but you can't seem to work any harder,
13
00:00:48,502 --> 00:00:52,342
first of all, you're not alone. And second of all, you
14
00:00:52,366 --> 00:00:55,980
need to develop a core team or skill sets at least to help
15
00:00:56,020 --> 00:00:59,532
shoulder the load. So I want to talk about the five
16
00:00:59,636 --> 00:01:03,372
essential skill sets to do this to
17
00:01:03,396 --> 00:01:06,732
help grow your business. But those skill sets often turn
18
00:01:06,836 --> 00:01:10,476
into other people as your team grows. And then those
19
00:01:10,548 --> 00:01:14,284
people that are masters of those skill sets often
20
00:01:14,372 --> 00:01:17,628
become leaders themselves of departments. They turn into
21
00:01:17,684 --> 00:01:21,228
departments. And so I like to think of event service
22
00:01:21,284 --> 00:01:24,620
businesses in five components. So the first
23
00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:28,508
component is sales and marketing. Look, if you're not talking about
24
00:01:28,564 --> 00:01:32,332
your business, no one else is. And that's the
25
00:01:32,356 --> 00:01:35,080
truth. And what happens in
26
00:01:36,580 --> 00:01:40,268
events industry is that we sell
27
00:01:40,324 --> 00:01:44,140
a project, then we go out and we do it, and everybody's consumed by doing
28
00:01:44,180 --> 00:01:47,836
it. And while we're doing the service,
29
00:01:47,988 --> 00:01:51,740
nobody's thinking about the future and doing sales marketing
30
00:01:51,820 --> 00:01:55,280
efforts. And so we kind of
31
00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:58,560
create what we everybody likes to call seasonal
32
00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,792
or a volatile
33
00:02:01,936 --> 00:02:05,744
schedule and say that's just the way it is. And the truth
34
00:02:05,792 --> 00:02:09,632
is you can do a lot to mitigate that volatility or
35
00:02:09,656 --> 00:02:13,504
the seasonality of our industry by super consistent
36
00:02:13,552 --> 00:02:17,344
marketing and sales efforts. And so developing
37
00:02:17,392 --> 00:02:20,490
that core skill is essential. And there's so much
38
00:02:20,530 --> 00:02:23,850
material out there that can help you do
39
00:02:23,890 --> 00:02:27,658
that. It is something that you can kind of jump in and there's
40
00:02:27,674 --> 00:02:31,370
a lot of resources to do it. So I would recommend sales and marketing. And
41
00:02:31,490 --> 00:02:35,306
if your sales and marketing team is successful, you have a lot of projects
42
00:02:35,338 --> 00:02:39,018
coming in. So the next skill set number two
43
00:02:39,074 --> 00:02:42,190
I would recommend working on is operations.
44
00:02:42,850 --> 00:02:46,488
So operations is, is the component that focuses on
45
00:02:46,544 --> 00:02:50,152
providing exactly what you promised in the sales cycle.
46
00:02:50,216 --> 00:02:53,380
And you do it every time. We're in a business where,
47
00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,128
I don't know if I love the phrase you're only as good as your last
48
00:02:57,184 --> 00:03:00,856
show, but there is something to that impression that's left
49
00:03:00,928 --> 00:03:04,568
every time you do a live event. You know, it's, it happens.
50
00:03:04,664 --> 00:03:08,392
Everybody has feelings about it so you want them to have good feelings every time
51
00:03:08,496 --> 00:03:12,104
and that's how you build your brand. So operations, you need somebody thinking solely
52
00:03:12,152 --> 00:03:15,926
about operations. So the different mindset here, sales and marketing, is thinking
53
00:03:15,958 --> 00:03:19,622
about the future all the time. You're always going out, you're really consistent with
54
00:03:19,646 --> 00:03:23,174
that. Operations is thinking about day to day, how are we going to
55
00:03:23,182 --> 00:03:26,902
deploy, how are we going to do it consistently over time to
56
00:03:26,926 --> 00:03:30,678
our standards. Some people might call number three
57
00:03:30,734 --> 00:03:34,182
here part of operations, but I like to think of it as a separate component.
58
00:03:34,246 --> 00:03:37,654
So project management will be the third component, the third skill
59
00:03:37,702 --> 00:03:40,780
set or person that you hire on your team.
60
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:45,264
You need to develop a great team of company representatives.
61
00:03:45,392 --> 00:03:49,232
At lemg, that's what we think of our project managers as is they
62
00:03:49,256 --> 00:03:52,976
are the on site representatives of our brand. We have developed
63
00:03:53,008 --> 00:03:56,608
a system where they have a lot of autonomy and authority to make decisions on
64
00:03:56,664 --> 00:04:00,352
site. That's very important to us and they're an extension of
65
00:04:00,376 --> 00:04:04,172
our team on site to our clients. It allows us to delegate our,
66
00:04:04,216 --> 00:04:08,052
our brand across the country at any given time and know
67
00:04:08,076 --> 00:04:11,732
that we're delivering a consistent service. And so that's the goal here, right?
68
00:04:11,756 --> 00:04:15,492
As like service providers in the events industry is that no matter
69
00:04:15,516 --> 00:04:19,028
where your brand shows up, people know what they're getting. And I think it really
70
00:04:19,084 --> 00:04:22,756
centers around that project manager, you might call it something else,
71
00:04:22,868 --> 00:04:26,260
production manager or whatever, whatever name you have for it. But
72
00:04:26,300 --> 00:04:29,948
somebody did us that on site representative. That's
73
00:04:29,964 --> 00:04:32,440
super important for event services.
74
00:04:33,780 --> 00:04:37,500
So as you're selling, your operations team
75
00:04:37,620 --> 00:04:41,400
is getting it done. Your project manager's on site is representing your brand.
76
00:04:41,940 --> 00:04:45,148
Somebody has to be thinking about logistics or
77
00:04:45,204 --> 00:04:48,988
warehouse. So depending on what you call that, if you use
78
00:04:49,044 --> 00:04:52,860
any kind of things to deliver your service, somebody has to be thinking about how
79
00:04:52,900 --> 00:04:56,610
those things are acquired, stored, delivered, set
80
00:04:56,650 --> 00:05:00,178
up, put back away. So you really need somebody
81
00:05:00,354 --> 00:05:03,682
to develop that skill set or bring that skill set to your team
82
00:05:03,866 --> 00:05:07,586
where you are taking care of your things, you are
83
00:05:07,658 --> 00:05:11,282
prepping them well, you're sending them out well, you're deploying them on
84
00:05:11,306 --> 00:05:14,882
site well, you're recollecting them well, you're qcing and
85
00:05:14,906 --> 00:05:18,482
repairing them well. So you have a great inventory. As you grow your inventory,
86
00:05:18,546 --> 00:05:20,670
somebody's taking care of those things. Very important.
87
00:05:22,100 --> 00:05:25,852
The last component is arguably to
88
00:05:25,876 --> 00:05:29,240
me, I think is the most important component to
89
00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:32,520
all these five skill sets that I'm laying out.
90
00:05:32,980 --> 00:05:36,748
Finance. I can't overstate the importance of managing
91
00:05:36,844 --> 00:05:40,444
cash flow, Arkansas ap other financially related
92
00:05:40,532 --> 00:05:44,268
functions of your business. It's so
93
00:05:44,324 --> 00:05:48,140
essential to have that data and that management of
94
00:05:48,180 --> 00:05:51,940
money. And also the finance department should be the
95
00:05:51,980 --> 00:05:55,732
least dramatic department of your business. That's what I like to call it.
96
00:05:55,756 --> 00:05:59,204
And what I mean by that is that we live in a fairly
97
00:05:59,252 --> 00:06:02,724
dramatic industry where things pop up, you have to respond
98
00:06:02,772 --> 00:06:06,484
quickly on site, things never go quite as planned and you have to shift
99
00:06:06,532 --> 00:06:10,292
and manage. You know, great project managers know how to do that. They plan really
100
00:06:10,316 --> 00:06:13,764
well, but they also know how to pivot really well. Finance
101
00:06:13,892 --> 00:06:17,220
should be none of that drama. You should be
102
00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,928
well aware of what's happening with the money going in and out
103
00:06:21,984 --> 00:06:25,768
of your business. And if you get this right,
104
00:06:25,904 --> 00:06:29,256
your overall quality of life, I. E. Stress,
105
00:06:29,448 --> 00:06:33,288
will improve exponentially. Exponentially.
106
00:06:33,464 --> 00:06:37,096
So I have a bonus skill set here. Here's my bonus
107
00:06:37,128 --> 00:06:40,760
skill set is you need to develop your network of partners, your
108
00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:44,270
production partners. These are the AV providers, caterers,
109
00:06:44,350 --> 00:06:47,502
venues, speakers, CVBs, transportation
110
00:06:47,566 --> 00:06:51,358
companies, many others. Who are your go to service
111
00:06:51,414 --> 00:06:55,182
providers that will help you achieve your goals and who also, you know, want
112
00:06:55,206 --> 00:06:58,622
to see you succeed. And you want to see them succeed because what they do
113
00:06:58,646 --> 00:07:02,302
is excellent. So you kind of bring them, bring them into the
114
00:07:02,326 --> 00:07:06,126
fold. And who are those people? Build out your network of
115
00:07:06,198 --> 00:07:09,944
production partners. So building a great service business is all about
116
00:07:10,032 --> 00:07:13,640
creating consistency. If clients can see that you
117
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:17,464
deliver a great service consistently over
118
00:07:17,552 --> 00:07:21,192
time and in multiple locations, you've got a
119
00:07:21,216 --> 00:07:24,460
client for life. So I hope this helps
120
00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:26,900
and I'll see you on the next one.
121
00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,392
The Event Pro show is a production of LEMG
122
00:07:32,536 --> 00:07:36,190
video by Nick Barrett, audio and post production by
123
00:07:36,230 --> 00:07:38,990
Prince Thompson. You can learn more about us at
124
00:07:39,030 --> 00:07:40,550
LEMG Live.