Hi everyone!

Does anyone provide assistance to Event Planners? I am trying to come up with my intro letter and not sure where to start. I would prefer to stay virtual (more than local), but I am not sure where to begin.

My target market includes small to medium businesses that need administrative assistance as well as event planners that may need assistance. I would like to eventually add event and meeting planning to my menu of services in the future but thought I could at least assist an event planner while I am still enhancing my knowledge formally and hands-on. I do have a few that I would like to meet; however, when it comes to those that are out of state, I am not sure how they would embrace having a non-local assistant. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,

sy

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Sheila York, President/CEO
York Signature Assistance, Inc.
www.yorksignatureassistance.com (under construction)

I would look at event planners' websites and see what services they offer. From there you could define what work they could outsource to you. I would imagine that they have lots of advertising stuff, guest lists, guest invites, etc. to do. So you could take over the promotional side while they are doing the event, set up, the coordination of technicians, equipment, etc.

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Heike Miller
www.heikemiller.com

Originally Posted by KiwiVA

I would look at event planners' websites and see what services they offer. From there you could define what work they could outsource to you. I would imagine that they have lots of advertising stuff, guest lists, guest invites, etc. to do. So you could take over the promotional side while they are doing the event, set up, the coordination of technicians, equipment, etc.

Thanks so much. I actually have a few of those items on the back of my business card. I thought that I could handle the guest/rsvp list, vendor research and such. I am just not sure how to market to those event planners that are out of state. The hospitality industry is steadily growing, so I am sure there must be those that may eventually need help with the administrative side of their business.

Thanks so much and have a great day.
sy

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Sheila York, President/CEO
York Signature Assistance, Inc.
www.yorksignatureassistance.com (under construction)

Hi Sheila! Hmm...I surprised myself with this idea! I usually come up with stuff like this in the middle of the night and loose it by morning. This actually came during waking hours when my retention is a lot higher so here it is.

Do you know anyone in your niche? I was at a networking event yesterday and there were a couple of event planners there. I was thinking if you could find one and offer to buy lunch it would be great to pick, pick and pick his/her brain some more! I'd say hit a newtorking even in your area and see if you can find one. I suggest that source simply because most people there are in attendance to connect and help. If you find the right person you could totally build your business plan off of their needs. Ask questions like "What pains you most about your business?", "What 5 tasks would you like to delegate if you found the right person?", "If for some reason you couldn't make it in on any given day what tasks (aside from food prep) might you worry the most about?". See where I'm headed?

I was at a VA website the other day where the VA called and surveyed a bunch of people in her niche with question sabout their business and she posted the results on her site. In exchange she linked back to the sources through their website. It was pretty nifty. (If that VA is here I'm sorry I don't recall your name or company name or I would have linked back!) I'm sure she used her finding in a unique way to build her business and you could do the same thing on a smaller participant scale.

Create an amazing day!

__________________
Sundi D. Hayes
Chief Virtual Officer - My Office Zilla
www.myofficezilla.com

Originally Posted by Sundi

Hi Sheila! Hmm...I surprised myself with this idea! I usually come up with stuff like this in the middle of the night and loose it by morning. This actually came during waking hours when my retention is a lot higher so here it is. Do you know anyone in your niche? I was at a networking event yesterday and there were a couple of event planners there. I was thinking if you could find one and offer to buy lunch it would be great to pick, pick and pick his/her brain some more! I'd say hit a newtorking even in your area and see if you can find one. I suggest that source simply because most people there are in attendance to connect and help. If you find the right person you could totally build your business plan off of their needs. Ask questions like "What pains you most about your business?", "What 5 tasks would you like to delegate if you found the right person?", "If for some reason you couldn't make it in on any given day what tasks (aside from food prep) might you worry the most about?". See where I'm headed? I was at a VA website the other day where the VA called and surveyed a bunch of people in her niche with question sabout their business and she posted the results on her site. In exchange she linked back to the sources through their website. It was pretty nifty. (If that VA is here I'm sorry I don't recall your name or company name or I would have linked back!) I'm sure she used her finding in a unique way to build her business and you could do the same thing on a smaller participant scale. Create an amazing day!

Hi Sundi!

Thanks so much for the great advice. I have been juggling and juggling ideas on how to market to the EP group. I am not limiting myself just to that niche but because I have a passion for it, it's definitely a part of my menu of services (at least the assistant part). I made a list of the event planners in my area but wondered if I could really be virtual as an event planning assistant. So therefore, was having trouble with my intro letter. I'm usually pretty good at coming up with letters and such; however, I am drawing a huge blank.

As a matter of fact, I do know a few event planners that I could speak with. Although, I am not a fan of making cold calls, I can definitely speak with the event planners that I do know. It does make sense to go the the source on what their needs are instead of trying to figure out what I can offer someone in this niche. This gives me more insight on my intro letter.

Thanks so much Sundi.

Sincerely,
sy

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Sheila York, President/CEO
York Signature Assistance, Inc.
www.yorksignatureassistance.com (under construction)

Event planners that are wanting to expand to other areas could probably use someone to research hotels, restaurants, caterers, florists, etc in certain areas. It might be smart to do something like that and start a database of all of these types of businesses that are the best of the best.

Originally Posted by LeslieStarnes

Event planners that are wanting to expand to other areas could probably use someone to research hotels, restaurants, caterers, florists, etc in certain areas. It might be smart to do something like that and start a database of all of these types of businesses that are the best of the best.

Hi Leslie,

Thanks so much. I was actually thinking about keeping an electronic and hard-copy list of venues and such. I know that there are programs also, (some are expensive) that will allow me to research effeciently as well as effectively. Thanks for the advice.

Sincerely,
sy

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Sheila York, President/CEO
York Signature Assistance, Inc.
www.yorksignatureassistance.com (under construction)

Hi
You may have already thought of this or it is posted somewhere, but what about desitnation wedding planning. I know when I did my own there was a lot of research required to find out availabilty, pricing etc. You could always post an ad on the multitude of wedding websites advertising this service.

Hi Sheila

I'm based in Egypt and work with event planners in the UK and US (not being local really shouldn't be an issue for you). You'd be surprised at the amount of work event planners have to outsource - whether it be sourcing a venue, creating an RSVP list and collating the replies, typing up agendas and so on and so forth.

Good luck with writing your introductory letter; it's that all-important first impression!

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"Instead of looking for things that have gone wrong and trying to fix them...Look for things that went right and try to build on them" Tom Peters

Originally Posted by MoragB

Hi Sheila I'm based in Egypt and work with event planners in the UK and US (not being local really shouldn't be an issue for you). You'd be surprised at the amount of work event planners have to outsource - whether it be sourcing a venue, creating an RSVP list and collating the replies, typing up agendas and so on and so forth. Good luck with writing your introductory letter; it's that all-important first impression!

Hi Morgan,

Thanks so much for the encouraging words. I am definitely not going to give up on that niche and will keep you posted on the results.

Sincerely,

Sheila

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Sheila York, President/CEO
York Signature Assistance, Inc.
www.yorksignatureassistance.com (under construction)

Originally Posted by rcleland

Hi You may have already thought of this or it is posted somewhere, but what about desitnation wedding planning. I know when I did my own there was a lot of research required to find out availabilty, pricing etc. You could always post an ad on the multitude of wedding websites advertising this service.

Hi,

I was going to go around and hand my business cards out to bridal salons. I actually saw a new establishment last night in the area.

Thanks so much for the advice.

Sincerely,

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Sheila York, President/CEO
York Signature Assistance, Inc.
www.yorksignatureassistance.com (under construction)

Great idea, Let us know how it goes!

Originally Posted by Sundi

Ask questions like "What pains you most about your business?", "What 5 tasks would you like to delegate if you found the right person?", "If for some reason you couldn't make it in on any given day what tasks (aside from food prep) might you worry the most about?". See where I'm headed?

Sundi,

Thanks so much for posting these questions. I am in the process of putting together a quick questionnaire to post on my blog for real estate agents. I was trying to come up with some great questions to ask and you have given me a great head start.

Thanks for sharing.

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Ness, REPA
www.NessLindsay.com

Glad I could help!

That is one of the great things about VAF...it has been long enough I can't really recall posting this but here it was to help you out with some thing closely related!

Create an amazing day!

__________________
Sundi D. Hayes
Chief Virtual Officer - My Office Zilla
www.myofficezilla.com

Great ideas Sundi! I am going to jot down those questions to ask - even if a planner never considered using a VA, planting the seed with them may open the door.