>> event planning articles > Advice on starting a marquee hire business
Advice on starting a marquee hire business
I meet a lot of people looking to start up a marquee hire business, it is one of the best parts of my job. A lot of people who come in to see me have never worked for themselves and see it as quite an aspirational position. Often the decision has been made to work for themselves long before the idea of marquees came around. And to be honest working for yourself is great, you do have to go in to it with your eyes wide open though and this is something else I often find myself discussing with potential marquee customers.
The first, most important point when starting a new business is having your close family on-board. Getting a business off the ground takes a lot of time, energy and work which would only be rewarded in the medium-long term. It is very difficult to do without the support of those around you. The last thing you want is for your start-up business to seriously affect your relationship (especially if you’ve married in to a family of solicitors and QC’s!).
The pro’s and cons of starting up your own marquee (or other) business:
Pro's
- Greater flexibility
- Greater job-satisfaction. Not just because the work you’re doing is for yourself rather than some else or an organisation but because most marquee work is making people happy
- Potentially greater financial reward (it depends on what job you’re giving up of course)
- Greater involvement in all parts of the business. You may have had a job in marketing but in a start-up you’ll be involved/responsible for every different part of the business.
Con's
- Greater responsibility
- Less financial security (the rewards are potentially greater but there is always the risk of the business not taking off).
And in-between both is a certain blurring of your work/life hours. You can often do non-work things during work time but then you’ll often have to do work related our of hours.
Working for yourself or working in a small business can be a culture shock but ultimately a move most people view well worth it.
A good friend of mine went from working in a huge multinational to a small start-up business. On the second day he was shocked to be told to drop everything as a photocopier had arrived downstairs (they were on the 5th floor) and everyone had to go down and lift it up the stairs. But this is what happens in a small business, everyone has to be prepared to be involved in any part of the business (manual handling or otherwise).
We are always happy to discuss any ideas you may have in starting up your own marquee hire business (or even helping an existing one), we have a lot of experience both in having done it ourselves and in helping many many others over the years.
Thanks for reading
Spencer
