Calendars
Calendars will be essential to your career as an event planner. Having at least two calendars that are updated weekly is best for proper organization. One will service your office, and the other should be kept on you for the times you will be working from home or taking calls on the road.
Multiple Calendars
Your office calendar should be the central repository of information for your organization. Your calendar should be filled with your events, client appointments, venue site visits, and vendor visits. When taking calls on the road, write any date information on your secondary calendar, and transfer any appointments to your main calendar. Using different colored pens for different types of appointments can be useful in a large office. Red can be used for all events, blue can be used for client appointments, and black can be used for vendor visits, and so forth.
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When working with more than one calendar, appointments may be written in one place but not the others. Be sure you devote time each week to reconciling your calendars so each of the calendars is updated.
Noting Inquiries on Your Calendar
The process of booking a client can take several days, if not weeks, to finalize. From the time you take an initial phone call to the initial meeting to a creative meeting, some time has most likely passed before you receive the deposit. For this reason, it is a good idea to write all inquiries on your calendar. This way if you have a potential client for the second Saturday in June, you can let any inquiries for the same day know the date may not be available. This information may affect small catering companies who cannot extend their staff with more than one event per day or a restaurant with only one private room to book. Larger event-planning companies usually can take on more than one event per day. Still, multiple inquiries will affect the house inventory of a large company that may need to outsource items such as plate ware, which will affect the quoting process.
Confirming Dates with Clients
Calendars are also a great way to reconfirm the date with a client. In the initial phone call with a client, you should confirm the date using the day of the week as well as the calendar date. This will eliminate future confusion if a potential client thinks November 20 falls on a Saturday when it really is a Monday. With every interaction about an inquiry, it is a good habit to confirm the date with your client.
