You are busy. You are booked. So why is there nothing left at the end? Five leaks, and how to close them.
Here is a sentence I hear too often: I did so many events this year, but I do not know where the money went. If that is you, you do not have an income problem. You have a leak problem. And leaks are quiet. They do not show up as one big disaster. They drain you slowly, one small yes at a time.
1. Underpricing, then over-delivering
You quoted low to win the job, then added extras to make the client happy. Now you are working twice as hard for a number that was too small to begin with. The fix is not just charging more. It is knowing your real cost before you quote, so your price starts from truth, not fear.
2. Scope creep with no scope
Can you just also handle the cake, the aso-ebi, the airport pickup. Each favour is small. Together they are a second full event you are delivering free. If there is no written scope, there is nothing to point to when the extras start. The agreement is not there to be rigid. It is there to protect the relationship from resentment.
If there is no written scope, there is nothing to point to when the extras start.
3. Paying vendors before you are paid
You float the deposits from your own pocket, chase the client afterwards, and call it customer service. It is not. It is you giving an interest-free loan to a business that is not yours. Payment terms exist so the money moves in the right order. Collect before you commit.
4. No record of small expenses
The transport, the printing, the last-minute run to buy the thing you forgot. Individually, nothing. Across a year, a serious chunk of your profit, invisible because you never wrote it down. What you do not track, you cannot price for next time.
5. Your own time priced at zero
You count vendors, materials, and logistics, but not the forty hours you personally poured in. If your time is free in your pricing, you have built a business that punishes you for working. Put your hours in the number. Always.
Profit is not what is left after everyone else is paid. It is a line you plan for from the start. If it is an afterthought, it will always be an empty one.
Where to start
Pick the leak that made you wince the most as you read. Just one. Close it on your next job. Then the next. You do not fix five years of leaks in a weekend. You fix them one booking at a time, until busy and booked finally start to mean something in your account.
Price Like You Mean It
Know your number. Defend your number. Get paid your number.
See the Price →Suggested caption: Busy, booked, and still broke? Five things are quietly killing your event profit. New on The Diary, with how to stop each one.