20 Profitable Event & Party Business Ideas
Are you looking for profitable party business ideas?
if you are passionate about offering people a good time you can turn the passion into a profit by launching your own party business.
The events industry is still going strong - even if that may look a little different than before.
Although many events are going virtual and parties are looking smaller, there's still a huge opportunity to innovate in the space and build a profitable event and party business.
We've identified 20 business opportunities in the events space to get the wheels turning for you.
1. Start an event management company
Do you have a basic understanding of events, possess great communication skills, and aren’t afraid to talk to C-suite executives, event attendees, donors, brand sponsors, and vendors?
Event management is a profession that is growing rapidly. Experts estimate that the event management and planning industry will experience a growth rate of 10% in a few years.
You can use your skills and passion by starting an event management company. Event management is not only an exciting career, but it is also a profitable business opportunity, with endless opportunities, you can focus on social and entertainment events, and corporate events, or become a general event management company.
How much you can make: $1,000 — $500,000/month
How long does it take to build: 160 days (?)
A successful ticketing platform that grew from a side project into a business that issues over 5 million tickets annually, using a combination of cold calling, word of mouth, and partnerships to attract and retain customers while navigating the challenges of COVID-19.
2. Start a virtual events business
It is no secret that the 2020 global pandemic changed how we interact and engage. Today, more meetings and events take place online than ever before. According to statistics, the trend of virtual events is not slowing anytime soon. Corporates and entertainment sectors plan to organize more virtual events in the coming decade.
Thus, starting a virtual events business can be a great idea.
A virtual event is where attendees experience the event and its content online rather than being physically present. A virtual events business ideates, plans, organizes, executes, and coordinates virtual events on behalf of its clients. A virtual events business also develops creative ideas that make the virtual events unique and memorable.
To start and operate a successful virtual events business, you must possess broadcasting and audience psychology skills and be ready to learn and deal with new technologies. The good news is that you have multiple platforms where you can run virtual events.
How much you can make: $20,000 — $897,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $1,500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 180 days (?)
Entire Productions is a fast-growing event and entertainment production company with an emphasis on experience design, primarily working with corporate clients including many Fortune 500 companies in the tech and pharma industries, boasting a growth of 148% and a goal of reaching $20M annual mark.
3. Start a balloon decor business
Balloon decorations involve the creation of balloon-based arrangements and thematic shapes, covering backgrounds, ceilings, walls, columns, centerpieces, and entrances within the event and party venues. Balloon décor is popular in corporate events, entertainment and social events, children's parties, and weddings.
Balloon décor is a low overhead business and can be a profitable entrepreneurship opportunity. You do not need a storefront as you can work from home with a few pieces of equipment. You need proper planning skills to start and operate a successful balloon décor business. You should plan and analyze every step and challenge before starting the business.
How much you can make: $20,000/month
Balloon Haus LLC, founded by Janeen Brown, is a successful balloon boutique generating an average of $20K/monthly, providing custom exquisite and trendy balloon installations and decorations to notable clients such as Instagram, Marriott, and American Express.
4. Start a party planning business
Party planning involves budgeting, establishing party timelines, selecting and reserving ideal party sites, acquiring permits, theme décor, and coordinating party catering and transportation.
Are you organized, creative, and client-focused? You can put those skills into starting a successful party planning business. To become a party planner, you must desire to help other people enjoy themselves. Besides, you need diplomacy, salesmanship, and multitasking skills.
How much you can make: $3,500 — $500,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 30 days (?)
Time commitment per week: Min. 6 hours/week
Akshay Patel's event rental and decor business, Simply Decor, Tents, and Events, saw an average ticket price of $2,000, as their advertising budget decreased from $20k to $5k, leading to 40% of their clients coming through social media advertising, 30% from expos, and 30% online in google, yahoo, and other platforms.
5. Start an Event and after party cleaning business
Event and after-party cleaning business depends upon corporate and individual customers celebrating various events and hosting parties. The party and event organizers do not worry about cleaning utensils or cleaning the event venues.
Starting the event and after-party cleaning business requires the proper planning, maid, and janitorial skills. To start, purchase the appropriate cleaning equipment and hire skilled venue cleaners.
How much you can make: $3,000/month
Learn how Hangover Helpers, an after-party cleaning company, started as a side business and generated monthly revenue of $3k with some months up to $7k during the busy summer period, attracting 60% repeat business with a self-described clean, friendly, and fun brand.
6. Start a party supply store
If you love fun activities and helping other people enjoy their parties, starting a party store in your neighborhood can be a rewarding and profitable business.
Party stores sell balloons, decorations, costumes, novelties, confectionaries, theme party wear, and other party supplies.
If you are starting a party store, you may choose to join it as an affiliate or enter a franchise. A party store is a low-to-entry business venture and can be rewarding in the long run.
How much you can make: $25,000 — $500,000/month
How long does it take to build: 183 days (?)
BACH, an app that plans and books bachelorette parties, has grown from $0 to >$1M net revenue run rate in less than 6 months, gained over 100,000 users in their first 60 days, and has over 40,000 parties using the app this month.
7. Start a wedding rental business
Do you love wedding planning and looking for a business idea to turn your passion into profits? Starting a wedding rental business can be a great idea.
Your role as a wedding rental business is to supply all equipment and accessories to make the occasion colorful and memorable for attendees and the wedding couple. If you are starting a wedding rental business, focus on building relationships with wedding planners and event companies. Remember often couples visit wedding venues before even contacting a rental company. Being in contact with wedding venue business owners could get you repeat business.
How much you can make: $5,000 — $500,000/month
How long does it take to build: 305 days (?)
Photobooth Supply Co. offers a profitable business opportunity through their sleek and portable photo booths, with up to 97% satisfaction rate and a focus on customer experience, in a fast-growing event industry where photo booths are exploding.
8. Become a wedding planner
A wedding planner assists with designing, planning, and managing a wedding, so the bride and groom have the happiest day. Wedding planners enjoy a flexible working schedule and opportunities to travel locally and globally, and it’s a great career with numerous growth opportunities.
To start a wedding planning business, identify your target clientele and study their wedding cultures so you can offer the clients excellent service. Remember, excellent wedding planning is all about having the passion and knowing how to harness that passion for designing weddings that bring out the emotions of those in attendance.
How much you can make: $774 — $200,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 45 days (?)
How a former food truck owner founded the successful New York Food Truck Association which generated over $1M in its first year of business, providing local vendors with high-margin ancillary revenue streams, and saw consistent growth of 50% YoY.
9. Start a catering business
A catering business is responsible for providing food & beverage-related services for vast types of events.
Catering businesses are known to be more flexible than other businesses because they don’t have to worry about location or pricing and can even work 24/7. They can cater anywhere and offer any price point that they want.
However, starting a catering business requires a lot of planning.
To start a successful catering business , you'll need to plan and prepare menus, manage budgets, handle clients, and more.
In addition, catering allows you to meet more people and show off your cooking skills.
How much you can make: $4,000 — $200,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
Elegante Catering founder, Nestor Nidome, details his journey from failed DJ business to a $20k/month catering company, emphasizing the importance of online marketing and customer feedback as key contributors to his success.
10. Start a Greeting Cards Business
People use greeting cards to mark births, deaths, graduations, anniversaries, and other parties or events.
If you love helping people celebrate special occasions, starting a greeting card business can be a great business opportunity.
When starting a greeting card business, choose a potential niche and write a business plan.
Then, find an ideal spot to sell the greeting cards.
For instance, you can offer greeting card design and posting services, so customers can choose the best designs and post greeting cards online.
How much you can make: $1,000 — $100,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $8,750 (?)
How long does it take to build: 77 days (?)
Joker Greeting sells unique prank gifts, including a non-stop musical birthday card, an idea raised by the founders visiting their mom's house, having no website or marketing and yet raising $92,073 on Kickstarter in 30 days due to being picked up by media, enabling them to sell 15,000 units in the first year, owned SEO for their niche, selling almost 40,000 units in 2017 and expected to reach 50,000 to 60,000 in 2018 with a small team, using Shopify and various social media channels with lots of organic traffic.
11. Rent party & events venue
Businesses use event venues for various purposes, including meetings, tradeshows, conferences, product launches, etc. On the other hand, individuals host birthdays, weddings, and other celebrations at event venues.
According to the latest statistics, the events industry is growing rapidly. Events provide a great marketing tool for businesses, and events are crucial for strengthening relationships.
The demand for event venues increases as individuals and corporates host more events annually. If you have some unused space and are enthusiastic about hosting events, you can start an events rental business.
To start, choose a niche, and market your business. You can focus on corporate events, social and entertainment events, or general venues suitable for any setting and party theme.
How much you can make: $3,500 — $500,000/month
How long does it take to build: 30 days (?)
Akshay Patel's event rental and decor business, Simply Decor, Tents, and Events, saw an average ticket price of $2,000, as their advertising budget decreased from $20k to $5k, leading to 40% of their clients coming through social media advertising, 30% from expos, and 30% online in google, yahoo, and other platforms.
12. Become a cake decorator
Becoming a cake decorator can be an enjoyable and uncomplicated venture to embark on, particularly if you have a passion for baking and creativity. It enables you to explore the thriving bakery and wedding industries while showcasing your artistic abilities.
This business involves designing and hand-decorating specialty cakes for various events and occasions, using your artistic abilities to create beautiful, custom-edible works of art.
To start a successful cake decorating company, learn proper cake decorating techniques, purchase quality ingredients and equipment, build a portfolio to showcase your skills, and implement good marketing tactics to attract potential clients like wedding planners, event companies, bakeries, and direct consumers.
How much you can make: $4,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $300 (?)
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
From pastry chef to owner of a successful bakery, learn how Bradford Bakery achieved a 550% increase in SEO in just a few months through community outreach, building a website, and utilizing social media and advertising on platforms like Facebook and Groupon.
13. Become a face painter
Popular at children's parties, weddings, and even some corporate events, face painting is a great creative activity that sparks joy among people of all ages.
If you love making people happy and helping them celebrate different events in life, consider starting a face-painting business.
If you are planning to start a face painting business on a professional basis, it would be wise to take an introductory training course to learn the basics of face painting and the safety and health precautions involved in the business.
How much you can make: $25,000/month
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
How a recent college graduate started COOLERSbyU, a paintable cooler and accessories business geared towards Greek life and DIY crafting, growing from a few thousand dollars to an average of over $25k per month in just four years through mostly organic growth and a focus on SEO.
14. Start an A/V equipment rental
Buying AV equipment does not make sense unless you are an event organizer or your company runs multiple events annually. Instead, businesses prefer hiring AV equipment rather than investing thousands of dollars in buying the equipment for a single event.
An audiovisual equipment rental business offers event or party organizers the right equipment to make the events a hit. The AV equipment rental business offers bundled packages to add technical perfection to any type of events their customers are looking to host.
Starting an AV rental business can be capital intensive, but given the rising demand for AV equipment, it can be profitable. If you plan to start the AV equipment rental business, remember there is high competition. Therefore, you have to ensure aggressive marketing to attain the business objectives.
15. Start a game rental business
Parties and events are a way for attendees to indulge in fun activities. One way to enjoy the event is by playing games at the event venue. If you are passionate about event organizing and entertaining event attendees, you can turn your passion into a profitable business by launching a game rental business for events.
Game rental businesses are highly affordable to start compared to other niches and can turn to a profit much faster. Your target market can include corporate team-building events, children's parties, wedding parties, and other social events.
How much you can make: $300 — $85,000/month
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
Traveling Tales DMing LLC is a professional game mastering company that offers high-quality table-top role-playing game experiences, which includes Dungeons and Dragons, for $10 per 3-hour game, generating a lot of buzz in Nebraska's TTRPG community by working with local game stores.
16. Start a holiday decorating service
Holiday decorators make the interior and exterior of businesses and homes festive. While the holiday decoration business is seasonal, it is also highly profitable and requires minimal startup investments. You do not need any special training to start the holiday decorating business. However, being creative and having experience in decorating is crucial to running a successful business.
How much you can make: $20,000/month
Balloon Haus LLC, founded by Janeen Brown, is a successful balloon boutique generating an average of $20K/monthly, providing custom exquisite and trendy balloon installations and decorations to notable clients such as Instagram, Marriott, and American Express.
17. Become an event promoter
An event promoter is a professional responsible for marketing and promoting events such as concerts, conferences, speeches, festivals, and sporting events.
Event promoters can work as independent contractors or for a specific organization. The core responsibilities of event promoters include conducting research into the intended audience and setting up and running social media campaigns, among other duties.
To become an event promoter, develop communication skills, be proactive and learn how to organize and influence people to attend the events.
How much you can make: $10,000 — $12,500/month
How long does it take to build: 180 days (?)
This case study explores how a couple turned their childhood homes into vacation rentals, welcoming around 3k guests annually and generating an average revenue of $50k per year and property by focusing on a strong online presence and organic traffic.
18. Become a local event artist
Event artists make the audience more centered, increase event PR, attract new artists, and build a good brand profile.
Becoming an event artist is easier than you think. All you need to do is choose a niche and work on attracting foot traffic to the events. Be creative and work on your communication skills.
How much you can make: $1,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $1,000 (?)
How long does it take to build: 1500 days (?)
A 12-year-old magician and juggler has launched a successful virtual entertainment business with a minimum rate of $150 per hour and annual earnings of $200-250 per show, by following in his father's footsteps and training with industry experts.
19. Start a special event security
The event security business takes care of event venues’ safety and security. The event security team works towards enhancing the guest experience and takes care of security strategies, risk assessment, threat and vulnerability protection, and more services to enhance the guest’s experience.
To start an events security business, hire staff who understand crowd-handling strategies and how to respond to emergencies. A good security company commits to safeguarding event attendees’ cash and valuable items.
20. Become a mobile DJ
Mobile DJ carries their DJ kit with them and entertains clients at weddings, birthdays, and corporate parties or events. There is plenty of demand for mobile DJs, and customers will pay well to be entertained at their premises or parties.
To become a mobile DJ, first, learn the art of DJing, specifically how to DJ open-format style. If you are a beginner, enroll in online classes where you will learn the best DJing practices.
How much you can make: $996/month
How much does it cost to start: $50 (?)
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
Learn how DJ Tobander created a successful niche info-product business generating $1,000 a month through selling collections of DJ sets for special occasions and working with affiliates, with only modest costs and simple tools like WordPress, AWeber, LeadPages, and Digistore24.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
