One of the KEY factors that contribute to the success of your event or its total failure is approaching it from a more practical perspective. This is why before any steps are taken one should consider one’s financial status before hand to host any kind of event. As an events manager, knowing the expectations of your client before attempting to organise the event is the first step in planning.
The client’s demands vs what is feasible and achievable is important to map out against the budget. For instance the client may want to have a three course meal party and yet the budget is below the minimum percentage to put together this, your expertise to advise on how to go about it will be needed for the event to run smoothly with no hiccups.

When a client hires an Events Agency or Event Manager, their expectations for the event are usually so big, thus perfection vs the reality to pull off the type of event they want could be far beyond what their finances can incur.
No matter how huge a budget is it’s always good to go step by step in budget planning, making comparisons of prices on the market from the different service providers (vendors) and trying as much as possible to cover every nitty – gritty part of the event.

The decor, venue, entertainment, video and audio production, food, transport, telephone fares, service providers down payment requests, administration expenses and media advertising expenses etc. are all items to consider.
Miscellaneous fees (emergency funds) is also KEY as a planner you always have to expect the unexpected. This is a usual occurrence thus in order to mitigate small emergencies have this budget set aside to save on time and any future costs.

Always find time to take the client though a quick status update on costs and expenses along the event planning journey, this will keep them well abreast to avoid a disgruntled client at the end of the road.
A client’s ultimate trust even when earned needs to be managed i.e. very specific goals on what kind of event they want in order for the event manager to understand what is expected of them. When a client is ambiguous with their choices, it’s the duty of the manager to show them different samples for different event concepts, to help you get a clear picture of their expectations.

In short, the rule of thumb is to have all the cost estimates to keep expectations managed. Event planning demands meeting expectations without compromise thus a tedious job but once got right, it puts you and the client at ease in the end to focus on managing the event output and overall accountability.