About Startup Costs
The startup costs provided in this database include an approximate financial investment that will be needed to start the business. This is generalized information and should only be used as a yardstick to determine business startup costs. Your investment will vary based on factors such as equipment, transportation, licensing and permits, operating location, working capital and initial marketing and advertising budgets. Remember a successful entrepreneur is one who carefully researches and plans every aspect of a new business venture, including the financial investment needed to start a business and the working capital required to achieve positive cash flow.
Business At A Glance
Reunion Organizer
Startup Costs: Under $2,000
About
Home Based: Can be operated from home.
Part Time: Can be operated part-time.
Franchises Available? No
Online Operation? No
Bring old classmates together by organizing reunions.
Business Overview
As a reunion organizer, you’ll be a combination event planner and private detective, hunting down missing members of high school and college classes, large families, groups and associations, then planning and organizing the bash of the decade. To find those missing members, you’ll pore through phone directories and computer databases and contact school and civic records departments and friends, neighbors and relatives. Reunion-organizing is a growing field--with all those baby boomers being joined by Generation Xers just reaching high school reunion age, there’s no dearth of potential customers. And since just about everybody is out in the workforce these days, no one has the time to spend on tracking down former classmates or associates and then attending to all the details of the event. Which leaves lots of work for you. The advantages to this business are that you can work at home, it’s creative, challenging and rewarding--you get to help people have fun and renew old ties every time you plan a reunion. As a reunion organizer, you’ll have to be obsessive about locating attendees, as well as creative about ways to broaden your search. You’ll also need to be extremely detail-oriented and organized--people will be traveling from all over the country to attend events you arrange and counting on you to pull it all together.
The Market
Your customers can be the Class of X for high schools and colleges, groups and associations, and large, far-flung families. Your best bet for selling to these groups is to establish yourself in your community. Introduce yourself to and leave brochures with vendors in event-planning industries who can refer people to you--caterers, hotels, florists, printers and photographers. Find out who’s in charge of the reunion committees for your own high school or college class or those of your friends and relatives, then call and introduce yourself and your services.
Needed Equipment
You’ll need a computer with the usual office software, a laser printer, a fax machine, a calendar, a planning book and a phone.
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