Having a rental property is quite a lucrative thing that generates a passive stream of income. However, the income that you receive this way usually isn’t that impressive. When it comes to residential property, you look to get 1 percent of the value per month, while with a commercial property, this figure is at about 4 percent per year. Sure, you don’t have to invest much effort in order to get it. However, what if you decided not to focus too much on the effort but rather, looked at the income? In this particular case, turning your property into a wedding venue would drastically increase your profit. Here are ten tips on how you can achieve this.
1. Play to the advantages of your location
The first thing you need to do if you’re still choosing a property is figuring out how to market your location to your audience. Here, you have several amazing options to choose from. For instance, you can pick a remote place on the outskirts of the city in order to provide your guests with more privacy. However, a place that’s a bit closer to the city center is easier to commute to. After all, no one wants to be a designated driver at a wedding. This means that regardless of the geographical location, you always have a marketing angle.
2. Do your research
Naturally, like in any other industry, you have to start researching your competition. Here, you can borrow some ideas and see where you would fit in as a newcomer. For instance, you could role-play as a person looking for a wedding venue for you and your partner and visit several places in the neighborhood. This way, you would see what kind of guest experience is the industry standard and which of these things you could do better.
3. Consider your pricing
Here, you need to be a bit resourceful and consult a professional wedding planner. Here, they’re going to tell you just how big a portion of a budget are your guests willing to dedicate to the venue alone. Next, you’re going to look at other venues in the vicinity and try to compare their offers to your own. Once you get the idea of what your price should be, you’ll be able to answer the question of just how cost-effective all of it is.
4. The size of the place
Keep in mind that the issue of size is often problematic, which is why you need to figure out methods to shrink and expand your available space. Use dividers for your larger rooms, in order to make them feel more intimate and consider expanding the available space (by using the outdoor space as well) for larger crowds. This way, you’ll drastically expand your target audience.
5. Utilize the outdoor space
Previously, we’ve mentioned the importance of being able to take some of the party outdoors. However, there are a lot of couples out there who want to have an outdoor wedding. Keep in mind that when looking for ideas, you aren’t really location-bound, which is why checking out outdoor wedding venues in Sydney is a good idea, even if your property is on US soil. The best part about this lies in the fact that optimizing outdoor space doesn’t require an expensive construction project. At best, you’ll have to build a gazebo but even just stretching a couple of shade sails around the place may do the trick. Overall, this is a must-do for all venues with enough outdoor space.
6. Make the place more acoustic
Music is a huge part of the event, so if there’s any remodeling to be done, you need to invest in making the place more acoustic. Look at it like this, music will determine the way in which the guests will remember this night. In other words, it also affects the impression that they form about your venue. This may determine whether they recommend you to their friends and family members who are currently looking for a wedding venue.
7. Make a great schedule
Keep in mind that when it comes to running a wedding venue (which is key when it comes to maximizing your income), you have to take several things into consideration. First of all, people have their weddings mostly on the weekends, which limits the amount of time available for you to make money. Second, for an outdoor venue, you have a narrow seasonal window when this option is available. Use it wisely. Also, maintenance, clean-up, and renovation need to be taken into consideration.
8. Hands-on or -off
This one is quite complex, seeing as how it determines the amount of effort that you and your staff have to invest in order to run the place. There are some couples who prefer to tackle every single aspect of the venue that they hire. Sure, this lifts a lot of burden off your shoulders seeing as how they’re in charge of the organization. On the other hand, the profit that you reap also goes down. Nonetheless, this isn’t such a bad idea for newcomers in the industry.
9. Parking
The issue of parking is also quite important, which is why you need to handle a couple of things. First of all, you have limited parking space which might be a problem. Second, some of the guests will want to stay overnight, which means that you are responsible for the security of their vehicles. A great surveillance system or even hiring someone to look over the parking might be a great idea.
10. Lodging
Here you can sweeten the deal and offer a sufficient number of rooms to the wedding attendees. This will maximize your profit and make you a lot more appealing to a significant number of couples. Sure, you can include a number of rooms in the deal (to make it a tad sweeter) but you can also leave the option for the guests to hire the room for the night on their own accord.
Conclusion
The benefit of running a wedding venue lies in the fact that it’s not that hard to find guests. After all, people are getting married all the time and finding a suitable venue is harder than it seems. This means that the demand is already there, all you have to do now is provide the supply.
This article has been contributed by Amelia Atkins.