I set up my first events business, ‘MyEventBucket’ (which I renamed to ‘Creative Industry United’ later on) in May 2013, with the aim of organising networking events for professionals in the Music, Fashion, Film and Art sector.

I’d graduated from a Popular Music degree a couple of years before that, but I found it difficult trying to find a career path that suited me. I just didn’t seem to enjoy anything I put my hand to.

Between 2011-2013, I tried a whole host of different career paths including recruitment (which I hated) and B2B sales, yet it wasn’t until I landed a role working for an online ticket company that my eyes opened to the world of events. That company didn’t last very long as they went into administration.

Next up, I secured a job working for a prestige venue in London that later got bought out by a bigger company, so they downsized their team and I was made redundant. By this point, I’d lost faith in employment and employers in general, and music was my passion but I really enjoyed the events world, too, so I decided to continue on that path.

Shortly after, I had a lightbulb moment when I realised how hard it was to meet other music industry professionals, and there was a lack of networking events in the creative industries in London, so I decided to do it for myself, by myself.

After 5 months of hard work and getting nowhere with a few failed attempts, I sold out my first event in November 2013. My life changed that day. I felt like I had found my ‘calling.’

15 months later, I had to close the business down because it just wasn’t making enough money to pay myself a salary and things got pretty rough.

I ended up being homeless. Luckily, my best friend Ashley had a spare room, so I moved to Leeds and got a ‘normal’ job to get my head above the water again, but the business was no longer feasible as not only was I now working full time, but the distance was too far (at least that’s what I thought at the time).

Ending that business and getting back into work was a sad day, and a very dark time for me. In March 2014, I started a new job, which I didn’t enjoy and they let me go, so I decided it was time to ‘think big’ again.

I set up Creative Industry Hub on the day I was fired, and I decided to organise Music, Fashion, Film and Art conferences instead as I knew there was more business potential than my previous networking events, and the business would be more scaleable than those I had done previously.

After a few months of hard work, my first event failed and I had to cancel it, but I moved it to the Google Campus in London and sold it out in 5 days. Before that, I’d sold 14 tickets in 2.5 months! So it was a huge turnaround.

Since then, I’ve been accepted onto the Prince’s Trust Enterprise Program and assigned with a mentor. After the first event failure, I had lost confidence in the whole business, but I fought through, and Music TechTalks was so successful that I can’t wait for my fashion conference next year. So what’s changed?

What have I learned from setting up my first business and watching it crumble, to re-entering the events industry, failing on the first attempt and doing a completely different type of event, but eventually making it succeed?

Let’s find out…

1. Scaleability

The reason my first business failed was because I was so desperate to ‘get my own back’ on the employers that had caused so much chaos in my life, that I just wanted to do well, which meant that I didn’t think it through properly as I jumped into it without doing my homework.

It was my first ever business, so it was a completely new world. I now realise that the reason I failed was because my previous business just wasn’t scaleable, nor was it making enough money, and it was never going to.

It was never going to grow to a reasonable size because I was organising networking events which can only grow to a certain point, so if you’re looking at setting up a new event, consider what the maximum, long-term financial potential of your idea is. If you don’t, you too could be forced to close it down after the first year due to cash flow problems.

Scaleability means your business model needs to have the potential to grow over time, so make sure you consider this. A friend, Felicity Jackson, who I interviewed a few months back, has grown her capacities year on year, outgrown her venues and taken her events international and she’s currently entering even more new territories, so she has clearly grasped this concept. Have you?

2. All Work, Yet No Gain?

Organising events can be long and hard, so you have to weigh up whether you think your hard work will benefit you in the long run.

With the networking events, my hard work was never going to benefit me in the long run because my business didn’t have the potential to grow, or make enough money to keep my head above water, but I believe that with conferences, it will as I can grow them year on year with no limits on capacities.

So I’m willing to put that hard work in, even if it means I don’t make a profit in the first year (or two). Is your idea so unique and properly thought out that you’ll get out of it what you put in? This is something you should consider. If you’re looking for instant monetary rewards, you are in the wrong business!

But if you’re not, and you’ve thought through your event idea properly with a good, concise, three year plan with growth in mind, then providing you use the advice on the Eventbrite blog (there’s hundreds of useful articles on here), you’ll stand a chance of succeeding.

Not only that, but your hard work will pay off if you’re patient and persistent…

3. Research

Again, this is something I didn’t know much about when I started my first business, and it’s taken me a fair few failures to work it out. Going back to my first point, you can’t gauge the long term potential and scaleability of your event without knowing your market size, and whether people actually want/need your idea or not.

It’s not just down to the style and the format of an event, or how many people you can shove into a room, but it’s also about understanding how many people want your event. Is it 200? Is it 5000? All great historic event organisers have done their research and refined their model BEFORE they went on to sell tickets to give their customers what they actually want.

And how much do your customers value your event? Is it £5? £50? Or £2000? Until you ask them, you won’t know. And until you ask them what they want, you won’t know what your event will need in order to make them desperate to come.

And how many of your ideal attendee is there in the country or in the world that wants to come? Find out, and ask them.

4. Logistics: Getting It Right?

Sadly, as much preparation as you put into your first event, there will be things on the day that you didn’t think of, but this is all part of the experience and learning. I got comfortable when I was organising networking events, because I’d done them enough times to cover my back and knew the ins and outs. It became second nature.

But when I organised Music TechTalks, it was like opening a can of worms and starting again. So trial and error is key, which you can only learn by doing it. In some ways, throwing yourself in the deep-end and not being afraid of a new challenge is what will make you more successful.

I knew I didn’t have every avenue rounded off, but I still threw myself in and got on with it anyway, because after all, getting that post-event survey and taking my own notes at the end of the day was what was going to help me build an even better event next time.

So does it matter if you get your logistics 100% right? Nope. But learning from your mistakes does.

5. Marketing

When you create an event that sells well and you find that ‘magic formula’ for the tactic or channel that helps it sell, you’ll instantly assume that this will work for all types of events.

I couldn’t have been more wrong! I’ve had to find new ways to market my conferences, because some of the old ways just weren’t working any more. It’s taken me 6 months to get brand familiarity.

Your strength from previous businesses doesn’t always drag over to your new one, but it will help in some instances. So what I’ve learned is to stop thinking that I know everything, because I don’t. I’ve fallen flat on my face. I got it wrong the first time round when I set up Creative Industry Hub, but I’m ok with that, because I came back and did it very well on the 2^nd attempt.

Looking back, both of my event companies have felt like they were going nowhere until around 6 months in, so just when it feels like you’re not getting anywhere, I’d write the first 6 months off as ‘prep time.’ Because suddenly, out of the blue, my website traffic is sky high, we’re getting great searches, our social media channels are growing, and we’re selling tickets and generating regular online enquiries.

But 5 months in, it didn’t feel that way. So on business number two, I’ve had to slap myself in the face and remind myself of just how long it took last time, so if you’re thinking of giving up, you should do the same thing, because it’s not over until it’s literally over.

In summary

Event’s are not for those who crave instant gratification. The industry is about constant progress and doing what you love because you want to change people’s lives through experiences and the contacts they make.

It’s about coming back and doing it even better next time. And it’s about making sure that your customers want to come back next year.

It’s about doing it for yourself because you want to, and getting it right even if you got it wrong the first time.

It’s about thinking long term, planning, executing and finding a scalable business model that works, even if that’s on your second, third or even fourth try.

Ultimately it’s about having a passion for the day-to-day reality of being an event entrepreneur; and if you do – and it’s not for everyone – you’ll know that you’d rather be doing this than anything else in the world.

What’s your story? Share it with the Eventbrite community in the comments below.

Follow my progress at @CRIndustryHub, check out creativeindustryhub.co.uk if you work (or want to work) in the creative industries, and connect with me on LinkedIn if you’d like to chat about working in the events industry!