Flying Solo Now
Author: Carolyn Koenig
July 2009
Features
Independent contractors tell it like it is
 The double whammy of a soft economy and negative publicity has impacted the entire meetings industry. In-house planners and their departments have taken a huge blow, with reductions (or elimination) of staff as well as budgets. And, as a group, independent contractors—from planners to third parties (who have always worked without the safety net of direct deposit)—are caught in the cross-fire as well.
“When the economy is good, we’re an integral part of the business,” says Melissa Biele, CMP, a San Francisco-based independent planner, “but when business is down, we’re the first to be cut.”
So there’s no better time than the present to be reminded of the value independents bring to the industry in terms of creativity, skills, services and experience. We recently talked to several experts about their role in the meetings business, the challenges they face and how they’re meeting them.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
First things first: how to differentiate between an independent versus a third-party. Actually, that’s the hard part, as there is no industry consensus. This is what our interviewees had to say about the subject.
Independent Planners
According to Patty Harding, of Patrician Company in Irvine, Calif., “An independent planner is someone who works directly for a corporation and acts like their in-house planner—someone who can plan different kinds of events for different industries, different clientele, different demographics. They’re a little entrepreneurial.”
Biele, whose clients are primarily high-techs, would agree with Harding—she resembles the description—but says, “Our industry doesn’t define these terms; there’s no uniformity. To me, a truly independent planner is a one-person shop.”
Third-Party Companies
Chris Curry, president and CEO of Destinations by Design in Dublin, Ohio, also agrees that there’s no official definition. But while he started out as a true independent, working at home making phone calls, he’s built his independent business to a point where he has a dozen full-time employees, owns his office building and wants to “grow larger and open offices around the country.” Because of his size and the scope of his services, he now considers himself a third-party company. “I see this as a graduating step,” he says.
On the other hand, Lee Nold-Lewis, president/CEO and founder of ProShow in Oakland, Calif., defines her company by its niche: a management and training company focusing on skilled staffing for events. Working with clients throughout the country, she hires, trains and manages temporary conference staffs on-site.
JOB DESCRIPTION
The role independent contractors play varies as widely as their business models. Some offer highly targeted, single-focus services only, such as staffing (above) or site selection. Others, especially the larger third parties (sometimes called multimanagement companies), cover “pretty much A to Z,” Curry says. The alphabet soup can include straight-ahead elements like catering, menu management, transportation and A/V to (more frequently now as planners move beyond logistics) brainstorming on themes and speaker selection. “Meeting design is the buzzword now,” he says.
And, just as their in-house counterparts, independents aren’t immune from the need to prove ROI. “Clients are saying we need to see more of your back-up, as so much goes through procurement now,” Curry says. To provide that information, his company has instituted an internal spend-management system that can separate out costs and provide the necessary back-up.
VALUE PROVIDED
Of course, there’s one obvious, inherent value offered by contracting with independents. “Especially in this day and age, there’s a huge value in hiring someone with a lot of expertise and not have to put them on your payroll,” Biele says. “Plus, a lot of independent planners have their designations: CMP, CMM. These are planners with years of experience, not only with your company but also with others, bringing a fresh vision to your company—not the same ideas over and over again.”
Nold-Lewis agrees on the value of a broad background. “We work with a variety of clients over a variety of industries and cities, and we can cross-pollinate with clients,” she says, “telling them ‘we just found out this information and you might want to consider it.’”
Independent planners are also more entrepreneurial than in-house planners, Harding says. “We’re a little bit more edgy, on the forefront of certain trends, which brings a new perspective to the tried-and-true.”
There are other advantages as well. Still following the cost-savings thread, Curry says, “The reality is that in-house planners often have other jobs or tasks that are more critical to the day-to-day operations.” Companies like his can pass along those cost savings and time savings. “We make 2–3 phone calls and get it done. We have proven vendors, transportation companies, audiovisual companies. We can save planners or companies legwork and certain hardships, as we have a lot of resources.”
According to Nold-Lewis, oftentimes planners—particularly association planners who wear two or three hats—don’t even think of staffing the event until the last minute, and hastily call a CVB for assistance. The results, she says, can be uneven, as staffing events isn’t a priority for the bureaus.
Speaking of the bottom line, there’s the subject of budgets when discussing value. “Independents are also people who excel in budget management—we have to, we’re independent,” Biele says. “Our budget skills are very strong, not only in developing budgets, but also in sticking to them.”
THE ECONOMY’S IMPACT
Prior to the current economic meltdown, independents were positioned for success and growth. “We were all riding the gravy train and had a lot of business,” Biele says. “We could take the jobs we wanted and turn down those we didn’t”—an option many solo independents don’t have today.
Rates are also an issue. In the past, setting rates has always been a conundrum for independents—how much is too much, how much is too little. But a couple of perennially sticky issues have gotten more prevalent. Biele, for instance, is getting requests from clients to cut her rates—flattering to the extent that they’d like to continue using her services, but not good for the bottom line if she accepts.
Curry, on the other hand, is seeing his bids for contracts that used to be slam-dunk being undercut by newly independent planners who will do things practically for free, to get their name out.
Client budget cutbacks are also creating their own set of challenges. While doing more with less isn’t a new trend, the “less” is even less today. “For the last 3–4 years, each time you held an event, you’d say, ‘how are we going to top that next year.’ Now it’s ‘how are we going to come close to that next year, with half the money,’” Curry says.
According to Harding, doing more with less is just part of the job description now. “A lot of things we produce are more focused now,” she says. “You have to come with all your monkeys in the barrel—all the creative stuff. You have to come out hitting that end goal.”
And now that companies have less money to spend for meetings and events, Nold-Lewis says, they’re expecting service “above and beyond” because they are spending their dollars.
OTHER CHALLENGES
Obviously, the economy is the 800-lb. gorilla in the room, but independent contractors have other challenges as well, especially getting to know each individual client, who they are, what their goals are and who the decision-makers are. “I’m coming from a different silo,” Harding says.
She also finds that, at times, her age is a hurdle. “I personally find that being a young planner is sometimes a challenge. Sometimes it works for me, being young and having a fresh approach, and sometimes it doesn’t.”
While some larger third-party companies can keep afloat if clients don’t pay in 30 days, solo independents have a more difficult financial balancing act. Biele has learned to add a late fee in her contracts for payments after 30 days.
“I tell them it’s the same as how they do business,” she says.
While late payments haven’t become a problem for Harding, she too has learned a few lessons over time. “When you’re starting a business relationship, early in the process, you should ask directly, ‘Will you be paying after the 30-day mark?’ If the answer is yes, then you need to decide whether or not to take on the client. You can make an educated business decision if you talk first.”
MARKETING THEIR BUSINESSES
Nurturing existing relationships is a given in any business, but the biggest challenge for independent contractors is “simply making people aware our services exist,” Nold-Lewis says.
During good times, relying on word of mouth was probably sufficient—but that’s changed. Today, independents are having to become more aggressive, more entrepreneurial and more tech savvy. Biele used to rely solely on word of mouth—“I never had to sell myself,” she says. “I was lucky that I’d work for a company on one project, and they’d pick me up for another.” She’d also get referrals from other planners who were too busy to tackle a project. Now, she says, she has to sell herself more, going back to clients and saying, “I’m still here, don’t forget about me.”
One way Harding fosters her business, which is primarily in the real estate building and development, financial and automotive arenas, is to ask her existing clients to refer her to another one. “They’re always happy to do that. And I’m always willing to help another colleague; it’s getting your name out there.”
Independent contractors are not only entrepreneurial in their approach to marketing, they’re on the cutting edge of technology to make it happen. Nold-Lewis uses all the standard available tools—networking, referrals, participating in groups like IAEE and PCMA, both on a local and national level. But she also uses social media, like Facebook and LinkedIn (“I’ve gotten recommendations for four clients on LinkedIn,” she says).
Biele is a big believer in Twitter. “I am on Twitter—I definitely twitter about events I’m doing or working on,” she says. “I use it 100 percent professionally, not as a personal tool. Road shows are my specialty, and I am creating a blog—roadshowguru.com. In the past, I have used Facebook more socially, but I’m starting a business page on Facebook as a result of what I learned from the social networking speaker at The Smart Meeting [Hazel Grace Dircksen, founder of Socialbees, an online company supporting small businesses].”
Curry’s event-planning company also uses social networking sites like Facebook (“I might as well, as half of our employees are on there anyway,” he jokes). But, while the underground media help create a buzz, he says, the key to his business success has been the development of their website. More than a written description of what they can do, he says, the website features photos of some of the huge, mega-event functions they’ve produced. “For a lot of the clients we deal with, it validates our capabilities. It’s one thing to say we can do this, it’s another to show it,” he says.
Not surprisingly, Harding also is also a tech-savvy fan of the Internet. “There are a lot of independent planners out there who blog; it’s keeping the conversation going and the ideas rolling,” she says.
SHINING THEIR CRYSTAL BALL
The news isn’t all bad. Some veteran independent planners and third-party companies have been able to alter their tactics to create added value or expand with an eye toward the future.
“Sure, the current economy is a struggle,” Curry says. “But there are some big-time opportunities out there to expand different resources. For example, we’re in the process of acquiring a small incentive travel company that does international business, cruises and incentives. This was never a focus for us before. It’s tapping a whole new client base; before, our focus was corporations.”
Having been in business for a number of years, Nold-Lewis saw the recession coming back in 2007, and launched a new program in February 2009 that is currently in effect in three cities thus far. Dubbed the Gold Team Program, it certifies temporary event staffers, so they can go into their agency and say, “I’m Gold Team certified” and get first call, she says. The advantage to the temporary agencies and client exhibitors is a roster of trained, pre-qualified people.
No one can say with any certainty when the industry outlook will be brighter, but our experts did weigh in on the near future. For one, Curry doesn’t see much change in the buyer’s market. “In the post-9/11 days we could pretty much write anything we wanted into the contract,” he says. “[More recently] the hotels were dictating terms, saying ‘my way or the highway.’ But not now.” There are concessions like attrition rates being reduced, he says, and many hotels “are signing contracts saying okay to requests; they’re just happy to have us there.”
Biele is optimistic about the meetings business. “I think we’re going to go on an upswing,” she says, possibly by the third quarter [of 2009]. “Independents better be ready to rock and roll. We’re not revenue generators—when they’re cutting, they look to you first—but I think it’s about to change.”
Nold-Lewis admits, “It’s been a bumpy ride. Meetings to some extent are smaller, and dollars have been cut. As we start to come out of this, we need to realize that this will be a re-set in the industry; it won’t be business as usual. As we move forward, however, we’ll be stronger due to what we’ve been through.”
Our Panel of Experts
MELISSA BIELE, CMP
Melissa Biele Enterprises
San Francisco
CHRIS CURRY
President & CEO
Destinations by Design
Dublin, Ohio
PATTY HARDING
Principal
Patrician Company
Irvine, Calif.
LEE A. NOLD-LEWIS
President/CEO
ProShow
Oakland, Calif.
