What will I be doing?

Everybody is curious about the whereabouts of their high school or college classmates. What are they doing now? What ever happened to so-and-so? Did our class president ever get out of prison? It’s this curiosity that drives people to slim down, get a tan and attend their class reunion.

If you enjoy reunions or at least enjoy organizing social events, consider planning reunions from your home.

What will I need to start?

Planning a reunion requires organizational skills, some research skills, a few selling skills and a love for putting on a party. The best way to start a reunion-planning service is to volunteer to put one on for a group to which you belong. It can be a high school, college or trade school class, a military unit, a historical church or any other institution that draws people together. It can even be a reunion of employees lost in the big layoff of 10 years ago.

If you have a computer, you’ll need a database program for developing an address book of people to reunite. Otherwise, use file cards. You’ll also need people skills as well as some event-planning skills for finding a meeting place and hiring caterers and entertainment.

Who will my customers be?

Your customers will be individuals who are or have belonged to a group, whether a school, class, church, military group, company or family, and may want to renew friendships with others in the group.

How will you find your customers? Once you’ve identified the type of reunions you will specialize in planning, contact the organizations to learn what, if any, plans have been made for reunions. For example, call area high schools asking if any class reunions are being planned and, if so, who is coordinating them. If not, ask how you could contact members to plan reunions.

How much should I charge?

It’s difficult to set an hourly rate for reunion planning because much of the work is detail. If you can standardize or automate your methods for efficiency, you can establish a rate of $30 to $60 an hour. Who pays? Each attendee will pay a cover charge for attending the event. You may also get a fee from suppliers such as caterers, hotels or others that benefit from your event.

How much will I make?

A class reunion of 200 people, each paying a $25 cover charge, can bring you an income of $5,000. You will have catering or other expenses to pay from this, but your net income should be at least half of this amount. The cover charge will be smaller if your meeting is at a restaurant where people will order their own food off the menu.

Your overhead costs will go for research, telephone calls, advertising, mail-
ings and taxes.

How can I get started?

The best way to learn this specialized business is to volunteer to put on a class reunion. Next, tackle reunions for local high schools, especially those where you or your children or friends have gone as you will have contacts. Some schools will rent you a meeting place for the reunion while others won’t.

How can I use computers to increase profits?

The Internet can help you find and reunite people from around the world whether they are classmates, first loves, co-workers, or even enemies. Online you can search telephone books, public records, and other resources. To learn more about how the ‘net has linked classmates, take a look at http://www.classmates.com.