Stephen Lev, 43
Title: Event planner
Employer: Events a la Carte (self)
Annual income: $40,000
Q. What does an event planner do?
A. The easiest way to describe it is that I’m a general contractor for parties. I don’t produce a product, but I contract out to other people to make food, to deliver the linen, to supply the staff. I’m the one who coordinates everything, who communicates between my client and all the suppliers, who makes sure that everything’s at the party site.
Q. How did you get started?
A. I was working for a caterer as a bartender and a waiter. They handed me a name and a telephone number and said, “You’ve been to these people’s house before, but they don’t want our food this time. They just want you.” So I called them and I asked for more money than I was making at the time–only to find out that was still less than my employers were charging.
I started advertising my services [as a bartender or waiter] in classified sections. Then I would get clients who wanted more staff, or somebody who wanted help with rentals. It kept growing, with doing bar mitzvahs, weddings. I put $1,000 into the business, and that started it. There is no overhead because my office is in my home.
Q. Describe a typical day.
A. Since I work from home, my commute is about 20 feet, and I usually make a stop at the coffee maker on the way to my desk. I have some great computer programs that keep me organized; one of them is Act, a contact-management program.
In the morning, the first thing I do is open up Act and find out who I have to contact. I look at QuickBooks to see who I owe money to. And then I check my e-mail. After that, there is no typical day. It all depends on what I have coming up.
If I’m working hard on an event the day before it’s supposed to happen, I haven’t done my job. The day of the event, it’s the contractor I’m getting the food from who should be working.
Q. What’s the best part of your job?
A. Many years ago, I made the decision that quality of life is more important than a job title or the amount of money I make. The best part is that I plan my own time. When it’s warm, I can go out and garden in the middle of the day.
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Another really great thing is that all the money goes into my pocket; I don’t have to share with anybody.
Q. What’s the worst part?
A. Well, that’s also working at home [laughs]. I have pretty decent self-motivation, which you really need to work 20 feet from your bed.
But the worst thing for me is the lack of social interaction. I don’t, for example, get to talk to the newspaper-stand guy on my way to the train. So I find it difficult to meet people.
One of the hardest things for me about this job was accepting that, on occasion, there will be mistakes. You deal with them the best you can, but there are times you lose clientele, and that’s just a part of doing business.
Q. What advice would you give to someone interested in this kind of work?
A. When I started the business, I had nothing to lose. I was living in a rental apartment and I had a used car. So it depends on the time in one’s life, and what responsibilities one has. The first three years of this were really very lean. Every time somebody wanted a service staff person, I’m the one who put my tuxedo on and went there and waited on everybody.
This is the third business I’ve started; the other two were miserable failures. You’ve just got to keep trying. We all can do things that are worth money to other people.
It amazes me, sometimes, because I find this work so easy to do. But when it comes to my computer, I don’t know anything about it, so I pay somebody else.
I don’t need to pay somebody to help me figure out how to organize my closet, but some people do need help with that. So ask yourself: What do I have that’s marketable, that’s worth money to someone else?