Viticula
Est. 2017
Viticula
Event planning tool
Everything a retreat, launch, or live event has to sell to be worth doing.
Filling a room with the right people is one of the best things you can build. It's also a real financial decision, and it goes better when you make it with the numbers in front of you. Eight numbers will tell you what this has to sell. Fill in what you know, rough figures are fine, and the read updates as you go.
A seat, a book, a member, a day. Every number below runs against the one thing you're actually selling, and your choice here sets the cost prompts to match.
These don't change no matter how many people register. Ten come or fifty, you owe the same amount. Venue minimum, deposits, your team, your own travel and lodging, printing, photography, design, platform fees, insurance. List them line by line so you can see them and check them later.
Events run over, and the ones that stay calm are the ones that planned for it. Twenty percent is a good starting cushion.
These move with your headcount. One more registration means one more bed, one more plate at every meal, one more welcome kit, one more processing fee on the payment. List what a single yes costs you, the same way you listed line 1.
Hours times what an hour of your time is worth. Pricing your own hours is what makes the difference between an event that looks profitable and one that actually pays you. If you'd bill those hours to a client, bill them here.
Money coming in from a sponsor, a donated venue, a partner covering travel, a host picking up the food. Every dollar here comes off line 1 one for one and lowers your number before you sell a single thing. This is the highest-leverage line on the page and the one most worth working. Ask before you book.
What one person pays to be there. If you're running early bird pricing, payment plans, or a comp list, use the lower number here so everything below stays honest. Not sure yet? The box underneath will solve for it.
Tell me how many you expect and the margin you want, and I'll solve for the price your own numbers require.
This is the price your costs require, not the price your market will pay. Those are two different questions, and this one you can answer today.
This is where the first five lines come together, and you don't have to do anything with them. Tell me the most you could sell if everything went perfectly, and you'll see the smallest number that keeps you out of the red. Running more than one date, city, or cohort? Run it separately for each, because one can carry the whole thing while another quietly rides along.
Add the number above and you'll see how full that is.
Watch the fixed column stay flat while the variable column climbs. That is the whole difference between a small room and a full one, and it is why the last few seats are worth so much more than the first few.
| units | Money in | Fixed costs | Variable costs | Where you land |
|---|
What percentage of the room buys the next thing, and at what price? Plenty of great events are designed to start something rather than to profit in the room, and that's a strong plan when the next thing exists, is priced, and is ready before the doors open. Write the percentage you expect, then halve it and see if you still like the plan.
The most you're willing to invest in this if it doesn't fill, decided now, in writing, while you're calm. Then the date you look at registrations against line 6 and choose to go, shrink, or move it. Pick a date that still leaves you room in the contract, and you get to make that call from a good place instead of a tight one.
Breaking even and being able to pay are two different questions, and both have good answers. Lay the money out on a calendar. Deposits leave months before registrations arrive, and the venue balance usually comes due before the last payment plan clears. Find the week where the most is out and the least is in, and plan for that week specifically. Knowing it early is what keeps it from being a surprise.
Read the room block attrition clause, the food and beverage minimum, and the cancellation ladder before you sign, and negotiate them while you still have leverage. Most venues will move on these. Then line them up against your own refund policy so the two agree with each other, and you'll know exactly where you stand at any headcount.
The arithmetic holds across all of these. What moves is what you're counting.
The question worth answering
What does this have to sell, in each city and in each week, to be worth doing?
Once you can answer that in one sentence, you're ready to build it.
This page answered one question about one event. If it raised a bigger one about the business underneath, the Profit Pathway is where we start. One call, your financials, a clear next step.
See the Profit Pathway