The True Costs of Running a Venue

It is crucial to understand the true costs if you are opening a wedding venue!

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty—if you’re seriously considering getting into the venue game, you need to know the true costs.

Whether your path to venue ownership is:

• Leasing
• Buying raw land and building
• Acquiring an existing venue
• Or renovating existing structures

…these questions are probably keeping you up at night:

1. How much does it really cost to start a wedding venue?
2. Besides construction, what are the other true costs I need to consider?
3. What should I know before buying land to build a venue?
4. What’s the number one hit to revenue for existing venues?
5. What kind of profit margin should a venue have to be considered healthy?
6. How do I budget for renovations and know whether the investment will pay off?

To shoot it to you straight—I can’t answer all of these questions in one blog post (we’d be here for days). But I can walk you through the high-level view of one of the most important tools you’ll need to navigate every single one of them: a pro forma.

🤔 What is a Pro Forma?

A pro forma is just a fancy name for a financial spreadsheet where you document different types of expenses and run different scenarios to understand your potential profit margins.

Bottom line: it’s always important for business owners to know their numbers—but it’s absolutely critical in the venue industry. A pro forma helps you break down the true costs of running a venue, whether you’re building from the ground up or taking over an existing property.

And if you’re applying for funding? It’s the first thing lenders want to see.

Every Future Venue Owner Needs a Pro Forma

No matter what your path to ownership looks like, a solid pro forma gives you answers to the “what ifs”:

• What if I only book X number of events in my first year?
• What if I spend 20% more than expected on renovations?
• What if utility or staffing costs are higher than industry average?

The good news? You don’t have to spend a single dollar on a pro forma template.

→ Grab my FREE pro forma (and profit planner) and start crunching your numbers! 

It’s my goal to make the funding process as easy as possible for you. I can’t do the boots-on-the-ground work for most venue owners, but I can give you the resources you need to run a profitable venue.

The pro forma is just the start. If you’re ready to start a wedding venue (or expand your revenue stream) and want a step-by-step guide to getting funding, check out Funding 101™—the only training designed to help soon-to-be venue owners get funding & get started.

Get Funding 101™ now!

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