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By Jeanne Silver, Butterfield Bodyworks CARSTAR, in Mundelein, Illinois

One of the most beneficial ways to promote your business, whether you are new in town, or whether you have been at your location for a while, is to hold an open house. An open house provides you with a unique opportunity to "show off" your facility to your community and to your customers.

For the purpose of this article, we will be looking at how to host an open house for industry affiliates and community businesses, or business to business open house. The planning is similar for the general public, but the target audience, in that case, is much larger and must be handled in different manner.

Working hand in hand with your Chamber of Commerce is a given here in that it represents those businesses that are most concerned with sharing referrals and representing the best of the business community.

First Things First

An open house forces the business owner to take a good look at the condition of the business, building and grounds. Clean up and maintenance that may have been overlooked will now become a priority.

Employees will take an active part in planning and implementing the open house, and their enthusiasm at being included as part of the team for this important event, will surprise you.

Your Planning Timeline

The most successful open house takes organization and planning over a few months. We have provided a timeline that is a step by step guide for a successful event. It is based on our own experience with three business to business open houses over the last six years.

Our last open house was held on September 13, 2001. Though it was a difficult time for all, we kept with our agenda and still managed to draw a huge crowd for an outdoor "Oktoberfest" type event.

120 days prior

• Select a date and time. Check with the local Chamber of Commerce to ensure no conflict with their events. Evening events during the week work best. 4:30 - 7:30 worked well for us, though this is one hour longer than most Chamber after hours mixers.
• Choose a theme. (Luau, Oktoberfest, Western, Classic Car, Holiday)
• Establish a budget. This should include items such as printing, mailing, food and drink, entertainment.
• Develop a guest list. In our case, we held a Chamber of Commerce mixer with our open house. The Chamber mailed 700 invitations to its membership and we mailed another 300 to local government, press, insurance partners and vendors. (Note: 1,000 invitations produced an attendance of 300, so depending on the number of attendees you would like, at least double the number of invitations.)
• Invite a keynote speaker or celebrity, or a local politician for a ribbon cutting. In our case, we invited Mark Claypool, executive director of the National Auto Body Council, who delivered a moving speech on Camp Mak-A-Dream. We also held a raffle for the camp during our event.
• Contact vendors for prizes and equipment demonstrations at the event. Our vendors have always helped out tremendously, and remember you want to showcase your operations, so active demonstrations can be helpful.

90 days prior

• Work on catering choices. Often a caterer will meet with you to assist in determining how much and what type of food to provide. In our case, we guessed so closely that only one hot dog remained at the end of the event.
• Select and order props or giveaways with your company name imprinted on the items.
• Plan for inclement weather if the event is to be held outside. We ordered a tent with flaps that were dropped, as it was chilly that evening.
• Put together a file with all the information you are gathering (i.e. guest list, phone list for vendors, start a checklist).

60 days prior

• Hold a company meeting to let staff listen to what you have done so far and provide input.
• Design and order invitations. If you are not good at design, your printer should be able to do it for you.
• Order brochures and printed marketing materials.
• Confirm vendor participation.

30 days prior

• Mail invitations with phone RSVP and enclose a map and clear directions to your location.
• Train staff on how to accept RSVPs. (i.e. how many will be coming, do guests know how to get to your facility, how to give directions).
• Contact the Chamber to confirm their participation. We have found having an open house as a Chamber mixer brings many more people to our event and involves the local business community. Extreme-y important for us, as local businesses account for a high percentage of our referrals.
• Meet with the caterer and finalize menu choices and quantities.
• Compile your open house checklist.

14 days prior

• Fax a reminder to your invited guests. The more times they see it, the more likely they are to attend.
• Follow up attendance with insurance and key contacts personally, either by phone or in person.
• Write a press release and send it to local media contacts. If you are having a ribbon cutting, state the time it will take place.
• Meet with staff to assign duties before (clean up and event layout), during (greeters, parking, shop tour guide, demo area) and after the event (clean up).
• Plan to photograph the event. These photos can be given to guests if a photographer is taking instant photos, and other photos may be used later for an after event press release.

7 days prior

• AGAIN, fax a reminder to your invited guests. The more times they see it, the more likely they are to attend.
• Confirm arrangements with caterer, finalize the numbers and go over the menu. A good caterer should also be able to provide tables and chairs for rent as well as a tent if the event is to be held outdoors.
• Contact the DJ to discuss music preferences.
• Receive prizes and inventory them.
• Prepare a sponsor board, listing participating vendors.
• Make follow up calls to the media to confirm they received your press release and invitation.
• Clean up the facility and perform needed maintenance. Do not forget to replace burned out light bulbs. Make sure the bathrooms are clean and stocked.
• Check landscaping and the exterior of the building.
• Write an agenda for the big day.
• Plan store tour routes and rehearse staff on how to conduct the tour.
• Get a fishbowl or decorate a basket to collect business cards as people arrive. These will be used for the prize drawing and after event thank you, unless a raffle for charity is being held.
• Buy two part tickets if a charity raffle is being held.
• Order name tags and black felt pens for the greeter's table.
• Order a balloon arch for your entrance and cut flowers to give away. Carnations do well, are inexpensive and come in many colors.
• Prepare media packets and promotional materials.
• Make sure you have ribbon and scissors for a ribbon cutting ceremony. In our case, the Chamber of Commerce supplied both a ceremonial shears and the ribbon.
• Plan a "Guess the Estimate" contest. Prepare an estimate on a medium to heavy hit. Cover up all of the labor units and parts costs, and duplicate for distribution to your guests who want to participate. This is a great way to show how professional your business is, and how the repair process begins. This has been extremely popular at our open houses.
• Prepare signage giving an adequate description of key areas in the shop. Remember, the nicer it looks, the more professional an appearance you present. Our signs were poster size and laminated. They can be used afterward for shop tours.

Day of event

• Final cleaning of the facility and walk through inspection. Check the bathrooms again for supplies and cleanliness.
• Pick up any litter outside.
• Set up demos and equipment you would like displayed.
• Set up the greeters' table with name tags, pens, business card basket, brochures, and media packets.
• Make name tags for all employees.
• End work in the shop one hour before the event. Have employees clean up their work stations and change into clean uniforms.
• Rope off potentially hazardous areas.
• Start on time and be organized.
• Stick to your agenda/checklist.
• Circulate and meet as many people as possible.
• Make sure your guests enjoy themselves. Many of our guests look forward to our open house as one of the best in the area.

After the event

• Send a follow up mailing/thank you to all attendees.
• Send a post event press release to the media.
• Follow up personally with marketing contacts to be sure they enjoyed the event.
• Write thank you notes to vendors.