How Outsourcing Event Linens Saves Costs and Boosts Revenue
TL;DR: Outsourcing event linens reduces overhead, saves labor, and boosts revenue potential for planners. Here’s how:
- Eliminates fixed costs like inventory and replacement
- Reduces maintenance through professional laundering
- Saves time and labor, increasing efficiency
- Frees storage space
- Improves revenue with flexible pricing and scalable service
Smart event planners are constantly looking for ways to improve their bottom line. One strategy is to outsource event linens instead of buying and maintaining them in-house. Everything from tablecloths to chair covers can be outsourced through a linen rental company. This simple swap saves planners time, which translates to money, steadily boosting revenue with every event.
In this blog, we’ll explore how outsourcing event linens can help planners reduce costs and enhance their operational efficiency. Continue reading to learn why having an outside partner handle your linens and event logistics is the smartest move for ambitious event and meeting planners.
How Does Outsourcing Event Linens Reduce Costs?
As an event planner, you aim to deliver a personal experience that exceeds your client’s expectations. That requires a willingness to work in a range of venues and reflect many unique themes. A great, flexible planner is prepared for nearly any request, taking on events of all sizes and types.
While linens are only a small part of providing that level of service, they are not optional. Cohesive events depend on the basics. You’ve probably seen the way table linens can tie an entire venue together, elevating the atmosphere.
Below, we’ll discuss why renting special event table linens offers clients a personalized experience without added costs.
Renting Eliminates Fixed Costs
Purchasing special event table linens in various sizes, colors, and fabrics can be expensive. By renting linens only as needed, you are essentially converting a fixed cost into a variable expense. This means during slow seasons or smaller events, you aren’t stuck with sunk costs in unused inventory.
Renting Reduces Ongoing Maintenance
Managing linens in-house may sound more efficient. However, consider everything you need in order to maintain and prepare event linens:
- Functional laundry facilities
- High-yield laundry equipment
- Detergents, bleach, and other consumable products
- Utilities (water, gas, electricity)
- Staff labor to wash and press everything
One industry survey found that outsourced commercial laundries spend 34% to 40% less per pound on key laundry cost items than on-premise laundries. That’s thanks to economies of scale.
In other words, a professional linen service cleans linens much more efficiently and cheaply than an individual event company. Those savings get passed down to you.
Renting Saves You Time and Labor
Managing linens internally is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. By having a linen service handle all the cleaning and inventory management, you free up your staff’s time for more important tasks. Instead of laboring in the laundry facility, they can provide face-to-face customer service experiences.
Some industry professionals refer to this as “smart sourcing”. It ensures that the most competent person for a task is completing that task, not wasting their potential on something someone else can do. Essentially, you or your staff can spend more time on client service, event design, and sales. That translates to a better client experience.
More directly, fewer paid hours spent washing and folding linens can directly reduce your payroll expenses.
Renting Eliminates Storage and Replacement Costs
Owning hundreds of tablecloths and wedding event linens means you need space to store them. That requires space that costs rent. Rent money can be better used for revenue-generating activities.
Linens also wear out or get stained beyond reuse, requiring regular replacement.
With a rental model, the provider handles storage and rotates out old inventory for you. You’ll always have clean, high-quality linens delivered as needed. This eliminates the need to maintain a warehouse of your own.
Renting Provides Cost Predictability
When renting linens, all of the expenses associated with linen ownership are rolled into a single, predictable rental fee. This eliminates budget ambiguity and makes it easy to calculate anticipated expenses. Many event planners report that it ultimately lowers the total cost per event.
Ultimately, event planners who partner with a linen rental service can expect cost relief and more room in the budget.
Does Outsourcing Event Linens Increase Revenue?
Outsourcing event linens can also help boost your revenue or profits in several ways.
First, by cutting overhead costs, you effectively improve your profit margin on each event. You can then reinvest those cost savings into growth initiatives. When you have more to offer, your planning services become more current and enticing. As a result, you can boost your business and grow your overall profitability.
Second, outsourcing event linens makes you a more flexible and adaptable event planner. You can efficiently pivot to serving new venues or offering new event colors based on client demand. You won’t lose money sourcing linens for a unique event color scheme that may never be requested again.
Likewise, accepting a large event won’t cost you more than a small event. You can even book multiple large events at once. You’ll never be constrained by a finite stock of event linens. You’ll know that your linen supplier will provide you with exactly what you need.
Finally, consider that outsourcing linens allows you to offer clients a more flexible pricing strategy. Since linen rental costs are predictable per event, you can build those costs into your client proposals. Many planners even mark up rental items slightly as a coordination service. As a result, your profit per event will be secure.
What Is the Cost Efficiency of Outsourcing Event Linens?
Cost efficiency means getting the maximum benefit for the least cost. That’s definitely the case when outsourcing event linens. It essentially ensures you’re only spending on linens when you’re actually running events. Likewise, with seasoned professionals handling your linens, turnaround is consistently faster and more professional.
Outsource your linens to the professionals and experience the difference it makes in your operations and bottom line. We invite you to partner with us and boost your revenue. We can’t wait to help your event business thrive!