How to start an event decor crew in Hyderabad

What it costs to start

Running costs each month

Licences and registrations

• Udyam (MSME) registration

  Owned by: Bookings & Sites

  Free and instant on udyamregistration.gov.in. Hotels and banquet halls ask outside vendors for a registration number before permitting equipment on site, and function halls increasingly require it on the vendor form alongside ID copies for every crew member.

• GST registration

  Owned by: Bookings & Sites

  Required above ₹20 lakh of annual turnover, which a busy crew crosses in a strong season. Decor is a service taxed at 18%. Corporate and hotel clients will ask for a GST invoice well before you reach the threshold, so many crews register voluntarily in year one.

• Venue vendor permission and damage deposit

  Owned by: Install Lead

  Most Hyderabad banquet halls charge an outside-decor fee of ₹5,000–15,000 and hold a refundable damage deposit. Some have exclusive in-house decor contracts and will not permit you at all — confirm in writing at the recce, before you quote, because discovering it on the morning is a cancelled event.

• Fire and rigging rules for the venue

  Owned by: Install Lead

  Draping, candles and anything suspended overhead are restricted at most venues, and hotels enforce it. Ask what may be rigged, from what, and whether fabric must be fire-retardant. A design that cannot be installed legally is not a design.

Who does what, and what they earn

Shares are of revenue after costs, agreed in writing before the work starts.

• Design Lead

  Draws the setup, picks the palette, and owns whether it looks like the reference photo.

  28 hrs/week

  32%

• Install Lead

  Builds and strikes on site, owns the rigging, and gets the venue handed back clean.

  30 hrs/week

  26%

• Florals & Props

  Sources flowers each week, maintains the prop inventory, and keeps damage below what the margin can absorb.

  24 hrs/week

  24%

• Bookings & Sites

  Quotes, does the site recce, coordinates with venues, and collects the balance on the day.

  16 hrs/week

  18%

The six-week plan

1. Week 1

   1. Choose the event type you are for

      Birthday and home celebrations at ₹8,000–20,000, haldis and small receptions at ₹25,000–60,000, or corporate and hotel work at ₹60,000–1.5 lakh. Each needs different inventory and a different sales conversation. Start with the middle band — it pays properly, it does not require a hotel vendor licence, and the photographs from it sell both directions.

   2. Buy reusable, rent consumable

      This is the whole economics of decor. Frames, arches, plinths, drapes, lighting and artificial florals are bought once and installed fifty times. Fresh flowers, balloons and foam are bought per event and are gone by midnight. Every rupee you can move from the second category to the first improves every future job, which is why the ₹52,000 of structures is the most important spend in the build.

2. Week 2

   1. Build three signature setups

      Not a catalogue — three. One floral arch, one draped backdrop with lighting, one prop-led theme. Photograph each properly. Clients cannot imagine a setup from a description, and a crew with three excellent photographs books more than one with forty mediocre ones. Every future quote is a variation on these three.

   2. Price on install hours plus consumables plus inventory wear

      A ₹35,000 haldi setup is roughly ₹9,000 of fresh flowers and consumables, ₹4,000 of transport and labour, and the rest covering four people's day and the wear on inventory that cost ₹1 lakh. Crews that price only against consumables underquote badly and cannot afford to replace a broken frame.

3. Week 3

   1. Do the first event at cost

      One real event — a friend's birthday or a family function — at material cost, on the condition that you shoot it properly. It buys you the portfolio and, more importantly, teaches you how long install actually takes. Every crew's first estimate is wrong by about double.

   2. Register and learn the venue rules

      Complete Udyam registration and visit three banquet halls in your area. Ask each: do you allow outside decor, what is the vendor fee, what is the damage deposit, what may be rigged and from what, and what time can we access the hall. Write the answers down. That single afternoon prevents most of the disasters this business produces.

4. Week 4

   1. Always do a site recce before quoting

      Ceiling height, power points, access width, lift or stairs, and how long you get before guests arrive. A quote given from photographs is a guess, and the difference between a two-hour and a five-hour install is entirely a site question. Never skip this, however small the event sounds.

   2. Take 50% advance, balance on the day

      Half on booking to cover flowers and labour, the balance before you strike at the end of the night. Fresh flowers are bought on the morning and cannot be returned, so an advance is not a formality — it is the only thing standing between you and paying for a cancelled event yourself.

5. Week 5

   1. Photograph every setup before guests arrive

      Fifteen minutes with the room empty and the lighting on. This is the only marketing this business needs and the only window in which it can be done, because a room full of guests is not a portfolio photograph. Same discipline every event, no exceptions — it is how a crew builds a book in one season.

   2. Strike properly and get the deposit back

      Everything down the same night, venue handed back clean, damage deposit recovered. Crews lose their margin at 1am through carelessness — a torn drape, a scuffed wall, a lost uplight. Count the inventory back into the crates on site, not the next morning.

6. Week 6

   1. Work the season and the weekday gap

      Hyderabad events cluster into wedding season and the summer birthday months, and cluster again at weekends. Weekday corporate work — product launches, office celebrations, small conferences — is what fills the gap, pays better per hour, and does not compete for your Saturday.

   2. Close the month and split honestly

      Log every event, advance, flower purchase and replacement, then split on the signed percentages. Set aside a fixed share of every job — 5% is about right — as an inventory replacement fund, before anyone is paid. Structures wear out, and a crew that has not saved for that discovers it in the middle of season with no way to take the booking.

Questions people ask

How much does it cost to start an event decor business in Hyderabad?

About ₹1,15,000 for a four-person crew: roughly ₹52,000 for reusable structures like backdrops, frames and arches, ₹24,000 for lighting, ₹21,000 for artificial florals, drapes and props, and around ₹18,000 for tools, crates, registration and a portfolio shoot. The structures are the real asset — bought once and installed fifty times.

What do decorators charge in Hyderabad?

Birthday and home celebrations run ₹8,000–20,000, haldis and small receptions ₹25,000–60,000, and corporate or hotel work ₹60,000–1.5 lakh. Price against install hours, consumables and inventory wear rather than flowers alone — crews that quote only against consumables underquote badly and cannot afford to replace broken frames.

Do I need a licence for event decoration?

No specific government licence, though free Udyam (MSME) registration is worth having because hotels and banquet halls ask outside vendors for a registration number. GST applies above ₹20 lakh turnover at 18% on services. The permission that really matters is the venue's: many halls charge an outside-decor fee of ₹5,000–15,000, hold a damage deposit, and some have exclusive in-house contracts that exclude you entirely.

How many events a month does a decor crew need?

Around three to four events a month covers flowers, consumables, transport and casual labour. A four-person crew earns properly at roughly eight events a month, which is about ₹1,50,000–3,80,000 and ₹21,000 each. Weekday corporate work is what fills the gap between weekend clusters.

Where do you buy flowers for events in Hyderabad?

The Gudimalkapur flower market, at dawn on the day of the event — fresh flowers cannot be bought ahead and cannot be returned. That is precisely why a 50% advance on booking is not a formality: it covers the flowers and the labour, so a late cancellation does not come out of the crew's own pocket.