Most people choose an event company by collecting three quotations and picking the middle one. That tells you almost nothing about what will actually happen on the day, because the quotation is the one document every company knows how to make look good.
Here are ten questions worth asking instead. We have written down what a strong answer sounds like and what a weak one sounds like, including for us, so you can use this on any company in Hyderabad, Vijayawada or Guntur.
1. Who will actually be at my event on the day?
This is the question that separates an event manager from a list of suppliers.
On the day, someone has to hold the venue, décor, sound, stage, catering, entertainment, guests, photography and the clock in one head, and decide quickly when two of those collide. If that person is you, you have not hired an event company.
A good answer names roles and numbers: a manager, this many coordinators, and who is responsible for what. A weak answer is "our team will be there".
If the answer to "who is running this on the day?" is a vendor's phone number, you have suppliers, not a planner.
2. Will you visit my venue before you design anything?
Floor plans lie and photographs lie more. The things that break an event are the things you can only see standing in the room: a loading door too narrow for the LED wall, a ceiling too low for the truss, one power point for the whole stage, a pillar that blocks a third of the seats.
We do a site recce for every event, whatever the budget. It is an hour that saves an expensive surprise, and any company that designs from photographs is guessing on your money.
Ask specifically: before or after I pay the advance? The answer should be before.
3. Is this design made for my venue, or picked from a catalogue?
The common approach is to show you a folder of past setups, let you choose one, and quote against it. It is fast, and it is why so many events in the same city look identical.
A design that is actually yours starts from the venue, the event type, the theme, the colour palette, what your guests will be wearing and what your budget can carry. The backdrop is the last decision, not the first.
A useful test: ask why they chose a particular colour or material for you. If the answer is about your event, good. If it is "this is trending", you are buying last month's event.
4. What is in the quote, and what is not?
Two quotations that differ by thirty percent are usually not the same event. The gap is normally hiding in the parts nobody itemises.
Read down the list and check for:
- Setup and dismantling, and who pays for the labour
- How many people are on the ground, and for how many hours
- Transport of material to and from the venue
- Backup equipment, or only the primary
- Whether photography covers the setup or only the function
- Venue charges, generator, permissions and taxes
- What happens to the cost if your guest count moves
The cheapest quotation is often the one with the most missing from it.
5. What happens when something goes wrong?
Something will. A vendor runs late, a laptop refuses to output, rain arrives an hour early, a guest count jumps on the morning.
The question is not whether problems happen. It is whether they reach your guests, and whether you find out during the event or afterwards.
A good answer describes decisions: who has authority to spend, what backup is already in the room rather than a promise it can be arranged, who talks to the client and who does not. A weak answer is "that will not happen with us".
6. Have you handled my size of event?
A fifty-guest house party and an eight-hundred-guest conference are not the same job scaled up. Guest flow, catering rhythm, sound coverage, parking and the number of people needed on the ground all change shape, not just size.
Ask for a comparable event, not the biggest one they have ever done. And ask what went wrong on it, because a straight answer to that tells you more than a portfolio.
7. What do you do yourselves, and what do you outsource?
Almost every event company outsources something. That is normal and often better, because a specialist sound team beats a generalist. What matters is that they tell you honestly, and that they still take responsibility for the outsourced part.
The risk is not outsourcing. The risk is a company that outsources everything, adds a margin, and disappears when two vendors blame each other.
Raw Group works across four divisions, events, photography, marketing and food supply, and brings in specialist partners where the work needs them. Either way, one manager owns the outcome.
8. Are you a registered business?
Rarely asked, and it filters more than almost anything else. A registered company can invoice you properly, can be held to a contract, and has something to lose.
For a corporate booking this is not optional, because your finance team will need a GST invoice before they can release payment. For a family event it is still the difference between a contract and a WhatsApp conversation.
Raw Group holds Udyam (MSME) registration, GST registration and a Labour License. Ask any company you shortlist for the same, and ask for the numbers.
9. How quickly do they reply, before you have paid anything?
You do not have to ask this one. Just watch.
The speed and clarity of the reply to your first enquiry is the best free sample you will get of how communication will feel in the last week before your event, when it actually matters.
If it takes three days and two follow-ups to get a quotation, that is your answer. We aim to reply the same day, usually within a few hours. Hold us to it.
10. What happens after the last guest leaves?
The event is not over when the programme ends. Material has to come down, equipment has to be collected, the venue has to be handed back in the condition the contract requires, and vendors have to be closed off.
If nobody has planned for that, the person doing it at one in the morning is usually the host, or the host's family. Ask who is staying, and until when.
A note on where we stand
Since these questions are meant to be used on us too, here is the honest position.
Raw Group is a new firm. We have completed six events since being established, four social and two corporate. What is not new is the team: our founder brings more than 8 years in event management and a record of over 1,000 events delivered before Raw Group was founded, including a six-day wedding, corporate inaugurations, product launches and events attended by the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister.
We think that distinction matters, and we would rather state it plainly than let a number on a homepage imply something it should not. If a company will not draw that line for you, ask them to.
The short version
Compare the quotations last. Before that, find out who is running your event on the day, whether they have stood in your venue, whether the design was made for you, what is missing from the price, and what they do when something breaks.
The right company is not the biggest or the cheapest. It is the one that gives you a straight answer to an uncomfortable question.
Ask us these ten questions
Tell us the date, the venue and roughly what you have in mind. We will come back with answers and a quote, usually the same day.