Indoor Play Centres
Discussion
Frimley111R said:
We've got a couple near us and one of them seems to be packed non stop but the other has shut down, mostly, according to Facebook reviews, because it became dirty and run down. I always thought these were a bit of a 'licence to print money' but it's probably harder than it looks.
I'd say so, not a massive amount of profit in them once overheads and wages come out.I think weekdays would be dreadful when most children are at school.
I would think they are far from "A licence to print money"
Indeed is any business?
A bit like the old saying "The business runs itself" no business runs itself, unless it's into the ground.
When looking at any business operation, we never know the whole picture and often our guesses are massively removed from the reality. One of the beauties of an indoor play centre though is that it is a fixed cost business (like mine) so whether the place is packed or empty the bills aren't much different. The key is to get it busy and keep it that way but it will be far from easy.
Indeed is any business?
A bit like the old saying "The business runs itself" no business runs itself, unless it's into the ground.
When looking at any business operation, we never know the whole picture and often our guesses are massively removed from the reality. One of the beauties of an indoor play centre though is that it is a fixed cost business (like mine) so whether the place is packed or empty the bills aren't much different. The key is to get it busy and keep it that way but it will be far from easy.
My missus has this idea of owning one but serving slightly more gourmet food, coffee, cakes etc. to attract the wealthier punter.
Problem is the way I see it most of the soft play places I've been to the clientele are much the same, generally parents who want their kids out of their hair so they can sit around chatting, looking at Facebook on their phones, drink coffee and eat chips, and occasionally shout at their kids. It's also typically these kids that are hurtling around the play structure making it a nightmare for younger kids. I'm sure these parents would also smoke if it were allowed. (What I'm basically saying is most of them are chavs
).
So yeah, there's some money to be made but probably not a lot as it's only really busy at weekends and even then seasonal i.e. we only ever tend to venture into these places if the weather is rubbish. I think one of them near us does run an after school club so I guess that can help bring some income in on the weekdays.
Problem is the way I see it most of the soft play places I've been to the clientele are much the same, generally parents who want their kids out of their hair so they can sit around chatting, looking at Facebook on their phones, drink coffee and eat chips, and occasionally shout at their kids. It's also typically these kids that are hurtling around the play structure making it a nightmare for younger kids. I'm sure these parents would also smoke if it were allowed. (What I'm basically saying is most of them are chavs
).So yeah, there's some money to be made but probably not a lot as it's only really busy at weekends and even then seasonal i.e. we only ever tend to venture into these places if the weather is rubbish. I think one of them near us does run an after school club so I guess that can help bring some income in on the weekdays.
I've been to a few soft play centres.
We have 2 really good ones near me.
First on is an add on to a nursery, well run small play area caters for parties and does nice home cooked food.
Other on is in an old mill, owned by a very attractive mum, does OK food but also alcohol... Vast varietly of play equipment and all in all not a bad place.
There are also some bad ones, clientele and general cleaness of the place as well as serving junk food.
I think to kit one of these places out with th correct equipment starts at £100K
We have 2 really good ones near me.
First on is an add on to a nursery, well run small play area caters for parties and does nice home cooked food.
Other on is in an old mill, owned by a very attractive mum, does OK food but also alcohol... Vast varietly of play equipment and all in all not a bad place.
There are also some bad ones, clientele and general cleaness of the place as well as serving junk food.
I think to kit one of these places out with th correct equipment starts at £100K
)When the ankle-biters were young I was forced to spend more time than I wished to in a variety of these awful places.
They're staffed by kids, most of whom are on zero-hours contracts, and don't want to be there anyway.
If I end up in Hell (which is a possibility) I imagine that it will be just like one of these places, full of uncontrolled sugar-fuelled brats and their chavvy, unconcerned parents, using the opportunity to let their horrible brats run loose.
They're staffed by kids, most of whom are on zero-hours contracts, and don't want to be there anyway.
If I end up in Hell (which is a possibility) I imagine that it will be just like one of these places, full of uncontrolled sugar-fuelled brats and their chavvy, unconcerned parents, using the opportunity to let their horrible brats run loose.
Frimley111R said:
We've got a couple near us and one of them seems to be packed non stop but the other has shut down, mostly, according to Facebook reviews, because it became dirty and run down. I always thought these were a bit of a 'licence to print money' but it's probably harder than it looks.
The one that closed down also had exceptional high ground rent, plus major leaks in the roof.Little Street is probably the easiest one to manage and is constantly busy. I would imagine the costs were acceptable.
There's one for sale by us at the moment, but the costs don't stack up.
How not to open one https://www.facebook.com/ray.szuster/posts/1095452...
I think people are pre-judging, some are indeed pits, populated by lowest common denominator parents and children running amok, others are rather pleasant and I have no hesitation in taking my daughter there. However food on the whole is usually rather poor which could be an area of differentiation but most people don't tend to eat full meals there anyway so as long as essentials like decent coffee and soft drinks are on tap, the rest is window dressing.
Besides people are getting too hung up about the clientele, if you are thinking of opening one as a business you are more interested in how full it will be rather than the quality of the single mums visiting the place. The equipment requirements might mean opening a decent one will require quite high start up costs but whenever I've gone to a decent one, they have been packed with people paying £5 a time and once it's setup I imagine ongoing costs aren't too terrible. Put it this way, there seem to be more and more popping up everywhere so someone obviously thinks it's a good way of making money.
Besides people are getting too hung up about the clientele, if you are thinking of opening one as a business you are more interested in how full it will be rather than the quality of the single mums visiting the place. The equipment requirements might mean opening a decent one will require quite high start up costs but whenever I've gone to a decent one, they have been packed with people paying £5 a time and once it's setup I imagine ongoing costs aren't too terrible. Put it this way, there seem to be more and more popping up everywhere so someone obviously thinks it's a good way of making money.
My GF is in the process of opening one locally to us. The business plan we have put together shows it should do quite well but a single outlet will not be a route to riches beyond our wildest dreams.
Main feedback we have got from market research is:
-good coffee
-good cake
-WiFi
-clean, especially toilets
Hardly anyone, in fact no one, mentioned make it good for the kids to play in which seemed a bit of an omission to me but then the kids are not really the ones with the purchasing power.
Opening will be end of Sept, I will report back after a bit with how it is going.
Ben
Main feedback we have got from market research is:
-good coffee
-good cake
-WiFi
-clean, especially toilets
Hardly anyone, in fact no one, mentioned make it good for the kids to play in which seemed a bit of an omission to me but then the kids are not really the ones with the purchasing power.
Opening will be end of Sept, I will report back after a bit with how it is going.
Ben
Ben
I wish you luck. All of the things you have listed are very important for parents. However, the one you haven't got on there is: clean and well maintained toys. I hope you have factored in a suitable amount of money/labour on maintaining the toy stock/changing batteries etc.
It is interesting the number of other carers that I talk to ( I do 2 days/week daddy-day-care) where the main deciders are ease of parking and cleanliness of toys. The rest is a bit secondary.
I wish you luck. All of the things you have listed are very important for parents. However, the one you haven't got on there is: clean and well maintained toys. I hope you have factored in a suitable amount of money/labour on maintaining the toy stock/changing batteries etc.
It is interesting the number of other carers that I talk to ( I do 2 days/week daddy-day-care) where the main deciders are ease of parking and cleanliness of toys. The rest is a bit secondary.
That's quite strange, surely the nature of soft play is that they are designed to be inherently safe play areas? My daughter is still fairly young so I tend to accompany her through the play areas but it still seems safer than most parks I've been too. The major danger seems to be from collisions as some places have kids running around full tilt, unsupervised.
Also can you not get people to sign a waiver as part of registration? Obvious negligence or bad equipment maintenance is one thing but surely you enter at your own risk?
Also can you not get people to sign a waiver as part of registration? Obvious negligence or bad equipment maintenance is one thing but surely you enter at your own risk?
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