Cafe with play area - good idea?

sarahs999

I love your ideas ROsie, esp the beautician and the gift shop. It sounds like you want to creat a real community hub, which would be a boon in any town. Would you open on Saturdays? What about a kids' entertainer once a week so the parents can eat a meal in peace - saturday lunchtime for example? If you didn't want to open it youself at weekends, would you consider partnering with someone who did? That way again you get the maximum value out of your rent/taxes etc.

pelirocco

RoxieW wrote: »

Thank you for all the helpful replies - you've all certainly given me some food for thought! Funnily enough have just come back from ikea where lo had a play while I had a coffee. Obv really need to do alot of research and will start doing this. The point about how much people will spend is very valid. I know we are limiting our market but we would only really be interested in opening 9.30 - 3pm (the cafes in the town are only open this time so there cant be much tea time trade going) so Mums and tots would be our target market. We are a town flanked by several villages where as far as I know there is nothing similar and our town is where all those mums come to do their shopping.
Have to go do homework/tea time etc now but will update when I have time to properly digest the replies Thanks again

A simple sum is to work out your overheads , ie rent , rates , utilities . insurance and wages for a month / year however you want to plan it , divide it by the number of hours you plan to open , thats a starting figure of what you need to earn per hour / day etc

You then need to factor in equipment cost , you need the total cost then you need to build a life expectancy for it , say for arguments sake it will last a year , so total cost divided by opening hours in a year

add these two figures together and you will have a rough idea what you will need to earn , divide this by what you think you should charge , then see how many people you will need through the door .........to break even

I'm not sure if you are planning to open weekends as well btw

Gingham_Ribbon

I really like your ideas. If other local cafes really can make it work in those few hours, and local people are having to travel to play centres, I think you may have hit on something with real potential!

Counting_Pennies_2

If there is room, how about a divider between the children section and an quiet adult section, perhaps with the food and drink serving place in the middle. Would need to be a door divider though to keep the sound out.

For food think about children, snacks such as carrot and cucumber sticks, sandwiches, pizza slices, etc. If you offer food you will have visitors coming out up until 5:30pm.

I too thought of starting up a cafe, but remember your child will grow and with that comes demands, so you need to factor in child care, and not relying on the two of you to share, you will be shattered running the place, you won't have time to childcare when you are off duty for the other person.

hth

gabyjane

Ive just been talking to dh about your post as we were talking about our only play area in our town the other day..the lady is talking about selling it and dh thinks i should try and buy it. I would jump at the chance BUT she is struggling and i have no idea why really Personal probs but not sure thats the main factor)..this is the worrying thing really..great play area..all brand new and modern..loads of room and visions of kids at all times etc..so why is she selling? i would love to do it but can see how she is suffering but not entirly sure why.Dh has mentioned it now twice in about 10 mins so ill speak to her when i next see her..may give you some ideas into poss probs if there are any.

bylromarha

If you're in the west midlands, please give WBDA a call. They were fantastic when I set up my business. made me think of things I didn't know I needed to think about, and is specifically tailored for women and the way we think when approaching starting a business.

http://www.wbda.co.uk/

TBH, I don't think I'd use your cafe. We have a large modern soft play centre, fantastic baby area, with a really good cafe that runs toddler mornings for £2.50 Mon - Fri, inc squash and biscuits for toddler and 1 tea/coffee for mum. Friends and I have always driven out to that one as £2.50 for a coffee is a good deal these days, let alone with fantastic play facilities.

But that is my town, my market. Market research is vital to your area with this sort of business - you'll only be able to do that with the mums and other cafe users in your town.

skintchick

I've not read anything but the OP but wanted to say it's a GREAT idea! I have a 7-month-old and would love something like this. The nearest we have is the local church/children's centre which has some toys and lots of space in its cafe, but it closes at 2.30pm.

I think you'd be onto a winner.

dawnybabes

I own a soft play centre, if you have any questions just pm me.

I have had it nearly 4 years a tbh I wouldn't do it again

tiamai_d

Ours just went t*ts up :cool: Bad bad financial climate right now, most of our customers lost their job or had hours cut, combined with the snow at the beginning of the year meant that we lost far too much money so we sold up and ran for the hills. Our town is pretty much dead right now, so sad seeing all the shops closed up or the final sale on. Still, it's reassuring to know we aren't the only ones.

The advice I will give you from our experience is to look at your premises, look at a good few.
Try and get one already with the consent for a food premises, make sure it's the correct consent for what you want to do.
Look at health and hygiene reports for the premises, have they demanded any major works? (we left our first premises because H&H demanded it have a whole new floor, grease traps and tiling as well as a vent be moved, oh and there was also an ongoing dispute about drainage from the previous tenants and another unit)
Try and find out past electric and gas bills to get an idea (in the end it was the electric bills that crippled us).
Go round local food places and get an idea of what they offer, what they charge, when they are busy, where abouts are the customers sitting (no point spending a fortune on fancy sofas if they prefer to sit at a table)
Plan your menu well, make sure you have time and man power to get your prep for the day done quickly (the best food in the world is worthless if it takes hours to prepare)
Get to know your suppliers, haggle for the best price you can get, reps can offer you prices so play them off against each other.
Find out what the rates are and any discounts available to you. Water rates, refuge collection etc
Look into planning for signage, what are you allowed, how much will that cost you?
Insurance! Find out EXACTLY what you need to do to protect yourself from 'little timmy fell and I'm going to blame the cafe for me not stopping him from running into that door'.


From a business point of view, a play area within a cafe is not really a good idea. Mums will sit for a few hours while kids play taking up a table but only paying 1 bill. Whereas ideally you want 2 or 3 bills in that time. So you do need to find ways to make up for that.

From a parents point of view, I would use one.

Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

foxwales

I think there is a good reason why we don't see many of these types of business.

As was previously mentioned, you isolate a very large customer base because generally people want to chat and socialise over a drink in a cafe, rather than hear kids running riot.

Also the turnover will be affected by customers parking in your cafe and not spending enough per head to use the facilities. A £2.00 coffee and an hours free child play isn't really economical in a business sense.

Liability is also a major concern in this area, are you to have a supervised play area? if so then your liability insurance needs will be high, or if you opt for a children must be supervised by adults rule, then it becomes counterproductive in having a child play cafe.

In all, I don't think this makes good business sense, it does sound good on paper but I think you will find it difficult to make any real profit out of this.