Mobile Children's Indoor Play Bus

plzhelpmesave!

Hi
Just an initial idea that I wanted to get opinions/comments on please!

I took my kids to an indoor playhouse the other day with cheap entry offer and they loved it. Last couple of days, news has been full of into about obesity in children as young as 4.

Do you think a mobile childrens play bus with soft play activities that enccouraged them to play, jump and excercise in the bus would work?

It would be for birthdays & event bookings at weekends and then I would look to go to surestart centres, nurseries, primary schools in the week - with reasonable charge or contracts with providers. We could spread the healthy eating message at the same time as giving the kids fun.

I already have contacts through my work for many of these places & would keep prices reasonable to encourage regular and repeat bookings.

What do people think? I know times are hard for most of us, but I was amazed at how busy the play centre was, 2 birthday parties going on while we were there and well over 100 kids - so parents are still spending money on their kids.

Also, I'm from an asian background so as a USP, I could tap into more asian contacts and events, offer a halal menu & tie into key asian events/themes (if there was any demand!) as well as mainstream parties.

I live in Birmingham so very centrally located and could cover a wide geographical area.

What do people think of this as an initial business ideas? There are buses out there and a local play franchise (Funky Monkeys) is launching their own mobile bus service shortly, so they must have seen some potential in the idea...

Many thanks for reading!

steve1980

How much cash have you got to start up?

Initial costs:

Bus
Interior
Food hygine
CRB checks
Bus license
Tax (personal & road)
Insurance (bus, public liability, employers)
Advertising


That's just off the top of my head. The surestart centres have not got a penny spare. Remember they are run by the Government.

pitkin2020

Agree with steve, plus the setup inside the bus won't be cheap depending on what you have. Its a good idea but playgroups, nursuries and surestart wouldn't be my market audience as your price would have to be very low. Your costs just getting to the locations is going to be quite high due to fuel costs and buses aren't the most economical things around.

The start up costs are going to be very high and the running costs won't be cheap. Add that to the limitations of how many at a time you can get on the bus and the staff needed to run and supervise and your hourly rate for the bus will be high aswell!!

Not saying it won't work but like I said I wouldn't aim at the low value audience with such a venture, your asian market idea is more feasible as its a unique USP.

Savvy_Sue

Add to the costs training of drivers and keeping their licences updated.

lincroft1710

As the bus would not be used for carrying fare paying passengers it ceases to be a PSV and becomes an LGV, so you (and any driver) would need the appropriate LGV licence. Where will park the bus, and don't say street as you will probably be done for obstruction.

FatVonD

I agree with all the above re the bus but, while I'm sure the bouncy castles for birthday parties market is pretty much sewn up, is there an opening for a toddler bouncy castle playgroup that moved to a different church hall (or mosque) every day?

pitkin2020

The bouncy castle market is not what it was 10 or even 5 years ago. Too many people see it as an easy start up business with a low start up cost (a couple of grand and you can be up and running) but what they fail to take into account is the ongoing costs coupled with a short running period.

A toddler bouncy castle isn't worth doing financially as people won't pay a great deal for it, by the time you have taken out the staff costs, insurance, transport, testing, repairs etc etc you'll be left with a few quid per hire if your lucky. Thats not even taken into consideration the cost of the unit which will take forever to pay back at one hire per day!!

gingerdad

Funnily enough was at the Ramsey Lifeboat day on Saturadt and saw this http://manxplaybus.vpweb.co.uk/. so they might be a good person to speak to (altough manx law is different to uK in terms of driving rules etc)

gingerdad

http://www.kiddiesplaybus.co.uk/ - also just found this - they are selling up

pitkin2020

gingerdad wrote: »

http://www.kiddiesplaybus.co.uk/ - also just found this - they are selling up

So to get that bus up and running again they reckon 5k, if the business was profitable 5k could easily be absorbed and they would be up and running again. I would say they haven't made much money and are cutting their losses.

Owain_Moneysaver

one problem may be that you are going to have to find somewhere to park at each 'venue'

Parents may not be happy if this is on the public road, and if you are going for the private party market then there is probably a shortage of houses with space to park a bus.