Bit of marketing - Children's play centers.

FatVonD

Why not try renting a church hall? They already come with a kitchen, toilets and car parking. You could buy, say, a small bouncy castle for less than £200, I'm sure (with adequate insurance and supervision), parents would happily pay 2 or 3 quid for their kids to have several turns on a bouncy castle.

One of the best playgroups I went to also included lunch in the price. They had long tables with loaves of bread and all the usual sorts of filling plus some chopped up fruit and stuff. The parents then made whatever they knew their own child would eat.

The other had a separate room for more quiet play. They had puzzles, play dough and pots of colouring pencils and a big pile of pages torn from colouring books.

You should post this in the small business and charities section, OP, there are some very knowledgeable people over there who will be able to advise you about the business/insurance side of it all.

notanewuser

carolan78 wrote: »

Why would there be a lot of waste with home cooked food? It can be batch cooked and frozen.

Because if you have an 18 portion lasagne in the fridge for reheating and only 6 portions are sold you waste 12 portions. (Regs on how long food can be kept are very stringent and much tighter than you could be at home).

If you have a 6 portion lasagne in the fridge, but 10 people want it you can't defrost it quickly or safely enough to supply the demand.

And once defrosted it can't then be refrozen.

There's a reason these places stick to jacket spuds, sandwiches and paninis and frozen chips and nuggets.

FatVonD

PS The other good thing about hiring a church hall is that you can be mobile, you could be in a different location every day of the week so giving yourself a whole new market every day. If you're in one place, with the best will in the world the local mums aren't going to come more than once a week.

bigmomma051204

FatVonD wrote: »

Why not try renting a church hall? They already come with a kitchen, toilets and car parking. You could buy, say, a small bouncy castle for less than £200, I'm sure (with adequate insurance and supervision), parents would happily pay 2 or 3 quid for their kids to have several turns on a bouncy castle.

One of the best playgroups I went to also included lunch in the price. They had long tables with loaves of bread and all the usual sorts of filling plus some chopped up fruit and stuff. The parents then made whatever they knew their own child would eat.

The other had a separate room for more quiet play. They had puzzles, play dough and pots of colouring pencils and a big pile of pages torn from colouring books.

You should post this in the small business and charities section, OP, there are some very knowledgeable people over there who will be able to advise you about the business/insurance side of it all.

Trouble is

*Churches these days offer lots of playgroup related things themselves so the "better" halls may not have availability. Also, if in an area where there are many ethnicities, you are running the risk of them not attending for religious reasons...

* Many other local services such as childrens centres and leisure centres WILL offer this service (what u suggest, basic soft play and/or bouncy castle) and probably for cheaper than anyone else could offer it.

* Your idea sounds more like a toddler group than a high earning "play centre" which is what I assumed the OP wanted to look into starting up.

OP - Could u give us more idea of the level of venture and as such the amount of capital you have to fund this? It would help us to advise you
This is an area that I have a degree of experience in but as there are varying "levels" of what you could offer, its hard to give advice not knowing what you have in mind :cool:

Also, not wanting to sound stalky - BUT, it would be helpful to know the town you are looking at doing this in. As I said, without going into details - i have a knowledge of this particular area of venture but without knowing the area I can't really offer more advice

notanewuser

Plus if you limit it to babies and young children then those with older children will go elsewhere.

FatVonD

bigmomma051204 wrote: »

*Churches these days offer lots of playgroup related things themselves so the "better" halls may not have availability. Also, if in an area where there are many ethnicities, you are running the risk of them not attending for religious reasons...

They do, it's many years since mine was a toddler but none had a bouncy castle.

bigmomma051204 wrote: »

* Your idea sounds more like a toddler group than a high earning "play centre" which is what I assumed the OP wanted to look into starting up.

It absolutely is but, from reading the OP's other posts, unless she has won the lottery I don't think she is talking about investing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Church halls (village halls if you're worried about different faiths) offer the perfect opportunity to test the water without investing hundreds of thousands. I started a (now wound up) child-related business a couple of years ago with premises etc because I wanted everything to be perfect, I wish I'd dipped my toe in the water with church halls first, it would have saved me thousands!

FatVonD

OP, you could also consider a Tumble Tots franchise though I think the appeal is more middle class than benefit mums!

Kayalana99

I'm not to interested in capital atm, I will do a proper business plan of running costs etc & will find investment if I can prove its a soild plan (I am not talking about banks here but will leave that for now as I have to prove its a creditable business first and I am only at the beginning stage of research.). In general I am thinking that although all the little extras do matter, I feel its a location location location type business - obvouisly if the place is crap no one will go but my aim is for it not to be a special day out, but a nice cheap place one can take the kids for the morning/afternoon as something to do and provide meals not only for toddlers but babies as well.

I have def taken the comment onboard about proper food :-) I know its so much easier to do chips and fishfingers...which will probally have to provide as well but will be looking at having a good range of healthy food as well.

As much as I would like two play areas for the older kids, I am more aiming this at the younger ones babies/toddlers with a kitchen in tow, and as someone has pointed out its the bigger play frames where the big money comes in so perhaps something to be looked at in the future once a smaller one is set up. (Its also worth considering that unless its the school hoildays or the weekend kids from 4-5+ would be at school obvouisly so the bigger play frames would probally not be a worthy investment esp at early stages)

I do appreicate all your advise (and ideas esp :-) ), but I am really interested in the orignal question and havn't had to much feedback on that yet so anyone else who wishs to give opinions on car park issue would be helpful.

As for the area, it is a pretty busy town, not OTT massive but we have a proper shopping center, high street, swimming pool on the edge...not really many attractions though their isn't even a park within walking distance (other then the shops ofc)

notanewuser

Lots of yummy mummies round here but the TT franchise folded about a year ago and nobody wants it.

sulkisu

Kayalana99 wrote: »

I'm not to interested in capital atm, I will do a proper business plan of running costs etc & will find investment if I can prove its a soild plan (I am not talking about banks here but will leave that for now as I have to prove its a creditable business first and I am only at the beginning stage of research.). In general I am thinking that although all the little extras do matter, I feel its a location location location type business - obvouisly if the place is crap no one will go but my aim is for it not to be a special day out, but a nice cheap place one can take the kids for the morning/afternoon as something to do and provide meals not only for toddlers but babies as well.

I have def taken the comment onboard about proper food :-) I know its so much easier to do chips and fishfingers...which will probally have to provide as well but will be looking at having a good range of healthy food as well.

As much as I would like two play areas for the older kids, I am more aiming this at the younger ones babies/toddlers with a kitchen in tow, and as someone has pointed out its the bigger play frames where the big money comes in so perhaps something to be looked at in the future once a smaller one is set up. (Its also worth considering that unless its the school hoildays or the weekend kids from 4-5+ would be at school obvouisly so the bigger play frames would probally not be a worthy investment esp at early stages)

I do appreicate all your advise (and ideas esp :-) ), but I am really interested in the orignal question and havn't had to much feedback on that yet so anyone else who wishs to give opinions on car park issue would be helpful.

As for the area, it is a pretty busy town, not OTT massive but we have a proper shopping center, high street, swimming pool on the edge...not really many attractions though their isn't even a park within walking distance (other then the shops ofc)

I find this part (in bold) interesting in view of your other thread. You really need to get to grips with cooking healthy food for yourself first before you even contemplate food for other peoples children. If you are thinking of targeting parents on benefits, you might find that £2-4 is a lot of money to them, especially as under the new rules, they will get 15 hours free nursery from the age of 2. There are also many other free activities available, in libraries, community centres, leisure centres etc, especially for low income families. Unless you live in a very rural area I would be genuinely surprised if there is absolutely nothing else for babies and toddlers within a 90 minute travelling distance.

I am not trying to put a downer on your idea or to be negative, but you need to think realistically about who your target market will be and how much it would cost to provide a safe, reliable service for other peoples children. Even providing good nutritious food for a large number of children will come at a cost.

As for the original question, I have three children 2.5 and 10 month old twins and do not drive. Most parents who do not have transport, especially those living in big cities, manage to get around without cars. We walk, struggle onto buses etc. Even if I had a car, the availability of parking would not deter me from something that was well worth attending. This brings me back to my earlier point about identifying your target market, because the people that you mention, i.e. low incomes and on benefits are the least likely to have cars.