Children's Parties/Girls Pamper Parties

Charityworker

I'm a qualified make up artist/manicurist/hair dresser. If you look at past threads on here you will see that I'm very very unhappy as the manager of a charity which I currently am. I'm thinking of starting up a children's party small business where I provide the activity, games, music, dances, goody bags, prizes etc. I only need to make a profit of about £100 a week as thats what I earn in my current job which I will be giving up. I've done a lot of research on this but wondered if you will come up with anything I haven't thought of.

I've got a current DBS check as I need it in my current job. I know I'll need to be insured up to my eyeballs.

Charityworker

No one got any advice then?

Bonniepurple

Charityworker wrote: »

I'm a qualified make up artist/manicurist/hair dresser. If you look at past threads on here you will see that I'm very very unhappy as the manager of a charity which I currently am. I'm thinking of starting up a children's party small business where I provide the activity, games, music, dances, goody bags, prizes etc. I only need to make a profit of about £100 a week as thats what I earn in my current job which I will be giving up. I've done a lot of research on this but wondered if you will come up with anything I haven't thought of.

I've got a current DBS check as I need it in my current job. I know I'll need to be insured up to my eyeballs.

How many parties are you planning to do? How much would you be charging? £100 profit per week would be hard to make - remember your equipment/transport/insurance/NI/advertising etc. You will have slack periods over the year.

Savvy_Sue

It's not clear what you have already thought of / researched so hard to know what you might have missed. In another thread you mention premises, so I'm not sure if you're planning to get a permanent base. While I can see the advantage of that, it would be a large fixed cost, and could be geographically limiting.

You might do better to research local halls and get costs for occasional use. I can tell you that I pay c. £100 for an evening hire of 3 hours, which doesn't include use of the kitchen. A smaller room would be cheaper.

Ms_Chocaholic

I've not got any expertise in this area at all but my first thoughts are that if you only specialise in children's parties, then you will only have bookings on Saturdays/Sundays throughout the year. Could you expand to do adult parties so you would have some weekday evenings too.

whitewing

I think you'd need to check with the insurance company on how many children you would be able to cater for on your own.

Also, maybe a bouncy castle? You maybe need to offer something the parents can't do for nothing.

Maybe party ideas that can be outside or inside. Otherwise there may be a lull in good weather.

lulu_92

I know a girl who does fairy tale themed parties, she generally travels to them and charges upwards of £100 but only does her local area

Horace

One of my friends is a children's entertainer, she goes to people's houses to entertain the kids for their parties. No need to hire halls. She doesn't provide party bags (that is down to the parents who are having the party) but she does sing, dance, tell stories, play games. Children's entertainers can also be requested at weddings to keep the kids entertained.

You will need public liability and professional indemnity insurance. You would also need to register the business with HMRC - remember you will pay tax on any profits you make. You need to consider costs of insurance, advertising, a web site, stationery, petrol etc. Have you thought about what you are going to charge? What will you do in slack periods - there will be some and certainly when you start up?

Before doing all of this, you need to do a bit of market research - to determine if there is a market for what you are proposing.

One thing that you don't seem to have thought of which is quite profitable is setting up as a face painter - local fetes etc tend to want face painters. I know that where I live - all the local festivals (car shows etc) all have face painters. A good and reliable face painter is hard to come by. The organisers of such events will pay you a fee to be there and they may ask for a share of your takings but it is a win win.

If you are a qualified hairdresser/manicurist/makeup artist - why aren't you a hiring a chair in a salon? Also you could use your makeup expertise to do bridal makeup or even prom makeup. Bet you never thought of that?

pleasedelete

I think it would be very hard to do alone. 8-12 girls all wanting something done at the same time? When my daughter went to similar there were 2 or 3 people doing the pampering or they went to a salon. Maybe if you could limit it to 4 children or less (but then very expensive per head) Maybe possible as a side event at a party but not as the main thing- what would the rest do whilst you were with 1 child? Parents would expect a full entertainment package I think

TBagpuss

If you are only earning £100 per week in your current job, presumably you are not working full time. It might be sensible to try ot some of your ideas before you give up your exisiting, job, so you can get a feel for what does, and does not work, and then give up the day job once your new business is off the ground.

Remember that for £100 per week *profit* you need to have more than that coming in to cover insurance, travel costs, materials, advertising, etc.

Savvy_Sue

TBagpuss wrote: »

Remember that for £100 per week *profit* you need to have more than that coming in to cover insurance, travel costs, materials, advertising, etc.

If you're also hiring premises then make that 'a lot more than that coming in'.

The alternative would be to get the party family to book and pay for the hall, then you could just charge separately for your service. If you go down that route, make sure it's clear in your t&c that you don't hire the hall.