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aznar5
02-01-2010, 01:00 AM
I created a short survey about the area I want to start a business in, children's birthday parties. If any of you marketing whiz's wouldn't mind, could you check it out and give me some criticism? I tried for simpliicity and unobtrusiveness. Do you think the data gathered would be beneficial? Thanks for any help!

Birthday Parties Survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DZNBKQQ)

JockPurtle
02-01-2010, 06:01 AM
Mate

What is the purpose of the survey

What information do you want to get out of customers?

Where do you want to lead them?

It seems a little simple and I think you could get more info out of people

Steve B
02-01-2010, 06:34 AM
Welcome to the forum - it's nice to see someone checking in that doesn't have a web-based business. By the nature of our forum (i.e. web-based!) we tend to be light on the B&M businesses.

Re: your survey, I don't think the information you gain will be beneficial. The results won't matter because any place on the planet with a certain amount of children and a certain income level is going to be able to support a certain amount of birthday party options for kids. You just need to know the demographics of your area and determine if there are already too many options. Even if there are too many options, there will always be room for an option that is a bit better, bigger, faster, cheaper, more extravagant etc. My advice is to examine the demographics of your area, evaluate the competition, and decide if there is room for your idea. You may want to conduct a SWOT analysis in order to pick the niche that you will target.

dynocat
02-01-2010, 10:30 AM
Have you thoroughly researched other children's birthday party sites? There are quite a few, both good or bad, out there.

aznar5
02-01-2010, 10:53 AM
Thanks for the responses.

I am finding out with horrible click rates on emails, that I won't get a large enough sample anyway.

But the main points I wanted to get from the survey were how much were people willing to pay, what length of party were they wanting, and the biggest question is whether or not they liked the idea of a private arcade party which is what I wanted to open.

I think you are right with regards to the importance of the survey. There are 27+k children in my target age range in 10 miles, and there are only 2 main players with national names that take in the vast majority of the business here in town, based on the anecdotal evidence of my own children frequenting these facilities for parties multiple times per year.

Based on my research so far, I need 400 of these 27k children to break even every year. I'm thinking there is room for all of us at this point.

KristineS
02-01-2010, 03:43 PM
Kudos to you for doing your research. That's such a vital part of starting a successful business and so many people neglect that step.

Patrysha
02-01-2010, 03:46 PM
But the main points I wanted to get from the survey were how much were people willing to pay, what length of party were they wanting, and the biggest question is whether or not they liked the idea of a private arcade party which is what I wanted to open.

Those rates are going to vary depending on the demographic and culture of each respondent, so unless you're accounting for that in the survey process you'd be ending up with a lot of data that can't be co-related for marketing purposes down the road.

Remember too that beyond the main players there are likely also bowling alleys, swimming pools and community halls that are taking up some of that birthday action.

You may find that there is a market for it, but it's going to depend a lot of on your location combined with strong positioning through your marketing.

Steve B
02-01-2010, 07:00 PM
Just to be clear - I assume that's 400 attendees - not 400 children having their party at your site.

Patrysha
02-01-2010, 07:51 PM
Oh good question Steve, I was thinking 400 parties...or just over 1 party per day.

aznar5
02-01-2010, 10:07 PM
Yes 400 birthday children (parties). But i just reviewed my business plan again and the break even is actually 180 parties. 400 is my aggressive first years sales forecast. 8 parties a week.

Steve B
02-02-2010, 05:33 AM
Wow - That's extremely aggressive.

I don't know anything about that kind of business, but I bet you'll be lucky to get 1 or 2 parties a WEEK during your first six months. Maybe 3 or 4 parties a week during the second six months.

I've started several businesses and it's extremely hard to get started. Make sure you have enough money to handle things until you can get the number of parties you need to break even.

Spider
02-02-2010, 09:58 AM
I think we are approaching this the wrong way round. It seems so often people want to start a businesses they know little about. When I see a would-be business owner asking fundamental questions, I see another potential failure.

Of course, failure isn't guaranteed starting a business one knows nothing about, but the odds of success are much reduced. Why stack the odds against yourself at such a critical time?

The better approach is to start a business one knows. Start a business with which one is already familiar through employment or extensive use as a customer. As an employee, do your job as if you were the owner and watch, get involved, volunteer in as many aspects of the business as possible. As a frequent customer get acquainted with the owner, talk about the business, volunteer to help.

If you are going to learn "on-the-job," use someone else's job to learn on! Someone has to pay for the training - training is never free. Learning in your own business can be very expensive to the point of losing everything.

If you have experience in this business, I would expect you to not need a survey of this sort - you would already know the answers from experience. If not, then I recommend starting a business in something with which you have experience.

If you are particularly sold on the idea of children's parties, spend a year arranging parties for children for free (expenses only) and then gradually turn it into a business. People will be far more forgiving of errors if they are not actually paying for your services. Once you are in business and they pay for your service, a certain amount of professionalism is expected and errors will not be tolerated.

In short, if you are going into business, you have to know what you are doing and know from experience that you can do it well.

Paul Elliott
02-03-2010, 04:48 PM
Aznar, the comments so far raise some very valid questions.

What are your thoughts on some of Spider's comments right above?

Paul

aznar5
02-03-2010, 10:03 PM
I would have to disagree with Spider's comments that I don't know much about the childen's party business. I have been researching this idea for a couple of months now and I have enough personal experience under my belt with two small children attending up to 4 parties on Saturdays.

Yes the questions were basic, but I guess I wanted validation on the estimates/figures I came up with.

National chains such as Pump it Up and Bounce U pull in $400-500k revenue per year per facility. My capacity would be half of theirs as they usually have 2 bounce rooms at each location. I have seen figures ranging from 1400-1700 parties per year at each facility so taking a peek at their schedules that should be around 85% capacity.

If I can do half as good a job pulling in customers and with half of their capacity, the idea should be viable, at least for my profit requirements. With fixed costs running around $2900/month depending on location and per party direct costs at $12.37 I would need 15 parties/month or 4 a week.

Perhaps 400 in the first year is high, but I won't know how much I'm off until I hit the ground running.

Now, if you want to say I don't know much about marketing I will agree with you there :)

Paul Elliott
02-04-2010, 12:38 AM
But the main points I wanted to get from the survey were how much were people willing to pay, what length of party were they wanting, and the biggest question is whether or not they liked the idea of a private arcade party which is what I wanted to open.

I think you are right with regards to the importance of the survey. There are 27+k children in my target age range in 10 miles, and there are only 2 main players with national names that take in the vast majority of the business here in town, based on the anecdotal evidence of my own children frequenting these facilities for parties multiple times per year.

Based on my research so far, I need 400 of these 27k children to break even every year. I'm thinking there is room for all of us at this point.

With respect to the competition:


Evaluate everything about each venue.
You will find you cannot vary much re: services and price. The existing places have already established the "norms" for your area.
Talk casually with some of the owners/managers/employees and find out what their struggles and headaches are.
Ask them about the other vendors in the area. Often, they will be very forthcoming about their competitors' weaknesses and failings. You can then learn about them from other competitors.
You may find that some of the businesses will be for sale. That can be good or bad depending on many factors, of course, but exploring such a purchase may be one the best ways to evaluate the marketplace for such a business.
Then look for areas where you can distinguish your program and options while remaining competitive. Figure out what they are unable or unwilling to do and see if you can excel there.
The children will be easily pleased, it will be the parents where you will succeed or fail.

Only when you know such things as these will you know whether you want to or even should enter the market.

My best to you.

Paul

aznar5
02-04-2010, 05:35 PM
Thanks for the tips Paul. You are right about the parents. I have to make them happy. Word of mouth is huge in this business.

billbenson
02-04-2010, 10:50 PM
just out of curiousity, where are you, or what are the demographics for a business like this to succeed. Sounds like something that would work well in wealthy suburbia. Where does it work well?

Paul Elliott
02-05-2010, 12:01 AM
Thanks for the tips Paul. You are right about the parents. I have to make them happy. Word of mouth is huge in this business.

You can get my e-course below and adapt some of those techniques.

My best to you!

Paul