Play Space Need A Face Lift? Consider This Creating Funding Strategy Even Existing Businesses Can Use!

Well, it’s January– often thought of as the month of self-improvement and renewal. But something I have also noticed is that a lot of indoor playground and play cafe business owners are also giving their spaces upgrades as well.

And this made me think of a strategy we employed in year 2 of our business when we wanted to do the same.

(And by the way-- if you're a podcast fan like myself, you can listen to this information on my Profitable Play Podcast linked here instead of reading! Just sayin'.)

For some context– by this time I had noticed that our play houses were constantly overcrowded and bursting with kiddos– and even when we weren’t near capacity, the play area felt crowded. This was because, as I mentioned, everyone tended to congregate in our most popular areas– often kids and adults alike.

This made it difficult for us to reach our daily revenue goals because, again, even if we were well under capacity, I constantly had the feeling that if we let in one more family, it would add to the crowding therefore detracting from the experience from all the guests. And since we were still fairly new, it was extremely important for me to ensure that guests enjoyed themselves and wanted to return.

After visiting some other Play Cafes around the country– I realized I had missed an opportunity when we first designed our play space. I had not added any activities or attractions to the walls or perimeter of our play area. Sure, we had wall fixtures in the cafe, our waiting area, and in our quiet/ sensory corner– but none in the play area itself.

I also realized that by adding these fixtures, I could significantly spread out the kiddos enjoying our space and solve our issue of playhouse crowding– which honestly rose to being a safety issue.

While doing research and working with a consultant, I also realized that wall fixtures would have made my space much more accessible and inclusive of children with ALL abilities.

This would especially be true for those with sensory processing issues who needed a break from the chaos in the center of the play area where our “main attractions” were, as well as children with physical disabilities or wheelchairs that prevented them from climbing and utilizing some of our other equipment. Since inclusivity and accessibility were two of my businesses core values– it made it a no brainer to get to work on these additions. 

The problem was, in my research, I knew this new equipment would cost around $7,000 (we chose HABA wall panels) to really do correctly. And having just entered my second year of business– I was still in the process of recouping my start up costs and finding my footing– especially through our slow season. 

Sure, I could have bought one piece at a time and make it financially feasible that way.

However, we were really seeing that loss of revenue and overcrowding that I mentioned and I knew the poor experiences it was causing would be a serious long-term issue for my business since I relied on repeat business, positive word of mouth, memberships, upsells like parties– all that.

Also, there was a new play cafe copycat business opening just a few minutes away from us and they were getting a lot of media attention, just as we did at the beginning. So it was really important for me to make a big splash that reinvigorated the media and our customers alike and further aligned us with the mission I sought to fulfill from the start.

Because I did not have a spare $7,000 to spend (and this includes tax, shipping, etc)-- I decided to get creative with how we’d come up with the money.

I would foot what I could from the bill as it WAS a business reinvestment and a potential tax write-off, and I would use crowdfunding to source the rest.

We had not used crowdfunding at the start of our indoor playground business so doing so now seemed like a huge opportunity.

I put together a campaign (I used Kickstarter, but you can also use Mainvest, Go Fund Me, or another crowdfunding platform!) shared the exact toys and equipment we planned to purchase with the money (we chose $2,500 as our goal but ended up exceeding that amount), and I wrote several blogs and recorded several videos about all of the positive benefits our customers could expect with the improvements that I mentioned earlier.

Being extremely specific about our intentions really helped us in this scenario– it wasn’t just a blind fundraising effort– and our specific emphasis on accessibility and inclusivity caused our story to be picked up by all the local news outlets, influencers, and bloggers which helped spread the word. 

Setting an achievable goal helped as well– because I shared with our customers that we were not expecting them to fund the entire project. We were taking on the bulk of the expense– we just needed a little help reaching the finish line as a new business.

It was also an amount I was willing to contribute to as well if I needed to– so as to not lose out on all of the contributed money if we did NOT reach our final goal.

To incentivize customers to contribute– we offered things that were very valuable to our customers, but were of little DIRECT cost to us. And as a reminder, A direct cost is a price that can be directly tied to the production of specific goods or services. So, for example, when selling a toy– our wholesale price we purchased it for would be the DIRECT cost. The difference between our selling price and our direct cost would be our profit. Retail items have a HIGH direct cost, so we did not include them in this campaign.

Instead, we focused on packs of play passes, free coffee passes (one of our highest profit margin items), party add-ons we offered in house like decor– things like that. But we kept it pretty simple. We allowed people to choose their contribution and got rewarded based on that– kind of like in tiers.

We also did things that were NO cost to us such as sharing the names of our contributors on social media and thanking them, and we also hosted a first sneak peak to everyone who contributed before unveiling our improvements to the public. I have also seen play cafe business owners create a wall with names of contributors or allowing them to sign something or hanging a picture of them in their spaces which I LOVE.

We even raffled off "yearly sponsorship" one of our Play Houses as part of reaching our crowdfunding goal! We had a customer help us make a Cricut sign (that only cost a few dollars!) but allowed us to raise hundreds towards our goal-- since it was of great sentimental value to the family that bid on it. PLUS, this strategy allowed us to auction it off again yearly!

Now I have an entire lesson about successfully crowdfunding in my Play Cafe Academy course and also touch on it in my free “How to Fund Your Indoor Playground Business training” which is linked here– both providing much more detail and examples than I could possibly share here.

But I did want to share some pro’s and con’s about this method of funding, in case this is something you’re considering. Because while this seems like “free money”-- there are some pitfalls I want you to be aware of.

Pros:

• It’s easy to get between $1,000 and $5,000 with the tips inside Play Cafe Academy
• If there is anyone in your life excited about your journey, this is a great way for them to get involved without forking over a large loan- they can donate as little as $1
• It’s low risk, especially if you’re asking for donations
• It can build a sense of community and generate excitement prior to opening or to reinvigorate your customer base

Cons:

• If you don’t reach your crowdfunding goal, you may get nothing
• It will be difficult to raise any more than $5,000, especially as an existing business
• It will likely be MORE work than you think when you take into account the dispersing of prizes, the writing of the campaign itself, social media promotion, writing updates to your contributors, etc.
• Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites will take a % of your money as their fee

If you’re interested in launching a crowdfunding campaign– I’d love to help! You can click below to learn more about becoming a Play Cafe Academy student and unlocking a FREE month inside Play Maker Society, my group coaching and resource membership for indoor playground owners!