Business, Marketing, and Life Advice for Play-Based Business Owners

"I wanted to take this opportunity to share how Play Cafe Academy and Playmaker society has helped me launch my business.

At first found Michele through her YouTube videos and I realized, okay, I need to take the leap and just go through the course and see if this is something for me. But that was just the beginning, because the [Play Maker Society] Facebook group has really been instrumental.

I can hear from other play cafe owners throughout the entire country, and see how they're doing...

It was recently estimated by the CDC that over 5.4 MILLION adults in the United States  (2.21% of American adults) have ASD.  The states with the greatest estimated number of adults living with ASD included California (701,669), Texas (449,631), New York (342,280), and Florida (329,131). And similarly, the nationally representative survey suggests that about 1.5 million U.S. kids have autism, or about 1 in 40.

To put it in perspective, most indoor playgrounds serve between 25 and...

One of the biggest reservations I hear from play space owners who are nervous to install a full cafe in their space is,

“well, I can’t afford to hire additional staff a cafe would require..."

If you haven’t listened to episode 55 of my podcast yet, go back and listen to it because I break down this objection in painstaking detail, but today I want to share two ways with you that you use to dispel this fear even further.

And just to recap ONE point from episode 55 in case...

In the past I’ve talked about how to find potential opportunities to decrease some of your costs, especially if your business model has shifted at all since opening. Or if your volume is a little different than expected. 

However, what happens if you can't decrease a specific price? Even  worse, what if you are facing price increases? That's the situation, unfortunately, many small business owners in every industry, not just ours, are faced with as we go through 2022. 

...

Two of my most-downloaded episodes to this day are episodes 13: 13 Marketing Lessons To Be Learned From Taylor Swift and episode 39: 4 Marketing Lessons to be Learned from Taylor Swift’s Surprise Album Drop (referring to folklore, her first of TWO surprise releases).

For this reason (and also my sheer excitement) I figured I would give you MY take on business and marketing lessons we can all take away from Taylor swifts album re records, her second of which is coming TONIGHT (if...

As a local business owner, you’ve probably heard along the way that blogging can help you increase your website traffic.

And you’ve also probably thought… GREAT! I could use some extra traffic to my site for free. I’ll be sure to start blogging right away!

But you might have gotten stuck there. 

OR pushed blogging to the back-burner.

And I get it-- when I opened a brick-and-mortar indoor playground back in 2015 I told myself for YEARS that “as soon as I...

I've gotten a couple questions lately about WHY I've been talking so much about membership sites lately...

After all, many people have come to my little corner of the internet because they had BIG brick & mortar business dreams.

So... why would I talk about creating an ONLINE membership all of a sudden?

Well, let me explain.

1. Opening a brick & mortar biz is harder than ever for some.

Funding is scarce, banks are more wary of providing loans to brick and mortar businesses...

Is it REALLY possible to build (or grow) a wildly-successful online membership business when the economy is unstable?

The answer is, ABSOLUTELY.

And THOUSANDS of entrepreneurs have done it, even during the past year, when many other businesses were slowing or even shutting their doors.

Listen, maybe you’re looking for a fresh start…

…you’re a business owner looking for a way to weather the economic ups and downs…

…or you’re an author, speaker, or...

This isn't going to be my typical blog-- but I wanted to get this out there in case anyone needed to read it.

Around this time in 2015, I opened my first indoor playground location.

I am reminded every year by my memories that pop up on Facebook.

And in all those pictures of our first opening months, I am always smiling, playing with my children, greeting new customers.

But to be honest-- I get a knot in my stomach every time I look at them.

Because even...