Running a messy play group…..help please

[Megan0909]

Hi,

I am thinking of starting my own messy play group, we have a good one in our area but it’s only once a month. They charge £11 for a child, if I could run a session 4 days a week (a different town each day) charging say £10 for a child, hoping in time to get say 15 children per session, after the venue cost and insurance would I have much left? Or is it more hassle than it’s worth?

thanks

Google for commercial insurance and you can probably get an online quote.

One if the issues with baby groups is you are constantly losing customers because people will come for a few months and then they finish maternity leave or go back to work etc. there is a reason the one near you only runs once a month, it may not be booked up if it ran every day.

www.markeluk.com/charity-insurance/parent-baby-toddler-group-insurance?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwbf614DD_AIVFsPVCh2NfQDvEAAYASAAEgK0bfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

With a baby group you're also constantly having to acquire new customers as it's such a short time people come.

I run a small business that has a service for pregnancy and it's hard always having to attract new customers compared to the other part of the business.

It’s a different world. I attended toddlers in a local community hall up until 3 years ago. I paid 50p.

For this I got a cup of tea, drink for dc, biscuits each, a craft or messy play activity - stickering, home made lavender play dough etc, loads of equipment and pedal cars etc.

I would be so shocked to be asked for £10/11

Personally I can't see how it will be a big money maker.

We pay between £2.50 and £5 for classes that include things like tuff tray play, bubble machines etc. I definitely wouldn't pay £10 per child. Not worth it for the enjoyment they would get V a cheaper group.

I would pay £10 per session for messy play (baby/toddler groups are £8-12 round here). But I probably wouldn't come every week and I wouldn't book if I had to buy a block of lessons since missing them due to illness/holidays would be too expensive.

Have you considered doing sessions outside in the summer to save on venue hire? One really good group we went to a few times pre-Covid was a woodland art type group on our local common. The activities were quite simple - think paper taped around trees for painting, bubbles, mud boxes for digging and washing dinosaurs, a 'mud kitchen' with pots and pans and buckets, leaf stamping, collecting sticks. But the kids also got to climb trees and run around a bit as well and the people running it were great. The downside of course is that it's weather-dependent.

£10 per session is too much, most I’ve been to are £5-7 and usually include access for the soft play or role play venue it’s held in.

If you can't work the costs out yourself I don't think you should be going into business.

Call up an insurance company and ask them.

50p is ridiculous, they may as well have not charged....

But £10 is mad too

I'd expect around £3-5

Surely they made a loss though? 50p sounds like something from the 1980s!

@Purpleparsley I can and I will look into them I just wanted to ask on here first before I start spending time researching, when did people on mumsnet get so rude 🤷🏻‍♀️

Do you want to spend the next few years with a van full of parachutes and bubble machines? Hauling it about everywhere and trying to clean the drool and snot off it for the next group?

Invite some friends round, stick the kids in a dry bath with some jelly and have a cup of tea.

Who funds this? Venue hire round me is £35 for an hour min before you factor in all additional costs.

I think your issues are that you will need to pay for

• your consumables - presumably quite a lot for a 'messy' session
• your staff
• your room hire
• disposal of waste
• cleaning / washing of things like towels and table covers. Cleaning materials

for every occasion you run a session

But you also have to buy up front all the things you will need to run the session - things like

• paint brushes
• sponges
• cutters
• paint pots
• glue sticks
• tuff trays

Then how are you going to transport everything ?
Get everything in and out of the venues and so forth ?

@Megan0909 you want to start a business and part of the leg work is what you have asked here. It’s hard work.

The only people that might have any even vaguely useful answer run such a business. They are probably on MN to relax away from work not to act as mentors or possibly help someone that might in direct competition.

If you asked questions about what type of messy play people (and their children) have enjoyed or not or what venues you might get more positive answers.

I think if you badly want to do this, why not get in touch with the existing group organisers and ask if you could be a subcontractor for them? Run extra sessions when they are busy elsewhere.

You would still need insurance but would benefit from piggybacking on the brand, marketing, organisation and everything else.

I think this might be 'Messy Church' which is a non profit initiative run by the Messy Church brand. My church runs one although we don't ask for any contributions.

I've run this kind of thing before through a franchise (so you get lots of marketing help etc) and it's not worth it. £10 a child is too expensive for messy play. If it was educational/musical/sports group that would be reasonable but for them to make a mess and free play ? That's too expensive.
Plus good luck finding 5 people let alone 15... advertising and keeping regular bookings with people coming back is a lot harder than you think.

It's a pound because it's not for profit. Run by church volunteers where kids can play freely, enjoy a craft, biscuit and drinks for everyone. Parents can sit and chat, kids sing at the end... it's cheap and cheerful. The £10-£15 classes are often franchises so obviously you're paying their royalty fees and income. Just depends if you see the value in spending money on a structured class or taking them to a church group where they play independently/with their peers

Decent messy play for a quid really, where do you live ! I’m in lancs and a big standard play group in a church hall is two quid, with 1995 fisher price toys and whatever gets donated by the church goers from their attics 🤣🤣! It’s lovely though and you get a drink and a biscuit 🤣
op the messy play round here is very professional, people are happy to
pay £10-15 depending on the type of session, their Christmas craft afternoon was £20! It is in its own dedicated premises though with a little Coffee bar for hot drinks, cold drinks and things like biscuits, brownies, kiddie crisps and pieces of fruit which you also pay for. The kids are literally allowed to Chuck paint up the walls they’re all wipe clean as well it’s so good

Ah ok so craft biscuit and a drink isn’t a proper messy play session/business, it’s a playgroup, that makes sense

15 children per session would mean at least 3 people as well as you. Min wage will be £10+ from April.

And you'd have to DBS them

The one near me hasn't been going for that long, and it's already up for sale.

Every time I saw its Facebook ads, I thought what a soul destroying job it must be. The clearing up at the end must be dire.

And no, I wouldn't pay £11 for my kids to play with gloop and pasta that I could get out at home. And right now, few people have £11 a week for that kind of thing.

Back in the day, I paid for tumble tots, because their equipment wasn't the kind of experience I could provide. But sensory stuff? Nah. And as others have said, you're paying for stuff that you have to throw away at the end of each session.