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

@Blueeyedgirl21 why do you need 3 members of staff? We go to a baby music class with 13 mums and babies and one leader?

I assumed the parents would leave their kids.

I have never been to a baby class where you got to leave your baby so I really don't get the PP comments about that. Very strange. Op I'm in SW. i pay £8 for sensory and £11 for a make believe imaginary play thing and about £10 for a soft play class. I would never pay £11 for messy play. Way too high for something you can do at home sorry

People won’t pay £10 a week for a class, once a month is fine, so you would need to find 45 different people weekly.

I don’t think this is a good idea.

For £10 I would expect it to be VERY good. Not just some cold beans (grim!) and saving foam on a tuff tray. £10 for one hour is super expensive when you think most maternity pay is shite. I guess it would depend on what you were offering as to whether you would get the numbers.

I'm probably not great though as both me and my two children hate messy play. I know some kids love it though

I used to go to one of these and it was quite good, very different to the £1 church group, although I liked both.

There were all in one suits for all the children so they didn't get messy, much nicer craft stuff than the cheaper groups, and a much more formal set up so great if you found the socializing over a cup of tea and biscuit awkward!

That said, one of the top things it had going for it was that it ran in the upstairs of a kid-friendly museum with a cafe so it slotted easily into the morning out routine for lots of mums and toddlers. Despite this it still stopped running - the woman was desperate to sell her franchise and nobody wanted to buy it from her.

@cigarettesNalcohol

I think we are talking about two very different experiences.

There is a church playgroup near me which is free. It's not the same as a messy play/ sensory baby class.

Where I live classes are over subscribed. People go on waiting lists for monkey music, artventurers, baby sensory, hartbeeps etc.

I run a play group ( not messy play)

Hall hire can be anywhere between £10 - £20 per hour. Most are around £15.

I pay £15 a month insurence.

If you dont know much about business, I suggest looking into joining a franchise. It will give you more chance of success.

Check out childrens franchises website. Lots of info and different play groups to look in to.

www.childrensfranchise.co.uk/sensory-play-and-physical-play-franchises

Hope this helps :)

I wouldn't have been paying £10 for a weekly session for anything as I didn't have that much spare money when on maternity leave. Would you have enough potential clients near you who could afford to spend that much on weekly sessions?

For inspiration (Australia though): www.playstudiokids.com/

Run it on weekends, you can charge more

Those of us who work full time would like to take our toddlers ti stuff at the weekend but most toddler classes are in the week

We have more £ to spend as working, and only going to 1-2 things a week

2 hours hall hire here is around £80, plus materials for the class means I think bringing in £150 would leave you very little profit.

Why? If parents are staying you don’t need any extra staff.

Why don't you start looking to join more of a franchise than run your own- then you will get more support - think it's called Artventurers , it's in Lincolnshire but think it's around the UK - that's messy play and art linked.
I think £10 a session is too steep too - say if you did a term of 6/7weeks of 15 people (so there's commitment) then charge £45 ish would be better x

I used to run a messy play type franchise. It is possible to make money but not easy - you really need to grow the business to the point of having staff or look at after school clubs as well as parent/child sessions. Birthday parties are another option. If you are just doing a few sessions a week on your own you'll probably just about cover your costs and maybe make a bit of pocket money but it's not really worth it for the hours of work you need to put in to prepare for your sessions.
That said, I did enjoy the freedom of it and I met loads of lovely people, some of them are still friends now and it really helped build my confidence when my kids were little.
Good luck!

£10-11 is far too much!!
There's a lot of free/donation things

Only one of these type of things (that wasn’t church/volunteer based) I’ve known survive was run by two friends. They had a messy play area but also a lot of toys, a bouncy castle, soft play stuff, ride on toys, bubbles, a water table, craft area, playdough table etc. They appealed to babies, toddlers and preschoolers - lots of SAHM, nannies and childminders went because they could bring all their kids rather than just a baby to a baby class.

It went to a different village hall every weekday and they hired all the equipment out for birthday parties on weekends. Cost was about £3 for a village hall session on a drop in basis, and there’d be maybe 40 families there over the course of a morning, plus they’d sell snacks and drinks. Birthday party hire was individually priced so I don’t know what that cost.

I got chatting to one of them once and they worked monumentally hard - driving all over the county, loading and unloading the van, setting up, cleaning up, taking money, selling snacks and drinks, buying materials, loads of marketing and social media, all the legal and financial side (insurance, accounting, tax, health and safety, training, van maintenance, equipment maintenance…). They worked 6 or 7 days a week. It kept going for absolutely years until covid hit so they must have made something but I doubt it was a massive money spinner.

There must be easier ways to make money OP.

Extra staff would be something to consider even if the parents were staying. The amount of cleaning up that would need doing would be considerable, renting somewhere would mean it would have to left spotless and might even mean paying for an extra hour before and after to set up and get everything cleared away.

I go to plenty of groups and have never paid more than £6... And that one is a petting farm thing with live animals as well as sensory play.
£10 is far far to steep for a baby group.

You might be better offering messy play parties. Guaranteed numbers and the parents will pay for the venue so you just provide the entertainment.

£11 is steep, ouch. I run a messy play and our insurance is £150 a year. Happy to talk more specifics in messages if you have any other questions about costs. Let me put it this way, I don’t take a wage and I do it for love.

Lovely independent messy play business near me, £10 a session with a discount for block booking. For all babies and pre schoolers, baths at the end, 2 members of staff, strict about allergens, super creative set ups, classes very well attended.
No idea if they're making money but there's definitely a market for it.

There's a world of difference between the cheap church hall toddler groups and the organised activities, both are great depending what you want on the day