private members' club for families

[pippiLS]

So do you think £10 per week for access to a stylish child-friendly club (with tasteful soft play areas etc) is a big ask?

DH thinks it's too much and no none would pay it whereas I think £520 for annual membership of a place where people with babies/toddlers go and meet other mums/dads/nannies, have a decent coffee (maybe even a tasty, healthy lunch), relax in comfort and attend classes with their little ones is an OK price to pay.

Am I being unreasonable to be considering opening such a place as a business venture?

[Patchouli]

We'll £40 ish out of our monthly budget for what you've described so far would be a waste of money for me. So you'd be keeping the riff raff out.

If you're in an area with not a lot else and unimaginative people with too much spare cash, it could be worth a go.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Take a look at CupcakeMum, which failed.

Who is your target? Lots of people don't go to soft play any more than once a week, so PAYG makes more sense.

[jacks365]

I don't pay much more for my health club membership and it offers everything you do and far more as well. I wouldn't pay £10 a week for the little you are offering.

[pippiLS]

From what I understand, most of the revenue is from selling classes. I was thinking of £10 per class, no more than 10 children per class, and up to 3 classes a day. Also, by offering to host parties you can also make money, the same with serving food. I agree that it would be expensive to run. I have anticipated that you would need:

a cleaner
a cook/coffee server
people to teach the classes

just to start with.

[mirpuppet]

PAYG with an attractive membership option. Most people won't pay for membership unless they are really local.

We change what we like to do as children age - so I wouldn't be a member of most things for more than a year. Even the coffee shops around me have changed over the last 5 years always need to find new customers.

[Hoppinggreen]

No I wouldn't.
I wouldn't want to go to the same place and see the same people all the time.
Plus if the weather is nice ( or even if it isn't raining) we refer to be outside.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

For not much more than £40 a month I can join the leisure centre, go to the gym and pay a little extra for the kids to go to crèche or come swimming.

It's not just how much it costs per day, it's what are the comparators, how often will people use it, which part if their budget is it from?

Don't forget fit out costs, staff costs, food hygeine etc etc.

[BobTheFly]

Good god no and I live in a wealthy area.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Look at Gymboree as well.

[MarshaBrady]

Looked at that Cupcakemum one. It's £80 a month. So for £80 you get a nice gym and most people think they should go 3 times ish a week to make it worth it. Also what's more expensive to run? Maybe the child one.

Would you really take your dc to a class type place 3 times a week? It would get very repetitive.

So the very expensive ones survive because £4k or £800 isn't much comparatively and it doesn't matter if they only go once a week or month. But they really are Kensington type places.

[WorraLiberty]

Just one cleaner and one person to cook food and serve coffee?

[pippiLS]

The ball pool wouldn't be my sum offering, there would be a cinema/wii room that could also screen movies for the adults with babes in arms. I also envisage a play room with tasteful wooden toys and a lego/playmobil room, space for push alongs and ride on toys and also dressing up things and a painting space (probably best used for classes though).

[Hoppinggreen]

Pippi - hope this doesn't sound rude but are you designing what you want rather than an actual business? Sounds idyllic but not a way to make any money

[WorraLiberty]

Won't the broadcasting license cost a fortune for the cinema?

Or are you not talking about screening the latest movies?

[Llareggub]

£10 per class? Blimey. With my PFB I got together with my NCT class and we had a group baby massage class. Just us. We paid a fiver a week each (I think) for 2 hours and excellent biscuits. I'd never pay a tenner.

My old country club type place was £110 per month for family membership but all classes were included in the price. I now pay £56 per month for a hotel lesiure club membership and again all classes are included in the price. The soft play days are behind us thankfully but I'd pay good money never to set foot in one again.

It's a nice idea and probably now and again I'd like the sort of olace you describe but actually I don't like other people's kids very much so wouldn't want to hang around in one.

[notapizzaeater]

But the kids would get bored with the same stuff all the time (I owned a soft play centre best thing I did was selling it)

[pippiLS]

Hoppinggreen, not rude at all. I am designing what I would have liked when my kids were toddlers but at the same time trying to focus on making enough money to pay myself a salary. I also hope that might allow other mums a way back into the work force.

MarshaBrady, I would hope for a town centre location (have seen the perfect venue) and can see people popping in after they have been to play at the fabulous park nearby or popping in after dropping older children off at school for a morning coffee. You would probably do one class type thing per week on a regular basis so that would be the one day a week that you might have lunch.

[ReallyTired]

I'm sorry, I don't think that your sums add up.

For a similar amount of money a family could go to a health club, or a sailing club or annual membership. Or for far less your family could have annual membership of Whipsnade Zoo which has a soft play area (ie. £132) As far individual classes, in my area you can get high quality classes of various types for far less than £10.

Just because a family is wealthy doesn't mean that they will fritter their money away. Well off families are often fairly frugal. A fool and his money are easily parted and most wealthy parents aren't fools.

[YoniMitchell]

It sounds to me like an unnecessary venue/expense for families given what's typically on offer elsewhere (variety, value etc. offered by gyms, existing classes, clubs...), plus I don't see how the numbers you're talking about would make it a viable business for you.

I'm a big fan of private members clubs (I know a few very well!) but really wouldn't be interested in this kind of set-up. Sorry.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

So I have to pay £40 PCM to be a member and another £40 per month to do one class?

[AuntieStella]

The Purple Dragon in Battersea went bust, didn't it?

The key thing is what you get included in the membership fee. The reluctance kicks in if you have to pay again for classes and activities.

[littledrummergirl]

Youve never worked in a commercial kitchen have you?
If you want good service and clean facilities you have to have people to provide them.
If I was paying your asking price, I would expect as a minimum:
A receptionist
Quick service, no queues so one person to take the order, another to make the drink and another to serve the food to where I was sitting. You wold also need a cook and someone to run the dishwasher.
Staff available to help with queries.
A first aider.
A dedicated cleaner to maintain high standards.
Thats at least seven people, seven days a week from 7am to use the facilities before work(my kids are up early) until 8.30 pm to see friends after work.
I dont think your idea would meet my expectations.

[BackforGood]

It sounds all a bit unnecessary to me.

I would hope for a town centre location (have seen the perfect venue) and can see people popping in after they have been to play at the fabulous park nearby or popping in after dropping older children off at school for a morning coffee

You can do all this in a local Church near me, or in some of the CCs - and it doesn't cost you anything to walk through the door - you only pay for your coffee or snack.
You can also choose to opt in to classes through local community halls or, again, CCs as and when you want to, for a lot less than £10. There's another centre near here where they have a really child friendly cafe (play area outside, boxes of books and toys for babies to play with inside) which is attached to the hall where they also run various classes if you want to go to those.

Maybe you are just targeting a different demograph than those of us on here, but I can't understand why anyone would want to pay out £40 a month for something they can do for free.