would you pay for this?

[Beansmum]

would you pay for someone to provide food for a kids party? not an organiser, just the food and goodie bags and decorations, then you organise the decorating, games and serve the food yourself.

The food would include the cake and healthy alternatives to the normal party junk food. Homemade jelly and icecream, cookies, mini pizza, dips with cut up veges and crisps etc

Kind of like a party in a box, the stuff all gets delivered and you do the rest yourself. It could include themed decorations and plates, cups and cutlery, ideas for party games as well as themed goodie bags for the guests.

[suzywong]

good idea and good luck to you



but I have to say you will be hard pressed to compete on pricing with tesco. If you pick the right area, as in working mothers with nannies then you could be lucky. ( I used to be in catering and found kids parties very hit and miss and of course not much repeat business)

But seriously good luck - watch your profit margins, you need to be certain you can source all you materials and supplies under one or two rooves as going from store to store will be costly for you and you also need to provide things that can't be got in tescos IYSWIM, you need a unique selling point. Actually I think if you do the decorating as well then that would set you up well - it would be something extra)

good luck

[Mum2girls]

yes I would (depending on price obviously)

[elliott]

yes it sounds like a good idea . think suzywong has some v valid business points.
For me I would pay extra to have a)homemade healthy food (like I would make myself if I had time) not just what I could get in tescos) b)some extra creative touches I can't manage myself, like shaped biscuits and sandwiches, kind of a la Nigella, maybe also the themed decorations c) a nicely iced cake that isn't just what you'd get off the shelf.
but I agree it could be a challenge to make money on it - needs an affluent area I think.

[JanH]

I might have (kids too old now) if the emphasis was fresh/home-made/healthy/organic and not cheap and easy party junk food.

[suzywong]

also ... while I am being a know it all ... as posted alot on Hazlinh's thread about party food, all the kids want is watsits and smarties so you would be appealing to the sensibilites and values of the parents. Now the kids won't eat all the food, a lot will be left over and, ergo sum, the parents may think it has not been good value.

Don't let that put you off altogether, it just means you have to target your clientbase very precisely, advertise in health food shops, advertise a nut and allergy free menu ( you need to be really on the ball to pull this off, not saying that you aren't btw) and repeat business may be hard to come by.

You probably know that you will need to get your premises, especially if you plan to cook in your home kitchen, inspected and approved by the environmental health dept of your council. Please forgive me if I am teaching you to suck eggs.

[Twiglett]

I would pay if the food was brought, served up and cleaned up afterwards

I found, up until this year, that I would spend all my time in the kitchen / sorting out food within the 2 hour time slot and not get to see any of the party

TBH I wouldn't personally pay for a cake though, cos I like making my own

[Trifle]

I probably wouldnt pay for it as it is quite easy to do healthy alternatives at childrens parties. I think it's complete nonsense that crap like wotsits and smarties are served as people seem to think it is essential to guarantee happy children. At ds' 5 birthday I did the food and it consisted of fromage frais, grapes, satsuma, carrot batons, cheese pitta, mini sausages and water to drink. There was not one complaint about the lack of crisps, I dont think any of the children even noticed. Nor were there any tantrums about the lack of cakes, biscuits, sweets etc. Bar the odd mouthful, it was all eaten.

[Tinker]

Have a freind who does this. Could get more details if you like.

[morningpaper]

I don't find toddler's parties any trouble at all. We've had six parties I think since dd was born. It's so easy to make small plates of food etc. and very cheap. I personally wouldn't pay for this service.

[motherinferior]

I would throw a tantrum if I didn't get one of my rare crisp-opportunities provided at a party. And a cake-free party is surely rather like a cake-free life - virtuous yet strangely tragic?

[WideWebWitch]

I'm another who wouldn't pay but mainly because I quite enjoy doing the food for parties and I don't think it's that much effort. I tend to go for middle ground with food, with some healthy stuff like satsumas and raisins (but stuff that can be kept if it's not touched) and a complete crap fest for the rest, crisps, cakes, biscuits etc and a few sandwiches.

[hazlinh]

omg twigglett i found exactly the same thing, i was stuck at the sink the whole 2 hours and was quietly fuming that i wasn't seeing dd's first birthday!!!!!!!

i would definitely pay if you organised and cleaned up, altho you'd have to keep it reasonably priced to entice customers

[TwinSetAndPearls]

Beansmum, whereabouts are you, as I a m thinking of going into a similar area, I have a post going but as dd is shouting me I can't do a link at the moment.