First of all thank you for opening this thread! Any comments/input gratefully received
I am looking to set up a new holiday camp to hopefully be up and running for Christmas this year. Looking to target the private school sector initially as the school holidays are longer, leaving the parents with greater childcare needs and it is an area where we have some connections as my husband works in a private school.
We are looking to be set up to run the week of 15th - 19th December (with possibly running for a couple of days the following week...22nd/23rd, and then the week after Christmas should demand call for it)
The idea is for it to be a sports camp with also a bit of arts and crafts thrown in. We have links to private schools to rent their sports halls, have specialist equipment lined up to order and are looking to employ sports qualified staff in order for the children to receive specialist coach training in sports such as football, netball, rugby, tennis, dodgeball etc...
If budget will stretch we also have contacts for outside instructors to come in and offer specialist days etc.. Aimed at children 5-11. Both of us
having worked in education we are aware of all the safeguarding and ofsted regulations etc.
I was just wondering whether there was much call for this kind of childcare at this time of year. My babies are still small and as my husband is a teacher we normally have childcare covered over holidays etc.. I'm not sure whether parents have childcare covered for Christmas holidays way in advance or whether now (Aug/Sept) time is the perfect time to get advertising. We are going to offer heavy discounts for booking before October - is this also something that would entice you in to book? We are looking for it to be affordable, hopefully a little lower than what other camps charge.
Our Experience
Both myself and husband have worked in holiday camps before and feel we could do a better job running one ourselves.
Husband is a sports coach and also teacher qualified
I have ran businesses in the past
Know plenty of highly qualified sports coaches
(there's probably more but I have forgotten!)
This business requires quite a lot of initial funding (website design, equipment, sports hall hire etc.. to name a few) so before we go full throttle and invest many man hours and money into it I just wanted to know there was a market for what we are offering. I do have website designers on hold ready for the go, go, go as I am aware we are on a tight timeframe too!
Thank you for taking the time to read through all my waffle! Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated