Not sure where to put this, BUT would anyone use a kid's party service

[messylittlemonkey]

or do you prefer to do it yourself?

I'm in the throes of planning DD1s 5th birthday party and got to thinking tht this could be a business idea (not wildly original I know!).

Anyway, before I get lost in a fantasy world, would anyone actually use such a service?

I'd be looking at providing a fairly comprehensive package including food on the day, birthday cake, decorations, party bags, costumes, games, prizes etc...

I wouldn't get involved with hosting, but just provide everything else.

whaddya think?

I think the market is over saturated. But, if you live in an affluent area and could market yourself well (eg word of mouth at school etc so people know its someone they know), you might do ok. I'm not sure about just providing the themed stuff though; its fairly easy to get themed items, so you'd have to get ultra lazy/busy parents as your customers? I think you'd do better coming along as a dressed up party host.

The hosting bit is the only bit I hate. Aprt from making cheese spread sanwhiches.

So really you'd be offering catering with exta's.

You can get most stuff on line delivered to the door, so would you actually decortate the venue, or just deliver the decorations?

You'd have to offer the full thing; decorating, laying out the food, preparing the games etc etc.

I was thinking of doing everything BUT the hosting.

I know you can get it all delivered but I'm finding myself spedng ages online sourcing bits and pieces here and there. I could certainly decorate the venue, set food out etc...

We do live in a fairly affluent area so there might be some takers!

I use party organisers for DDs parties but they must arrange or do the 'hosting' entertainment. There are quite a few of them tbh
You would need a team of entertainers ( probably on an agency basis) because most of us who use them don't mind the decorating or the food... that is not the primary service we are after

Thanks, that's useful information.

I can understand that the hosting is the key bit. The thing for me is, I'm looking for a business which I can primarily run from home as I have two DDs, one of them a baby. I just wouldn't have the time/inclination to host the party too! I just thought that if I could offer s service where everything is set up then the parents can do the rest - I wouldn't prticularly want someone else hosting my child's party, but that's just me!

I think this has potential, but you would need to spend some time with the parents explaining the games, perhaps, which makes it less useful.

If I had the money I would presumably have less time, so I might be interested in this sort of thing. In particular, it is hard to find themed stuff that is not a commercial character - e.g. space stuff that is not Lunar Jim, pirate stuff that is not Pirates of the Caribbean etc. I might pay a bit for a complete package of this stuff, especially if someone set it all up for me, with a list of good, varied games (and explanations of how to play them...) for example, I'm never going to provide a pinata for ds as I don't know how to hang stuff up, I am incredibly kack-handed.

If you included some form of cut-price cake provision (e.g. you could provide a cake in any of 6 number shapes, OR a train, OR a princess, OR a castle, with basic icing in one of four colours, and they do any additional decorating they want to do) that might be a goer. There's nothing between paying full rates for a proper full on hand-made cake, and buying one with Toy Story 3 on for £7.99
at the supermarket. If you could make it work for say £20, you might have a goer there. But I'd presume it's not viable, since people don't do it.

I think you will need several small businesses of this type to make any of this viable tbh. You could also offer baking and/or craft sessions for parties?

I don't think it will work. Agree with previous poster - the market is oversaturated. I use entertainers, and there are so so many to choose from, they offer whatever you want them to do and they are extremely competitively priced! Similar to cost of taking them all to soft play area! You can get science parties, Punch and Judy, all kind of magicians, games organiser, music parties, dance parties, name it and it is on offer. They might not do cake but to be honest you can get so many nice cakes in Waitrose, M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury, that I hardly think that that is an issue either. Don't want to dampen your spirits, but it would be costly for you to embark on something if you have to compete with so many already in the market, with prices being so competitive.

No

I wouldn't be interested in someone providing only the bits that I can quite easily do myself.

Why buy a dog and bark yourself

the hosting/entertainment is the primary function of a party organiser