Need thoughts on new business idea! Princess parties!

[Kb1993]

Hello all!

I'm an actress and drama student, and currently run drama workshops for children. I had a great idea for a new business, part time of course. I wanted a parents thought, seeing as I'm not one!

Would you hire a disney princess to your child's party? Elsa, or Rapunzel perhaps. How much would you think a reasonable price to charge? What would you expect from this service?

I would supply costume, props, etc.

Please give your thoughts!

Regards

No, I wouldn't hire a princess, because I hate all the pink princessy stuff and would be actively discouraging it from my sons and daughters. But given the amount of pink princess stuff in the shops I'm sure there must be a market for it. What about a party business where you do the same but with a range of characters, eg a pirate, a dinosaur, a superhero/heroine, and explorer, etc. Might broaden your customer base a bit. You could add more characters as your business develops.

Hate to rain on your parade but there are loads of companies near me that do it....

Realitybitesyourbum what is your area? Just so I know my competition!

And yes perfect point, I'd be happy to do those characters I just assumed more children would want disney lol! Noted though

I'm in Yorkshire and have seen quite a few of these in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Wouldn't Disney be a bit litigious for this to be viable?

Why wouldn't you hire a princess? What characters would you consider hiring? Thanks!!

I've looked into licensing :)

I wouldn't - because not only are my DDs not into princesses, but I find the whole concept a bit wishy-washy and a crap thing to 'aspire' to.

However, I know of people who have forked out for this kind of thing, so there is demand. No idea what they paid too much regardless

Why don't you put some magic into it and some music/singing then it's less Disney.

My DCs would like Star Wars, pirates, robots, monsters, aliens, minions, Gruffalo for the youngest - quite a lot of other stuff that isn't quite so gender stereotypical.

Great points! All welcome, thank you! Keep them coming!

Blimey - people are not keen are they?

I think for the 4 to 7 year olds it sounds a cute idea. What about a fairy themed party as a possible alternative?. My DD would have loved having a Rainbow Fairy themed party at one point (These are the very popular Daisy Meadows books)

Absolutely rife in this part of London. Tons of competition. Pop stars, princesses, Mr Maker, magicians, Hogwarts/Harry Potter, Superheroes, pirates, etc etc etc.

What would you do as the entertainer? Obviously it's not enough to just show up in your princess frock and look pretty... You need enough games and party tricks to keep about 25-30 children occupied for a solid 90 minutes. How are you at crowd control for 25 screaming, over-excited, hyped-up-on-sugar 6 year olds!? IME parties are generally 2 hours long with 1/2 an hour for food and cake. Also, if you can provide party bags, I know lots of people would be willing to pay for that!

I'm in East Anglia and there are loads of companies doing that here. I've been to a few of their parties, they've been good and the children enjoyed them, but I think there's a lot of competition and can't see thy you'd earn much

You also have to consider that this is all weekend, every weekend.

Birthday party slots around here tend to be
10.30 to 12.30 Saturday morning
2.00 to 4.00 or 3.00 to 5.00 Saturday afternoon
Same timing Sunday afternoon.

Sunday mornings and Friday afternoons after school are more rare but still do happen.

Just out of interest Minniebar, is Darth Vader or Jack Sparrow a much better thing to 'aspire' to then?

There will always be someone who does want a princess party, but I do think a fair point would be to make it themed parties, rather than just princess.

There's a few places round here that do this too, although not specifically princesses - fairies, pirates etc. I don't really get how this would be any different to your bog-standard children's entertainer that you book for parties? What would you offer that was different and unusual (for example, the fairy parties round here meet in the woods and go for fairy picnics and games)?
Having just endured doing a children's party myself this weekend, I'd happily pay for someone else to do everything! ;)

I'd prefer a magician TBH. Or a DJ to do a disco party for older DCs.

What would you actually do? Games, magic, bit of both? I would pay someone to do everything except the food and party bags, which I like doing myself. I'd rather stick to generic themes than brand name characters and would not have Princesses as DD has always invited some boys to her parties.

Some more excellent points! Lizziemint love the faries in the wood idea.

I'd definitely organise games and activities, and I'm brilliant at crowd control. I ran a workshop for 40 kids this week for 4'days straight, 9-4!

So one thing we haven't covered is cost.

Say I came in a character, costume and all, provided say 2 hours of games and activities with photos and singing etc.

How much would you expect to pay?

Where I live, there at several providers doing this sort of thing. I expect it's the same everywhere. You need to ring your local established providers for their prices, and then work out if you can match them.

I would expect to pay around £100-150 for that.

I have an entertainer booked for DDs party, she will bring her own music and pass the parcel and will stay for an hour. She is charging me £115. Which is quite high but I have seen her before at another child's party and she is great with the kids.

Worst entertainer I saw had no rapport with the kids and organised a few easy games eg sleeping lions with zero enthusiasm. The party mum had paid £200 for 1 hour (I think). I'm actually still annoyed at how shit the entertainer was, and the party was a year ago!

I would hire an Elsa character if they had some decent games sorted and a themed party bag too. Also bringing your own music is really helpful.

The entertainer I have booked sometime does charity / local community events too, I assume for free as it's quite a deprived area. But it's a great way of getting some advertising for yourself and spreading some goodwill about your business.

Amazing thank you!! Keep me coming!!!