Hi everyone,
I am in the early stages of looking into setting up a business to provide children?s cooking parties and also classes for pre-schoolers during terms time and primary school aged children during the school holidays/weekends.
This is something I have been thinking about for a while, and I?ve now decided I need to start taking some more proactive steps to get things moving.
I?m currently on maternity leave and am due back at work in January. For financial reasons, I?ve got no choice but to go back to work at this stage, but my aim is that by the time I have number 2 (sooner rather than later hopefully), I will be able to pursue the business rather than go back to work. In order to do this, I will need the business to provide me with a certain level of income but if I can make it work, it means I will be able to spend a lot more time with my children, so the rewards will be worth it and that is my motivation.
However, in the meantime, as I will be working Monday to Friday, it will leave me with limited time to work on the business (in hindsight I really wish I?d pulled my finger out and started working on this earlier in the year!). As I will not be available mid week to run classes, I?m going to initially start focussing on the children?s parties as these are primarily held at weekends. As my confidence and experience grows, I was then thinking I could cut down my hours at work and then start the weekday classes.
There are a few people/companies across the country doing this now (although no one in my area) and a number of franchises are available. However, these are pretty expensive and to be honest, I?m not sure they offer good value for money. Therefore, I?m planning on giving it a go on my own.
I?ve started looking at what other people offer in this area, jotted down recipe ideas as they come to me and got some insurance quotes. To get things off the ground, my next step was to advertise on this website to run a couple of free parties. As a minimum, I was thinking this would give me some experience and I could also get some feedback from the host parent/kids. As best, it might result in further (paid!) bookings.
So really, I was just wondering what people think of this idea? Are children?s cooking parties/classes something you have had experience of? Would you consider paying someone to run a children?s cooking party or would you take your toddler/children to a cookery class? Any advice or comments would be much appreciated!
Thanks
Sally