Has anyone ever set up a soft play/cafe type place and can give me some basic advice?

[DitaVonCheese]

My five year plan is to set up a child-friendly cafe space - not actually soft play but an alternative to that I guess - very like Cafe Junior in Cardiff.

We may have a (small) lump sum available in the near future from a house sale so want to start looking at this seriously but I have no idea where to start.

Can someone point me in the right direction? Something I can read? Things to think about?

there's a hairdressers at one of my local ones once a week, do kids and adults

Mmm interesting - beautician could also massage me between her appointments I've heard of one that has a small room that is sometimes rented out as a photography studio as well.

How's your softplay planning going dita? I have thousands of ideas, and have found a location- but don't know where to begin!

Can I ask... what food would you all specifically like to see? I would like to avoid chips and general junk food but the location I have selected is quite central to the city and therefore our target market is generally that who would probably expect to see this food. I am trying to finalise my business plan and would like to include examples of food we will serve but am stuck! So far I have thought of sandwiches/baguettes/bagels etc made in front of customer, pizzas made on homemade dough, sweet and savoury pancakes, jackets, kids plate/lunchbox. I am also trying to use as little cooking equipment as possible, and keep it all contained within the coffee area, to save on space.
Any ideas would be amazing :)

Also, I love the idea of the beautician... my friend is a mobile beauty therapist so could get her in once a month or something :D

x

Slow! I've requested details of a possible location but heard nothing yet from agent and also it's dependent on a house sale and we haven't exchanged yet so I'm trying not to count my chickens ...

Foodwise I was thinking of nothing more complicated (to start anyway) than sandwiches, cakes, maybe jacket potatoes, things on toast (beans, egg, cheese), kid's lunchbox, fingerfood platter (for BLWers/littlies).