Good idea or not - sray and play tiddler playroom?

[nwilson12]

Hi,

I'm thinking of starting up a business running soft play sensory sessions for babies and toddlers. These would not be structured classes but stay and play sessions for children up to about 4 years with their carers. As well as having some traditional soft play/toys, I was thinking of having more sensory based equipment e.g. dark tent with different colour lights, glow in the dark toys, light up pom poms, inflatable music balls, infinity mirrors, bubbles and playing classical music.

Would people come to these and be willing to pay?
I was planning to get a disclosure check done just for peace of mind. Would I need anything other than public liability insurance?

you might need First Aid cert?

without booking blocks of weeks at a time you shan't be able to rely on regular income stream, worth bearing in mind

venue - does it have free parking close by, is it accessible, hard floor/carpeted, would you have to clean before and after each session?

do you have any training or experience to use as your USP?

Whether people will be prepared to pay will depend on what One O'Clock clubs survive in your area and what facilities they have.

oh yes, good point Auntie Stella

check out the other opportunities in the area - baby gym, music group, ballet, toddler swimming times, that kinda thing

Hi,
Thanks for your comments. AuntieStella - what's a one o clock club? I've not heard of that before.

PedlarsSpanner - yes there are quite a few baby and toddler classes in the area but they are structured classes e.g. jo jingles, baby sensory etc.

I was thinking of having unstructured play sessions as we don't have anything like that. There are a couple of traditional big soft plays but they don't really cater to the under 5s. I have 2 children under 2 and have to drive 30 - 40 mins to take them somewhere that is suitable for their age.

My long term plan would be a soft play family café but having done some research it would take a while to get everything organised and be expensive to set up. So my interim thought was soft play sessions.

On a practical level, if you're just running session, where would you store the stuff between meetings?

One o'clock clubs are council run 'stay and play' sessions. They may have different names in different parts of the country. As they use council facilities and staff they are usually very cheap or free. If they exist in your area, it'll make a big difference to the amount parents are willing to pay as the kinds of things they offer sound very similar to your proposal.

I don't think there are any council run sessions around here but I'll look into it.

PeterParker - I was planning on storing the equipment in my garage between sessions

There's something similar-ish where I live and they run structured (pre-bookable) sessions in the playroom....and open for all sessions. The latter are free if you buy a coffee. Thus business is really booming, it's such a great place for mums to go to and the owner is really fab.

*the business (not thus, typo but sounded really pouncy!)

Bobs - are you able to tell me what town it's in? I've been googling places to compare them and see what others are doing