Business, Marketing, and Life Advice for Play-Based Business Owners

A couple weeks back I posted a video tour of a play space called The Friendship Fortress that’s not only local to me, but is also near and dear to my heart. 

And this is because one of my long-time  Play Cafe Academy and Play Maker Society members, Timea, is now the co-owner of the space.

If you’re a longtime listener, or if you watched that tour, you may remember that Timea actually opened her own space first called Tumbles Play Cafe, which I also toured and filmed...

  LISTEN To This Content On The Profitable Play Podcast Instead.

Now that it’s the end of June and we are fully in the summer swing of things- it’s happening again.

The summer slowdown in the indoor playground and play cafe industry.

And yes, I realize that for some of you owners– summer is BUSY season especially if you’re in a southern state or country where it’s too HOT to be outside right now.  But for the majority of owners I...

You may have noticed that I’ve been covering some HEAVY topics on the Profitable Play Podcast lately.

We’ve talked about regulating our nervous systems to prevent a lot of the health issues brought about by chronic stress which is unfortunately not uncommon for indoor playground owners. 

We’ve talked about handling conflict with customers and within our own teams, and most recently we’ve talked about navigating divorce as a business owner. So, like I said,...

In this article, we are diving into one of my FAVORITE all-time topics, and that is marketing your business. And to make it EXTRA exciting, we are talking about marketing and more specifically, advertising, in the context of one of my OTHER favorite topics- SAVING MONEY. 

If you’re a regular listener of my Profitable Play Podcast, you’ll know I am a HUGE fan of Facebook and Instagram Ads to grow and scale your indoor playground business in a cost-effective way....

Since we are already nearing the halfway point of 2024, today I want you to ask yourself a couple of questions that I have gotten in the habit of asking MYSELF if I’m feeling a little distracted or unmoored in my work or personal life, because it always brings my goals and perspective back into focus.

And I have gathered these questions over the years from various sources, so while I will try to give credit where it’s due, I truly have no idea where I first heard a few of...

When I first entered the family entertainment and indoor playground industry, the “norm” was for play spaces to just have set open-play hours where customers could come-and-go as they please without reservations. Our open-play hours, for example, typically from 8am-4pm on weekdays and 8am-12pm on Saturdays. During the weekday evenings and weekends we of course did classes, parties– all that good stuff– but here I want to focus JUST on open play hours....

In this article, we are talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly of implementing a TEXTING strategy into your overall marketing plan.

And that line in itself might seem a bit dramatic, but trust me– a texting strategy done well can skyrocket bookings, traffic, and sales for businesses like ours.

NOT implemented well, however, a texting strategy can annoy customers at best, and at worst, cause them to disengage with our business completely– on all channels.

(And...

One way to get a revenue boost and increase in foot traffic and online awareness for your indoor playground business in the spring time is hosting a Mother’s Day “Sip-and-Shop” event. 

I gave some tips on these vendor events on my YouTube channel a few years back in 2021, but I am going to add some updated suggestions and tips here in this article.

If you prefer to listen, you can get this content on the Profitable Play Podcast episode 278!

First, what IS a...

Right now in New York, we are on week 2 of being snowed in, and something that’s been on the top of mind for everyone the last few days it seems is this:

If an indoor playground or play cafe business needs to close early or close for the day unexpectedly for whatever reason, whether it be weather-related or a staff call off or a personal emergency– how can we let our customers know in an effective way?

And if you’re reading this as one of my currently open indoor playground...

There may be snow on the ground right now where you live like there sure is outside my window here in New York but it’s that time of year again.  YES, it’s time to talk about summer camps.

And you may be thinking, “GEEZ Michele, it’s way too early for that, I’m still recovering from the holidays”-- but if that’s you, you’d unfortunately be incorrect. I can pop into any moms group in my local area right now and there are at least 12 posts...