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

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...

Something that I've always found as a business owner is that the stronger I end a year, the more powerful my launch into the new year is.

So even though we’re still in the first half of December, technically, I wanted to give you some action items to be sure you complete BEFORE the end of the year.

Now I know you’re busy– you’re probably juggling running your play space, attending all your kids’ holiday events, buying and wrapping presents, maybe hosting,...

In a recent video interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with  CPA and profit strategist Jamie Trull to discuss the legal and ethical considerations of hiring and paying our children in our businesses as owners.

This interview covers the various benefits of hiring your children (even as babies and toddlers!), age-appropriate tasks they can help with (like sweeping, organizing, light graphic design, modeling for social media images, etc!), documentation requirements, state and...

While I love releasing fun and lighthearted content around the holidays, I do have some topics on my list here that we just have to get through before the end of the year, OK?

So grab a coffee or a glass of wine, because in this article we are talking about conducting year-end employee reviews.

I am going to give you some tips based on what worked best for ME, but I want to emphasize here like I do so often– please feel free to take from this article what feels...

On my Profitable Play Podcast, I have already talked a LOT about black Friday and cyber Monday. Back in episode 134 I gave you some ideas for promotions you could do for your business and I gave a little 2023 update with some new and fresh ideas in episode 243. And in episode 135 I even gave you some ideas for black friday sales to take advantage of for your BUSINESS.

But in THIS article, I want to talk about YOU.

I am going to break down a list of gift ideas that are absolutely perfect, in...

Something I mentioned I love doing towards the end of the year in my business is doing some auditing and ensuring I have all the loose ends tied up in my processes.

Here in New York our busy indoor playground season starts in October but goes all the way through April– so this time before the holidays was crucial when it came to really setting ourselves up for success during this busy season.

And while marketing became a bit less important during this time because we were packed every...