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

As the summer sun begins to shine, teachers eagerly await their well-deserved break from the classroom. It's the perfect time for an indoor playground owner to tap into this enthusiastic and adventurous demographic by offering special summer memberships geared towards teachers or anyone who will have more free time over the summer months.

Since many indoor playgrounds, especially in states with more mild summers, see a drastic decline in open play and parties during the summer, this...

Well, it’s May and that means field trip season is upon us.

Just the other day I chaperoned my son’s second grade field trip to the science museum and PHEW– it was a hectic day.

And it got me thinking about the various requests we would get at our indoor playground facility regarding field trips from daycares and preschools– as well as what worked, and what didn’t.

Because this is the beginning of the SLOWEST open play season here in New York, and for...

Running an indoor playground business can be a fulfilling and exciting experience. However, it can also be challenging, as all of you listening likely know, especially when a CUSTOMER expresses an interest in opening a similar business in the same area. 

I talked about this a bit in my YouTube video recently and I was so shocked because I got SO many comments both in play maker society and on YouTube letting me know that hey, I’m not the ONLY one who feels this way. So I wanted to...

In this article we are talking about A.I. and chatGPT– something you’ve probably heard a TON about already in the news cycle. But if you haven’t, that’s OK– because we are going to start from the beginning.

The new tools available to us business owners are completely changing the game– and after testing them for MONTHS behind the scenes, I am ready to share my very best tips with you. 

And the best part? 

While there are a THOUSANDS...

In this article I want to talk about 4 mistakes I made with our indoor playground licensing agreement, so you can hopefully avoid them in the future. 

And these tips will be relevant whether you’re leaning towards the franchising  or licensing route. if you're not sure if licensing or franchising your indoor playground is for you-- I have another article here you can check out!

Alright, so a little background and context. 

At this point in our journey, we are...

When an indoor playground or play cafe business reaches a certain level of success and wants to expand its operations, two popular options include licensing and franchising.

While many of my members have opted to open a second location of their own, such as Elle from Pikopye’s Town in Austin, Texas or Renee from Mezanmi Play Cafe in Michigan–

It’s not always possible to comfortably or effectively operate multiple locations yourself due to life, time, or distance constraints....

I talk a lot on this blog and on my Profitable Play podcast about how crucial recurring revenue and specifically memberships can be for an indoor playground businesses’ long term sustainability and success.

We talked about the importance of memberships quite a bit recently in episode 169, and I also did a deep dive into memberships way back in episodes 63, 64, 65, 66, and 69. And in episode 69 I even talked about how creating a strong recurring revenue stream with...

In episode 169 of the Profitable Play Podcast I explained one of my MOST effective strategies for giving an under-performing offer or service a massive boost in a short amount of time. And that is a super intentional content blitz.

If you haven’t listened to that episode, make sure you go back it’s episode 169 and listen to it– because it was packed with information and I’m not going to repeat all of the background strategy behind what a content blitz is and why...

 In Profitable Play Podcast episode 168, I told the story of a failed launch turned multi-six-figure offer, and at the end I asked you to ponder the question question...

“Is there an offer in your indoor playground business or a specific service you launched, that isn’t quite selling as much as you’d like?”

In that episode I also mentioned that the reason behind the lack of sales MIGHT just be due to a lack of customer awareness and education, so in this article...

We talk a lot on my Profitable Play podcast about delegation and with that comes the entire conversation about recruiting, hiring, and retaining high-quality employees. However, as I described in more detail back in episode 163 of the Profitable Play podcast, that can be easier said than done.

(And by the way, if you'd prefer to listen to this article via audio format, it's available on my podcast here!)

Forecasts by Korn Ferry cited that by 2030, more than 85 million jobs might go unfilled...