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

In the past I’ve talked about how to find potential opportunities to decrease some of your costs, especially if your business model has shifted at all since opening. Or if your volume is a little different than expected. 

However, what happens if you can't decrease a specific price? Even  worse, what if you are facing price increases? That's the situation, unfortunately, many small business owners in every industry, not just ours, are faced with as we go through 2022. 

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As a local business owner, you’ve probably heard along the way that blogging can help you increase your website traffic.

And you’ve also probably thought… GREAT! I could use some extra traffic to my site for free. I’ll be sure to start blogging right away!

But you might have gotten stuck there. 

OR pushed blogging to the back-burner.

And I get it-- when I opened a brick-and-mortar indoor playground back in 2015 I told myself for YEARS that “as soon as I...

This isn't going to be my typical blog-- but I wanted to get this out there in case anyone needed to read it.

Around this time in 2015, I opened my first indoor playground location.

I am reminded every year by my memories that pop up on Facebook.

And in all those pictures of our first opening months, I am always smiling, playing with my children, greeting new customers.

But to be honest-- I get a knot in my stomach every time I look at them.

Because even...

It’s May 2020, and we are right in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis and all of the uncertainty that comes with it.

I’ve been paying attention to the conversations happening on podcasts, YouTube channels, and inside Facebook groups, and I’ve actually been quite surprised at the comments being made.

Understandably, a lot of people are feeling scared and stuck, and like their dreams are on pause.

However, the surprising part to me is that a lot of prospective business owners...

Whether you are looking to start or grow a business, you will have many options along the way in terms of accelerating your path to success.

There are free resources like blogs and YouTube, paid educational products and programs like online courses, as well as coaches or consultants that work one-on-one with clients.

This is a good list of questions to consider whenever you decide to invest in a mentor, expert, or “guru”, whether you are only investing your time (to watch their...

I’m writing this on March 24, 2020- while we are smack in the middle of a global health crisis. I live in New York so we have been quarantined for just over a week, and indoor playgrounds around the country have been mandated to close until further notice.

While “social distancing” seems to (so far) be “flattening the curve”, so to speak (with the main aim of “flattening the curve” being to prevent a sharp peak of cases and spread out the infection...

As I mentioned in my blog about the important trends I see emerging for indoor play spaces in 2020 and beyond, Mobile Play services are a great option for thinking outside the box and either generating an additional source of revenue for your brick and mortar indoor playground OR for raising funds to start a brick and mortar space.

SO, WHAT IS A MOBILE PLAY RENTAL SERVICE?

Specifically, what I referred to in my “Important Trends” blog are businesses that bring a mobile soft play...

This past week in our Play Maker Society group coaching program (which is an optional way for Play Cafe Academy members to really uplevel their game and accelerate their success with the program) we had a veteran (10 year!) Starbucks manager answer questions and WOW, she provided some amazing insight!

While the full 1-hour training (plus MY 1-hour training on my lessons in operating a profitable cafe) is only available for Play Maker Society members, I did want to share a few of her insights...

Before going any further, I want to note two very important things related to this article. 

1. I am NOT a lawyer and therefore cannot offer legal advice. Before opening your business, you should consult with a business lawyer to ensure you have all proper licenses and permits. I am simply speaking from my experience and research.

2. I live in the state of New York, in the United States. Depending on where you are located, the permits and licenses required to own and operate a business may...

Well FIRST I need to explain this title and this topic-- because I already know what many of you are thinking. Don’t I encourage and teach entrepreneurs exactly how to be successful in, very specifically, a brick and mortar industry? Well, the answer is YES. 

And even though I believe success and happiness are very possible in the brick-and-mortar space, this journey is NOT for everyone. 

So you can call this my “tough love” blog for all of my brick-and-mortar...