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

Now I want to give a little disclaimer before we get into this article. And by the way, if you prefer to listen instead of read, I have this article published as a podcast episode on my Profitable Play Podcast here.

If you are one of those indoor playground owners who made it through the pandemic, then hats off to you. This will likely all be a bit of a review– and may even give you a lil’ bit of business PTSD– so you may want to skip this one unless you want some tidying up tips. But this will...

Oftentimes when we close our businesses in observance of a holiday, we assume that it means a pause in revenue as well. 

However, in this article I want to challenge that belief and provide you with some inspiration on how you can generate sales EVEN while your doors are shut.

First, I highly recommend listening to Episode 26 of my podcast, The Profitable Play Podcast, in which I share a very specific strategy about creating a BUNDLE offer. There are many different reasons why I never recommen...

It was recently estimated by the CDC that over 5.4 MILLION adults in the United States  (2.21% of American adults) have ASD.  The states with the greatest estimated number of adults living with ASD included California (701,669), Texas (449,631), New York (342,280), and Florida (329,131). And similarly, the nationally representative survey suggests that about 1.5 million U.S. kids have autism, or about 1 in 40.

To put it in perspective, most indoor playgrounds serve between 25 and 200 kids per d...

One of the biggest reservations I hear from play space owners who are nervous to install a full cafe in their space is,

“well, I can’t afford to hire additional staff a cafe would require..."

If you haven’t listened to episode 55 of my podcast yet, go back and listen to it because I break down this objection in painstaking detail, but today I want to share two ways with you that you use to dispel this fear even further.

And just to recap ONE point from episode 55 in case you missed it, b...

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. 

While I was doing a litt...

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 have time…” or “as soon as I have more...

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 though I ...

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 are completely HA...

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 free content, f...