Monkey Bizness has always been that cool uncle, that has crazy hair that you always have fun with. Well, we still want our customers to have fun, but this crazy uncle is going to comb his hair and maybe get a new buttoned up shirt…..
We are proud to announce that Monkey Bizness is taking the best of our old model and fitting it into a much smaller space. While this one sentence is simple, the thought and work that has gone into it has been extensive. The current Monkey Bizness facilities are between 7,500 and 12,000 square feet. As one can imagine, this takes a huge sum of capital upfront to build and every month, a large rent payment is due. This is not unique in our industry….I look around and see most of our competitors in similar (and sometimes bigger) spaces. During these two years, I have also observed many of our competitors shrinking. Many independent stores have also come and gone. This is not unique to the past 2 years, it started prior to me taking over Monkey Bizness. This is counter-intuitive as experiential based retail has thrived and is projected to continue to grow. The question then must be“why?”
Being in my unique position, I get the chance to talk with former owners, see financial statements, and of course have access to information in my own franchise system. Having a financial background, I also have the ability to further dive into financial statements and play around with financial models. So, what is the takeaway?
The cold hard truth is that most in our industry spend far too much opening a store and then struggle to keep up with the ongoing expenses. One former owner I talked with said while the business had a small profit most months, the return on investment was so low they would never do it again. The problem is twofold – first, the capital required to open is too significant and second, the ongoing expenses of maintaining such a large facility suck up owner profits. Mind you this is not universal, however, if you aren’t in the middle of Denver or Dallas, it can be tough. It’s not just rent that gets you long-term, its utilities, maintenance, and cost of changing out multiple pieces of equipment to fill the space. As they say in the commercials, “there’s got to be a better way!”
We started tearing apart the Monkey Bizness model, asking why we did certain things and challenging industry norms. We started asking ourselves what pieces of our business were providing the most value to our customers and identifying areas there was waste. While doing this, we had three primary goals:
- Reduce the cost to open a Monkey Bizness
- Reduce the cost to operate a Monkey Bizness
- Maintain a special and unique child and parent experience
I am happy to announce what we came up with! Monkey Bizness is shrinking – we are now offering two different models at 3,000 and 5,000 square feet. We have worked with our vendors, architects, and designers to create a unique experience that we believe kids and parents will love. We stayed true to our mission of active play and creating a place for happy and healthy families. We did this, while value engineering our entire model.
Gone is the extravagant coffee bar….while some of our guests and owners love this, if we are honest with ourselves, the revenue per square foot never supported it. Gone are party rooms that sit empty during the week and a café that sits empty during the weekend (while you pay $20/square foot). We have eliminated dead space on our play floor and worked with vendors to come up with a unique mix of equipment that utilizes all of the space as well as creates a fun environment for all.
Through this, we have learned more about the specific real estate that makes our owner’s successful and now have a diligent and disciplined approach to helping our owners find the right building for them. We have built a marketing platform that our owners can tap into that we are just now learning its’ full power. We have also identified what many people in our industry call our “zee”, or the person we believe will be most successful running their Monkey Bizness.
It is an exciting time to be a part of Monkey Bizness! We believe that the model we have put together is truly unique. We invite you to learn more about us by contacting us at this link.
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