Bill Gates didn’t make many mistakes. However, like all of us, there were some. For instance, he got beat by a small startup with a funny name called Google. In his quest to protect Microsoft near monopoly at the time on the operating system market, he did pay much attention to the power of the internet much less a tool for people to search it. In 1992 while being interviewed, Gates said, “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lesson of failure”.
When working with a franchise system are you get the advantage of benefiting from their past mistakes. The best franchise systems not only learn from their mistakes, but they also are able to look around the market and learn from the mistakes of others.
In the kids play space, there has been a lot of past mistakes made. In an industry that is still relatively young, there is a lot that those involved in the space are learning about their customers and concepts. At Monkey Bizness, we have been in the lucky position to learn from others mistakes as well as the unfortunate spot of learning from our own. Like a few fortunate others, we have survived the mistakes and thrived with the lessons learned. Here are 4 common mistakes we see competitors make in their kids’ business.
1. Confusing their customer with too many offerings
We see a lot of concepts that try to do it all. Recently a new competitor opened that offered classes, parties, therapy sessions, open play, and even has a retail area. From what we have seen, that confuses the guest. One thing our guests like about Monkey Bizness is that it is easy…parents can merely bring their kids and have fun. While offering it all to your customers sounds good, it also takes
2. Build Centers with “Home” Equipment
This is perhaps one of the biggest mistakes we see is businesses that open up with equipment that quite frankly is in many kids’ basements. One reason our guests come to Monkey Bizness is because of the unique equipment we have. The equipment we have is not found in most kid’s basements. We have even branched out and started to design our own equipment.
3. Age Confusion
At Monkey Bizness, we build our stores geared for kids ages 1-8 years old. This is a unique age group that likes certain activities. Parents of kids this age have different expectations than parents of older kids. And lastly, the marketing for kids and parents this age is vastly different
4. Too Big of a Facility
Whether you are building or leasing, every extra square foot you occupy costs money. We see so many places that don’t think out their design or try to put their business into a space that is way too large. We are in an industry that requires square footage, so it is necessary to have spaces of some size. However, you must think out your space and have a game plan for how to drive sales per square foot.
At Monkey Bizness, we strongly believe we have addressed most of these issues and many others we see. We know that many that open a business working with kids do it out of a passion and that is great! We also believe that we can help them take their passion and turn it into a successful business.
If you are interested in franchising with Monkey Bizness, please reach out to us for more information.
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