Children's parties - honest thoughts please :-)

[MonkeyMoped]

I'd love your thoughts on a business idea a friend and I have. The idea is that we help parents plan / arrange / 'dress' their children's party - we wouldn't run it, but we would help with ideas for themes, venues, food, games, entertainers, decorations etc. We would source anything you needed to buy, if that's what you wanted, and deliver it to your home/venue. You could then take all the credit for hosting such a fab original party :-)

It came about as we're both pretty creative mums, who have great ideas for our own kids' parties, but know that it can be hard to get it all organised in time. Thinking perhaps other parents feel the same, we've been wondering if it has any legs as a business.

We'd like to know:

a) is this a good idea?

b) would you consider using it?

c) what sort of price could you imagine paying for such a service?

d) have you used a service like this? If so, who?

We are ready to hear the brutal truth! Thanks very much.

[hazelnunhead]

For me what is more important is help on the day with entertaining. For a child,s party I find buying the food etc relatively easy and would only really seek help for a much older party. Personally I can source most things, although I am sure your creative ideas would be most welcome. I am just not sure I would pay for that as I have found that if children are having fun, entertained they are happy. I still quite enjoy e simplicity of musical bumps, balloons and pass the parcel! But perhaps as children get older this might be an area where parents are interested.

[Curmudgeon]

Honestly?

I think it's bunting cupcake gone mad

So your plan is to be the idea people and source things ... Like google?

[Pickle]

I have to agree with the others I'm afraid. If I host s party at home I'd much rather spend money on an entertainer, as sourcing food/decorations etc is easily done in front of the telly with my trusty iPad, and I find my older kids (4 and 6) come up with the themes themselves.

That said, I'm sure there probably are people out there that would pay for what you propose, and I wish you the best of luck.

[MonkeyMoped]

Thanks for your comments - this is exactly the sort of stuff we want to hear, so keep them coming.

I think we're aiming to be more of a mixture between Ocado or Hubbub, the EDF and Pinterest for parties rather than a Google. The difference being we take the hassle out of coming up with ideas, shopping for everything and deliver it to your door. Like the EDF or ED Tots, it's a place to go for ideas on a certain topic in your area. You can find ED info out on Google, but both of those sites add value eg honest reviews, great local tips, up-to-date info.

Maybe it's more of a 'party in a box' where for ?x we deliver everything you need to throw a pirate party, a cooking party, a circus party etc. We'd also build up a list of tried and tested venues and entertainers etc

But seriously, 'bunting gone mad' comments are genuinely useful, so please don't hold back - thanks :-)

[bornagain]

Sorry, have to agree with the others above.

I agree with hazelnunhead that what I really missed when my kids were younger (say 7 or under) were the extra pair(s) of hands on the day. Someone to be there to play with the kids and make sure everyone was ok.

As for older kids, they tend to prefer smaller parties eg trips to cinema, meal out, bowling, ice skating etc so again no help needed.

I think you have to be seriously money rich or time poor to consider your services!

[canela]

i think it would only work if part of the "package" included an entertainer. the hard part of a kids party is the doing, not the planning. why don't you also want to run them?

[MonkeyMoped]

I agree with the time poor / cash rich point. We want to do something around our families and don't fancy spending every weekend away from them. Which might well mean this isn't the business for us!

[etta166]

You'd face a lot of competition from online suppliers as well. You can buy a party kit on quite a number of themes from several websites like partypeices etc.

I have to admit that keeping things low budget is my main party priority so I wouldn't be tempted by a party service.

[WorkingMummy]

I agree with the others above. Theming is not hard (only wish it could be avoided, especially for girls) and it's the activity and entertaining where you need the extra pair of hands.

Don't want to be toooooo grumpy old man about this, but the whole party thing has already gone made enough. If you are just suggesting a one-stop shop for supplies, the Middletons have that sewn up (with delivery). If you are suggesting a kind of event planning thing, for kids, no thanks. Please don't even attempt to inflict that on us.

My girls (2 and 4) went to a party today where the three year old birthday girl's ballet teacher came along to take a 30 minute dance class. The children loved it. Won't be able to re-use the idea in my girls' circle of friends but thought I'd share the idea just in case anyone is stuck. 2-4 yo (who didn't really have parties in my day) can be tricky as they are too small for party games as such to work very well. This really did work well.

[treehugger]

Can I just add, for my daughter's second birthday I organised a clown party, which I thought everyone would love. It turned out she was terrified and now, aged 20, has a genuine clown phobia, hard to believe but true. I wish I'd saved the ?100 or whatever and just done pass the parcel and high sugar quotient tea. Beware you young parents....

[enjoy]

Maybe the edf is not the right place for your market

research. Try areas like south kensington and the like.

I don't think the idea is bad and l think there are people

out there who might use a high-end service like this.

But then it would need to be high-end not home made.

Best of luck.

[LoopyMum]

Hi,

I have been trying to do similar for the past 3 years plus with little success - but that is just my experience.

Sincere kudos to all those in the children's party industry who are making it work !

I have attached some pictures of some cake pops I made and custom made bunting. In fact I remember putting up

a similar thread here a while back & whilst others thought the bunting was nice to look at one lady mentioned

that there was a seller on ebay charging a mere ?1 per letter and I cannot compete with those prices.

I currently have two very large commercial juice dispensers, various cake stands, an electronic cutting machine

and many other things I have purchased that are simply not getting used. I had a website and blog.

Got a little stint in Vogue Magazine and some local mags but again whilst parents loved my products the average

local family just could not afford my products.

I do agree however that more affluent areas / celebrities / corporate companies can afford such services but they

are very hard to break into. But not impossible.

Maybe I lacked the ability to think outside the box. If you could find a unique way of presenting your company

so that others could not compare it to services on the internet perhaps ? And find a way of making your services

affordable (if still wanting to cater to local parents) but obviously you would still need to make a worthwhile

profit.

Les Enfants

Sharky and George

Fraser and Parsley are all high end children's party companies - look them up

[Ole]

How about offering party package ideas? For example, you could offer different themes and then put all the materials necessary in a box that gets delivered? I would find the process of contacting you and engaging in lengthly discussions a bit too much so I'd rather just but a package off the shelf so to speak (themed paper plates, napkins , bunting, filled party bags etc) and a selection of party foo. Even better if you have websites with these offering so you can order online.

[MonkeyMoped]

Thanks for all your comments - they're really helpful. I think we are thinking more along the lines of what Ole describes. We may or may not do more depending on demand.

Have a great Easter weekend.

[spanners45]

Hi there, I used to work in events planning and management and although I know kids' parties aren't quite an 'event' I think some things cross over that could be helpful.

The point of offering a service (whatever it is) is that you make things easy for the 'client' and however big or small a point is, you deal with it for them. What is involved in putting together a children's party?

The basic stuff: find a suitable venue, invitations, food , drink

The rest (perfection is in the details used to be my motto): theme, decorations, party bags, music (if appropriate), games/entertainment (and all bits and bobs needed for that), props, candles for the cake/sparklers, plates, cups, cutlery (no one wants to bother with washing up), napkins, etc etc. [you could scale this up/down depending on needs]

You could have a selection of packages/boxes that cover all of that so that the effort required by the parents is minimal. If you wanted to go the extra mile, perhaps you could offer some extra options like taking care of invitations, booking venue/catering of set up/clear up.

Depending on what kind of service you want to provide and how involved you want to be, you could set this up as a 'personal visit' (for those who want something more personalised) or a website where customers just tick the bits they want.