Top 10 reasons why Indoor Play Centres Fail

Last year, I received complaints from suppliers of Soft Play Equipment after an industry figure posted the following comments on Twitter:

“Sad day, another new playcentre has gone! A fantastic dream, in the hands of a liquidator. Sad news! Once again, sold by a certain manufacturer knowing they were building another a few miles down the road! I want their heads on a plate!!!”

“Please don't think about starting a playcentre without talking to the xxx first, certain manufacturers will give you incorrect advice!”

After these comments were once again referred to in a recent conversation, I started thinking about why it had upset so many people (is it the emotion, the tarring of all play suppliers or the use of the situation to try and build business / credibility for this organisation?) and perhaps more importantly, how inaccurate the comments are in identifying the reasons why play centres fail (do you blame a kitchen supplier when a restaurant ceases trading)?

It is without doubt tragic and sad to see Entrepreneurs suffer financial and emotional hardship, I say this from personal experience of starting several companies. Unfortunately, it is a fact of life that businesses of all sizes and in all markets occasionally fail; the rate of failure for play centres is actually lower than for other businesses.

In reality, you could argue that the indoor play market has not suffered enough creative destruction, that as an industry, we haven't failed enough, learnt from and innovated upon the lessons of the past enabling a thousand flowers to bloom, the business model has not evolved to become more resilient and offer better value to the end customer; perhaps this is partly because it is all too easy to blame play suppliers (and others) for our failings.

So here it is, based on over fifteen years in the market, my top ten reasons why Indoor Play Centres fail:

1. Poor Management and / or Leadership
2. Ill-informed Business Plan / Business Model
3. Failure to achieve sales targets / over reliance on traditional sources of income
4. Lack of Experience
5. Lack of Cash / Finance and / or incorrectly structured debt
6. Loss of interest / passion by the owners
7. Location / too much competition
8. Overspending at the start of the project
9. Limited value in the offering / nothing unique to differentiate one play centre from another
10. Bad luck or timing

If your Soft Play Equipment collapses (that should never ever happen), the supplier goes out of business with your deposit or they just don’t show up, they would then make my list of top twenty reasons but other than that, sorry, they are not to blame.

I will begin to post details of how you can mitigate the risk of the above; after all, the entire industry should want every play centre to be a success.

PS. Choosing a Soft Play Supplier is an important part of your start-up process, this guide (How to Choose a Soft Play Equipment Supplier) will help you select the right supplier for you. Of all the criteria you use to make your choice, I suggest you don’t worry about whether they supplied a local play centre (indeed, to many it is seen as sign of a good supplier).

Emotion may mean that you want to stop them from supplying anyone else locally, that just doesn’t make sense. The play equipment will be a component of your success (or otherwise,) it simply won’t be the determining factor; you should want your supplier to be successful as well so that they can innovate and help you grow.

ShareAndComparePlay.com is the Indoor Play Supplier Comparison Website that Saves Play Operators £10,000s. The only source of independent reviews on every Supplier to the Play Industry, ShareAndComparePlay.com works to revolutionise the Play Experience for Children and to enable Businesses to profitably understand and meet the future needs of Families.