Since its inception, ShareAndComparePlay.com has introduced transparency, collaboration and child-focussed design to the Indoor Play Market; we believe that these values provide the best way of the revolutionising the market for operators, children and families.
The information our community and we have provided has transformed the industry, standing as the only independent source of information when previously the reliance was on play suppliers who sold equipment to survive.
In this, we feel tremendous satisfaction and thank everyone that has contributed to forums, attended our seminars and advertised their services.
Each review matters, each star rating provides insight into the quality of suppliers and each bit of information shared halves the challenges and doubles the potential rewards.
Unfortunately, in such small and niche markets, doubters remain, harbouring significant power and influence; those that seek competition rather than collaboration, those that resolutely put self interest before progress, perhaps not realising that in the end, the alternative to progress is decay.
And so to the evolution of our solution, these are just a few of the changes that we will soon be making with the sole aim of building on our core values and better serving both the market and the debate:
·We will be removing website advertising for soft play suppliers, the tables determining the best suppliers will remain
·We are re-designing our well reviewed and popular seminars and making them available for purchase digitally
·We will be introducing a new consultancy service regarding business plans (the only source of independent advice for business plans in the market)
·We plan to use our unique information set to introduce a new service reviewing Indoor Play Suppliers, an independent design review and comparison service to ensure you achieve value for money when choosing a play supplier
We hope that you are as excited as we are about these enhanced services; we believe they will provide inspiration, information and innovation in our beloved market that needs it so much.
These changes will occur in the next few weeks, please let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback.
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.
I am a Yoga devotee, or more accurately, I was until a prolapsed disc meant “Downward Facing Dog’s” were replaced by MRI’s; my Yoga days were numbered unless I fancied risking the Surgeon’s knife.
However, a few months ago I rolled out my mat to try “Bikram Yoga” (aka Hot Yoga) after reading it could help serious back issues.
Although my personal fitness may not be of interest, the “business model” of Bikram should be; it makes for an interesting case study for the indoor play industry and anyone designing a scalable business model.
Yoga has been around for thousands of years, the UK market for “teachers / classes” is very fragmented and “studios” include gyms and school halls; although a large market, it was predominantly a “cottage industry,” a larger version of the indoor play market.
In contrast, Bikram Yoga is a multi-million dollar global business and it is interesting to reflect how this has been achieved, here is a brief summary:
Bikram is an entire “business system” that delivers a consistent and reliable experience; it has been described as the McDonald’s of Yoga, in the context of scalability, this is a great compliment.
In contrast, most indoor play centres are not system based and the only Design that occurs involves the Soft Play Equipment.As a consequence, play centres are mostly operated by passionate and hard-working Entrepreneurs who work in the business, customers typically don’t see any difference between each centre and the perceived value is low.Simply, this has proven difficult to scale which in turn limits investment, recognition and innovation.
The Bikram Yoga practice (a ninety minute series of postures and breathing practices done in the same order every time in a room heated to 110F) is designed to deliver exceptional health benefits in a safe and challenging manner; their marketing strategies encourage you to trial the service, they are so confident that once you try, enough people feel the benefit and want to continue
Imagine a play centre capable of improving the health and happiness of children and adults; how much would you pay to use it?We know that play is critically important to Child (and Adult) Wellbeing and yet I have never seen an Indoor Play Experience / System designed to achieve desirable and holistic outcomes for which Parents (or Government) will pay a premium.
The “process” of Bikram Yoga has been patented, thus forming a “barrier to entry” and providing income from intellectual property in the form of Franchising, Books etc…
With many Towns having several play centres and Barriers to starting a play Centre relatively low, the market represents an open goal for Entrepreneurs able to develop valuable concepts and accompanying Business Models. Now is a great time to invest in unique (think protectable) Brands, Concepts, Systems, Technology and Relationships that provide compelling reasons to visit.
Bikram has introduced Yoga to new markets
In the last six months, I have introduced Bikram to friends and friends of friends that would never have previously considered yoga, it has now replaced their gym schedule and they drive hours out of their way to attend.
Think, what new markets can you cater for in a unique way?Children with special needs?Children between 10 and 14 years old?Schools needing Play Space or classes? Children wanting to get fit?Child Wellbeing rather than just Play?
Payment in advance means not only is each business cash rich but the pricing strategy is designed to motivate specific behaviour before credits expire. The expiration of credit is a little annoying but it means I go more often, increasing the likelihood that I will feel the benefits and continue attending
Ryanair, Easyjet, Health Clubs, Insurance, Amazon, Google et al…each demonstrates how we can use pricing strategies to create / manage demand, generate cash and establish alternative revenue streams.Think carefully about your pricing strategy; not solely in terms of how much you should charge but how you want it to influence behaviour and help achieve your business objectives
Real estate is precious, “sweat the asset”
It is perhaps apt to talk of sweating the asset but each studio is located in expensive areas for real estate, there are black dots on the floor to indicate where you can place your mat, thus maximising revenue per square foot.I am not sure if soft play operators think about maximising revenue per sq/ft but this is a good reminder of how every inch of space matters, you are paying for it, after all.
Here are a few steps to consider when designing your business model:
1.Develop unique added-value concepts and experiences that deliver exceptional benefits (protect your ideas if possible / valuable enough)
2.Design a Business System (everything from the IT System to hosting a party) that delivers consistent results and an opportunity to scale (i.e. design one centre as though you are going to build a 1000)
3.Allocate at least 10% of your project value to design services; engage a design firm that is capable of exploring your entire concept and creating a business system rather than just “designing” your soft play equipment
4.Implement, test and share knowledge rapidly to increase sales, reduce costs and most importantly, keep customers happy.
Please let me know your thoughts or any stories in play where people are doing the above.
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.
This is the first week in a month that we are not running one of our “how to start a soft play centre” seminars; we are taking the opportunity to update content and plan the schedule for the next few months.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of running the seminars is the convergence of creativity, enthusiasm and curiosity as prospective play operators evaluate the viability of starting an indoor play centre.
Reflecting on the latest seminars, there are three key questions that together we seek to address on the website and in more detail at the seminars, these are as follows:
1. What are you aiming to achieve by starting a play centre?
The answer to this question will impact upon every subsequent decision. In simple terms, there are some people that wish to create a lifestyle business (earn a living and improve the play experience) and there are others (increasingly so) that are serial Entrepreneurs wanted to build shareholder value. Each has its merits; it is however important to understand your personal motivations and objectives and develop your business plan accordingly.
2. What kind of play area do you want to build?
The Indoor Play Centre business is due a revolution in terms of business model and design. The design is perhaps the easier to address in this short note but I would suggest you ask yourself a simple question and explore the answer fully; “If an indoor play centre had never been built, what would your perfect play centre look like?” Seek the answer and build accordingly.
3. What does a Sustainable Play Centre Business Model look like?
This is the fundamental question of our time (not just in the soft play industry); the traditional model of “Pay and Play” has yielded only limited success and is unsustainable, (certainly at the scale we have seen in the last few years). We need to work together to re-think and re-imagine a new play experience and accompanying business models of which there will be many.
Asking the right questions is merely the start. The possibilities will only begin to reveal themselves once you, we and the entire play community begin to experiment and are open to the answers; I happen to believe that the future is rosy for the brave.
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.
In September 2001 whilst we were at Disney World, my wife bought me a paperweight engraved with this quotation by Walt Disney:
“You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dreams a reality”
In short, business is all about people.
This valuable message is one that I have carried with me for many years; business is so much easier when you respect and trust the talents of others, enjoy their company and share a common purpose.
I write this blog at this moment because ShareAndComparePlay.com will soon be losing its Managing Director, Paul Smith.
I have been friends with Paul for many years and we started our first business together in 2002, since then we have started two companies, sold one and travelled throughout the world looking for innovative products and services to introduce to the UK’s indoor play industry.
When Paul started working with us in March, it was at a time when we were largely unknown with few soft play suppliers aware of the potential to engage with customers and prospective play operators using our website.At this time, Paul was the one leading the way to contact suppliers and spread the word, a thankless and difficult task at the time but one that he pursued with typical vigour, skill and ultimately success.
Although we did what we could to persuade Paul to stay, there are certain things that even we can’t change (like moving Kilkenny to the UK); the reasons for Paul leaving us are twofold.
Firstly, Paul and his family live in Kilkenny, Ireland.If you have ever visited this beautiful place then you will understand why they choose to live there but also be aware that it is two hours from Dublin which makes travelling to the UK and back in a day or two (it involves a 3am start) a challenging affair.
Secondly, the birth of Holly Mae in March means that Paul wishes to be at home a little more than he has been in the last few years and so he will be leaving us to work in Ireland which means he can for the first time in many years, work in the country in which he lives.
We would like to thank Paul for his dedication and leadership during the last eight months and I would like to thank him for working with me for so many years on a journey that has been extremely rewarding; we wish him well in his new role and I will do my best to hold the fort until additional help arrives.
Our dream of a world where children can live their dreams continues and so as Walt said, we require people to work with us (this doesn’t just mean colleagues but also partners and individuals with a passion for play); therefore, the search will begin in the New Year for a new Managing Director capable of continuing the good work started by Paul, there is still lots to do.
Thanks for your support.
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.
When we started ShareAndComparePlay.com, it was an experiment to test if we could revolutionise an industry we care deeply about, by introducing the following philosophies:
1. Provide valuable and corroborated information, for Free 2. Introduce Transparency, improving standards and reducing costs
3. Facilitate collaboration to enable innovation in play (involving children, parents, play operators, soft play suppliers, designers and schools)
Since our launch in February, this “experiment” has evolved into a commercial organisation enabling growth in the play market and with the potential to support change in subsequent markets, such as weddings.
To introduce each of the above, we developed and rapidly tested several strategies, inviting all stakeholders to share what we have learned so that they may invest in the future and prosper.
In the last few days, Spi Play (where I was previously a shareholder and Director), one of the “traditional” soft play equipment suppliers took up our offer. What was scheduled to be a two hour meeting took four hours; we discussed the changes that our presence has caused and how the market may evolve, both a threat and opportunity for an organisation such as Spi.
As previously discussed, “radical transparency” is likely the most controversial and difficult of trends that are resulting from our launch. The value-added by each organisation is laid bare (add no value and you will be eliminated) and all strengths, weaknesses and actions will be exposed to the market.
The essence of transparency for me is that each business must imagine that each and every communication, installation and quotation were being exposed to a capacity-filled Wembley stadium; future customers being able to judge each action and make informed decisions.
In reality, no organisation is ever going to achieve 100% satisfaction all of the time, at least in part because a positive or negative experience is in the eye of the beholder. However, what is important is that organisations engage with reviewers, encourage customers and employees to participate in the play community, allowing all to learn and share their experience.
In the case of Spi Play, I was pleased that they have responded to a recent negative review by calling the customer (who re-visited our site to say he was much happier), accepting that they dropped the ball in that particular case and then committing their organisation to valuing each star rating.
It is in the latter point that the role of the reviewer has commercial impact. Our algorithm means that each star awarded has real value in terms of pounds. This is because that more people each week are visiting our site (thanks again) as they start an indoor play centre and the worse an organisations overall rating, the lower they appear in our listings and the less likely future play operators are to make contact.
In an “eco-system” such as ours, each participant has an important role to play; ours is to provide an independent platform for information exchange; the suppliers is to listen, engage and contribute; the (prospective) play operators is to share their experience and use the information in making decisions.
In terms of advice for play suppliers and others (the offer for a meeting is always open if you would like to personalise the information and share our experience), this is a (very brief) summary:
- Participate with the play community. Share experience and expertise using our play forum (please don’t just make it an advertisement for your business) and by commenting on blogs; if you have insightful views, please tell us and we will publish them or interview you for softplay.tv
- Encourage your customers and prospects to review your organisation. If you have no ratings, not only are you at the bottom of the charts, play entrepreneurs are assuming you have something to hide
- Look to innovate by forming partnerships so that you can share the costs of R&D (more about this in a future blog); no one organisation is profitable enough to invest in developing the play areas that children dream about and play operators will want to buy. Participating in our play design competition is an alternative and low-cost method of innovating, contact us to learn more
- Consider exposing your value chain to the free market for comparison. For example, if you manufacture play equipment, consider listing as a components supplier so that people starting a play area can choose which elements of your proposition they want to buy. Transparency enables working with "best of breed" in each supplier category (e.g. maintenance, design etc) , invest and compete in each category to provide customers with genuine choice and value
This is an exciting and potentially prosperous time for the play industry; we hope more organisations continue to embrace the potential of the three philosophies that started it all.
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.
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