Are you looking to embark on the adventure of opening an indoor playground?

With over 25 years of experience in leisure equipment, Play In Business provides you with the key elements to optimize your success in this article.

Before anything else, you must evaluate the profitability of your indoor playground project through serious market research and a diligent business plan. You cannot do without either. Here is why.

Indoor playground: evaluating profitability to optimize your success

You must consider certain elements that will allow you to properly define and optimize your project. Two key steps are essential to determine if your project is viable and will be profitable: market research and the business plan. Market research is useful for understanding the market in which you will operate and targeting a need that you will meet. The business plan allows you to establish the commercial strategy as well as the economic model and to know if your project is viable in the long term. In short, these elements are essential for verifying the profitability of your indoor playground project.

Market research to master the commercial environment

You likely know that conducting market research to open your indoor playground requires time and personal investment. If you thought you could skip it because your idea is brilliant, we regret to inform you that it is impossible. Even if demand for leisure parks, particularly indoor ones, is high, you must master the market in which you will operate to estimate your turnover and determine the profitability of your indoor play area.

Your market research for opening your indoor playground must contain as much qualitative information as possible to best measure the viability of your project. Visiting other indoor play areas—whether they are direct competitors or not, and whether they have high attendance or not—is an important step. Learning what works well and what works less well is instructive. Your analysis should focus on:

  • Demand: what are the consumption habits, mobility, budget, and motivations of your target clientele?
  • Supply: will your project meet the demand? Is the competition not already fulfilling it?
  • Suppliers: what will your relationships with them be like?
  • Environment: what are the geographical, social, economic, and political elements that may influence your activity to some extent?
  • Regulations: are you familiar with the rules inherent to establishments open to the public (ERP), fire regulations in France for modular play equipment, those concerning access for people with disabilities, regulations on operator liability, mandatory signage, cleaning, and maintenance?
  • Other elements to analyze: useful surface area, parking, accessibility, capacity, range of services offered, activities based on age, pricing, number of employees, communication, safety, cleanliness maintenance, reception area, comfort, etc.

If the scale of the task seems daunting, Play In Business offers training sessions, specifically on market research.

The business plan to create your company

Once the market research validates your project and shows that your indoor playground has potential against the competition, it is time to move on to the business plan. This document serves to establish an activity forecast for creating your company. It presents your project in practical and accounting terms and allows you to obtain the financing necessary to create your indoor playground.

It includes:

  • The executive summary: a brief presentation of the project to generate interest from investors;
  • A presentation of the project stakeholders and their added value;
  • A general presentation of the project: your observations, motivations, and objectives;
  • The economic study: market research conclusions, business model, strategy, projected turnover, etc.;
  • The financial study: investment tables, initial financing plan, income statements for the first three years, cash flow plan, financing plan, etc.;

If the task seems somewhat difficult, Play In Business provides a downloadable complete guide in 4 volumes that allows you to fully understand the challenges of creating an indoor playground. For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!