Would you pay someone to plan your kid's party?

Question

I am thinking of starting a party planning company for children's birthday parties. Basically a simple 2 hour party for 10 kids would be $200 and would include invitations, decorations, party games, cupcakes, punch, favors and clean up. Is this a service that parents would be interested in and willing to pay for? Of course, things like inflatable bouncers, clowns, etc would be extra, but I would also be able to provide them. These would be simple backyard/basement type of birthday parties for kids 3-12.

Answer 1

yes i would.parents nowadays are too busy to plan such stuff.and it seems like a pretty cool idea to me.mayb you could come up with a few themes for parents to choose from=)

Answer 2

I don't think so. My son will be 6 this year and I've thrown parties for all his bdays. There's 4 inflatable slides/climbers/jumping places and 2 gymnastics places- all of them provide invitations, all the games, some decoration, goody bags and clean up. The only thing I was responsible for was filling out and mailing the invites- 30mins max, picking up the cake and a few extra decorations. Those parties are in the 250-300 price range. I don't think most kids want cupcakes, they want the specialty cakes (Spongebob, Batman, Barbie) from the bakery. Of course, kids have parties all the time at Chuck E. Cheese too. I don't know exactly what their price ranges are.

Answer 3

I think this depends on the demand in your area. If there are mostly two-income families with busy lives and money to spare, this may be a very good idea. However, a smaller town with many stay-at-home moms may need reconsidering. Before investing much money into a business, I would try to figure the demand in your area, perhaps by posting free or cheap ads online, in the local paper, or putting ads around town; and then see what kind of response you get. Good luck with this.

Answer 4

My initial response was No. Because I don't have kids. But forget about me avoiding the whole breeding thing thus far for a moment.

This is essentially a convenience business. As many are. People pay for convenience. They also pay for service. They also pay for trust.

I'm unsure as to whether your pricing is feasible but that can best be determined by market research. The real catch here is pin point marketing so that you maximize results for your time.

If you'd like to work together to expound on your idea let me know.

Answer 5

No.

My nephew's birthday party was yesterday, at a really really fun place that was just inflatables... there was a huge inflatable slide, obstacle course, giant basketball hoop, etc.. It covered an hour and a half of play, and thirty minutes of cake/presents in the party room. The invitations, cake, drinks, and a standard goody bag (my sister added stuff to make it more personlized) were included, for 12 kids, and the place was rented for $215.

If you're wanting to just do simple backyard/basement parties, you're going to have to bring the cost down a lot, just to have comparative prices. People generally throw backyard/basement parties to spend less money.

Don't get me wrong, people will pay for others to do all that work for their kids' birthday parties, it's just that most parents I know wouldn't pay that much to have the same party they could throw themselves for much less money (for ten kids, cake, punch, decorations, invites and favors cost a lot less than $200).

As always, culture matters. I'm in small town east Texas. I do realize that in other areas of the country, costs are a lot higher for most things, including birthday parties.

I did a little quick research:

Our local Chuck E. Cheese's basic birthday party package is $10.99 per child, or a total of about $110.00 for ten kids, which is what you're basing your $200 fee on. This includes:

A decorated table reserved for 90 minutes
2 slices of a single topping pizza
A soft drink with free refills.
20 game tokens per child.
Tasty birthday cake.
Dedicated host/hostess
The birthday child will also receive a Chuck E Cheese collectible cup, crown, balloon and cotton candy
Chuck E performance
Clean up.

For $15.99 (about $160 total), you can get:

A decorated table reserved for 90 minutes
2 slices of a single topping pizza
A soft drink with free refills.
$3.00 of additional tokens per child(32 total)
Tasty birthday cake.
Dedicated host/hostess
The birthday child will also receive a Chuck E Cheese collectible cup, crown, balloon and cotton candy
Chuck E performance
1 party favor bag per child
100 prize tickets for each birthday guest
500 prize tickets for the birthday child
Clean up.

Surely you can see the problem here. For forty dollars more, your party package is DEFINATELY not more impressive than a Chuck E. Cheese party.

To compare with the relatively inexpensive costs of where I live, the New York City location's pricing is $16.99 (total of about 170 for ten kids) for the basic, and $21.99 (total of about 220 for ten kids) for the Super Package.

You're going to need to lower your pricing and raise your standards if you want parents to actually pay you to do the parties, because it just makes sense to get as much bang for your buck as possible, and if your parties cost more and offer less, you're not likely to have much business.

Answer 6

Me? I personally wouldn't pay anyone to plan my kids party. It is a good service tho. Many parents can't/won't do all of that for their kids and $200 is taking your kid to Libby Lu ion the amll for a party. I think it is a good idea.

Answer 7

I wouldnt only because I have had parties in my home or at the park for considerably less money, but for busy parents with extra cash to spare it sounds like a good idea to me. I think you should go for it!

Answer 8

Well for my lil bro's sixth birthday my mom n dad paid me n my buddy to organise a sports tournament,we got fifteen dollars each an it was awesome.
They had soccer,baseball,tennis,swimming(my dad had to be the lifeguard tho) an athletics-all the kids loved it.Don't think she would pay a stranger tho we just did the games in our back yard.

Answer 9

NO.Arranging a party 4 our kids is a thing of happiness and pleasure 4 parents.Dont miss this and enjoy the hard ship in doing this 4 our kids.

Answer 10

I would hire someone to help, but not to do the entire thing for me. But that's just me. I'm sure there are a lot of moms who can't take time off work, or are just so busy that they don't have time or energy to do that too. I think it's a great idea.