by Frank Price Birthday University

After the dust settled from the fall schedule of amusement industry trade shows, it's exciting to hear about so many new family entertainment ventures, somewhere between the idea phase and early construction. The lure of a business venture based on FUN, is once again enticing a whole new generation of enthusiastic entrepreneurs. Although the desire to be first on the block, with what hopefully is the next leisure industry "home run", can be a dangerous and frustrating strategy.

It's been over a decade since I remember a similar race to be the first, the biggest and what each believed was a better version of early industry leader's concepts. It was a frenzy of large investors and ma and pops seeking prime retail space to make it big in what seemed would be a "Fun" and "Rewarding" business. I still have archived business plans predicting the downfall of early innovators, like Discovery Zone, then owned by Viacom and Leaps and Bounds, the McDonalds version of a twelve and under indoor playground. Looking back and analyzing their mistakes, it's much easier to see that their concepts were flawed. Unfortunately many entrepreneurs at the time were enticed to follow these early industry leaders, because "Hey, they're McDonalds, they must know what they are doing" or "They've got over 300 of these centers up, it must be a gold mine." Those of us "older" war horses with 10 - 15 years in this industry, have all been involved with a company at one time or another, whose goal was to develop and roll out a bunch of these better mousetraps. In fact, there were plenty of very high profile entertainment companies who all failed miserably. After the shakeout, those that survived where lean, smart, usually active owner/operators, who continued to develop their operation to meet the needs of their customers. They were not complacent and did not resist the commitment to change. They embraced a continual improvement plan as in integral part of their business strategy and nurtured meaningful relationships with their market.

As excited as I am about these new budding entrepreneurs, it pains me to hear people talk about investing their life and life's savings into the idea that's going to knock off the current concept leaders. I'll take what they do and do it better. Copying a business concept does not work. History has proven that. Allowing history to repeat itself again or traveling down the same path, reminds me of the definition of insanity. Repeating something over and over and expecting the outcome to be different.

Copy cat concepts simply don't work. A better strategy when modeling your concept from another business is to take the principles you like, then research and design your own unique concept and add them to it. In the attempt to duplicate another business and duplicate it, critical underlying components get lost in the process. If you don't know why this business is operating in a particular way, you'll never truly understand the business as a whole. Worst of all, you will not be able to communicate who or what you are, to the market or your employees. If these two primary success influencers don't get it, your business will be in trouble right from the get go. The real nightmare is that many business concepts themselves were copied, prior to you discovering them. They never understood what they were doing or why they were doing it. The greatest example of this was Discovery Zone. Many would be entrepreneurs lost everything modeling their business after DZ. Sure they added a twist or two, some even made them bigger. The problem, DZ didn't know what they were doing and didn't understand the market or their business. Worst of all they were blind and deaf to the industry experts they hired to help run their company. Learn from history, blaze your own trail with a unique "to you" concept. Educate yourself and find others who have been there before. Learn and listen intently. The wisdom of others can save you plenty.

Throughout my research of birthday concepts I've found over 95% appear to be formulated, modeled or copied from others, similar them. I'm sure it went something like this. Observe what seems to be a successful birthday concept or hire someone that has worked in the industry. Then copy how they do it.

When you copy another concept, no matter how better you present it, or how much bigger it is, studies show consumers will see only a 15% differentiation between you and the business(es) you borrowed it from. When there's no unique difference, parents choose what's new or what they haven't done before. Eventually their party choice is made by two factors, price and location. Here lies a major reason why some party programs set themselves up for failure, right from the start. They package and price their parties according to what the competitors are doing. "I'll add a few more game tokens, an extra prize for the birthday child, a few other spiffs and then charge a little less than everyone else." "I'll be booked solid." Unfortunately being booked solid, with a high cost of sales yielding a low profit margin, is destination ... failure. No growth, not meeting financial requirements, including desired return on investment, means a business soon to be extinct, like other concepts before them.

Just last week I had a conversation with a seasoned industry veteran, who has been operating successfully for over 10 years. We'll call him Pete. When we first talked about his birthday program he told me his parties were good, he'd been doing them for a long time. My comment, "Then it's about time to stir up the pot and change. It'll bring new energy and employee enthusiasm, that'll get people talking again." With skepticism his management team sat through the BU course and saw a different perspective, a new "Out of the woods" point of view. He took these ideas and put them into action, changing almost everything he had been doing for the past 10 years. Guess what? It's working ... great job Pete!

But here's the real learning point. Recently two new competitors emerged, one in his market and one about an hour away. Pete told me that each one must have copied his former program, because it was almost identical. One company's brochure was almost word for word. Obviously these two new businesses figured that Pete, being a 10 year seasoned veteran, must be doing something right and copied his program, without really knowing what they were copying. Unfortunately, what they copied was obsolete and needed to be changed, but they think it's what works. Pete's comment, "It serves them right."

Being unique, recreating old ideas in a brand new way has proven to be a consistent formula for success in any industry, but a far less popular strategy. It's harder in the short term, it takes passion, creativity, belief and confidence in one's ability, with unrelenting faith that the road less traveled is the best direction to go. Even though you may still journey down "learning curve lane", this is where real innovation is revealed and long term success lives. Make sure you keep your eyes and mind open, have plenty of perseverance in your pocket, expect road blocks and give it enough time to sprawl. You'll be happy you did. And when others come by to copy, think like Walt Disney, who said "I can create faster than they can steal"

The foundation for developing your own "Unique" business or birthday party concept starts by uncovering a single, clear cut compelling reason for people to choose your facility over everyone else's. "I'll give you a clue ... It's not about the price." With parties, it's discovering a way of providing a personalized experience, where the birthday child is the center of attention and human emotions are facilitated within your play environment, throughout the entire celebration. Only then will you hear... "Oh yeah, that's the place where they ...."

The tangible, physical environment, play attractions or even the quality of offering, are not the difference between the best of the best. It's the interaction and relationships developed between your employee team and your guests. A friendly team of party "Heroes", can make any environment come alive with energy, memorable value and emotional attachment. It's the human interaction and personality between these individuals that make each experience uniquely different and special, each and every time. Continual change, improvement and updating play attractions are a definite plus when it comes to family entertainment value. But it's the relationships developed between your guests and employees that'll keep them talking about "It" longer and returning for "It" more often.

There are many ways to begin creating your own unique concept. Eliminating as many guest and employee frustrations is where to start. Most party businesses actually create frustration, so if it's founded on eliminating them, you'll establish a natural uniqueness.

Start by identifying the top three frustrations involving the two primary influencers of the success of your program, employees and guests. View it from within their shoes. What drives your guest or employee nuts about your parties? Look at it visually, emotionally, functionally and financially. The frustrations you identify consistently between both groups are the ones to eliminate first. Through this process, you'll discover that your business will establish itself as different very naturally in a short time.

Remember it's the front line and guest opinion that matters most. When I meet with top executives or owners of family entertainment businesses, I'll ask them what frustrates them most about their party program. Even though they are the owner, too many times their concept is formed around their single thought. The last time I checked, not many of them are their typical customer. Their opinions are not nearly as important as looking at it from the people that have the largest impact on the success of your business.

Last month during a Birthday University Europe class in England, attendees informed me that British children never eat the birthday cake at a birthday party. "How peculiar." I replied. They sing happy birthday, blow out candles and cut the cake, but then it's wrapped and placed in the goodie bag, to be taken home. When I asked, "Why do you do it that way?" Their reply was something I hear all too often ... that's the way it's always been done. My suggestion, "What if you were different?" "What if you were to do something totally unexpected and out of the norm, like serve and eat the cake, right at the party. Who knows, you might now become ... Oh yeah, that's the place were they eat the cake after it's cut." All of the sudden, you're unique. The class pondered long and hard on the idea. How could something so simple, be so unique? We'll have to follow up and see if any of the attendees take me up on the challenge.

Unique is risky, it's never boring, it's not compromise and definitely not ... that's what we've always done or that's what everyone does." Have you read Purple Cow by Seth Godin. If not pick it up and learn how to and why transforming your business into being remarkable, is creating a new generation of successful companies, these businesses are picking apart the top heavy, playing it safe, stale, bureaucratic companies that have been around for as long as we can remember, and still hoping to hold on with out dated concepts. Remind you of any?

Go outside your immediate industry and search for really unique ideas. Take their best, then recreate it in a way that might work for you. Go back in history and research what has worked well way back when. The simplistic ideas of the past, with new twists continue to evolve into today's newest and most innovative ideas. Mike Vance creative genius and past Dean of Disney University states that "Creativity is the making of the new or the rearranging of the old, in a brand new way." Birthday parties have evolved from pin the tale on the donkey, musical chairs and cloths pin in the milk bottle. Now they are Glow Golf, Dance Dance Revolution games, indoor water rides, pull string pinatas and "Who's Line Is It Anyways" improv games. But it'll always be the "Human" involvement within the party itself, that will bring out the memorable and powerful emotional value of a commercial birthday party.

Recently I heard a story from a friend who attended an advanced marketing seminar. The instructor said the worst thing you can do is attend a conference in your own industry, because there are no new ideas. They've all been done before. His recommendation, go to trade shows that have nothing to do with your business. He told about a Ti Kwon Do business that was stalling because the owner could not figure out how to keep students interested and involved after the initial 30 day trial. Rather than attending his Industry's conference, he decided to attend a show where businesses had the same issue, but seemed to have solved the problem. He attended the Diet Industry conference, where he was not considered a competitive threat, so the best operators told him exactly how they solved the same problem. He now has multiple locations and is considered a creative genius in his circles. Now everyone is trying to copy him.

Design or enhance your birthday party concept to include a unique offering that eliminates guest and party team frustration. Personalize it with the human touch, add memorable value and eliminate frustrations. These are the main ingredients to a unique party concept, allowing you to increase your price and as a result increase your profit.

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