Forgot to say - don't forget the free wiifi.

I would love to have a kiddie cafe on North Cote.

I think the kid's cafes I have seen in the area aren't offering as much as they could and are missing out on opportunities to make more money.

You could sell fresh packed lunches that people could quickly pick up on the way to school - maybe offer a card where they buy 10 or 20 at once and just need to show the card to pick one up quickly in the morning. Also, do a family dinner service in the early evening. Not enough good places for a mom or sitter to go with young kids for dinner. More healthy snack options for both moms and kids. Do low fat options for mums so they can have a healthier snack when they buy their coffee. Offer deals - cards so you get a free something with every 10 coffees - other offers that encourage people to buy more.

Offer to host PTA meetings and other groups that meet after school drop off or new mum's groups. Give a discount for groups that meet regularly in your space or other incentive.

I spend a fortune at kiddie cafes and have for years. There are so many times I want to spend more - but they aren't offering what I need - packed lunches to go available before school starts, good spots for dinner with kids, a place to buy coffee that rewards me for buying lots of them with a frequent buying card program. Also lots of kid food places have awful food so I avoid them, or go anyway and am unhappy with the food and order less than I normally would.

Do keep everything very clean and repair and replace everything that breaks.

-S

unfortunately rents at northcote road are prohibitively high. Have you looked into the costs of them? Also, fit out costs are extremely high too - apparently chain coffee shops tend can spend around £250k on fit outs - so it's a massive risk in the first few (many?) years. Great advice from Eddie cats...agree really nice of Maria to post and very interesting to read.

to midwifemummy - yes the costs of a cup of coffee and cake are high on northcote rd (and other areas) but the rents are ridiculous. Trying to make ends meet let alone make a profit means that prices need to be high. Look at crumpet closing down - they did fairly good food, in a good play environment but closed down - I suspect because they couldn't make the money to make it work (I don't know so please correct me if I'm wrong, anyone in the know).

Much better to have higher priced independents otherwise northcote road will turn into a bland street of chain restaurants that can afford the high costs and fit out.

I think it's really unfair and inaccurate to say that the independent businesses in the area are taking mums for a ride. Running an independent business is bloomin hard work and I can't imagine anyone is making their millions from it.

I hope any childrens play cafe would not allow dogs please. HUGE one in play cafe nearby recently, I don't care if it is a 'nice one' with little ones running around with food. If the USP is a safe play/eat/environment this is NOT appropriate.

Will visit Eddie Catz, thank you!

I don't travel over to Northcote Rd very often and my views are going to be pretty different than others aired in this thread - so take my post with a grain of salt, I guess.

I would absolutely love a cafe with some toys. BUT I don't want to see another pseudo soft-play slash cafe slash "some activities held here for an extra price" place.

If I want soft play I take the kids to Eddie Catz or Its A Kids Thing. Great places, but I can't afford to go as often as I would to a cafe. In a cafe what I want is 15-30 minutes of sitting around, drinking tea/coffee, having a nibble, maybe getting some reading done or chatting to a friend if I've come accompanied.

I loved the Crumpet on Bellevue Rd and went there often, although as others have pointed out they went downhill near the end with battered, dirty toys. Right now, my cafe of choice with young children is Belle Amie on Garratt Lane - they have great coffee and loose leaf tea, good pastries (haven't yet tried the food so can't speak to that) and the back room has some simple toys to play with.

It sounds like what you're proposing is a kind of hybrid between full-on soft play and somewhere like Crumpet/Belle Amie. I think you need to consider customers other than mothers with children - do you plan to cater to them as well? Take-out coffee for example? Wi-fi?

If I were to open a kid-friendly cafe (and I don't plan to - that's not my cuppa tea ), I would keep the play area small - maybe even not have a "play area" at all, but two "stations" the kids can float between to separate them a bit and prevent huddling. I'd have a train table with a ton of wooden trains (Thomas is almost always a hit with many children), and I'd have something like a wooden kitchen area with lots of play food.

I'd look at buying top-grade stuff, maybe even stuff designed for hospital waiting rooms or other similar high-traffic places, since it'll be very cleanable. No "loud" toys that will bother customers without children. And maybe a separate revenue-maker if you have the space - gumball machine or something, or one of those ride-on toys that cost 50p a go.

Best of luck in your venture

Ps I'm afraid I wouldn't come with my two if there were screens/iPads everywhere! Sorry to be a Luddite!

Just wanted to add to this thread to say that we will definitely be visiting Eddie Catz having seen Maria's post, how kind to take the time out to give such detailed advice and insight. Also wanted to say that I can't understand criticism of the food at EPL, it has always been fab when I have gone and I think the staff are very helpful. For what it's worth I think that a play cafe with a decent sized soft play area and reasonably maintained toys and books could probably charge around 2/3£ per family given what people seem tobspend on some playgroups and classes around here. But I'm not sure that income plus the takings from coffee and cake or even a wider menu would pay for itself on Northcote Road though given all the fixed costs of running this type of business, particularly if busyness fluctuated from week to week. My vote would be for something on a less busy street, as I think most mums are so used to going some distances for classes and play dates...? Good luck!

Wow some really good advice from Maria of Eddie Catz.

I really liked Eat Play Love when I went during the week but I had a HORRIBLE time there on a weekend. We booked a table for 6, and there was a party in the party room. The doors to the party room were open and the music was so loud that it made it impossible to talk in the main part of the café. the kids in the party (ages 6-8, I thought) were running around the tables and soft play area and back into the party room. we left when two boys started fighting at the next table, as my two are much smaller and were scared. I tried to complain about the volume of the music in the main café but gave up when the person behind the counter couldn't hear me. I'd never go back as i was so cross about how the space was managed. I expect noise in a children's café but this was something else.

Soooo, if you were thinking of doing parties - please make sure they're under control!

Thats very helpful hindsight Maria, thanks for sharing. I cannot personnally say i love Eddy Catz (well i m not your age target ) but my kids love it so we go. I think it is a great concept, my personnal favourite being the one in Wimbledon so much space there.

@OP: bottom of the story be original (like the ipads idea), get your finances right and you might get lots of support.

On another note, look at other cafes/restaurant and how they work even if they re not directly your competition. For instance, when Ben Canteen opened on St John Hill you could see the owner sitting taking a v good table and not helping any customers. My hysband and I bet d be gone in a year. He is still there, very very popular. He tweets, he blogs, he digital market his place so people go there and then people return because it is actually quite good (if a little expensive).

As i said, good luck.

Brilliant post Maria. I'll pass it onto my friends.

Brilliant idea !

All of the suggestions so far have been good.
I went to the cafe eat pray love in Clapham and was so disappointed by the whole thing I will never go there again.
Toddlers could just walk out onto the main road ( poor gate system) Which made it very stressful for Parents. I would therefore suggest a proper security gate.
Food quality was very poor. So the quality of the food is very important.
Also the toys at that cafe were dirty and dated. So good clean toys for children.

I look forward to seeing you!

I thought I should maybe add my two cents here. My husband and I own Eddie Catz. We sit on the Board of our industry bodies, we mentor other businesses, we have helped many a failing play operator and and we regularly speak at conferences for start ups. I just thought you may be interested in our perspective.
We have 3 Eddie Catz centres and according to our business plan we should be pretty well off by now. Well this is far from the truth. We are still a small family owned company and we work our guts out, seven days a week. It is rewarding, but this industy is not a goldmine and do consider why others have failed before opening in the same place. Restaurants especially have a high failure rate. An you can also not count on all customers buying more than a coffee. Just a couple of grains of advice of what you will be in store for.....

Dealing with customers - it's no easy feat dealing with customers who, understandably in the current economy, look for high quality facilities and food at a low cost. it is near on impossible to make everyone happy although you do try. You sometimes get emails from customers telling you they are "disgusted" with your prices, which is heart wrenching when you put in hard work. Just to give you a random example of the crazy stuff that happens....we had a customer today about to tuck into a freshly made pizza and another lady's child ran over and gave it a good lick. The mother of the "licker" did not offer to pay for a new pizza and so the customer expected us to provide a fresh one. As you can imagine we ended up with 2 angry customers (they ended up fighting) and had to fork out a free pizza too!

Mucking in - everyone in the family gets pulled in to a business like this - mainly because it is 7 days a week. I would lie if I said we would not have been able to get so far without our parents on both sides pitching in or our kids (now 15 and 13) also helping on weekends. I have facepainted on weekends, pride myself on being one of the best dishwashers on a crazy day and I have been in that Eddie costume so many times that I could scream. I know the owners of Eat, Play, Love and other small local cafe-play spaces and I no doubt echo their thoughts.

Financial committment - all I can advise is do your math. Do your revenue plan and then cut it in half. See if your cashflow can still survive. We took no salries for the first 2 years.

Hidden costs - you need to factor in 20% of revenue going to the VAT man, rent, business rates, salaries, cost of consumables, not to mention uniform, staff training, first aid training, a PRS license, a waste disposal contract and so on. A profitable business is not easily achieveable. Do this before committing to your lease and business loans as you will no doubt have to guarantee both.

Good luck
Maria J.

Went to a cafe/softplay during the weekend in Kingston. It was perfect for younger kids with lots of toys , play cars etc and food for kids and parents which was great. I don't know if they are making money but they have 3 centers all over Sutton. They have entry fee for the kids to play which at £2.50 is perfectly reasonable for some peace and quiet and they host parties on Saturday and Sunday.
I think its a great business model and makes it accessible to a lit more people than the NC crowd.
All the best for your venture. If you were ready by November, I would contact you to host my sons bday party.

I have been to a few that are very successful and it is all about making sure you know exactly what would bring people in and ensuring there are little extras that keep people coming back.

If you have the space then one that I have been to has a room out the back which freelance beauticians can use and so for example, you go to the café with a friend and her kids and whilst the kids play one of you goes for a massage/wax/have nails done etc.

You could then have a menu of activities for mums/dads i.e. Monday Massage, Wednesday wax etc etc there are so many good freelance beauty specialists that I'm sure would be interested.

ANyway - what I was getting at is that there needs to be something different, a reason to go to and be better than others

Good luck

£10 for a coffee and a piece of cake is a tad high even for Northcote but the comment reflects the change in the profile of the road/area in the last 10-15yrs.

Estate agents flock to Northcote because 2% sales fee on a £1M house is an awful of coffee and cake isn't it? Therefore with business rates plus rent the cost for consumerables is obviously high but is the market rate.

Going back to the OP you've got to have something original and engaging otherwise you'll be a trend that will fade into the next. Parties sounds like a good idea especially if you have a separate space, classes too.

I have 2 friends who are very interested in opening a cafe on Northcote albeit with a different angle. Getting people into a cafe isn't the issue, finding something they're happy to pay more and return is. The maths are really quite scary!