Make money from organizing activities at kiddies parties

Ok, this is not exactly “work at home” as organizing activities at kiddies parties generally means you go to the house the party is at.

If you’re pretty good with kids, or have at least helped occupy your little brothers or sisters, or your nephews or nieces, or little second or third cousins, or your own kid’s friends when they visit your house, or even helped out at school athletics days, you can organize activities at kiddies parties.

Before the first time you actually go to a kiddies’ party, get yourself a little organized and prepared.

It will help to have some sort of theme in mind, that you will generally always stick to. Let’s use the idea of “a fun athletics day” for kiddies, for this example.

Little kids love to compete against each other, or in teams against each other, in relays.

You could use simple objects such as tennis balls, bigger plastic balls, buckets and water, hard boiled or raw eggs, a few pieces of material, strings and pieces of bread, and perhaps a few hoops, or cones to run around or mark off an area. Don’t forget a whistle, pencil, and notepad.

Once you know you have all your materials in stock, or while getting them together, think about and make a list of “games” the kids will play, or “races” that the kids will compete in.

Also be sure to gather together some items for prizes. Think about whether you’ll be dishing out prizes after each race or game, or at the end at the “grand prize-giving.” Of course, find out from the parents of the child how many children will be at the party, and make sure to cater to all the children, by having odd and funny prizes too – like for “the kid who most thought he could fly in the three-legged race.” These prizes do not have to be expensive at all – a blown up balloon on a string, a sucker, a little chocolate, a cheap toy car, a lucky packet, a small and cheap but pretty hairclip or hair ornament etc etc. The value of a prize is in getting one, not in how much it cost.

Now, just about any work from home idea can be a good one, but one of the biggest issues most new little businesses face is how to market themselves, so do spend some time on thinking about this too, and planning for it. Make a list of all the different places you can advertise what you do, choosing many free advertising places, or advertising mediums that cost next to nothing. Just do a lot of it. Hints: approach pre-primary schools and primary schools as well.

As with any other work from home idea or plan, look at it from all angles and think about how else you could make money from it:

Try and get a friend or partner or two onboard, who might take photographs of the activities (at an extra cost to the parents of the birthday child) and then post or deliver the cd to the parents afterwards.

Since you’re going to be at these kiddies parties anyway, also start thinking about making up and providing (selling to the parents) little party packs of sweets, chips and snacks for the kids – you can offer different packages to the parents (with or without photos being taken; with or without party packs being provided, etc etc)

Do what you usually do at kiddies parties from the garden of your own home, for kids during school holidays (well, for their parents actually, as you’ll be providing a place where parents can drop off their children while they go shopping) – include a light snack and charge extra. Make sure to record telephone numbers of the parents.

Please consider another work from home idea if you don’t really get on well with kids.

© copyright Teresa Schultz 2010