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About 2.5 months ago I was ready to not open this year as I didn't think I would be ready and it woulld not be exactly as I wanted. Well I put it out to the masses(you) and you said open. I did. Here is what happened.
first let me say I have no idea what i am doing but I do know how to run a business. My haunt is located in Brookings,SD and is called "The Fear Asylum." The theme is a insane asylum. I have wanted to do a haunted house for YEARS but never knew where to start. So after last Halloween I started doing research.
This sent me to Transworld. My head was spinning with all the ideas and products. I bought very little and headed home.
Where to put it...Well I own a hottub business with about 4500 ft. I decided to try and sell as much of my inventory as I could by Oct 1 and use my shop. It worked. I started building like mad. I wanted to open Oct 21st and didn't make it. I opened on Oct.28th-31st. We ran 27 people threw on day 1. Not so good.
I have a degree in marketing and spent very little time on the marketing of this project. I just wanted to open it. Not very smart but I underestimated the time is was going to take to build this thing. I wanted it to be VERY detailed and realistic. I have a base of about 50,000 people within 25 miles. 12,000 are college students. One thing I did buy at Transworld was a gore Galore Bloody mary costume as one of my main characters in my haunt. Kevin told me to use it as a marketing tool. I didn't want people to see it unless they went threw the haunt. Mistake #2. Day 2 we had 71 people go threw. They all loved it. ( I have nothing for competition here besides a few charity things) People around here dont know what a great haunted house is. they have no idea. were not there yet but we will be. With a investment of about $13k so far i need to turn this thing around. I grabbed Kevins costume and one of my actors and headed down town for about 1 hour before we opened. That night we had 147 people come threw. the last night we had 156 people come threw. They all loved it.
This was a financial loss as I only charged $6. But I did not plan on making money the first year. In fact I plan on loosing money next year too. This is a product and it will take me a couple years to get the name out. I am fine with that because long term it will turn a profit.
I believe you need to have a theme of some sort and have characters to match. we ended up with a few characters by accident and they were some of the biggest hits of the show. I am going to now focus on new characters and work on character development.( More product name recognition)
detail,lighting,sound and atmosphere seemed to e way creepier then any gory prop so I think we will continue down that path. (anyone know how to build a remote controlled trike for my doll room)
Marketing,marketing,marketing. That will be a main focus this year and we will really work on a fbook,twitter,etc. following. Not to mention some autograph sessions at the local party store a few times this year with my newest inmate "Johnnie Freaktacular" More on him later.
Quality actors will be a main focus for us. Interaction between guests and cast will be encouraged.
We only had about 2500 ft. of haunt this year and only took about 10 minutes to go threw. Next year we will expand and open up another "wing" of the asylum.
we will also up the fee next year. i did have some people freak at the $6. You get what ya pay for. So I will take a few years to get a name and a following before I worry about big profit or any for that matter. I am not looking for a quick buck. No such thing. I am in this for the long haul. It will now be a part of our annual event calendar. A big part of our annual calendar.
So thanks for the tips and help this last year. maybe this will help someone else out. I consider this a great first year. we had almost 500 people come threw, No one complained, everyone had a blast, 2 people peed their pants, and everyone cant wait til next year. Me? I spent a buttload of money and giggled my ass off for 4 days straight. I am now full speed ahead on next year.
Thanks
Buck
first let me say I have no idea what i am doing but I do know how to run a business. My haunt is located in Brookings,SD and is called "The Fear Asylum." The theme is a insane asylum. I have wanted to do a haunted house for YEARS but never knew where to start. So after last Halloween I started doing research.
This sent me to Transworld. My head was spinning with all the ideas and products. I bought very little and headed home.
Where to put it...Well I own a hottub business with about 4500 ft. I decided to try and sell as much of my inventory as I could by Oct 1 and use my shop. It worked. I started building like mad. I wanted to open Oct 21st and didn't make it. I opened on Oct.28th-31st. We ran 27 people threw on day 1. Not so good.
I have a degree in marketing and spent very little time on the marketing of this project. I just wanted to open it. Not very smart but I underestimated the time is was going to take to build this thing. I wanted it to be VERY detailed and realistic. I have a base of about 50,000 people within 25 miles. 12,000 are college students. One thing I did buy at Transworld was a gore Galore Bloody mary costume as one of my main characters in my haunt. Kevin told me to use it as a marketing tool. I didn't want people to see it unless they went threw the haunt. Mistake #2. Day 2 we had 71 people go threw. They all loved it. ( I have nothing for competition here besides a few charity things) People around here dont know what a great haunted house is. they have no idea. were not there yet but we will be. With a investment of about $13k so far i need to turn this thing around. I grabbed Kevins costume and one of my actors and headed down town for about 1 hour before we opened. That night we had 147 people come threw. the last night we had 156 people come threw. They all loved it.
This was a financial loss as I only charged $6. But I did not plan on making money the first year. In fact I plan on loosing money next year too. This is a product and it will take me a couple years to get the name out. I am fine with that because long term it will turn a profit.
I believe you need to have a theme of some sort and have characters to match. we ended up with a few characters by accident and they were some of the biggest hits of the show. I am going to now focus on new characters and work on character development.( More product name recognition)
detail,lighting,sound and atmosphere seemed to e way creepier then any gory prop so I think we will continue down that path. (anyone know how to build a remote controlled trike for my doll room)
Marketing,marketing,marketing. That will be a main focus this year and we will really work on a fbook,twitter,etc. following. Not to mention some autograph sessions at the local party store a few times this year with my newest inmate "Johnnie Freaktacular" More on him later.
Quality actors will be a main focus for us. Interaction between guests and cast will be encouraged.
We only had about 2500 ft. of haunt this year and only took about 10 minutes to go threw. Next year we will expand and open up another "wing" of the asylum.
we will also up the fee next year. i did have some people freak at the $6. You get what ya pay for. So I will take a few years to get a name and a following before I worry about big profit or any for that matter. I am not looking for a quick buck. No such thing. I am in this for the long haul. It will now be a part of our annual event calendar. A big part of our annual calendar.
So thanks for the tips and help this last year. maybe this will help someone else out. I consider this a great first year. we had almost 500 people come threw, No one complained, everyone had a blast, 2 people peed their pants, and everyone cant wait til next year. Me? I spent a buttload of money and giggled my ass off for 4 days straight. I am now full speed ahead on next year.
Thanks
Buck
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