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.

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.