Do you love gaming and adventure? Did you know that the gaming industry alone is worth over $200 billion? On Sawyer, parents are constantly searching for classes themed around gaming and magic. If your passion for fantasy and education can be combined, consider launching a business teaching gaming to kids.  

If you’ve ever felt called to teach children and don’t know where to start, we’ve got resources to help you launch an online or in-person children’s activity business. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Let yourself take the first step towards passionate entrepreneurship and be swept up on a new adventure! 

1. Put together a business plan

If you’ve never designed a business, have no fear! Building a business plan should start by following a template. Think of this as a recipe for your future business — this alchemic mix will help you stay organized as you build the foundation of your business.

A business plan should have the following pieces: 

• Executive Summary: A simple summary of your business and its mission
• Company Description: A longer description of your company and who and how you serve your community
• Market Analysis: Research and findings focused on the demand for your business as well as competitors in your community and online. 
• Organization and Management: Explain who you employ, their role in your company, and who is responsible for what. If you don’t have employees yet, you can explain your many roles here.
• Services and products you offer: This section is for considerations like what do you teach? Do you sell any products? What kind of content do you specialize in? 
• Marketing and sales plan: Add details on how you plan to market your business here. You can evolve this section over time, but we suggest using it to organize your marketing efforts. 
• Financial projections: This section is for considerations like: how much money did you save or borrow to start this business? How much money do you expect to make? 
  

We recommend spending time working on your business plan and being open to letting it evolve. Having a strong business plan can be helpful if you are taking out a small business loan, or having outside investment. It shows that you are serious, have professional experience in your field, and have a clear path to profitability. 

2. Determine your focus

Once you have a plan, decide what you’ll teach. Start with your area of expertise and what you’re passionate about. You may love teaching Dungeons and Dragons or feel extremely passionate about live-action roleplay based on Lord of the Rings — whatever your passion is, make sure that it is at the foundation of your new business. 

Adding games to children’s classes has been proven to help improve focus and reading ability in kids. What isn’t noted here is how gaming can provide a community for children and teenagers, especially those that might love escaping to fantasy worlds in books or video games. By offering activities and camps structured around board games, video games, and roleplay games, businesses can create spaces for kids and teens with niche interests to have fun, make friends, and learn critical thinking and negotiation skills in the process. 

 3. Decide how, where, and who you will teach

Now that you’re determined what you’ll teach, it’s time to think about the who and the how. 

Who

• Children: Children range from 5 to 11. Teaching school-age children about gaming techniques can help them level up their skills and find their passions. Investigate incorporating superheroes, popular video games, and pop culture into your lesson plans. 
• Preteens and Teens: This age group ranges from 12-17 and ideal for gaming and adventure classes. From roleplay to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, this audience has unlimited potential for businesses that specialize in teaching gaming and adventure-based classes. 

How and where

When it comes to launching a gaming business for kids, finalizing the structure of your classes will help you determine where and how you will teach. In general, when teaching kids you can choose to offer online or in-person classes (or a mix of the two)! 

• In-person: In-person classes will require a physical space. Boardgame classes might require less space than live-action roleplay classes, so make sure to take account of what you’re teaching before picking out a location. You can also take in-person classes outside, which is great for classes with adventure and quest elements. Boardgame and video game activities might be better suited for an indoor classroom environment — especially if you don’t want equipment or game pieces to get lost! 
• Online: Teaching kids to game over Zoom is possible! Many professional gamers use platforms like Discord to play together — so helping familiarize kids and teens with platforms and set them up to understand gaming technology as adults. Online gaming classes for kids are best when you can play digital versions of board games (for example, Settlers of Catan has a digital version) or make video games social using a platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts. 
• Both: By offering both online and in-person gaming and adventure classes, you can reach more students.
  

5. Get ready to multitask

Launching online or in-person gaming and adventure classes for kids requires wearing many hats. To get ready, make sure you have skills in the following areas:

• Teacher: Whether you’ve taught for years or are just beginning, opening your own children’s activity business will involve teaching students. Make sure to collect client testimonials that demonstrate your skill as a mentor and educator. 
• Business Manager: You’ll need to be prepared to work in every department of your business, including accounting, scheduling, communications, and customer service.
• Technology Master: You’ll need to make sure you’re comfortable with using technology to teach classes, including speakers, registration software, and streaming tools. 
• Role Model: You’re about to start teaching kids how to master their favorite games and make friends in the process. It’s your job to be a good role model! 
  

If you feel like you need practice in these areas, you can investigate taking classes on professional development websites like edX and Lynda. 

5. Get a payment processing and registration system

Once you’ve written a business plan and decided on how and what you’ll teach, you will need a way to collect student registrations and payments. When you choose to partner with good registration software, you will also benefit from software automations, seamless banking, and financial reporting to make it easier to analyze where your business is thriving and where more work needs to be done. 

If you’re starting a children’s activity business, Sawyer Tools has everything you need to make registration easy for your team and your customers. See why thousands of businesses love Sawyer Tools and why you will too. 

6. Connect with your community

Once you have a business plan, location, focused curriculum, and powerful registration software, you’ll be ready to start teaching. 

Our best advice is to connect with your community whenever and however you can. Marketing will naturally grow when you invest in your community. Consider joining local parent Facebook groups, partnering with local schools and businesses, offering introductory classes, and hosting free events to get the word out about the work you’re doing. For example, you could host a gaming-themed parent’s night out with a local school to introduce local families to your business and show their children how fun gaming classes for kids can be. Connecting with your community is key to unlocking success for years to come! 

We can’t wait to see how your business grows! To get more information on launching your children’s activity business for kids, connect with a member of our team today.