Storybook Entertainment | Application Preview
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General Information
Business Registration Number: Storybook Entertainment
Location: Kapolei, HI, United States
Length of Operation: 1-5
Number of Employees: 1-10 Employees
Annual Gross Income: $250k to $500k
Annual Gross Expense: Less than $100k
Open to Loans: YES
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Funding Usage
Funding will be used for business expansion of a new location , as we are outgrowing our current one. (We do NOT plan to close our current location, only to expand to a second location.) Immediate funds will be used for the creation and design of the space, employee onboarding costs, building supplies, labor, stock needed for expansion. We already have the idea spot and the lease in hand ready to take the next leap, but capital is crucial in this stage to cover the costs of the initial build out and create unique job opportunities for future employees in central Oahu.
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Business Plan
We are always finding new and innovative ways to grow the business and offer unique services that are not common in Hawaii. Aside from continuously adding new services, we plan to now incorporate selling merchandise to go hand in hand with our makeover services. (You can think of us as something similar to the Bibbity Boppity Boutique at Disney World, but offering our own unique characters.). Expanding to this new location will open up a whole new world of profitability as we will have the room to grow without the overhead of taking on more storage, as the desired space we are aiming for has plenty of storage. We plan to offer new parties options for those children who we have watched grow and be part of our lives over the years, to offer them options more suitable to older children. We also would like to open a 4th location within our 5 year plan in the area of Waikiki, as we feel there is nothing especially in the Waikiki area for children and the experience we provide would be perfect for the tourist market. (The third location I didn't mention is our self-funded collaboration we are doing with Sea Life Park) Where to begin... Storybook is solely women-owned by only myself and I have never taken a loan. It's not been in my nature to borrow and I believed in my initial vision and dream and brought it to fruition on a dime by repurposing things on a budget. In the past ten years, I have created a trusted brand in Storybook and we have been a big part of the community and a huge contributor of services to Make a Wish Foundation, Shriners hospital and the Special Olympics as well as various other non-for profit foundations. What we offer is something unique to Hawaii and as many families out here could never afford the high costs of bringing their families to the mainland, I truly believe we make magic here for keiki that may have never experienced something like it. Our fantasy salon is one of a kind and since it's opening we have had nothing but raving 5 star reviews which can be seen on yelp. When Covid happened, we had to refund over a years worth of deposits. We powered on through what could have been devastating by finding local sponsors to support the wages of my employees and creating online Zoom experiences for the community where children who were trapped at home were welcome to sign up and join our interactive shows. We had over 1,000 children participate. In the middle of Covid when all was seemingly ending, we were offered a one month free rent to start Storybook Station. With nothing but long-term dreams in my mind, I started painting the walls while everyone called me crazy. We transformed an old dingy hair salon into a magical party venue within 4 weeks. When we first opened we were taking nearly 30 appointments per day. Of course, how, that has tapered off a bit but we are still going strong and now make the bulk of our profit doing full scale party performances which operate much like a stage show . Our workers are ALWAYS in character as fairies or mermaids and the kids shopping in the mall always are on the lookout to see which fairy or mermaid is working when the drop by to visit. You can see what I'm talking about at www.StorybookStationHawaii.com . After our roaring start, covid hit an all-time high once again and it was a terrifying remainder of the year as we were forced to close our shop and still pay the rent. However, we pulled through with our limited resources. For the past 8 years we have one the "Best of Honolulu" in the children's entertainment category as well as the past year being KITV's Best Entertainment Venue taking second place between winners Dave and Busters and coming in after us, Chuck-E Cheese. I think that's a pretty honorable thing being comapred to such huge corporations. Last year we won the ISCS Visual victories award for the Most artistic store design. This is a national award and we were the only winners in Hawaii. This year our mall nominated our kiosk in a different category and we were just informed a few days ago that we received another win! This time we were in good company with the other National brands who won being Dior, Volvo and William Ashley, all national brands. We were the ONLY winner in the US to receive an award this year as all the others were from Canada. The managment team from the mall was awarded a trip to Las Vegas both years to accept the awards. All this being said, I believe in my dream and my vision....and I am a go getter. I did it all without any help and I intend on continuing to grow and hopefully at some point be able to franchise and expand on my ideas I have in my back pocket. I am at a place now, however, where my growth opportunity has surpassed what I can do on my own. I need the capital to be able to get the ball rolling on this new, larger location so I can continue on with this journey.
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Self Identified Competition
The amazing thing about what we do is that we don't really have a direct competitor. Nobody looking for a magical makeover experience can turn anywhere here in Hawaii to have that kind of experience and as far as I know, no other place offers full, all-inclusive party experiences that include the venue, entertainment, hosts, face painting, characters, invitations, food, activities, cupcakes, goody bags and magical decor...all in one price. If I were to call another business a competitor I guess I would have to go with one of the other local face painting services as we also offer traveling event services and that category is one we do have competition in. Other party venues of course compete with us for party bookings as an option, however when you are talking comparison for them renting out a space and the kids free-playing, we really don't compare in any way there. Well I think I should have read this questions before writing my previous answers HAHA, but all in all what we do is very unique and quite honesly with the right strategy and capital to build off of, could expand far beyond Hawaii. You have to experience it to understand what it is all about, but I hope you will visit our reviews and check it out for yourself. Both my Storybook Ent and Storybook Station reviews are intermixed so there are elements of each in these reviews. https://www.yelp.com/biz/storybook-entertainment-and-party-venue-kapolei and ://www.yelp.com/biz/storybook-station-kaneohe-2?rr=5 . You can also visit a video tour of the shop by clicking this link https://vimeo.com/820316287/92e61596fd?share=copy. If I get a grant to expand to this new location, the next one will be bigger and better and able to accommodate much larger parties.
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