Most of her business in the beginning was word-of-mouth, since she had previously been a mobile DJ specializing in children’s events and had a great following. “When we first opened, I did very little advertising, as I had people coming to me wanting to host their parties with us,” she says. “As that group of children has now grown up—most of my early birthday kids are now freshmen in college!—I have had to put more money into advertising. I did some advertising in family-friendly magazines last year, and will be focusing on on-line marketing this fall. We also host parties for Scout Troops, so this fall I will be working to increase those events by connecting with the regional Girl Scout Council.”
Finding talent has been another challenge. To be able to host a party at The Groove Lounge, Fischer says it requires many skills. “Talent on the mic, people skills, and being lively and entertaining is a must,” she says. “The ability to dance is also key. It’s not necessary to be an over-the-top, hip-hop dancer, but keeping the beat and knowing how to lead a popular line-dance or circle-dance is essential. We play lots of games as well, so the ability to run games is very important. There is also the need to understand how to operate all of our equipment.”
Her party assistants, high school and college kids, either they hear about The Groove Lounge from their friends who work there, or they attend a party at The Lounge and express an interest in working with her.
When I ask Fischer two ways to keep children entertained, she lights up, as if her true passion has been stirred.
“The most important thing to keep children engaged at a party is to engage with them!” she says. “At our parties for young children, we rarely push play and then stand behind the booth and just watch. Left to their own devices, kids will start to lose control and we don’t want them running around, jumping on the furniture, pulling on the stage curtains or getting hurt. We are extremely hands-on and interactive.”
Fischer keeps them entertained by offering a variety of activities during a party. “In order to keep young kids involved and paying attention, we change up activities frequently. We start our parties with a dance warm-up. Then we do some large group/follow-along/interactive dances, depending on the age of the kids, followed by some games.”
Fischer, who says they never play elimination games with young kids because they always want everyone participating, will finish up with some free-styling right before it’s time to sit down and eat. “When the party is not a drop-off event and the parents stay at The Lounge, we also get the grown-ups involved,” she says. “To me, there are not a lot of things much better in this world than seeing parents dance with their children. Facilitating those moments is one of the main reasons I opened The Groove Lounge in the first place!”
