WANTED: Haunt Mentor

[Crimsonwood]

My name is Brent Anderson and I am a fellow Haunter from Alberta, Canada! There is very little activity when it comes to professional haunted attractions up here, which is why my sister and I have spent the past 6 years learning and developing our own haunt from what we've learnt on our own and by visiting shows and haunts in the states. We are currently at a stage where we need to "go big or go home" and have been working to develop an improved business plan to obtain the necessary funding for such a venture.

We are looking to make contacts with haunted house owners in the states to create a financial forecast for our business plan, as well as ask various questions about the process. As you can imagine, there is nobody closer to us to help us on this journey. If anyone can make any recommendations as to "mentors" or contacts we can make in the industry we would be forever greatful!

BRENT & DELANEY ANDERSON
Crimsonwood Productions
Edmonton, AB Canada

[Damien Warwick]

welcome to the forums! You just got yourself tons of mentors (and a handful of them will be useful :P lol). I'm sure if you have any qeustions, there will be tons of people to help you out here. They always have me! Again welcome and best of luck!

[Crimsonwood]

Sales Forecasts

Thank you!

I guess my first question would be, does anyone have some advice regarding sales forecasting and financials for the first few seasons? My business plan requires comparison to similar businesses in my area... but there are NONE that are a professional quality haunt... I have no choice but to try to find some in the states that are willing to invest or share some forecasting with me.

[Greg Chrise]

Forecasting?

Step one would be understanding current population numbers for you town. Snooping figures, show the last numbers are 735,000 people in 2006. What percentage of this you could expect to gather eventually would be relative to whether you are in a rural setting outside of town or right in town. How many years it takes to become a spectacular show comes up with some form of an equation. Or your intentionally being happy with a certain attendance figure. Of course what the show is like and who it is promoted to makes a difference. Given a feel for this information, I'm pretty accurate and people hate me for it. That's enough people to end up with a high turn out.