The Carousel Family Fun Center is complete with a roller-skating rink, arcade games and every child's favorite finger-food meal--pizza.
Name: Charlene Conway
Business: Carousel Family Fun Center
Employees: 50
Location: Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Charlene Conway lived and breathed skating. It’s what she knows best. Her agility, determination, dedication and hard work are products of her athletic training.
Much of the same skills transferred as she and her husband ventured into owning a business. The Carousel Family Fun Center is complete with a roller-skating rink, arcade games and every child’s favorite finger-food meal—pizza.
For 22 years, the family fun center has become the hub for school events and birthday parties in Fairhaven and more recently, Whitman, Massachusetts. Conway narrows down one lesson every small business owner ought to know: Be an expert.
Tell me your journey to owning Carousel Family Fun Center.
I was a professional skater, and then I was a professional coach. I managed and taught at a skating center for someone else for about 10 years. Then, the opportunity came to purchase our own skating center.
My husband and I worked very hard to start our own business. We worked two or three part time jobs—actually sold telephone books—to make extra money, to afford a down payment. We really, really went out there on the ledge, so to speak. We worked very hard at what we do, and so far, we’ve been able to stay afloat.
This year has been the most challenging. Our industry is kind of fixed. There’s only so much a family can spend for that entertainment dollar. We’re locked into our prices of what we can charge without pricing ourselves out of the entertainment market.
Your business thrives when school is in session, since you host various school events. What’s the challenge that comes with running a seasonal business?
It is what it is. We find it challenging in the summer months, but we are connected to a lot of camp groups and park and rec departments. So, we manage to still stay open, to stay afloat. It’s challenging because we’re a seasonal business.
With that in mind, what other challenges do you encounter?
So, our current challenge is of course, the impending minimum wage law and the threatening, mandatory sick leave. Those challenges may come up again based on government regulations.
I’m not sure where we’re going to get the money from to offset the increases in our payroll. We will have to cut back on staff. Jobs will be lost. That’s what we’re looking at right now—figuring out all the logistics in that.
When you’re a small business owner, you wear many hats. We have to cover it all. Being a small business owner is challenging, complicated and there are some days when you wonder if it was really worth it all.
What do you value most about being a small business owner?
I enjoy being self-employed. I feel we definitely have a brand. We have a marketable business. We definitely contribute to the enjoyment of families in order to have an activity that’s affordable. We do a number of birthday parties. There’s nothing more enjoyable than having that part of happiness and remembrance to a child. Not everyone gets that opportunity to make an impact on a child’s life.
You were a competitive skater and a professional skating coach. How did that influence your the structure of your business?
We entered into a field where I was involved in it all my life. So, I had the experience of managing a facility for 10 years. I came to this with a lot of experience because I lived it, and I worked at it. I had a pretty good understanding of the industry, but I never stopped educating myself. I serve on several boards. I constantly attend education seminars. I work at it 24/7. Even after 22 years, it’s still 24/7.
What piece of advice would you offer small business owners in your industry?
Make sure you have a strong financial plan—that you get professional advice, that you know all of the hidden costs that you might come up against or can incur during the planning stages like the laws and impending legislation. Know your market. Make sure you know enough about the demographics of your area.
We have two locations, and demographically, our locations are totally different. They change. We’ve been in Fairhaven for 22 years, and we’ve gone through growth expansions in our community there. Fairhaven has become an aging population. There’s not many new homes being built. There’s not many younger families coming into the community, and that’s our market. That’s something we deal with and reach outside of our immediate community. And seek other surrounding communities that might have a younger population base.
That takes a lot of time, a lot of experience, a lot of hours in planning and learning. You don’t just open up a skating facility in a community where your big population is 50 and over.
