Life in a new business of their own has thrown some surprises at Steven and Sharon Zukerman. Launching a hospitality venture in the recession, they”™ve adapted and survived.
One year ago, the Zukermans and their partners in Funtasia USA L.L.C. opened their family entertainment and events center, Life the Place to Be, at 2 Lawrence St. in Ardsley. The opening was delayed a few months, the business a victim of frozen credit markets as a committed lender failed to close on the Zukermans”™ Small Business Administration loan. The couple turned to friends and family, enlisting more investors and borrowing from their parents”™ retirement funds to keep alive their entrepreneurial dream.
“By the time we opened, we had spent close to $200,000” in rent on the idle 29,000-square-foot industrial space, said Steven Zukerman, managing member of Funtasia USA. The Zukermans raised $2.8 million in equity and debt financing and took out a first mortgage on their Irvington home to start the business.
One year later, “Life,” as the rejuvenated yellow-brick warehouse is commonly known, is a place to be for kids and parents and for nonprofit groups, schools and companies in the area booking events. It employs an everyday staff of 12 and more than 40 workers for large events.
The Zukermans opened with a business model that later was sacrificed to economic reality. Planning to operate the family entertainment part of the business on a members-only basis, with annual fees of $325 per family, they hoped to sign up 1,200 members. Instead, to draw customers through the doors, they have opted for to a less restrictive $10 daily admission fee that covers up to three guests.
“What we have seen is that people come once or twice or three times and then they join,” Steve Zukerman said.
They”™ve also adjusted prices for event bookings, “where people can come in at a lower price point” and eliminate some services. In today”™s economy, the original booking price “would scare them away,” Steve Zukerman said.
Zukerman said their events business has been enhanced by Abigail Kirsch Inc., which provides on-site catering services. “They have performed just incredibly,” he said. “It”™s a wonderful venue, but they”™ve taken it to a new level.”
Their venue recently was rated for a 1,200-erson capacity. The entrepreneurs would not have predicted a year ago that a range of events with more than 500 persons would account for 40 percent of their first-year business. Birthday parties account for 30 percent of business, said Zukerman, while walk-in users of the center”™s playground structure, laser tag room, rock-climbing wall, miniature bowling lanes, 3000-square-foot games arcade and café account for 20 percent of business. As for the identity of the remaining 10 percent, “I don”™t know,” he said. “I”™m still trying to figure that out.”
“What”™s been one of the big surprises is that to get away from the typical fundraiser, they”™re looking for a more fun, casual environment,” Zukerman said. “For corporate meetings, the reason we”™re getting the activity right now is because it”™s atypical. They can play laser tag on their break.”
The laser tag room converts into an intimate nightclub setting. “I think the key has been the flexibility of the space,” said Zukerman. “You can come in a T-shirt or a tuxedo.”
The venue”™s corporate customers include the Business Council of Westchester, Community Savings Bank, Meeting Professionals International and Deloitte L.L.P. Fundraising groups booking the redesigned warehouse include Chabad of the Rivertowns, the Yonkers Charter School of Educational Excellence, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation”™s Westchester chapter, Pets Alive, a no-kill animal shelter in Middletown, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. More in line with Zukerman”™s other business in Ardsley, Travesties Entertainment, which books musical entertainment for private and corporate events, Life also has hosted two concerts.
“The best positive surprise has been to do events and types of events that we weren”™t exposed to” before opening the business, said Zukerman. “The types of customers that came out of the woodwork just because we were here was totally out of our marketplace” in entertainment. “We couldn”™t have planned the leap into fundraisers that we did.”
The business has survived and attracted a wide range of bookings and users despite “minimal marketing dollars,” said Zukerman. The budget-minded company has done cross-marketing events with other area retailers with similar demographics, such as Kumon math and reading centers and Smoothie King, and has bartered for on-air marketing time with a radio station that staged a concert at the Ardsley venue.
Preparing for a recent evening event, Zukerman shifted into the janitor”™s role and quickly cleaned an area near the entrance.
“I”˜ve learned how to value-engineer,” he said. “When you”™re planning on $3.5 million” in start-up financing “and you come in at $2.8 million, you learn how to value-engineer.”
After a year in business, “We”™re already considering second and third locations” in the area, he said.
