DREAMS OF HAUNTING

By Leonard Pickel, Hauntrepreneurs.com Themed Attraction Design and Consulting

First Published in Haunt Rater Magazine

Throughout the year I am

contacted by people asking how
they can get open a Halloween
event. Passionate dreamers
these people have long lists of
things the “pro haunters” are
doing wrong and loads of ideas
on how to make a truly scary
fright experience. All they need
to make their haunting dreams
come true is money and they
want me to tell them where to
get it.

I thought I would write this

article describing what I tell
these haunt dreamers, just in
case there are many more of you
out there who are afraid to ask
or don’t know my email address.

Not As Easy As It Looks

Passion is great, but profit is how you survive. A Halloween event is a business like any other, and you must treat it like a
business to make it successful. 60% of ALL businesses fail, and I know too many well-intentioned people who have lost
their life savings, their house and their spouse because their passion for haunting drove them into acting before they
were prepared.

Funding and location are the two biggest roadblocks to opening a Halloween attraction. All the scare ideas, room
designs, graphics and proposed floor plans are useless without the money to make them reality and a place to put the
thing so the public can pay you to attend. Unfortunately, both pieces of the haunting puzzle are extremely difficult to
obtain.

There is no haunt investment stash of cash for wannabe haunters to tap into, and unless you have collateral, like equity
in your home to leverage against (which I don’t recommend), there is no bank that will be willing to loan you money for
such a business. Finding someone with money to invest in your venture, is possible, but you may have to give up control
and even ownership of the event in the process, so why bother.

Acquiring a location that is suitable for your event can be even harder than procuring funding. Few property owners are
willing to short term lease land or a building, for fear that they would miss out on a larger long term tenant while you
are in the space. Haunts also have bad reputations due to fly by night Halloween event operators leaving the rented
space in poor condition with unpaid bills, making property owners wary of leasing for a haunt.
Terror Wasn’t Built in a Day
If you have sufficient funding and a suitable
location; great! You are on your way. If you
don’t have both, then you have to be more
creative and or patient. Some of these
solutions may take time to manifest
themselves but time is what you really need
to get some experience before owning your
own haunt.

For instance, you can get a second or third job

and save up your own money to invest in a
haunt. You could even save up enough to
purchase a piece of property for a location.
The property investment will increase in value
and provides a buffer for a bad year or equity to leverage for the construction costs of the event itself.

You could also build three haunt rooms in your garage this October. Open it for the neighborhood on Halloween and
work the bugs out. Then put all of that equipment and structure into a storage unit. Next year build 3 more rooms from
scratch and repeat until you have a whole haunt in storage ready to set up (once you find a location and additional
money to advertise the event.)

I highly suggest that you go to work for a haunt and get hands on experience. Volunteer if you have to, but work on all
aspects of the event so you understand what works and what doesn’t.

But You’re In A Hurry

If your haunting dreams are keeping you up at night and you have to haunt now, but you don’t have money or location,
then you need to find someone who does and team up with them. Contact local Family Fun Centers, Amusement parks,
Water Parks or Sports facilities that are not taking advantage of Halloween and talk them into teaming up with you. They
have parking, restrooms, gated property and infrastructure that will save you money on the event. They already have a
presence in the community, sponsors you may be able to tap into for capital, and traffic that you can advertise to all
summer long. They also have media contacts and client list to direct market to.

A venue deal should be structured so that you own the web site and URL, storyline and name of the event. This makes it
harder for them to take over the event once you have made it successful. The venue would provide the facility, funding
for construction and advertising for the event. How those funds are paid back to the venue, the income split, and
percentage of ownership for the attraction after the event is all negotiable, but once the cash investment is paid back,
the split should be close to 50/50.
What Not To Do
The biggest mistake I see people make is moving forward without proper funding. A Halloween event is like any other
business. It is three to five years before you see a profit. You must have the capital to open the second year or there will
be no second year. Failing to advertise properly is another common mistake made by first time and longtime haunters
alike. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your haunt is, if you don’t advertise it properly, it will eventually fail.

Many first-time haunters get shut down before even opening by not knowing building and fire codes that must be
adhered to before opening a business to the general public. Check the zoning of the property before you sign a lease and
make sure Entertainment is allowed. Put a clause in your rental agreement that the building is up to code for an
Assembly Occupancy and Special Amusement Building or is the responsibility of the building owner to make it so.

What To Do
Learn the “rules of the game.” The Life Safety 101 Code Book is
at your local library or available online. It is the “rule book” for
haunting. Read the Assembly Occupancy and Special
Amusement Building sections of the book. Read about egress
and electrical requirements.

Develop a business plan with set goals so you can track your
progress and change course if needed. Start small and add every
year to get where you want to go. Set a budget for each phase
of the construction and stick to the budget. If you don’t you will
end up pulling money from other places like advertising, which
is the worst thing you could do. Find someone who has done it
before so they can keep you from making the same mistakes
that have been made countless times in the past.

If you follow this sound advice, it will keep your haunting

dreams from becoming a nightmare.