How to Start an Escape Room Business

Part 1 - How to start an Escape Room business - Background

An escape room business provides customers with a place to play popular escape games. Games vary in complexity and duration, but most last for approximately one hour, including the pregame instruction. Teams must work together to solve puzzles through the discovery of clues. Escape room businesses usually have one or more game rooms and consumers pay per game. They can also rent out rooms for private games.

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Our guide is in 3 parts:

• Part 1 - How to start an Escape Room business - Background
• Part 2 - Our planner tool to see if this idea is the right fit for you
• Part 3 - Action plan to get started

What are the costs involved in opening an escape room business?

Depending on the location, the cost of rent, and the complexity of the room design, opening an escape room business can cost anywhere between $7,000 and $30,000. A business license and insurance are among opening costs. Props and furnishings are another. Some escape game rooms provide elaborate costumes and set designs that include laser lights, while others keep their sets relatively simple.

What are the ongoing expenses for an escape room business?

The main costs are rent, utilities, and employee payroll. Other ongoing expenses include replacing equipment and props as needed, the cost of which is dependent upon the complexity of your escape room’s design. Website maintenance with educational information about escape room gaming and promotional advertising are also necessary expenses, especially since this type of business is so new and many people are still unaware of how escape room games work.

Who is the target market?

Preferred clients are individuals who prefer to purchase interactive experiences rather than consumer products. Business owners, managers, and coaches who want to provide their employees or players with positive team-building experiences also make great customers. Statistics show that corporate clients make up 20% of escape room game participants.

How does an escape room business make money?

An escape room business makes money by charging customers a participation fee to play an escape room game. Escape room games are live-action adventure experiences in which participants are locked in a room and try to escape within the allotted time by discovering clues and solving puzzles. Game rooms usually have a theme, whether historic, futuristic or completely original.

How much can you charge customers?

Most games cost $25 to $30 per person for a one-hour game, and even in larger venues typically allow no more than 12 players at a time. Smaller venues often limit games to no more than 6 players.

How much profit can an escape room business make?

The escape room business can be extremely lucrative. For example, 11th Hour Escape opened in Dallas in February, 2015 and is now earning approximately $70,000 per month. Similarly, the owner of Puzzle Break, another successful escape room business, started in 2013 with only $7000, and had a projected yearly income of approximately $600,000 less than two years later.

How can you make your business more profitable?

The best way to make your escape room business more profitable is to open more than one room with more than one game. Since escape room games are not yet copyrighted, it’s still possible to use, and improve upon, the ideas of others who have already achieved success with their escape room businesses. The more interactive your escape room is, the more enjoyable it will be for the participants, and the more likely they will be to recommend it to their friends. Ideally, the level of difficulty should be such that not every team who participates will succeed in escaping. Printing up some t-shirts with your business logo to serve as memorable prizes for successful escapees can be good form of inexpensive yet effective advertising.

Day-to-Day and Growth

What happens during a typical day at an escape room business?

• Maintaining the cleanliness and physical safety of game rooms

• Placing props and clues for guests to find

• Designing games

• Website maintenance

• Training staff

• Accounting

• Advertising and creating promotional events

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful escape room business?

Attention to detail is one of the most important skills to have in this business. Success depends on providing enough relevant clues for teams to escape, but making them hard enough to find to provide an enjoyable challenge. Design skills are also helpful in setting up an escape room.

What is the growth potential for an escape room business?

The number of escape room businesses before 2010 was zero. Since then, that number is over 2,800. Most are registered with escape room directories to make it easier for gaming enthusiasts and new potential customers to locate them.

Recommended: To get a deeper insight into your escape room’s growth potential, read our article The State of the Escape Room Industry, by contributing author Charles Bechtel.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

How and when to build a team

It’s advisable to build a good team during the initial planning stages of starting your business. While some people have the skills and experience to design, create, build, and outfit their own escape rooms as well as maintain a website to help advertise it, most people outsource one or more of those tasks to other professionals. Once the room is operational, at least one additional staff member will be necessary to assist other customers while games are in progress.

Read our escape room business hiring guide to learn about the different roles an escape room business typically fills, how much to budget for employee salaries, and how to build your team exactly how you want it.

Part 2 - Is an Escape Room business the right fit for you?

Part 3 - Action plan to launch your Escape Room business in 90 days