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families to your farm is to give them quality family time, charging for individual activities may impede families spending time together.

Every time you require a fee or collect tickets you need staff to handle the transaction. Having ticket booths where families can buy a number of tickets for a predetermined amount, (e.g. 1 ticket for $1 or 6 tickets for $5 or 15 tickets for $10) streamlines sales but you still need staff at each activity to collect tickets.

The more places you handle fnancial transactions the greater your risk of employee theft. A police offcer at a workshop on security said that 50 per cent of non family employees will steal if given the chance. Even if it is half that, and you have four hired employees, there is a good chance one of them may be stealing from you. The fewer people handling cash the lower your risk of theft.

So how do you arrive at a fair single admission price? The answer is based on averages. Let us assume that a farm has the following priced attractions:

• corn maze - $5.00 • wagon rides - $2.00 • enchanted barn - $2.00 • tricycle track - $2.00

The corn maze is the main attraction. On average:

• 90 per cent of visitors will pay admission to the corn maze • 25 per cent of these will also pay for one other activity, such as the wagon ride

• 15 per cent will also pay for a second activity, such as the enchanted barn

• 10 per cent will also pay for a third

activity, such as the tricycle track

These combinations can be calculated into a single price as follows:

Corn maze – $5.00 x 90% =$4.50 Wagon rides – $2.00 x 25% =$ .50 Enchanted barn – $2.00 x 15%=$ .30 Tricycle track – $2.00 x 10% =$ .20

Total $5.50

As such, any admission fee that is over $5.50 will improve your income when compared to selling tickets on individual activities. One fee will also reduce the number of staff required and the number of people handling money.

Charging for Special Activities

Entertainment farms commonly charge a separate fee for activities that require costly inputs each time they are used or that can be monopolized by a few people. These separate fees could be eliminated if:

• Coupons are used allowing people to do a special activity once as part of their general admission. If they want to do the activity again they would pay an additional fee.

• Multiple visits to the same activity are allowed under the general admission, but visitors are required to go to the end of the line if they want to do the special activity again. On busy days, this may stop people from monopolizing certain activities.

With one overall admission price customers will be doing one or more activities. If one activity is really popular simply increase the size of that activity. As long as visitors are having fun, your goal of customer satisfaction has been attained.

Here are three examples of special activities where the customer is often charged a separate fee:

Pumpkin slingshot – Sell customers fve miniature pumpkins (or tennis balls) for $2. The customer loads them into a slingshot (mounted to 6” x 6” upright posts) and shoots them at a target. Both the mini pumpkins and tennis balls can be gathered and reused.

Feeding the goats – Children fnd goats fascinating. Goats like to climb and some farms build a series of progressively higher pathways for the goats to walk on. Then they offer