For many people, the concept of a museum is associated with empty halls, caretaker grandmothers, paintings hung on the walls, and budget financing. These ideas, to some extent, are associated with the old approaches to museums, when their maintenance was completely taken over by the state. However, these days, a small private museum can be a great low-budget business for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Of course, the creation of a museum as a business will be profitable only in those cities in which there are large flows of tourists and city guests. Creating a museum in such tourist centers is not too difficult, which can bring its creators not only good money, but also a lot of pleasure from participating in an interesting business.
For example, in many small towns located along the Golden Ring of Russia, there are a huge number of private museums that are actively visited not only by Russian tourists, but also by foreign travelers. The very names of such museums serve as excellent advertising and attract visitors: the iron museum, the museum of cunning and ingenuity, the mouse museum, the chocolate museum, and so on.
What does it take to create a museum?
First of all, this is a room. It is desirable to place the museum in its own premises, since the rent, especially at first, will not pay off with the proceeds from ticket sales. Private museums do not have to be located in large spacious rooms, as is customary in large cities.
Specialized and ethnographic museums are of particular interest to visitors.
Therefore, the placement of a private museum is possible simply in a village house or in several large rooms of a former private apartment. Expositions of private museums, as a rule, are not too large. Placing the exposition in a small space allows you to make the exhibition rich, and the tours are quite short, which increases turnover and income.
Antiques, private collections of objects from different eras, photographs, posters are of great interest among tourists.
Oddly enough, even museums dedicated to the very recent, Soviet period, the history of the city or local customs turn out to be popular. It is enough to travel around the nearest villages, collecting old, often unnecessary things from the population, or to purchase a collection of some collector to lay the foundation for the exposition.
For example, the museum of cunning and ingenuity contains various household items that demonstrate the remarkable ingenuity of the Russian people, used in everyday life on a variety of occasions. Here and a device for catching fish, and various kitchen utensils, and devices for agricultural work.
In the chocolate museum, wrappers of various types of chocolate and chocolates, old photographs, advertising samples can be demonstrated. All this arouses interest on the part of visitors and serves as a wonderful advertisement for excursions.
The cost of creating a private museum can be minimal, especially if the owner of at least a small collection is involved in this business. It is very important to show a sense of humor when creating an exposition of a private museum in order to make the tour lively and interesting.
Also important is the correct selection of caretakers and guides in the museum.
At first, the museum owner himself can act as a guide, but, as a rule, in order to increase the duration of the work, one has to hire staff.
Income from ticket sales can be supplemented by income from the sale of various souvenirs.
Therefore, in a private museum, it is necessary to immediately provide a room where souvenirs will be sold. In small private museums, the sale of souvenirs can be organized at the entrance, where souvenirs become, as it were, part of the exposition.
An important role for the profitability of the museum is played by its location.
The most profitable are museums located near the most visited places in the city center, near tourist bus stops.
The initial costs of setting up a private museum may be limited to the cost of refurbishing and furnishing the premises. In this case, for example, when placing an exposition in a village hut, such costs can be minimized. However, the museum cannot avoid advertising costs. It is necessary to make and place signboards, banners, direction indicators to the museum, brochures and colorful booklets about the exposition.
The cost of an entrance ticket can range from 50 to 250 dollars. A visit to the museum even with one bus tour can bring income of at least 10 thousand dollars.
However, it should be taken into account that the current costs of maintaining and protecting the museum, staff salaries, constant advertising can reduce the profitability of a private museum to zero.
Therefore, it is highly desirable, when creating a business on the basis of a private museum, to act pragmatically and systematically from the very beginning. How to do this, a business plan will help you , which you can order on our website.