I bought Word-of-Mouth advertising.

Paid just over $400 for it.

There are four different ways you can consistently get people to talk about you.

• Over-the-Top Design
• Over-the-Top Service
• Over-the-Top Generosity
• Sharing Secrets

Roy H. Williams taught me the first three. The fourth I figured out on my own.

Yesterday during our Fourth Friday Game Night we decided to play Charades. It was an easy decision. We needed a game to christen our brand new stage.

Why would we take valuable retail space and build a stage?

• Puppet Shows
• Story Times
• Guest Performers
• Charades
• Dress-up Clothes
• Staged Productions
• General Play (who doesn’t love getting up on a stage just for fun?)
• Word-of-Mouth
• Because it is consistent with our Core Value of Having Fun

I spent $75 on the wood for the platforms, another $128 for the carpet, $25 for the poles, and $190 for the curtains. Total cost = $418.

People will talk.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS We still have a few details to finish such as a header above the curtain and the backdrop. Every time someone takes a photo of their precious one “performing”, the Toy House name and logo will be visible.

We used 2″ x 8″ boards and 3/4″ plywood to build the platform in 3 sections.

The carpet is simply stapled down using a carpet stapling gun generously loaned to us by Christoff’s Carpet & Floor Covering.

The curtains are held up with 1″ PVC pipe anchored to 2 walls. The section to the right is a “backstage” area designed for when we do performances.