We were lucky to catch up with Ondrea Washington recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ondrea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I started this company by accident. lol I got a really ugly and cheap Mickey and Minnie mouse costume to surprise my twins with for their 4th birthday. They loved it despite its odd characteristics. Their dad and were in the costumes and we hung out with them at the park for the party for about 30 mins. After I almost lost my mind form being in such a closed space for that long, I started to get calls from family and friends to have the characters at their kids’ parties. At the time there was no one in my city offering that type of entertainment for kids events, so I saw a need, did some research and Star Kids Entertainement Company was born. We’ve been in business for about 15 years on and off going strong for the last 3 years.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As I stated before, I started this company by accident. lol I got a really ugly and cheap Mickey and Minnie mouse costume to surprise my twins with for their 4th birthday. They loved it despite its odd characteristics. Their dad and were in the costumes and we hung out with them at the park for the party for about 30 mins. After I almost lost my mind form being in such a closed space for that long, I started to get calls from family and friends to have the characters at their kids’ parties. At the time there was no one in my city offering that type of entertainment for kid’s events, so I saw a need, did some research and Star Kids Entertainement Company was born. We’ve been in business for about 15 years on and off going strong for the last 3 years. I say on and off because I struggled to find a balance between hobby turned business and family. It was a struggle war that I lost for a while, and I had to take a break. While on break, I was still getting messages for visits with no promotion or advertising, just simply word of mouth. I went back to the drawing board and decided to take this business serious. I came up with a name, structured a plan for how I wanted each visit to go and designed a price list. I knew I wanted to offer more than just a visit from a character, so I started with music, then added games, then added printed pictures on the spot and then added a gift for each for the guest of honor. I knew I wanted to offer some type of structure, which would appeal to the parents, a relief of having kids running and screaming around the party with no real rhyme or reason. When we arrive, we enter with fun music greeting the guest of honor with a free gift. Then we start our interactive dance party, we play games like dance party limbo and other age-appropriate party games. After that we move into Picture time, where the guest of honor gets a chance for a photo shoot session with the character, and family and friends can join in as well. Once that’s done its usually time to celebrate by singing happy birthday and opening gifts. We then, hang out with the guest and take more photos, and before we go, we print off a few photos for the guest of honor to take home in a cool magnet frame to keep. I think our layout along with our quality of characters is what sets us apart from others. I love seeing the kids just light up and jump for joy when they see their favorite character come to live before their very eyes. I also love the gratitude I get from parents, happy that I was able to make that day special for their child and they only had to worry about food. It’s a releif of stress knowing that memories will be made for a lifetime, or at least until we return next year lol

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My business is funded through me. Every dollar I make I invest it back into the company. I do pay the team members for jumping into the costumes, other than that the rest of any profit made goes back into the company. I’m always looking for the next hot character, or game to provide to my customers. I hope to one day, be able to afford a van or a small buss to be able to transport my entire team and inventory at the same time as well as offer rides to special clients with the character of their choice to special events. Or even a building I can offer full-service parties to my parents, all they have to do is show up, have fun and create memories. Slowly saving up for both of them items, we will have it one day, when the time is right.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I believe the excellent customer service and entertainment we offer, helps us get great word of mouth referrals and reviews which in turns gives us repeat customers and even new ones. We try to stay as active as possible on social media and try to engage as much as possible. We play games for our followers to have the chance to win a free visit with the character of their choice. So, make sure you’re following us for your chance to play! We can be reached at Starkidsentcokc on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.starkidsent.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starkidsentcokc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starkidsentcokc/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@starkidsentco?lang=en