Hello Dr. Z. I understand what you are saying about pushing people through quickly. It is a dilemma that haunts (large) must deal with especially later in the season. It is tough to give a truly personal experience. For example, if you send a group of 4 ( to keep it 'personalized') every minute that is 240 people in an hour. If you get 750-1000 people in line then they are waiting 3-4 hours to get in. The large pro haunted houses do 4000-5000 in a night so it is a trade off to accommodate the volume of people. Starting with a single haunt is a good way to go. If the event grows in the coming years you can add attractions. Not having a lot of competition is a benefit. To have a 20-30 minute experience you should have approximately 2000-2600 LINEAR feet. That is a trail 1/3 to 1/2 mile in length or a building to accommodate that kind of length plus enough size to accommodate rooms and actor passages, make up room, some storage, bathroom?. At this length you may need to bump your actors to 25-30 minimum.
When designing, think about what people want to see when they attend a haunted house. Many of haunt goers are after the eye candy. A smaller haunt can be very entertaining but ticket prices should reflect that. Most haunts with the $20 and up ticket prices have large scale pneumatic and motorized commercial props and video effects. People do not want to pay good money to see stuff they can find in their own neighborhoods at home haunts. Masks and props that are on everyone's retail shelves or front yards are no-no's.
Thoughts and recommendations:
If you want to run your own show you might pursue a fund raising option. Check with fire houses and churches to see if they will let you run a haunted event to help them raise money. They can provide a location, sometimes labor to help with the build out, operations, etc., and maybe materials (or money for some).
The fund raising aspect makes it easier to get sponsors and helps with advertising. You can have creative control, someone else has the property responsibilities, and a good cause it benefitted in the end. Everybody wins.
I still recommend the book I mentioned in the earlier post
Attend a tradeshow or two. I recommend the Midwest Haunters Convention because the class prices are more affordable. TW is good but the classes are $50-$60 per class hour.
Website - everything in the industry is based on getting people to your website. If you go cheap here it will hurt you.
Advertising - very market specific. Flyers for sure. Billboards would be next. And of course any free avenues (social media)
Staff - Managers, actors, ticket sales, security, parking, make up and costume crew, concessions just to operate the show. Business wise you need AR,AP, payroll, legal, taxes, etc.
Site - If indoor you will want to check with city/county building officials and the fire marshal. Building and fire codes must be followed or it may not ever get opened. An outdoor event has a lot fewer requirements. Less cost and easier to execute make it an attractive option except for inclement weather.
Insurance - I highly recommend Ken Donat. He specializes in event insurance.
http://www.donatinsurance.com/
Online ticketing - I would recommend Ticket Leap. Ease of use, flexibility and great customer service.
http://www.ticketleap.com/
I hope this helps a little and please feel free to post more questions if you have them. I do not have all of the answers but I will try to help where I can.
