Escape rooms are not just interesting avenues to challenge your employees’ teamwork skills. The business side of things can also be quite insightful.

This comes from the fact that the market for this type of entertainment is still quite niche and trendy. That means there is no strong consensus on what always works. Many innovations and ideas about the escape room concept rapidly come and go.

That means there are huge risks from the perspective of an aspiring business owner. However, there are certainly plenty of escape room success stories that show that these challenges can be met head on. Here are three very powerful business lessons you can take from these unconventional game room pioneers.

Expect to be wrong.

Many escape room owners started off thinking they had all the skills they needed to make it work. In reality, however, many of them wound up overwhelmed during their early days because there was a surprising number of other disciplines they needed to set up the attraction.

 These included not only game design but also engineering, customer service, psychology and many more. The same goes for the expectations they had when it came to time, costs and measures for success.

Working to always be right about something is traditionally held to mean success in other types of business. When it turns out you’re wrong, however, every decision you made based on the wrong assumption or expectation leads to numerous problems. That’s why it’s best to have a mind for contingency and always be prepared for when things stop going according to plan.

Know your audience

One of the saddest types of failed business stories is when an establishment mistakenly assumes it shares the same vision and values as the customers it tries to attract. This was also a case for many escape room businesses. Some thought that a particular theme would attract visitors but it turned out the owners taste and that of the local populace greatly varied.

Hence, it is very important to invest in research about who exactly is going to drive your bottom line. You have this great idea or great product but how sure are you that demand will be strong for it? Are you in an area that is conducive to the type of business you want to set up?

Knowledge about your target market or audience before starting the business can really go a long way towards its success. You may not be attracting crowds of customers on the first day but consistently putting your business in front of those often in need of it will always keep them coming back.

Brace for crash courses

Lastly, sometimes even having a team of diversely skilled employees isn’t enough. That can certainly be the case for those who wanted to start up an escape room establishment. For instance, you could plan to have a colonial-themed escape room but how much of the time period do you actually know to really make the experience authentic?

Needless to say this prompted many teams to undertake a crash course to really make sure they know what they were trying to do. The moral of the story is simply realizing that you never stop learning in order to succeed.

Just as you are open to being wrong, you should also be open to learning things that are not 100% in your purview. Bracing to take a crash course in unfamiliar subjects can be more productive for your business.

The world of escape room entertainment is one full of mysteries but none of the least are the real-life challenges that come with running the attractions. Take a note from the sector’s up-and-coming game entrepreneurs when tackling the many unknowns in business.