I'm not gonna sugar coat it for ya. Getting a group going can be really tough.....or it can be really easy. Sometimes there are things out of your control fixing it to be easy or hard.
Location: You'll have better chance if your community has a large amount of stay at home moms. This could be effected by many other things, but you can always research the area, and see what statistics there are.
How you advertise: If you know me, I would say word of mouth is your best method. Carren Joye's Book, A Stay At Home Mom's Complete Guide To Playgroups, explains that the Internet will not get you many playgroup members. That may have been true when the book was first published (over ten years ago), but with places like meetup.com, or cafemom, I've had the most luck with them. My second source is Craigslist. So there you go. Majority of my members (90 or so) have come from the Internet.
Time of year: Meetup.com's CEO Scott Hieferman once wrote that people flock to social groups the most often after labor day. This is true. In my opinion the best time to start a playgroup is in the Fall, or Spring. Summer is taken away with vacations, and outdoor activities and school ages being home. Winter is overtaken by the holidays.
In my personal experience, it takes about two- three months to be satisfied with how successful your playgroup is going. The routine of getting out the house has to become routine. Once it does, it will feel successful.
How long did it take before you felt your group was "going"?
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