How to open a private museum yourself. Museum business plan Is it possible to open a museum

For many people, the concept of a museum is associated with empty halls, grandmotherly caretakers, paintings hanging on the walls and budget funding. These ideas are, to some extent, associated with old approaches to museums, when the state took over their maintenance entirely. However, these days, a small private museum can be an excellent example of a low-budget business for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Of course, the creation of a museum as a business will bring profit only in those cities where there are large flows of tourists and city guests. Creating a museum in such tourist centers is not a very difficult task, which can bring its creators not only good money, but also a lot of pleasure from participating in an interesting business.

For example, in many small towns located along the Golden Ring of Russia, there are a huge number of private museums that are actively visited not only by Russian tourists, but also by foreign travelers. The very names of such museums serve as excellent advertising and attract visitors: the iron museum, the museum of cunning and ingenuity, the mouse museum, the chocolate museum, and so on.

What does it take to create a museum?

First of all, this is the room. It is advisable to locate the museum in its own premises, since rent, especially at first, will not be recouped by income from ticket sales. Private museums do not have to be located in large spacious premises, as is common in large cities.

Specialized and ethnographic museums are of particular interest to visitors.

Therefore, placing a private museum is possible simply in a village house or in several large rooms of a former private apartment. The exhibitions of private museums, as a rule, are not too large. Placing the exposition in a small space allows you to make the exhibition rich, and the excursions are quite short, which increases turnover and income.

Antiques, private collections of objects from various eras, photographs, and posters are of great interest among tourists.

Oddly enough, even museums dedicated to the very recent Soviet period, the history of the city or local customs turn out to be popular. It is enough to travel around the nearest villages, collecting old, often unnecessary things from the population, or purchase the collection of some collector to lay the basis for the exhibition.

For example, in the museum of cunning and ingenuity, various household items are collected that demonstrate the remarkable ingenuity of the Russian people, used in everyday life for a variety of reasons. Here there is a device for catching fish, and various kitchen utensils, and devices for agricultural work.

Wrappers may be on display at the chocolate museum various types chocolate and chocolate candies, old photographs, advertising samples. All this arouses interest from visitors and serves as excellent advertising during excursions.

The costs of creating a private museum can be minimal, especially if the owner of at least a small collection is engaged in this business. It is very important when creating an exhibition for a private museum to show a sense of humor in order to make the excursion lively and interesting.

The correct selection of caretakers and guides in the museum is also important.

At first, the museum owner himself can act as a guide, but, as a rule, in order to increase the duration of work, he has to hire staff.

Income from ticket sales can be supplemented by income from the sale of various souvenirs.

Therefore, in a private museum it is necessary to immediately provide a room where souvenirs will be sold. In small private museums, the sale of souvenirs can be organized at the entrance, where the souvenirs become part of the exhibition.

An important role for the profitability of a museum is played by its location.

The most profitable are museums located near the most visited places by tourists in the city center, near tourist bus stops.

Initial costs for the creation of a private museum may be limited by the cost of repairs and equipment of the premises. At the same time, for example, when placing an exhibition in a village hut, such costs can be minimized. However, the museum cannot avoid advertising costs. It is necessary to produce and place signs, banners, directional signs to the museum, brochures and colorful booklets about the exhibition.

Price entrance ticket can range from 50 to 250 rubles. A visit to the museum, even with one bus excursion, can bring in an income of at least 10 thousand rubles.

However, it must be taken into account that running costs for the maintenance and security of the museum, staff salaries, and constant advertising can reduce the profitability of a private museum to zero.

Therefore, it is highly desirable, when creating a business on the basis of a private museum, to act pragmatically and systematically from the very beginning. How to do this will help you, which you can order on our website.

To open a museum, it is necessary to make a decision on the main tasks, as when opening firms or other companies.

It is necessary to develop a concept that would stand out from the general background and be competitive, to find a constant source of obtaining cash, select the necessary premises, a location with high traffic, and hire professional and highly qualified personnel.

Private museums, as a rule, begin their existence from an interest in collecting. Then, when a sufficient number of objects have been accumulated in order to put them on display, the question arises of determining incentives; in the future, it is incentive and motivation that will play a determining role in museum policy. There are several options for museum policy:

  • Tell interested clients about your collection;
  • Finding a like-minded person;
  • Creation of a club of interested individuals;
  • Monetary gain, making a profit;

Private museums, as a rule, begin their existence from an interest in collecting.

Stage 2. Premises

The next stage is the selection of premises. The nuance is that the premises should be purchased and become its owner. This will allow you to avoid possible “wandering”, moving from one place to another, increasing the cost of rent and other difficulties.

You can also resort to searching for sponsors who would agree to host a museum on their territory. Sponsors can be large enterprises and other institutions. Among other things, there is the possibility of obtaining premises from cultural institutions or from city or district authorities, who could offer premises on preferential terms. It is best to become the owner of the premises rather than rent.

Stage 3. Staff

The staff of a small private museum should consist of at least 5 people. The second people after the owners are the main custodians. This person needs to have knowledge in the field of funds, he must cope with record keeping, have accurate information about the location of each item, and promptly submit exhibits for restoration.

Often these people also serve as curators at exhibitions and make decisions about exhibiting a particular exhibit for public viewing.

It is necessary to open a vacancy for an accounting employee and a cleaning employee. You should also sometimes resort to hiring:

  • Restorers;
  • Computer scientists (IT specialists) to support the equipment used and promptly update information on the museum’s web portal;
  • Guides (a prerequisite is knowledge of a foreign language);

The minimum staff is 5 people.

Stage 4. Budget

If the museum operates using its own premises, the main monthly expenses will include the following costs:

  • Employee salaries;
  • Payment of utility bills;
  • Restoration costs;
  • Creation and subsequent maintenance of an Internet portal;
  • Printing services (printing of flyers, posters, brochures, prospectuses);

The costs associated with the acquisition of new exhibits cannot be calculated. However, it is worth considering that sometimes exhibits can be given to a private museum for free: in this case, the donor is pleased to see his things at the disposal of the museum.

It is not safe to disseminate information about the value and monetary value of the collections that are stored in the museum. A person may think that the museum accepts gifts and resells them at an inflated price. In such cases, it is advisable to refuse to provide services for money.

The museum makes a profit from the cost of visiting an exhibition, the cost of excursions, from charity, from donations, and in very rare cases a private museum can make a profit from a grant for a project. In order to make a good profit and achieve payback, you can resort to renting out premises. The premises are suitable for renting out for presentations or other special events.

To get maximum profit from maintaining a private museum, you can rent out premises.

Stage 5. Activity

In addition to designing permanent exhibitions, you can organize temporary joint exhibitions using your own fund or collaborating with numismatists, collectors, etc. You can also involve artists. This will be a good information opportunity: the announcement of the exhibition will appear on the poster in the media, which will lead to an increase in the flow of customers.

Examples of activities of various private museums:

  • The Museum of the History of Photographs hosts exhibitions of both domestic and foreign photojournalists and photo artists;
  • The private doll museum hosts exhibitions of private collectors;
  • Also, many museums host recitals, lectures, and performances;

Result:

Costs associated with the monthly maintenance of a private museum with its own premises - from 2,000 to 5,000 conventional units;

The costs do not include the purchase of the exhibit.

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Room for a museum.

The first step is to find a room in which the museum will be organized. The theme of the museum plays a decisive role here, which exhibits will be on display, their size, storage conditions and visibility.

For example, if you have small exhibits on display in your museum, such as dishes, jewelry, household items and all kinds of antiques, then perhaps a small room or section in a shopping center will be enough for you to accommodate everything. If your exhibits are of significant size, be it cars, sculptures, garden items, then of course you need to think about your own building with an adjacent area.

Through a real estate agency, you look for the right premises to rent, unless, of course, you own your own. The price will depend on the area, the location of the building, and the infrastructure of the territory. The most economical option would be to rent a section in shopping center. But here it should be taken into account that the best theme is of an entertaining nature or small items that do not require lengthy excursion accompaniment by the curator, or you are planning to combine a museum and an exhibition and sale of exhibits.

For example, having opened a museum of children's creativity, you exhibit the most interesting exhibits created by children of different ages, and invite visitors to take part in replenishing the exhibition-collection. For example, you offer for sale a set of plastic for modeling, from which a child can immediately create a craft with his own hands.
The more serious theme of the museum would not be entirely appropriate in a shopping and entertainment center.

For a museum, the optimal space would be its own premises, for example, commercial real estate located on the ground floor of a house. Ideally, the theme of the museum should correspond to the location of the rented premises. For example, a museum of exotic insects should ideally be located next to a recreation and entertainment park or a zoo. A museum of theatrical costumes, for example, would be more appropriate to open near existing theaters in the historical center of the city.

If the exhibits of your future museum take up quite a lot of space, then you can think about museums under open air or in a separate building.
For example, in an open area you can organize a museum of unusual garden interiors or sculptures. Here, the best option would be a plot in a garden and park area or in the nearest suburbs.

Museum staff.

Once you have decided on the premises, you need to think about the staff. How many employees will you need? Here the main ones are the organizer-manager, accountant-cashier and guides-consultants. If the collection of the exhibition has been collected by you personally for many years, then no one can talk about it better than you, and at first, you will probably be the tour guide, taking one employee to help.

Having the premises and deciding on the employees, it was time to open the museum. All you need to open is to arrange the collection of exhibits, prepare a description for each item in the exhibition, design the facade in an original way and you can open.
To attract visitors, you need a bright, enticing sign. Think over your advertising campaign by analyzing the location, level of traffic and theme of your museum.

Financial plan.

The main investment in your business will be the rental of premises and, based on the rental cost, you will need to calculate ticket prices and determine the payback period for yourself.

For example, consider a section in a shopping center:
Section rental - from RUB 100,000/month.
The museum's attendance is 60 people per day (an average figure, since there are more on weekends and holidays, and less on weekdays).
Ticket price - 150 rubles.

Total per day: 150 rub. x 60 people = 9,000 rubles/day;
Income per month: 9,000 x 30 days = 270,000 rubles.

We subtract the cost of rent from income: 270,000 -100,000 = 170,000 rubles.
We subtract the salaries of employees (on average 40,000 rubles), so your profit will be 130,000 rubles per month.

The figures presented in the example are indicative and may differ significantly from your data, since the rental amount can be 50,000 rubles/month, or you can rent a building for 500,000 rubles/month.

Likewise, ticket prices can range from 50 to 1000 rubles, depending on the theme of the museum.
Perhaps you own a premises from which you plan to make a museum, then the costs will only be associated with renovating the premises and converting it into a museum.

There are still some bureaucratic procedures left to resolve. Registration legal entity, obtaining permission for this type of activity, coordinating the necessary inspections. If this seems too complicated to you, then you can contact the agency for registering new companies, they will prepare everything necessary documents to open your museum.

Now everything is in your hands, create a profitable museum business out of your hobby.

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Do you have a Business Idea? On our website you can calculate its Profitability Online!

One of the ways to earn income from the category “for the soul” can be called organizing your own museum, and on a wide variety of topics.

Let's say right away that a private museum can become a commercial project only if it adheres to certain conditions :

1. Unique, unconventional theme;

2. Location in tourist areas; The most profitable are private museums in tourist destinations; For example, in small villages on the Black Sea coast. This is explained by the fact that tourists are attracted to these places by the opportunity to relax at sea, but since the villages are small, the entertainment package for tourists is usually very modest. In fact, only on vacation are people ready to make full use of every minute and, accordingly, spend a lot of money on leisure; One disadvantage of this orientation of a private museum is seasonality.

3. The museum must be part of another commercial project; For example, you are engaged in some kind of craft, making unusual souvenirs. In this case, you can organize a museum of your works, combined with a crafts store. Or you are the owner of a guest house on the sea coast. In order to attract guests specifically to you and provide them with quality leisure time, you can completely organize an original museum on the territory of your hotel. There can be many variations. A related revenue component of the museum, in addition to paying for visits, may be charging for photos with exhibits.

4. You can make the museum part of a commercial excursion program and charge payment to the organizers of the excursion route.

5. On certain days (for example, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) you can organize spectacular thematic performances (on your own or with the participation of invited actors). For example, a museum of medieval weapons and armor can organize impromptu knightly tournaments, etc. In a museum of ancient musical instruments, before visitors leave, you can play a barrel organ with a parrot on your shoulder, collecting “donations.” You can actively involve visitors in performances.

6. To attract visitors, you must create an online business card for it, otherwise no one will know about it, and residents in its location are unlikely to visit it regularly. The fact is that a museum is a specific entertainment facility, which is enough to visit just once, in some cases once a year. Thus, in order to generate income from museum activities, museum owners must take care of a constant influx of new visitors.

7. Ideally, to start such a project, you already own a suitable premises, since the business is not stable, and rent will need to be paid constantly.

Ideas for organizing private museums:

1. Fairy-tale characters;

2. Museum of Folk Crafts;

3. A thematic museum of a particular era or people;

4. Product Museum: Museum of Chocolate, Soap self made etc.

5. Museum with exhibits made from unusual materials (ice sculptures, wax museum, etc.)

6. Museum of Inventions and Technical Innovations;

7. Museum of private collections (paintings, records, bells, shells, etc.)

If you seriously intend to engage in this business, your activities should be registered in the appropriate organizational and legal form.

Suitable for registration of museum activities OKVED code 92.52“The activities of museums and the protection of historical sites and buildings.”

The most optimal taxation system for conducting museum activities would be simplified taxation system at a rate of 6% on income.

In order to start using it, when registering with the tax authorities, you must submit an application for the application of the simplified taxation system.

In addition to ensuring a minimum tax burden, the simplified taxation system is also attractive due to the absence of the obligation to maintain accounting records and submit financial statements on time (there is no need to prepare a balance sheet, profit and loss statement, etc.).

Moreover, museum activities are classified as preferential activities for application reduced insurance premium rates in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund and the Social Insurance Fund (not 34% as for other organizations, but 26%).

Reduced insurance premium rates for the period 2011-2012 as part of:

  • Pension Fund - 18%,
  • FFOMS - 3.1%,
  • TFOMS-2.0%,
  • Social Insurance Fund - 2.9%.

We remind you that insurance premiums are calculated from wages museum staff.

Main conditions: application of the simplified tax system, income from museum activities must be more than 70%.

Memory Exposure

In a small city apartment, where there is barely enough space for all family members, you can’t really get around. And if you have a large country house, you can allocate one or several rooms for some interesting exhibition. So that our children and grandchildren know and remember the history of their family, know about the exploits of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, we can place their orders and medals, old photographs and things belonging to them on a beautifully decorated stand, make a rack or display window, where it is neat, behind glass , these reminders of our loved ones will be kept.

Home collection

If someone in your family is interested in collecting anything: coins, souvenirs, books, weapons... and over the years you have accumulated a huge collection of these things, but for some reason they are collecting dust on the shelves, it’s time to think about a more suitable and a place worthy for them. If your collection requires placement in a room, best place An office or living room is suitable for it. Just before you place your collection in the space of the room, you should remember two things: what conditions are best suited for storing it and how not to overload its space with small things.

Things that you would like to put on public display can be placed in open cabinets, taking care that the exhibits are not damaged by bright sunlight.

To protect fragile exhibits (butterflies, antique dolls, porcelain figurines, art glass, collections of dried flowers, etc.) from accidental damage and dust, it is very convenient to use boxes with glass lids. Small souvenirs brought from travels, musical instruments, decorative dishes, crystal and glass, as well as small sculptures (made of porcelain, bronze, ceramics, stone, etc.) are best placed in glazed vertical display cabinets or shelves.

Collection weapons

If someone in your family is interested in collecting weapons, you should show some design creativity so that the exhibits of your collection in an ideal way fit into the interior. If it is designed in a classical style, then inlaid, decorated with carvings, mother-of-pearl, gilding and even precious stones weapons will be a very impressive addition to it if you hang it on the walls on Persian carpets. But since carpets have long been out of fashion, you will have to think about how to “fit” your weapons collection into a modern interior. You may need to allocate a special corner for it, or place it in a glass cabinet.

Small values

Boxes with lids, rare books and small trinkets, albums, photographs, postcards, stamps and labels,
tablets in which professional numismatists store numismatic collections (each coin in a separate box) are best stored in closed cabinets like chests of drawers, with doors or compartments

Here are just a number of general recommendations, following which you can create a small but unique museum in your home, your own island of history, where your family treasures will be carefully stored and the memory of something most important and valuable in life will be passed on from generation to generation.