Long time friends and Fishers residents Renee Hearn and Jennifer Payne teamed up this year to help busy parents in the Indianapolis metropolitan area plan birthday parties and other shindigs.
Hearn said the duo got the idea for their web site, myindyparty.com, when she was struggling to plan a successful party for her nine-year-old and trying to navigate the wealth of information online.
“Jen said, ‘Let’s make a site to pull it all together,’” Hearn said.
The site serves as a database that compiles information on scores of venues and party-planning businesses, as well as “party extras” like photographers, coupons, and a listing of free stuff for the kids.
In compiling the database, the partners found party services in the Indy area that they never knew existed.
Web site users enter criteria into a search, such as price range, venue type, location and their kids’ age(s) and interests, and the search returns listings of every appropriate venue or essential information.
Payne and Hearn said the biggest challenge with the business, which derives its profits from advertising, is driving traffic to the site.
Ten percent of the profits accrued are donated to family-oriented charities.
In addition to the database services found at myindyparty.com, Hearn and Payne each write a blog on various topics, such as party ideas.
The partners said some of the best feedback they have received was from a mother whose party was rained out, but because of the database, was able to find a replacement venue at the last minute.
Myindyparty.com launched in April.
Payne said, “We wanted it be a service to people more than anything.”