Photo courtesy of The Little Play Avenue
“We’re a 3,500-square-foot play atelier for children from birth to age 7,” says Leena Hasbini, Ed.D., founder and creative director of The Little Play Avenue, describing the facility as shoe-free and screen-free and lined with a small village of storefronts that include a market, a fire station and an animal hospital. That area offers families a space for open play as well as private birthday celebrations in 24 themes. Plus, there’s a coffee bar, Avenue Brew, to “look after the grown-ups,” she says.
A school counselor before earning her doctorate in educational leadership, she saw what young children can do when adults expect a lot of them. “I saw four-year-olds handle a real whisk, a vase full of water and a grown-up conversation with surprising grace,” she says, explaining she built The Little Play Avenue to fill that void she found missing as a new mom: A place in Phoenix that treated her children that way “and took good care of me while I watched.”
She opened The Little Play Avenue in May 2024 to her first challenge: a label. “People saw a beautiful play space and filed us under that, so it took them longer to see everything else we offer,” Hasbini says, explaining why she felt the best strategy was to offer invitations and count on word of mouth.
“Michele Caruana, who coaches play-business owners across the country, once told me you can’t market your way out of a bad layout,” Hasbini shares. Relating, “I took it literally,” she says, “We spent our money on the room before we spent a dollar on advertising. We thought about how a two-year-old turns a corner, where a parent sits to watch, and what a family feels in the first ten seconds after they walk in.
“Most of our families still find us through other families, and I believe it starts with those first ten seconds.”
Growing the Business
Hasbini discovered “outgrowing myself” was a challenge she had to overcome to grow her business. With her second child a newborn at home, she spent her first year in business as the florist, the bookkeeper, the party planner and the one restocking grip socks at 7 a.m. “So, we wrote everything down. We mapped all 28 moments of a birthday celebration, from the first inquiry to the thank-you note and trained a small team around them.” Having established protocols so every family gets the same care whether Hasbini is in the building or not, the business is now focusing its energy on growing its membership program.
