Creating a haunted house is like starting any other business. You'll need to write up a business plan, create a business entity (partnership, corporation, etc), capitalize it, do marketing, and perform general business operations. If you're creating a haunted house to make money for a charity or other non-profit organization, treat it like a standard business venture. Charities will often invest much less in the venture, and only market to members, but there is much more potential.

The first step in creating a business is to do a risk/reward assessment of the venture. Do you have the time, capital, and connections to start and run a successful venture? Creating a haunted house business means much more than making the world's creepiest scare fest.

You'll then need to create a business name, setup a business entity, and write a business plan. You'll have to find a great location for the haunted house. Typically, old warehouses and schools are the best bet. You will also need to check out safety regulations in your community and purchase business insurance. Figure out who your customer will be and how much they can afford for the tickets. If you do a blockbuster of a haunted house, $20 - $30 in the U.S. is standard. Smaller operations typically charge $10-$15.

The biggest stumbling block in creating a profitable haunted house is adequate capital. Estimate your expenses and add 25%. There will always be cost overruns and items you didn't think about needing to purchase.

Check out the U.S. Small Business Administration website to help with planning your business. http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html

Also check out Mahalo's how to write a business plan.

Building a great haunted house requires a mix of artistry and logistics. You'll need to create an experience for the customer. For example, you might have a completely dark room that has snakes hissing in the background. Another area may be devoted to bloody, gory monsters. This is the fun part of your haunted house venture, and creativity pays off.

Masters of horror build suspense. It's a good idea to build the haunted house such that the intensity of the experience builds as the customer goes through it. Start the haunted house off with typical scares like ghosts and goblins. Then, switch over to psychological scares like darkness and enclosed spaces. The intensity of experience should reach a peak near the end, where the customer has one of the most uniquely frightening experiences of their life. What might that be? That's for you to decide!

In building your haunted house, you'll need to figure out how many people you'll need to pull it off. This needs to be a part of your business planning and expenses. People add a great dimension to your scare factor, and can often adapt to each customer to give them the best experience possible. But people are also expensive, so budget accordingly. You can also look to moving props and even animatronics, but these can be very costly.

It's crucial before opening your doors that your haunted house conforms to all safety regulations in your community. Contact the fire department for safety inspections. Make sure that everyone working in your haunted house knows how to contact health emergency services. You'll also need to purchase liability insurance for your business in case of accident.

Often, the key to business success is marketing. You'll likely face competition, particularly if you're in a large city. There are between 3,000-5,000 haunted houses operating in the U.S. per year. Most of these are smaller operations that are run by non-profit organizations and charities. There are less than 1,000 professional operations. Large operations can have in excess of 1,000 people on weekend nights.

Modern marketing employs a variety of techniques. It includes branding, marketing materials, advertising, and effectively communicating and selling to your customer.

You'll need to figure out a brand for the haunted house, and develop a website and print materials around that brand. For example, if you go with an “Evil Zombie” theme, connect creepy zombies with your haunted house. The first thing someone sees on your website or brochure should be a picture of the most frightening evil zombie they've ever seen.

Figure out who your customer is, and then market to them specifically. Most haunted house goers are kids, teenagers, and those between 20-40. Your haunted house will either cater to the younger of this audience, or the older. Generally, the most sophisticated haunted houses cater to the older group, and are far too scary for young children.

You'll likely be stretching your budget putting the business together and building the haunted house. In an approach to advertising, make every dollar count. Target your customers, rather than blindly creating newspaper, television, or radio ads. Look to online keyword ads, like Google Adwords, and buy specific keyword terms like “San Fransisco Haunted Houses”. Employ guerrilla marketing techniques like word of mouth, contests, and press attention to get free buzz about the haunted house.

After you've built the haunted house and successfully marketed it, you'll need to focus on operations. The trick with operating a haunted house is that every showing is a unique service you provide to your customer. It's not like a movie theater, where you plop everyone down in front of the same screen and then go about doing other things. The haunted house requires that you create an experience for every attendee.

Make sure that you have a plan to operate with fewer employees or volunteers than you expect. Haunted houses are labor intensive, and you'll need to adapt to people not making it for work. Most people find the job fun, so you won't have many who don't show up simply because they didn't feel like it.

The key to operations is creating satisfied customers. They come to a haunted house to be entertained and frightened. Everything that's done in the haunted house must be focused towards that goal. It's better to have a smaller haunted house that's incredibly well planned and scary, rather than some giant boring maze of darkness.

Also, don't forget to sell food, drinks, and Halloween-related goods at your haunted house. It's a good idea to place a shop or stand at the end of the experience, and require your customers to walk by your shop before leaving. If you have an evil zombie themed house, sell zombie t-shirts, dolls, and the best zombie movies on DVD or Blu-ray.

Good luck with your own haunted house venture. Remember that any business venture is a risk, and the reward only comes with well-planning and hard work. The best thing about this hard work is that it's incredibly fun to scare the wits out of your customers and make a few dollars at the same time!