Christina Vitagliano first thought of it on a three-hour trip from New York City in 2003: An indoor mini-golf course.
That, she decided, would be her new business. She had recently sold her antiques auction house in Danielson, Conn., but was still renting storage space in an old mill and wanted to do something with it.
Then other ideas came flooding in: It’ll be glow in the dark with black lights, and music, and monsters. “These things just come into my head,” Vitagliano said recently. “I don’t like doing anything normal.”
She was looking for something to draw in families, an inexpensive activity not too advanced for parents and still cool to kids.
Her husband Patrick’s thoughts at the time: “That’s a lame idea.”
But in more than four years since Christina Vitagliano thought of opening an indoor miniature-golf course, the Vitaglianos have transformed Monster Mini-Golf from a lucrative, one-location business into a franchised concept with 22 courses either opened or in development from Rhode Island to California.
Locally, Monster Entertainment LLC – now based in Providence – has franchises in Warwick and Seekonk.
Each location is an indoor 18-hole course lit with black lights and decorated with three-dimensional props, animatronics, special effects and a high-tech sound and lighting system. Scary, but not too scary for young children. Players use glow-in-the-dark clubs and balls.
From the beginning, people loved it.
Christina Vitagliano recalled the day she launched the first Monster Mini-Golf in the Danielson mill, on Memorial Day weekend 2004. A line of customers formed before the doors opened. She made $400 that first day.
Patrick, who owned his own sound-and-lighting production company, eventually sold his business and joined his wife. And it wasn’t long before the golf course was attracting people from across the Rhode Island border.
One day, Christina Vitagliano overheard a customer referring to the business as a gold mine, and it occurred to her: “If we didn’t do something, someone is going to steal our idea,” she said.
The Vitagli-anos investigated opening another location, but realized they wouldn’t be able to replicate the success in the same way. Part of Monster Mini-Golf’s popularity was the Vitaglianos ran the place and were there every day.
So in 2005, the Vitaglianos found a consulting firm that led them through the process of franchising the concept. By December of that year, they had granted franchises in Groton, Conn., and Warwick. Since then, seven other locations have opened.
As part of the licensing, the Vitaglianos require that the owners also operate the business themselves.
Their success has spurred imitators. But Monster Entertainment provides franchisees with marketing expertise and training that Christina Vitagliano said gives them an advantage over competitors. Also, a team of four full-time artists designs and builds the monsters that populate the courses. “Maintaining a business, keeping it fresh, making sure people come back, that takes work,” she said.
The Vitaglianos hired Orange County Choppers and the Teutul family, of the TV show “American Chopper,” to construct a motorcycle with a monster theme. The Vitaglianos have taken the chopper to events such as a recent zombie festival in Monroeville, Pa., setting of the George Romero cult classic “Dawn of the Dead,” where there is a Monster Mini-Golf outlet.
Most of the Vitaglianos’ focus now is on opening more franchises. Courses are almost ready to open in Orlando, Fla., and in Folsum, Calif. Monster Entertainment expects to grant 12 new franchises in 2008.
The whirlwind growth has even caught the Vitaglianos by surprise. “It’s like every six months, we’re a new company,” she said. •
