Starting A Bouncy Castle Hire Company
Recently I was contacted by a friend and they asked if I would mind talking to a good friend of theirs that is strongly considering starting up a bouncy castle business. Pretty strange timing to be honest considering this blog is just starting to get going, but it wouldn’t be the first time.
Before I write about our discussion, one of the interesting things was that they wanted to disclose where they was intending to operate. Presumably to assure me that they wouldn’t be interfering with “my area”.
The subject of “my area” is in itself a whole article. It’s hard to articulate my disdain for anyone operating in this industry who uses the term “my area” within the context of it meaning or referring to some arbitrary concept that because they live in that area, that it somehow gives them some sort of right or claim to the land.
It’s a terrible mind-set for lots of reasons, and is not founded in reality. You can’t just invent some rules in your own mind and then expect other people to abide by them.
However, the two biggest reasons I see an issue with this all-to-common mind-set is that:
- Working with your competitors is a must. It’s beneficial to all parties and is a must for a successful business.
- If you place arbitrary and self-imposed “rules” on yourself, you’re limiting your business.
While we’ve got that covered, lets get on with how the conversation went…
After exchanging some pleasantries I asked a few a questions:
- Do you have any children and how old are they?
- How old are you?
- Do you currently have a full-time job?
- How much capital do you have to start?
The first two may seem like strange questions to ask, but they’re the first two I asked. Only experience will tell you why I asked these first. It’s only after running your own business and specifically starting a bouncy castle business that you’ll find just how much of your time it will take at the weekend. Perhaps not initially, but certainly after you become established. Not only that, but it’s physically hard work! While there are exceptions, it isn’t something you ideally want to be doing later in life; Preferably you will have people working for you by then!
The weekend working hours isn’t to be over-looked. When you’re at your busiest you’ll be up before the milk-man and coming home after the kids have gone to bed. You do not get that time back, so it’s important that you have this in mind when planning to start up.
One of the questions that the person I was on the call with was whether it’s possible to have a full-time job while running a bouncy castle business.
In many ways this is a great safety net, it’s a long time before you take any money out of the business so having a full-time job to pay the bills is brilliant. The longer you can grow your business while mitigating the risk, the better!
Most companies fail within their first year and a lot of companies do not take out anything within the first two years, re-investing back into the company. It’s often the third year that’s “the money year”, so having a full-time job at the same time is often not just a luxury, but an essential must-have.
That being said, it goes back to the first question again ”Do you have any children and how old are they?”. Working Monday -Friday and then all weekend can cause you not only to burn out, but also to miss precious moments with your family. You need to balance this.
The person wasn’t actually asking me whether it was possible to have a full-time job and start a bouncy castle business with that in mind though. His question reminded me of how naive I was when I started, too… I had an expectation of being able to hire out maybe five or six bouncy castles a day during the week. I did the maths and looked amazing! The truth is though, that even the biggest back-garden bouncy castle hire companies will have almost all of their work at the weekend (and that split is often weighted towards Saturday over Sunday on a rough 60/40 split).
The question was genuine and I was shocked that I had forgotten myself how I had anticipated lots of work during the week. While you may see an up-turn in business during school holidays, I can use an example real-life local company as an example; They’re a big company as far as bouncy castles go, and during the weekend in the “busy season” can legitimately have 40 inflatables out on a Saturday and 30 on a Sunday. During the week of the summer holidays they may at best have 10 out during the week in total, Mon-Fri.
Bouncy Castles, soft-play and the leisure industry for back-garden hire companies is predominantly a weekend business. If you have a Mon-Friday job, you can sleep well knowing that you’re not missing out on much during the week.
The starting capital is an important question. When you’re getting your foot in the door of the industry, it determines what shoe size you’re wearing!
The person explained what they had roughly anticipated purchasing with their capital. Sadly, it wasn’t quite in-line with what they should be purchasing. The topic of what you should be considering when purchasing is again, a whole other topic; However, they never mentioned a vehicle. When I asked them, they said they planned to do it in a SUV, their family transport.
Running the business from the family car is a bad idea and deserves it’s own topic. Luckily, it already has one here. It explains in detail why you need a van.
This was a blow to them, they hadn’t planned on spending out on a van. The link above covers this in detail, but it is an essential part of starting up your own inflatable business.
With the remaining capital they felt it was important to have as much stock as possible.
I can see the thought process behind this:
- More choice must mean that I am more likely to get my stock hired
- More stock must mean that I can do more jobs
- More stock must make me look more professional and a “proper” company
- I want to see something for my money
However, you have to consider the costs of other things too: Public Liability Insurance, Van Insurance, Testing of Equipment, Website, Branding (leaflets, work-wear, disclaimers and advertising materials), PAT testing, leads, mats, stakes etc… A great topic for another article soon!
Not only this, but many of the points above are false or not well thought through. For example, you may Google for bouncy castles sales and try to find the most competitive supplier. The idea that a first time buyer, new to market, is going to get a better deal than an established business who knows the industry, simply by “shopping around” is naive.
Will you get yours hired over someone else? Is quantity over quality the the best idea? Simply put, no.
If you really want to see value for money, then you must really spend more time than a day goog-ling bouncy castle manufacturers. You have to get inside Facebook groups in the industry and ask around, try to see them up-close, look where people local to you are buying from. Cheap isn’t always better here and it’s important to remember that you’re buying this as a business transaction, it’s different to consumer protection laws.
You want bouncy castles that will not depreciate in value so quickly (remember most companies fail in the first year, so if you need to sell, you want to recover as much as possible). You want a company that will stand by it’s guarantee; It’s great that it comes with 1, 2 or even 3 years warranty, but what is the companies reputation like? Do you have to pay to get the item sent back to their base? What is the true cost of repair (time it’s out of commission, delivery charges and inconvenience often means it’s cheaper in more ways than one to get it repaired locally out of your own pocket).
Do they have a UK factory? Does it have to go out of the country?
You may also be a big fan of sourcing and buying British. Are they made in the UK?
Often times it’s better to have fewer assets that will last much longer, hold their value, be hired at a higher price and are attractive to customers. I would rather have 5 well built castles that are popular than 10 that are non-compliant, prone to needing repairs and no one wants to hire anyway!
Arguably, the biggest competition for biggest mistake when starting an inflatable business other than which transport to use, is what choice to make for your website.
It would be too easy for the person I was speaking to to totally forget about his website, and spend that last little bit of extra money on some stock. What’s the point in having that stock though if no one is seeing it?
Your website is the most important asset to the business other than yourself. Without a website (and a well ranking one at that) you’ll be relegated to “word of mouth” and “family & friends”. Friends will tell you that they’ve got a big family and can put a lot of work your way.
This just wont happen, and even if it does, they will live too far away, want it cheap and then believe that they have done you the favour.
After this, you’ll set up your Facebook page and hope for custom. It won’t come because it takes a lot of time to build your audience.
Then you’ll inevitably start advertising in “Facebook selling groups”. This is where you will find the bargain hunters. I am being kind calling them bargain hunters. While you may find a genuine mum who doesn’t have a lot of money, but has a lovely clean home, is courteous and no trouble, for every one of them you will find 9 that has a garden full of animal foul, broken washing machines down the side alley, bare floor-boards with obstructions all through the house and only wants to pay 50% of the going rate (if that); And that’s if they even book with you at all. You’ll find that they will ask you more questions and soak up more of your time than it is worth, and are the most likely people to cancel on you at the last minute!
This generally means you come to the conclusion (if you haven’t already) of lowering prices just to see some money back. This is a bad idea. It’s extremely hard to raise prices, but easy to lower them.
Lowering market value in your area will make your friendly competitors not-so friendly; This is the cardinal sin. You’’ attract customers that are only willing to spend a minimum and the experience of hiring to them isn’t what you might had hoped for. The big dream of lovely gardens, pleasant customers and sweet well behaved children will be broken very quickly. That’s a bit of a generalization, but in large I’ve found it to be true.
You need a website! Not just any website though. You need one that will take away the over-head of dealing with so many inquiries, allow them to book online and manage your diary for you. One that you can update yourself easily and have real support staff available to you, with helpful guides on how to do what you want to achieve. One that will enable you to rank well on Google, providing you put in your own effort. There is only one website provider that I would recommend when starting up an inflatable business, and that’s the Bouncy Castle network. They have an in-house and UK based creative team consisting of website developers, graphic artists, support staff and more! They’re a real company that aren’t going anywhere, with a proven track record in the market. They’re the only sensible choice in my opinion. Anyone else is just a false economy.
Remember the disclaimer pads, leaflets, work-wear and all the other branding costs you forgot about? If you’re a BCN customer you get all of that at cost price, too. They’re more than just a website provider, they’re a partner to your business.
You’ll find your website customers are your best ones. They cannot quibble on the price, they book online (don’t worry, you stay in control and set the time limits up, what days you hire etc, they can’t do anything that you don’t want them to), they are least likely to cancel, you can take a deposit from them and you haven’t had to spend all that time answering the same questions over and over.
In short, starting a bouncy castle business is a good choice for a lot of people. It’s a good market, a friendly industry and can be very profitable. However, you need to carefully consider all these things and more before starting. Don’t jump in to the budget end and be the guy that under-cuts every one. You’ll find that competitors will be far more friendly with you if you just keep to the golden rule of not lowering market value!
Spencer Elliott
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