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So, you think you're ready to dive into the exciting world of bounce houses? Well, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride! Anyone can buy a bounce house and rent it out for extra cash. But if you really want to be the King or Queen of bounce houses, follow these 10 steps to make sure you're maximizing your profitability.
Research
- Start researching all the information you can find on the bounce house rental business.
- Start your search with free services such as Google, social media groups, and viewing videos on YouTube.
- Purchase the book, Making Money with Bounce Houses (available on Amazon). Take notes as you read the book and be sure to reference back to the sections as you get going on your journey.
- Find a mentor who has walked the path already. Ask questions, talk about the good and bad, and ask about the pain-points of the business.
- Research insurance companies that can help answer any specific requirements in your state. Talk with local insurance companies, as well as insurance companies in different parts of the country that specialize in the Event Rental industry. Compare the coverage and ask a lot of questions to be sure you understand what will be covered and what will not.
- Research how you should transport your bounce house. Do you have a pickup truck? Do you have a small trailer? Where are you going to purchase a dolly?
- Research who is currently in your area renting bounce houses. Find out what units they are renting and what their pricing looks like.
- Research never ends, it is always ongoing.
- Your goal should be to always do better than you did the previous year. Always work on improving yourself and your process.
Bounce House Purchase
- Buy one or two bounce houses from a reputable manufacturer. Some of my favorite manufacturers are: Happy Jump, EZ Inflatables, Leisure Activities, and Jump Orange. These companies have great customer service and a great sales staff.
- If you need a small trailer to transport your bounce house, be sure to have it licensed and ready to go for when your first bounce house arrives. The first trailer I purchased when starting out was a single axle, 12’ utility trailer. That was the only trailer I used for my first two years of business.
- Purchase a dolly to move your bounce house around. When starting out, you can get by with using a standard hand truck from Lowes, Home Depot, or Tractor Supply. As your bounce house inventory grows with heavier units, you will want to start investing in larger dollies that are rated to carry heavier loads.
- Don’t forget to purchase extra extension cords, sandbags, stakes and hammers, to ensure you are all set for your first rental. Many manufacturers will sell stakes that will meet all safety guidelines for your bounce house setup. It is easy to purchase extension cords and hammers at your local hardware store.
Insurance
- You don’t want to be shut down as soon as you start. Some states require that you get inspections, carry specific insurance coverage, or may have additional requirements to operate. Make sure you meet all of these state specific requirements day one of operating.
- Workers Comp – Some states require this insurance if you have a certain number of employees on payroll.
- Commercial auto policy – Includes all drivers that will be operating your trucks.
- General liability – This is what will protect your business if anyone gets hurt while using your equipment. This could cover many different things which may include bodily injury, property damage, and personal injury. The cost of this coverage is usually based on your sales projections for the year. You could get audited by your insurance company at the end of year, so try to be accurate.
- Inland Marine – This covers your business for loss or damage to your equipment while on land. Typically, this will cover your equipment whether in your warehouse or when setup at a customer’s house.
- Accident policy – This helps if someone were to get hurt while using one of your bounce houses. This would provide money to the person who was injured by helping with any out-of-pocket medical expenses.
- Final Note on Insurance: My company is able to procure some large city and school events due to the high coverage insurance we get every year. Keep this in mind when negotiating a large event contract with a potential customer. This sometimes will help customers make the decision to use your company for their large event when they know you have the proper insurance coverage.
Website and Card Processor
- Set up a website and determine how you will be collecting payments.
- Square is a very popular option for a payment processor that you can setup quickly and start accepting payments in no time.
- You could look into a webpage on GoDaddy or Wix for very little money and still have a professional looking webpage. Don’t think you need to spend a ton of money on your new bounce house business website when starting out. You can always upgrade to a better, more advanced, website as you continue to grow.
- Be sure to sample the free demos that are offered by the larger Party Rental software providers such as: IO (Inflatable Office), ERS (Event Rental Systems), and BCN (Bouncy Castle Network). Some will have built-in payment processors and templates available to get you up and running quickly.
- Always add pictures and prices on your website for your customers to see. Be sure to also include a very detailed description of the bounce house. This helps prevent phone calls from customers asking basic questions about the bounce house, including the price. Detailed descriptions of your bounce houses also help people find your product easier when they search on Google.
- Show on your website how people should contact you to rent a bounce house. Be sure to include your email address and phone number. When people are ready to rent a bounce house, you need to be ready to collect money and reserve the bounce house for their specific date, right away.
Assemble Your Dream Team
- These are the people who will help you through your journey. These are not necessarily people you have on payroll, but professionals that you can bounce ideas off of from time to time.
- Find mentors in the industry and setup a time to meet with them and ask business questions. Talk to an Accountant and see how they can help. If you know a Lawyer, see if they have a few minutes to answer some business questions. If you know anyone that owns a local small business, ask about ways to get involved in the community to get your name out there.
- Join the local chamber of commerce or a young professional’s group in your community. Join any groups that meet regularly to network and talk business. This is the best way to get involved in your community and let people know about the service you offer.
- Don’t just ask them to help you, but be sure to ask what you can do to help them as well. The point of meeting new professionals in your area is to network and to get involved in the community.
Marketing
- Post on all your social media platforms and let people know you are renting bounce houses. Be sure to post on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at a minimum. Between those three platforms alone, that would give you the ability to reach millions of people.
- Set up a free event at local Farmers market to let people know about your bounce house business. This is a great opportunity, especially when starting out, because you can show off your units and pass out business cards with your contact information. Be sure to purchase a few yard signs with QR codes so people can scan the code and get instant access to your bounce house photos with pricing. Also be sure to strike up a conversation with all the parents who bring their kid to jump on the bounce house and see if they would be interested in a bounce house rental for their child’s next birthday.
- The three best marketing materials to start with are: business cards, yard signs, and trifold flyers. Business cards don’t cost a lot of money, and they are very easy to hand out to anyone you meet. Yard signs can be placed next to your bounce house to share your company name and contact info. Trifold flyers with your bounce house images can also include discount codes that you can pass out to all schools and churches in your area. Outside of a well-designed website, these three methods for advertising are a great starting point.
- After you start getting a good marketing budget set aside, I would start looking into paid Google Ads and paid Facebook Ads. These paid ads are worth every dollar you spend on them, if they are set up correctly. If this is new territory for you, I would recommend hiring a marketing professional to get these paid ads set up. It will cost a little money to have someone consistently run these ads, but it is well worth the return you will get. When I was ready to start running paid ads, I tried to set the ads up myself, but then quickly hired someone to set them up correctly and manage the accounts. I still pay a professional monthly to manage all of my ad accounts. This is money well spent.
Start Renting Out Your Bounce House
- This is the big step on how you will put money in your pocket; by renting out your bounce house. It will take some time to finetune your process, but all good things take time.
- Are you losing extension cords onsite and do you need to start marking your cords somehow? Are you forgetting stakes at your customers house and you need a checklist before you leave the site? As you start renting your bounce houses, you will start to improve your processes and you will become more efficient.
- Be sure to identify what time would be best for you to clean your bounce houses. Some people prefer to clean the unit before they leave the customer’s house. Some people prefer to clean at their own house or shop. Make sure you think about this ahead of time and know that you may need to adjust your process from time to time.
Pay Yourself
- I always stick with 30% of revenue getting spent on labor.
- If you are doing all of the bounce house setups and cleaning yourself, then you keep the entire 30%.
- Feel free to pay your neighbor, cousin, or any friends to help you out and give them a piece of the 30%. The remaining 70% of the rental will go into a savings account for other business expenses (taxes, business cards, yard signs, clipboards, pens, fuel, fixing things or any repairs, insurance, etc.).
- I feel 30% is a large enough piece of the pie to keep you motivated and not just working for free, while also small enough to be able to continue to invest back into the business for growth.
Track Progress
- Tracking progress is a must if you intend to grow your bounce house operation.
- What units are renting? What bounce houses are people asking about the most? What units are not renting at all?
- Is your pricing too high and units not getting rented? Are your prices too low and a unit is going out every weekend? You may need to consider adjusting your prices up or down. I would refrain from large jumps in prices at one time; however, 10% up and down every now and then is not going to deter many customers.
- The best advice someone once told me was, keep the winners and sell the losers. If one bounce house is very popular, look into purchasing another one. If one unit is never going out, and you adjusted your pricing a little, it might be best to sell it and move on. The key is to track your progress, so you know what is working and what isn’t.
Reinvest (so you can continue to successfully rent out bounce houses)
- When you can start saving some of the money you have been making, it is great to start reinvesting in yourself (both personally and professionally).
- Reinvest in your business by starting to pay a professional to manage your Google Ads and your Facebook Ads.
- Reinvest in your business by purchasing more bounce houses that get requested the most.
- Reinvest in yourself by taking a continuing education course at a nearby university.
- Reinvest in yourself by hiring a mentor or a professional that can help you excel in your entrepreneurship journey.
- These are the steps required to successfully rent bounce houses and will ensure you maximize your profitability.
- Most of all, KEEP REINVESTING!!
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