Startin a bouncy castle hire business need info!

wharty

Oh i can't make my mind up about doing it or not. Seems some of you are saying yes and some no. Its not going to be a full time thing and wont break the bank and neither me or the mrs plan on giving up our jobs so maybe we should just give it a go and see what happens?

paulwf

wharty wrote: »

so maybe we should just give it a go and see what happens?

Although there have been some excellent posts on here you should be doing some proper research not relying on this forum to make your decision! You should be writing a business plan...it doesn't have to be a massive document but you should have a comprehensive strategy for your business.

A good starting point would be a "worst case" scenario. Get a quote for how much it would cost to buy all the equipment and also what you could sell it back for. Now add in any other costs (insurance etc) and you can see how much you stand to lose, so you know exactly how big a risk you are taking.

Do some research and find out what other people are hiring them out for. From that you can do some cash flow projections based on hiring it an estimated number of times a year and take into account your advertising and general running costs.

Also think in practical terms about how the business will run. A concern I have seen from postings is if you are working full time you might be tied up on a weekend putting it up and collecting it later to make a fairly small net profit. It seems to be a business that would work better when scaled up being able to hire out several inflatables at once.

Why not contact Business Link and ask to speak to an advisor?

If you'd like to expand on any area I'm sure myself and others can help...for example there are templates for startup costs, cashflow forecasts and business plans you can download. It may be dull but it is better than ending up with a huge bouncy castle you find no one wants!

Savvy_Sue

Another area to research is how much local competition there is already.

If there is already a choice of suppliers, you may find you have to travel some distance to get any business, adding to your costs, time and profitability.

It does need careful research, as paulwf says.

wharty

paulwf wrote: »

Although there have been some excellent posts on here you should be doing some proper research not relying on this forum to make your decision! You should be writing a business plan...it doesn't have to be a massive document but you should have a comprehensive strategy for your business.

A good starting point would be a "worst case" scenario. Get a quote for how much it would cost to buy all the equipment and also what you could sell it back for. Now add in any other costs (insurance etc) and you can see how much you stand to lose, so you know exactly how big a risk you are taking.

Do some research and find out what other people are hiring them out for. From that you can do some cash flow projections based on hiring it an estimated number of times a year and take into account your advertising and general running costs.

Also think in practical terms about how the business will run. A concern I have seen from postings is if you are working full time you might be tied up on a weekend putting it up and collecting it later to make a fairly small net profit. It seems to be a business that would work better when scaled up being able to hire out several inflatables at once.

Why not contact Business Link and ask to speak to an advisor?

If you'd like to expand on any area I'm sure myself and others can help...for example there are templates for startup costs, cashflow forecasts and business plans you can download. It may be dull but it is better than ending up with a huge bouncy castle you find no one wants!

Thanks for that it really helped.
Gonna do some proper research now and will let you all know in the future what conclusion i arrived at.
Thanks again everyone.

Savvy_Sue

I've had to remove some posts because of advertising, and responses quoting the original post.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: Sorry, this site is free of advertising and we ask people not to advertise their own services/websites/ebay sales (please see this rule). I have asked Board Guides to move any they see. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Smart_Mart

Good luck with whatever you end up doing, Wharty!

Just remember that running a bouncy castle business is very much an up-and-down trade to get in to....:D