Small Bouncy Castle Business

paulwf

Mwesty wrote: »

The bouncy castle with all the assessories cost me £940. I would have to hire the bouncy castle out 24 times before it's paid off and I buy a new one. I had a choice really, to put the money into an ISA or to try something like this. I opted for this because of the percentage ISA's are paying at the moment and the growth this could potentially lead to. I think once I have 7-8 castles, I'll settle down and start taking a wage. I've never seen anyone hiring a brand new castl eout in this size out for £40, the usual price is around £50-£60. I'm happy with £40 for the time being. After I've made contacts and getting regular bookings, I could look at the possibility of increasing the price slightly If I need to.

Your castle looks fab, I bet you have had lots of fun trying it out

The thing you have to remember is that it is profit that counts not turnover. You won't pay it off after 24 hirings because you have lots of expenses. You have insurance, advertising costs (website, fliers, business cards), fuel to deliver the castle, and a range of other expenses. I understand your aim with reinvesting the profits but make sure you do your costings properly and charge accordingly otherwise you will end up working every weekend to pay for the inflatable without drawing a wage.

Remember if your price is too high you can always discount (especially on week days and in the winter and customers will feel special if you give them a discount), if you set your price too low you can't then ask the customer for more

I know this isn't the question that you originally asked but I hope it is useful as if you charge a bit more you will have some money for marketing then you will be able to expand much faster.

Mummy_Jo

I run two charity events each year and ask Bouncy Castle firms to attend. I struggle to find local firms who will man for the day! Most want to drop off the castle and come and collect it later. I would be overjoyed if I found a firm who would attend on the day man the castle charge no more than £1 for 10 mins and give about 10 - 20 % of the profits to the charity at the end of the day if they had a good day. I can not find anyone who will do all three so I am stuck... I spend hours sorting this out each year as it seems that the people I use one year are not in business the next.

Last year our school paid paid (I think) £250 to hire a DJ and bouncy castle together they then charged the kids to go on and kept all the money so we paid twice!

I think you should approach the PTA - or ask to turn up for Sports Day too as parents and siblings tend to come along... Tell them you will come and not charge them a penny to turn up you will charge £1 for max 10 mins as if you do 15 then you are cutting down the opportunity for you to make money but if it is quiet then let the kids stay on longer...
Tell them if you do well you will make a donation to the school at the end of the day - don't specify but if they push you tell them it will be at least 10%. You don't want to turn up on a bad weather day make £50 and then have to hand over £25 to the school as you will not make enough to cover your costs.

BTW if you fancy bringing it down to Wiltshire I can get you a few bookings!

My other big event in the summer is a Church Fete - try the local ones. People are nervous these days about Bouncy Castles as they don't want to be held responsible if someone hurts themselves. You may find they snap your hand off.

Also I think that having an advertised "higher" cost is a good idea with an introductory rate for new business or 6 months etc... That way when people come back to you next year for the same castle they are aware the price might be higher. You could make an issue of it with your advertising. Normal Rate £XX.XX but for June July August etc... £ XX.XX It is up to you what you charge when people ring you for Sept etc...

Good Luck with the business.
Jo

As a person who has hired several castles in recent years for events - if you want to run your pricing/donations ideas by me then feel free - from the point of view of the end user...

paulwf

Inflated News seems to be where it's at: http://www.inflatednews.co.uk/

Unfortunately their annual trade show finished yesterday ;(

If you can navigate their retro website I think there are free downloads of the mags and links to a couple of forums for hirers of inflatables.

shamac

my advice would be to go for something as well as castles- my kids are a bit old for them now but have struggled to find alternatives-however my friend had a bouncy assault course which kids loved and i have seen a thing from gladiators-where you hit each other with blow up sticks-kids loved it and would be suitable for adults as well. good luck-i have a friend who does this for a living and they have a VERY BIG house so there is money to be made if you make the effort!

elektra-2007

Use google sites aswell to build a website it is really really easy, you can then buy a domain name for under a tenner, then as you grow you can add pics ect, and on your advertising you can put the website, alot of peoiple like to look online first.
If you have any probs doing it, feel free to pm me with help doing it, ive built 3 website thru google sites, its really easy. You can then print your own flyers, send them to schools with a small note asking them to put it on the notice board. Advetise on sites like www.netmums.co.uk
There was a petrol generator in netto the other day for £60, its not a brilliant one but may help for now.

deni123

Just reading your post and I thought I'd reply,I (and most of the parents I know)hire a bouncy castle for every party, I got the bouncy castle hire company from the community hall we hired for the party so you could pop some flyers and cards in every centre near you,the person we used charged by the day,so knocked money off for a 2 hour hire.He also hired out facepainters really cheaply so maybe this could be another thing you could do.you can get snazzeroo facepaints cheaply on ebay with a book,so easy to copy.As we had the castle and 2 facepainters he did a really good deal.

bethesda

http://www.pipa.org.uk/operators.asp


register with these............when i worked for the local authority i ONLY reccommended companies from this list

good luck with your venture

pickledonionspaceraider

how do you go about getting yourself in the yellow pages? yell.com? thats the first place pple look when hiring a bouncy castle isnt it? well it was for me..

deni123

Also maybe you could be CRBed,I don't think you need to be but if you were staying at one of these fetes ect,then I'd be more likly to employ you.just a thought lol

markandkate

for goodness sake get the very best insurance going as one child gets hurt and you end up bankrupt and homeless