11 Items I Would Purchase If I Started Over.
It’s only been four months since starting the bounce house business, Blossom Bounce, and boy has it been a ride! Overall, We have been doing really well booking parties while keeping up with the overhead and paying off the cost to start. However, I may have went a little overboard on buying. Okay, A LOT overboard.
Creatively, I’m a bit of a dreamer when it comes to my ideas. It typically starts with an idea and snowballs pretty quickly into a digital vision board with links directly to the items. Let’s just say my vision board came into fruition very abruptly.
Here are the 10 items I would purchase if I started over.
1) The “Must Have’s”
The first purchases are the must haves. Even though there are multiple items, I am putting them all under one because you have to have them to start.
LLC
Business License
Insurance
Sellers Permit
These are all required and the first thing I would purchase when starting. These are all in order so I would start with one and work your way down. If you aren’t sure where to start There is plenty of free help these days to make sure you are filling everything out correctly. I would say the hardest thing for me in this purchase was finding an insurance. Depending on the state you live in, some insurance companies won’t take you and you definitely don’t want to run a business without insurance. Let alone a bounce house and soft play rental business. I finally went with liberty insurance. It is our biggest overhead we have but is totally necessary. I also suggest starting the insurance quotes as soon as you get the LLC and business license number. Shopping for insurance quotes is not as easy as you would think. The underwriters usually take about two weeks to write it up and that’s if the agent actually got the info to the underwriters.
2) Small White Bounce House and Blower
After all the legal stuff is done, I would purchase a small white bounce house. The reason I say small is because it pairs well with the soft play area since it is for smaller children. Plus, you can get these just about anywhere these days. Amazon included. Just make sure water company you go with includes the blower for the bounce house. Most do but make sure to double check.
3) Ball Pit
Our 4ft white ball pit is our most popular size and fits perfect in all the soft play areas. Finding the right brand, color, shape and size was actually difficult. I would definitely go with white so it goes with any color palette your customer wants.
4) Ball Pit Balls
Good quality ball pit balls is important. Opt for commercial grade and make sure they are no smaller than 2.5 inches. The bigger the better! I prefer 3 inches. When choosing a color I would go for primarily white and clear with accent colors to go with different themed parties and color palettes. I let my clients choose up to 4 colors in the 4ft ball pit to match whatever theme they have.
5) Slide
This has been one of the biggest hits and goes hand in hand with the ball pit. You can find a ton of different toddler slides on google and amazon. It all comes down to what style you are goin for. again I went with white to create a blank canvas look for any party theme.
6) Foam Gym Pieces
When I was creating a vision board, I knew I wanted modern, trendy, colors and preferably made in the USA due to quality control, customer service and return policy. Most of the pieces I found that were on reputable websites were either out of stock, terrible colors or made overseas which is not a fun experience. Believe me, I won’t be doing that again. After doing enough research I found two companies that I love and work perfect with the rest of our stuff.
7) Foam Mat Flooring
This is a necessity. Not only does it help with creating a beautiful background for the play area but it helps with protecting the little ones as they play. The biggest thing to look for with flooring is thickness and quality. I found two different types of flooring that I use consistently for both our mini soft play and our little soft play. The one for the mini soft play area is a memory foam flooring that comes in two large pieces. they are reversible and are made for new movers to help absorb impact if they take a tumble. The second flooring I use is the puzzle piece flooring. I selected a higher quality brand that would last after multiple uses and a thicker one so it lays a little flatter.
8) Fencing
The fencing isn’t a priority but adds a designated play area and frames the whole party in. Most toddler fences come in multiple colors so when I was searching for plastic fencing, It was impossible for me to find a single color. They do make them but come from overseas and have to purchase from foreign websites. Again, it can be done but unless you already have a business relationship with a company, it’s a gamble and could end up costing you more. I found a baby playpen that had only two colors that matched my vision and separated the colors once they arrived. I did have to purchase multiple sets to get the size I wanted but I love the way it looks and would do it again.
9) Generator
This is something I wish I would have bought. In order to run the bounce house, it has to have a power source. All of the parties we have had so far have needed a generator due to it being at the park or the outdoor outlet at the clients house doesn’t work. Luckily, We have a friend who let’s us borrow his but I always feel bad for asking. Plus, it’s a little bigger than we need and takes two people to get it in and out of the van. You can rent one from Home Depot but then you’re taking a gamble on if it is a faulty one or not and if it’s going to be finicky for the client when you’re not around.
10) Tables and Chairs
This is not something I thought about when I created my vision board because it’s not “pretty” But has been one of my biggest requests. People always ask me when deciding to book a party if I also have tables and chairs that they can book with it. Most people want easy. So if they have to go to a couple different companies to set up their party they are going to go with the company that has everything they need.
11) Accessories
The rest of the stuff I’m adding is all stuff you need.
Tarp- To protect the clients property as well as protect your equipment.
Anchors/Sandbags- Anchors for bounce house should be 24in long with at least 18 inches in the ground or tethered to sandbags to keep the bounce house in place.
Extension cord-To run power to the bounce house blower.
Rubber Mallet
Sign
So far, this has been a very rewarding project with a pretty decent return. I look forward to updating you guy’s in the next few months with how we are doing.
If you are interested in learning more in depth details about how to start your own party rental business and all the equipment I used, Make sure to comment below or reach out to me directly. I hope this helped some of you.
-Megan
