Start an Inflatable Rental Business

In the spirit of broke entrepreneurs, I'm going to highlight some business ideas in which you could get started for the lowest cost.

A few years ago, I was looking for an inflatable for my son's home birthday party. I had the hardest time finding one that was located close enough to not elicit ridiculous delivery fees, until a friend of mine tipped me that her nail tech owned an inflatable that she rented on weekends at really good rates. The story was that the woman and her husband purchased it for their own kids, but started getting requests from neighbors to use it, so they decided to begin renting it at prices that evidently blew away the competition. Well, my party was a huge success, everybody wanted to know where I got the inflatable and how much I’d paid, so I referred them to the owner, and I know of at least three of those people who have rented from her since.

Fast forward to this year - bounce house rental businesses are literally everywhere! Yet, there's still plenty of opportunity in this field for startups because there never seem to be enough availability. The problem is, each rental is generally for a minimum of 4 hours, and if its for a kid's party, you're only looking at a rental period of perhaps from 9 - 7 give or take a couple of hours. So you've got a maximum of maybe three rentals daily, not including the amount of time it takes you to deliver and setup, take down and deliver to your next location. That could add as much as an hour between rentals. That's why there's still plenty of room for more inflatable rental providers because they are so popular during the warm months that you could almost guarantee rentals every weekend with all of the birthday and graduation parties, church and school events, business promotions - the possibilities are endless. You could even start an inflatable rental network among your competitors so that you can call each other to help with bookings.

As for the cost - if you look for brand new inflatables, you're looking at upwards of $3,000. But there’s always a bunch of them on eBay in the range of $300 and up - they are used, often liquidations, out of season models, etc, but as long as they're durable and reliable, and you get some sort of warranty on the condition, these are perfect for you to launch your business. I discovered that they design these with different styles each year, so although The Simpsons might be the hot design right now, a person wanting an inflatable is not likely to cancel their party because all they could get was a plain red and blue style. You can't go wrong with the standard kid-friendly colors, and as you land more bookings and increase your profit, you can add other styles to your inventory as you find them at reasonable prices.

They also come in different sizes, so starting out, you may have to get one of the smaller sizes as opposed to the super megadeluxe model, again, when you're 4 years old, they're all huge! My local daycare had a grand opening and they rented several of the smaller inflatables and had them all over the playground. They were less intimidating to the toddlers and preschoolers, and they were able to have enough available for everyone to get a turn. So don't overlook the value of having at least 1-2 of the smaller models for events such as this.

Look for quality, durability and warranty, and try to get a partner to go in with you so you will have a little more to spend on your first bounce house. If you both could put up $400-500, you could easily pick up a great inflatable and start taking orders almost immediately. It's actually preferable that you have another person to go with you to do setup and take down, so this is an ideal business for two - or more, as your business grows. It is best to have a small truck or trailer available to haul the inflatables around, but if you do not have one you can use, you can rent the trailers from a moving company. This would cut into your costs, so you'll want to try to purchase your own as soon as possible, or try to maximize your rentals by booking as often and as far in advance as permissible.

For instance, ask the rental company about a deal or discount if you book and pay for four consecutive weekends at once! Then check out auctions, liquidations and used equipment sales for an old but good quality trailer you can pick up cheaply and maybe even fix up and decorate with your business logos and signs.

Don't forget to hang signs or banners on the inflatable while its being rented, so neighbors and passerbys will be able to clearly see who provided this service, and when they need to rent, they will remember to call for you. The newer models have built in business card holders right near the opening, but you can create your own little pocket to hold your business cards and stick it in a visible area so the party guests can conveniently take a card.

Besides a bright and cheery website and colorful business cards, make sure you do a targeted campaign to local schools, daycare centers and churches, who might call you for social events; or businesses who would rent an inflatable for a special sale or grand opening. Be sure to get listed in the many Moonwalk Directories both online and offline, because renters tend to seek businesses that are located near them and can deliver to them quickly.

Depending on where you're located, these types of businesses do most of their bookings in the warmer weather, but don't close up shop just because its cold outside, make yourself available to places with the capability to have it indoors - this is where your smaller bounce houses would be most desired, so don't do away with those just because you've earned enough to upgrade to the larger models.

Let's look at a reasonable model of what you could expect to earn in this business. With most people booking for four hour blocks at an average of $80, you could potentially fill 3 gigs on both Saturday and Sunday, so that's 6 bookings for the weekend for a total of $480. Working like this every weekend would get you an average of $1920 for the month, lets say during the summer months of June, July, August, and most of September. You've already made back your investment with the first month, so after that, its all profit. And this is working with just ONE bounce house.

The next month, search for a deal on a second bounce house, maybe a nearly new model featuring some popular cartoon character - so now you can double your bookings. Or, what I would do is just work as much as I could the first year with one, to gauge the market and really get a handle on whether or not this is going to work for me - then purchase additional inflatables during the "off" months from other businesses who may either be closing or just reshuffling their inventory. Then you'll be prepared for an even bigger season the following year as you launch with new products, more advertising, and more experience.

There will be legalities involved such as rental agreements and liability insurance, but the cost of this should factor nicely into your profit margin. You don’t want to skimp on these areas because you are providing a service with which someone could potentially be injured, so having a well executed agreement and proper coverage keeps everyone safe. I found a few places online with great information about getting started – these are just links that I grabbed for convenience but I have no knowledge or experience with any of these companies to specifically endorse them.

International Moonwalks Rentals Directory – this is not only a directory, but for $20, you can download a package of business documents for running your own rental business

Association of Inflatable Rental Company Operators - this appears to be the premiere source of information for inflatable rental companies, great, in-depth info here. Especially worth reading is about checking insurance requirements for your state.

Buy Inflatable Things - what I did like about this site was the abundance of free newsletters and great photos. You can get an idea of what kinds of products are out there - then you can go and find them cheaper!

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