Bouncy castles are one of those amazing inventions that will never go out of fashion. What child (or adult, for that matter) doesn’t love a good bounce?
If you are looking to spread joy around the local area, you may be wondering how to start your own bouncy castle business. No idea where to start? Read on!
How To Set Up A Business?
The first thing you need to do is to register yourself as a business. In the UK, this means visiting the www.gov.co.uk website, and working out what type of business you will be.
Are you a sole trader? Do you want to start a limited company? Are you in a partnership?
Once you have answered these questions, you should be able to navigate your way fairly easily through the website.
You will need to register for self assessment, so that you can pay your taxes and run your business in a legal, above board way.
Now that you have set up and registered your business, you are official and ready to start making millions, right?
Well… Sort of. You can’t just sit back and expect the hordes to come to you – you will need to set up your client base.
You can advertise on social media, or go old school and pin up notices in local shops and community notice boards.
Many local papers will also be able to offer you advertising space, either for free or for a small fee.
The best way for your business to get spread around is by word of mouth, so make sure you have plenty of business cards printed, ready to hand out at functions.
You could consider offering your services for a reduced fee as you are getting yourself established, so that word can spread.
How To Start Your Own Bouncy Castle Business?
The first thing you need to do is research. Check your local papers and classifieds to find out if anyone is offering a bouncy castle hire business. This will allow you to be aware of any competition.
Next, you will need to buy your equipment. You will need:
- Bouncy castle, with groundsheet, rain cover and anchor stakes.
- Extension cable at least 25 metres long.
- Safety cut out device.
- Public liability insurance.
- Sack truck for transporting.
It is recommended that you start out with a 12x12ft bouncy castle, as this is the most popular size and the best for folding and storing in between uses.
Once you have all the gear, you will need to advertise. Tell everyone you know with small children, and get them to tell their friends.
Print out advertising leaflets and stick them up all over your locality. You could also consider setting up a social media page to advertise your business.
Be organised when taking bookings, to ensure that you do not accidentally double book and cause disappointment and potential loss of business.
You will need to keep detailed notes of your income and expenditure, to make sure that you keep on the right side of the tax man.
This video has some great tips on getting you started on setting up your bouncy castle business:
Are Bouncy Castles Profitable?
Bouncy castles are great. There are very few people who don’t love a good bounce around, adults and kids alike!
If you start out your business sensibly, and you make sure you are known and loved, then you can spread your wings and get more and more involved in the inflatable scene.
You can make around £1000 per month in profit, if you work every weekend day – this is taking into account your expenditure too.
You don’t even have to give up your day job, if you work in the week and are not too fussed about having weekends off – a bouncy castle business can fit around you.
With good advertising, much of which you can get for free, you can be advertising your services left right and centre!
There will always be children who want bouncy castles, and there will always be adults who want to relive their youth with a good bounce around.
You can expand your chances of making money by using your bouncy castles for both kids and adults.
If you play your cards right, your bouncy castle business can be very lucrative indeed, and you will have a job that you love AND which pays well.
Do You Need Insurance For A Bouncy Castle?
- In a word, yes. You will need insurance to be able to run a bouncy castle business, as it involves other people.
- At the very least, you will need to take out public liability insurance. This ensures that you are covered should anything happen.
- If you set your business up without insurance, and something goes wrong, you will then be completely liable for any lawsuit filed against you.
- Astonishingly, there are around 10,000 injuries reported every year from bouncy castles, some of them serious.
- If you are not insured, then any lawsuit resulting from any injury will land right at your door – and bang go all your savings and any other finances you have!
- You should go all out on your insurance for your bouncy castle business, to ensure that you don’t suffer any consequences of any injuries.
- As with car and home insurance, you absolutely should shop around for the best deals, and make sure you renew every 12 months (most insurers will send you notification when your insurance period is nearly up).
- Insurance for a bouncy castle business should not be hard to find; a simple Google search should find you everything you are looking for.
Conclusion
Running a bouncy castle business has got to be the best job, right? Entertaining kids (and adults!) and seeing the joy and delight on people’s faces when you arrive with your kit.
If you’ve been thinking about how to start your own bouncy castle business, stop thinking about it and just do it!
