Making Sure You Buy The Right Equipment

When making the decision to start your inflatable rental business, know what your market will rent, what it won't and what will generate sales sooner. The picture posted is of my first two units I bought. I was lucky in the fact that when I started my business I was in a community where no one else operated an inflatable business. But I learned doing my research that when inflatable companies did deliveries to my community it was mostly big time inflatable units. So I knew I needed something fantastic to get business.

I decided to get a big slide, a 20' Accelerator Slide, and a standard bounce house. Both pieces were important to my success. The big slide allowed me to compete with the out of town companies for the bigger events in my area and the bounce house allowed me to have something more reasonable for those folks that couldn't afford the rental cost of the big slide.

Right off the bat I was able to land a big sales event at a car dealership right on the main highway intown and that lead to several other rentals. I also was able to book a birthday party at a home of a very wealthy family and they had more than 70 children attend the party. That booking also lead to several other bookings. Being able to have one event lead to another is always important.

A couple of thing to consider when buying your first inflatable units...

1. How close is your competition?
2. What are they renting?
3. What is one piece that no one in your area has that can set you apart?
4. Do you want to do mostly backyard birthday parties or big events?
a. Don't try and own both areas right away...focus on one or the other and then expand in the future.

I focused on doing big events. While I did some parties and smaller events, 90 percent of my business
was big events.

5. What can you handle by yourself?
6. Will you need to hire someone to help or can you and your spouse/partner help?


Just make sure you understand the importance of really knowing what you're getting into and where your customers are going to come from...