What were the challenges we faced in our first year as a bouncy castle company?

Storage

With quite a large financial outlay on equipment and uncertainty on when we will start to receive bookings, the first hurdle was storage. We started off by purchasing a Renault Trafic van and using the back of it for our storage. Naturally that came with its own set of problems and it also limited out growth as business started to take off. It was never ideal trying to get to our Pink Unicorn Castle when it was at the bottom of 4 other castles! That and condensation issues meant that we had to find more suitable storage for the castles and take the financial hit, which we did! By renting a garage we now have a base to store our castles in but also space to add more bouncy castles.

Desirable Castles

When we started out, we purchased our Pink Unicorn Castle which is a 12 x 12 sized castle, a small 10 x 10 Jungle Castle and a 10 x 10 Clown Castle. The Pink Unicorn Castle was an instant hit and for most of the summer it was booked out at least 1 day. But the Jungle Castle and the Clown Castle were simply not very desirable. We certainly should have scoured the market and thought more about the types of castles we offer. Naturally the Pink Unicorn Castle is a hit but many young girls just love Unicorns. We did pick up our Black and Yellow V Shaped Castle which is great for construction and digger themed parties which ended up being a great hit throughout the summer! 

Travel

In a desperate attempt to grow our name, deliver a top service and also claw back a return on our investment, we did plan to offer services from Witham, to Ipswich and as far out as Clacton on Sea. But after receiving bookings in Witham and then in Clacton it became apparent that the travel between jobs really does add up in terms of fuel and time. So we found that certain days were mainly spent travelling for drop offs and collections. But it’s all part of being a bouncy castle company. However we changed our approach to focus on bouncy castle hire in Colchester, making it free delivery to Colchester locals but charging for the areas that go beyond certain post codes. It wasn’t an easy choice but it meant that whilst the travel was adding up, our fuel was at least covered.

Cleaning

 Perhaps the least favourite part of being a bouncy castle company, is the cleaning of the castles! It’s very awkward to clean to begin with, but it’s also quite heartbreaking to see our castles not being well looked after by certain customers either. We try to be fair and don’t put cleaning charges in place because we choose to believe that people will respect our equipment. However we’ve learned that this is not always the case. We like to clean castles prior to being hired and ask that they be inflated when we arrive to collect it so we can inspect that it is clean - and wipe down any areas that may have been missed.

Public Liability Insurance

We knew we needed public liability insurance as it provides safety for our company in the event that anything was to go wrong. So we ensured that we had at least 5 million pounds public liability insurance. What we quickly learned is that halls and venues will ask for a copy of this to ensure that you are legit and protected. This particularly came in handy when we were asked to provide the bouncy castles for the Relay For Life Colchester event earlier in the summer. Without it, we would have lost out on the exposure and the revenue that came from the event.