It’s a cold, rainy Saturday morning in March and there is absolutely NOTHING to do in our small town.  At least that was the story last year.  However, this past Saturday had a similar setting yet the story was completely different.  

Droves of families showed up at our community gym for a full day of fun at our “Unlimited Bounce Event.” 

This was the first event created from my recent partnership with a much larger inflatable rental business, which sits approximately 60 miles away.  The owner of that business and I decided to do something big for our local community by offering a whole day of fun.  We rented the community gym, inflated a handful of different units ranging from a 65′ obstacle course to a 15’x15′ toddler arena, and opened up to the public.  On that cold and rainy day people had no other options except to find something to do indoors.  

We had publicized our event on Facebook and in the local paper, hoping our out-of-the-ordinary event would be seen by as many eyes as possible.  After a long morning of setting up, we opened the doors at 10am and in trickled the first family.  After that came the second family, then the third,…the tenth…a boy’s entire birthday party…and the people just kept coming; each jumper paying their fee to participate in the magical transformation of an ordinary gym into a vinyl wonderland!

As each child walked in, eyes glazed over with amazement, I knew we had done a good thing.  And I’m so thankful to be able to offer this type of event to our little town.  

Even though the goal of a side hustle is to make an extra dollar, sometimes your side hustle puts a joy in your chest that you simply can’t put a dollar figure to.  

However, the hope was for this event to be financially profitable as well.  With an $8 per jumper entrance fee, I had no doubt that we had far surpassed expenses when we had reached the hundredth jumper and newcomers were still rolling in.

To help add to the profitability my family also set up and concessions stand and offered the normal fare (hotdogs, nachos, popcorn, etc) at a simple price.  This generated a little bit more income.  It also allowed me to employ two of our students from church and bless them with an opportunity to have fun working and make an extra dollar. 

Overall, our event was a home run!  It was received very well in our community, and we were encouraged by many to please do this more!  That makes a fella feel good!

At the end of the day, I though about how a year ago I wasn’t in the bounce house business.  Though I made a single decision to simply do something.  I didn’t know what the future would look like.  But I figured I could purchase a bounce house, make it available for rent on Facebook and Craigslist, and I could make a few extra bucks.  That one decision led to a community wide bounce event!  And in two weeks, we’re hosting a community wide laser tag event.

As for some of the finances, the building was not mine (the event was hosted in the community gym), the units were not mine (all of the units belonged to my partner), the expenses were not mine (he paid for the gym rental, the advertising, the insurance, and he carries the expense of the units).  My only cost was my time, and I walked away from a long day having made a little more than just an extra dollar!