What follows is a basic outline to assist you with the task. Keep in mind that as your business grows you will out grow your plan and make revisions along the way.
Think About Your Target Market
In the business of renting bounce house inflatables, the best market to start with is birthday parties and pre-school events. This is why inflatable rentals are such a good fit for a mom looking for a business that keeps her at home. Your target market is other moms and you probably already know a good portion of your market.
Your plan begins here, so write down the details of your market. For example: Moms that live less than 50 miles away who have children under the age of 12. They posses a combined family income of at least $50,000. annually.
Figure Out the Competition
This will take some research, but this is vital to your success. You must get a firm handle on who you will be competing with. You must look out side of your area as well as inside your area. If you are willing to deliver a bounce house 50 miles away then perhaps there is a business that is willing to come into your neighborhood from 50 miles away also.
The Internet and yellow pages will assist you, but you will want to also know what type of inflatables your competition carries and what their fees are. Write out the full analyses of your findings and include them in your written plan.
Figure Out Your Pricing
Once you have a good overview of the competition, you can start to develop your pricing. Some of the items that you will want to consider are, hourly and all-day pricing, attended or unattended pricing, weekend and weekday pricing. You will also want to decide if you will include pick-up and delivery charges, or if you will charge extra. Do not over look how far you will go out of your driving range and for what fee.
Figure Out Your Start-Up Cost
You will need to have very realistic cost analyses for what it will take to start your business. Your costs will include insurance, transportation, marketing, accounting fees, business licenses and your inflatables. You can store your inflatables in your garage, but if you do not have the space, then you will also require storage space, which is also a cost.
.You can easily start out with one bounce house inflatable, and grow from there, but if your budget allows it is recommended that you start out with three. Buy having three, you offer a choice and you can then stand up to any competition.
Figure Out Your Monthly Costs
Once you have your start-up cost figured out, now move into a look of what it will cost you to operate the business on a monthly bases. Take into consideration, your phone, insurance, storage, marketing, Internet advertising, extra help, anything that you will be paying for on a monthly basis.
Figure Out Your Yearly Amount of Rentals
You will need to take a few things into consideration here. The first thing you want to look at is your available weeks within the year. This will be different for people who live in more seasonal climates. For example, if you live in Florida, you can rent in the winters were as if you live in Maine that might not be possible.
Your marketing plan, and how many bounce house inflatables you can rent in a day will also effect the amount of rentals you will have in a year so take these into consideration as well.
Plot it out month to month as to how you see your business can grow based on your realistic efforts. Plan on the conservative side.
Figure Out Your Break Even Point and Your Return on Investment (ROI)
Your break-even point is when you have received money that covers all of your initial expenses plus the monthly expenses up to that point. After you have covered those costs with what you have made then you can start seeing profits.
In order to determine your ROI, you will need to compare the cost of marketing and daily operations to the amount of rentals required to pay for all of that in full.
Fine Tune Your Plan
Once you have determined all of the above points, go through your plan and make any necessary adjustments. Make sure the price you are charging fits your objectives. Are you looking to compete on price or are you looking to compete by offering more unique bounce house inflatables? How would your plan be affected if you charged $10.00 more of if you charged $10.00 less?
You will find that there are a few software programs out there that will assist you with putting a business plan together, but now you should have a good idea on what you need to get started.
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