Jump Around Inflatable Games bounces into Wenatchee

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by admin in Companies

Owners: Marc and Leanne Doney
Startup date: Jan. 1
Phone: 509-888-4402
Web site: www.jumparoundinflatables.net

by Yvette Davis

WENATCHEE — From inflatable castles and bouncy balls to gladiator jousting and boxing, Jump Around Inflatable Games can deliver them all.

Owners Marc and Leanne Doney run the new business from their home in Wenatchee, and said for now, that’s just fine with them. Later, they hope to open a family fun center where everyone can enjoy the games year-round.

The Doneys moved here in October from Bridgeport. He has a background in law enforcement and is a former Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy. Before that, the couple lived in Olympia where he worked as a general contractor and she ran a sandwich shop four blocks from the state capital.

He also worked for an inflatable games company in Olympia for three years that had 30-40 employees and a warehouse full of 50-60 games that supplied games for 15-20 events a day on the weekends.

That company used to deliver games as far away as Spokane, he said, which got him thinking. He looked around, didn’t see any similar businesses in Wenatchee and decided he might have found a niche. He could save people money by providing the games locally and make life more fun for people on the east side of the mountains.

Doney said they did consider the slower economy before jumping in with both feet.

“We considered going back into construction or food service, but those are both highly competitive markets,” he said. “This seemed like a better niche for us.”
It also allows the couple to work together, and lets their two high school-aged children help out, too.

They spent $10,000 to buy nine games and get the business set up. The games themselves are pretty durable, he said, and should last 8 to 10 years.

The biggest startup hurdle they faced was finding liability insurance. Not every company writes it, they said, and the standards vary from state to state. Their current insurance company requires the games to be supervised by their employees, so one of them is always on site during an event. If the weather turns bad — rain or snow — they are on hand to shut down the games.

The inflatables are delivered on a trailer they also purchased, and can be set up indoors if the ceiling is high enough, and outdoors on any reasonably flat surface, except in mud. The client usually provides the power to run the fans that inflate the games, but he can also bring a generator if need be. The set up and tear down is a lot of work, Doney said, but it is fun to be around people having a good time. All ages enjoy the games from kids to adults, and the types of events he has done range from church and school events to weddings and even car dealerships promoting sales. He estimated the business will do about half commercial business and half private parties.

Right now he is keeping an eye out for a commercial space big enough and with a ceiling tall enough to allow him to create a year-round family fun center.

“There’s nothing like that here,” he said. And that’s another niche he may just be able to fill.

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