How We Made $5,000 Last Weekend Renting Tents (Luxury Slumber Parties)

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Last weekend and set up five slumber parties at $800 each.

[00:00:04]>> We definitely did not come up with the idea ourselves. We're talking 10, 15, 20 thousand dollars a month in revenue from a side hustle. We both have very demanding full-time day jobs. Once I finally kind of cracked that model of how to hire people [music] to help do party setups, that's when the floodgates kind of opened to actually making some real money with this. If I'm charging $800 to the customer and I'm getting or paying $150 for somebody to set it up, it's like, okay, now I got a $650 spread and if I could do Right.

[00:00:34]>> two, three, four of those in a weekend and I didn't have to, you know, drive around on a Friday night and do a bunch of this stuff myself, like it's looking like a pretty sweet business. And it is so satisfying to see how excited these kids are. You really have built-in word of mouth at every single [music] party.

[00:00:49]What would it take to start a similar business in your area? Stick around to find out. I think the secret to our success is that >> Okay, yeah, I see some of these themes, the neon glow one, the T-Swift >> Yep.

[00:01:02]>> eras with the big, you know, disco ball pillows here. Yep.

[00:01:07]There's ballerina party, there's boho one, camp campout, kind of a Moana tropical luau type of thing, Harry Potter theme, Minecraft. There's There's a ton at this point and imagine it just started out with with one or two to kind of get the ball rolling.

[00:01:24]Exactly. We started out with I think probably four or five and a lot of what you'll see here in the photos, they're like slight variations.

[00:01:31]So, the problem with this business, the challenge is the inventory. There's just a lot of decor items and so having really high quality, keeping them in perfect, really good shape, really clean, but just storing all of this stuff. So, if someone requests a custom theme, you'll see one on there that said hearts and horseshoes.

[00:01:50]Some girl was really into horses and so her mom wanted to do a a hearts and horses theme. So, we charge a custom theme fee, but then we get to introduce that into our catalog. So, we charge a very nominal theme fee just to cover basic supplies. We don't try to like gouge people on it because we know that that theme is then something we can keep selling and keep repurposing going forward.

[00:02:11]>> If somebody asked for it, now we can add it to the catalog and >> Exactly. Yeah.

[00:02:16]Yeah.

[00:02:19]How much does it cost to come and have you set one of these up?

[00:02:23]So, this has also changed a lot over the years. We really underpriced ourselves at the beginning.

[00:02:30]Um but we now start at there's a four-tent minimum and it starts at 425 and that's all in. That includes set up, pickup, delivery, everything. Um and then we have a a whole kind of ala carte menu of party extras that you can add if you want like a candy bar or custom pillowcases with the kids' names on them or sleep masks or we used to do pajamas.

[00:02:53]That that got out of control. Um so, we're we do a karaoke machine. We do a bubble machine. Like a popcorn machine is really popular. We rent out the popcorn machine a lot. So, we have like a rental inventory that we add onto these parties.

[00:03:06]Yeah, so it starts at 425. That's kind of our this is worth our time because we have to get there, set up, and then come back and then the next day we have to go back and pick it up and come back. So, it's a lot of it's just a lot of time to get to and from a house.

[00:03:24]>> almost exclusively Friday evenings, Saturday evenings, and then the following morning come back and and tear it all down, pack it back up, do it again the following weekend.

[00:03:34]Yep, pretty much.

[00:03:36]What was the startup cost for maybe building out this initial set? You know, four-tent minimum. Okay, it's this boho theme that the daughters are after or this T-Swift theme. Yeah.

[00:03:48]I mean, there's it's really cool to be able to use it over and over again, especially once it's built out, but there is a a startup cost here.

[00:03:57]There is. The most expensive thing for us is the the air mattresses. We actually started out with um like foam camping mattresses and then transporting them got to be a challenge um and we switched to really high-quality camping air mattresses and those are, you know, like $50 a pop and we're replacing those more than anything else. Um I mean, our initial startup costs it was probably all in less than $5,000 um because we made the tents ourselves are actually really cheap. You just buy these wooden staves at Home Depot and drill some holes in them and um we've kind of perfected that construction mechanism over time to make it really easy and durable to hold up for all the taking down and putting back, you know, moving it, setting it up, taking it down. Yeah.

[00:04:43]>> Um you know, it uses little elastic hair bands. Like there's a lot of it's not expensive. The the tent covers, the fabric tent covers, um those can add up.

[00:04:52]So, we've been really purposeful at like keeping those in really good shape and making sure that we're keeping them clean and don't have to keep remaking them just cuz fabric is fabric is an expense, but that's rare that we have to replace new tents.

[00:05:07]Okay.

[00:05:08]All right, that's helpful to know. So, you get this first set up. You have a sense of yes, I think this is something that people want and then you start spreading the word. Is this local neighborhood Facebook group? Like how do you raise your hand and say, "Yes, we're open for business."?

[00:05:23]Definitely local Facebook groups, parent groups. Um So, my full-time day job is in marketing. So, I think that really just helped me a lot cuz I've been working in social media since the dark ages and so just being able to take really good photos and our Instagram page has really been our main selling point and just making that a really visually appealing. Um you know, mark- it kind of does it for me.

[00:05:49]Um, the beauty about this business that I would never have been able to explain beforehand is you really have built-in word of mouth at every single party.

[00:05:58]Because not only is that party girl or boy, but usually it's it's girls, you know, if they've got five, six, seven, eight friends there and their mothers come in and see it when they come and pick up their daughter and they're like, "Oh my gosh, my daughter wants to do this, too." And so it is just like a trickle effect of I want to do this for my party. I want to do this for mine. And um, then they're all posting it on their social media. And so their neighborhood friends see it. And so I can actually tell if I have a party in a certain neighborhood, like I'll start to get inquiries in that neighborhood for a few months. And then like it'll shift to a different part of town because I think like the word will trickle out in different ways. It's really interesting.

[00:06:37]Yeah, that I like that built-in word of mouth where the party attendees, well, they've got birthdays coming up, too.

[00:06:42]They see this.

[00:06:43]>> Everybody has a birthday.

[00:06:44]Yeah, we've seen the same with our kids.

[00:06:46]>> the little siblings. Yeah, and then the little sister wants one when, you know, she turns 10 in 2 years. And so we do a lot of repeat customers. There's a large percentage of repeat business where people either it's the same birthday girl getting it year after year for three, four years or multiple siblings in the same house. Um, so that's been really fun to get to know some families.

[00:07:07]Are you doing anything proactively to drive uh, online reviews or anything else outside of kind of this initial social media push?

[00:07:16]Yeah, absolutely. About a week after each party I have a a templated email that goes out asking for Google reviews.

[00:07:23]And you know, it's hit or miss. Most people don't take the time to do it, but the people that do, um, it it's it's definitely helped. And I do that manually. I will also say to you, the main marketing that I do, um, outside of social is we do a ton of um, school donations, like silent auctions. Um, so a lot of the schools around here do fundraisers or their fall carnivals or you know, spring festivals or whatever and they're all doing silent auctions and this is such a great silent auction item for families to bid on. And again, you know, then when they win, they're having this party and they're inviting other kids from that school.

[00:08:00]So, it's a donation, but it's a marketing expense.

[00:08:03]And it's been pretty effective.

[00:08:05]Yeah, I bet. Yeah, you show the pictures and people sign up for the silent auction and then yeah, like you said it has this viral effect of the other kids who were at the party.

[00:08:16]That's a good way to do it. I'm [snorts] on the Google business profile. I see 22 five-star reviews with a bunch of the the pictures on here. We've heard from other guests where anytime you're doing a setup or teardown, it's like another excuse to add a picture to kind of feed the feed the machine in a way to give Google what it wants to chew on more data. Oh, we're at this neighborhood.

[00:08:37]We're in this location like getting really hyper specific with some of that stuff.

[00:08:41]Yep.

[00:08:42]Yeah, absolutely.

[00:08:51]All right, where where else should we go? So, you're getting some really positive initial traction. People like what you have to offer, but now you've kind of committed yourself on your your off days, your off hours to doing this setup and take down and delivery and I imagine at a certain point it's like this is supposed to be my weekend, too.

[00:09:11]I I like the you know, putting in the time, putting in the effort to build something, but it becomes I don't know.

[00:09:16]Do you do you have that moment of what did I just commit myself to?

[00:09:21]Oh, a million times. Especially as our girls were getting older, they were getting more and more busy. I mean, their weekends were becoming dominated with their own activities and we had a million talks like can we even keep doing this? And I just couldn't figure out I'm a little bit of a control freak and how to outsource this and let other people help us, how to hire staff.

[00:09:43]Um >> Yeah. Because I think the secret to our success is that I am really really focused on customer experience and attention to detail and just, you know, making sure everything is perfect and it's hard to trust other people with that, which I'm sure any business owner understands.

[00:10:00]Um So, yeah, we were at a point where we're like either we're just going to kind of shut this down or we've got to hire help um and get some of our weekends back for our family. So, we finally finally cracked that a few years ago. I'd say about three years ago we really leaned into staffing and it's it's been a game changer.

[00:10:19]Where did you look for something like this? Like look, it is super part-time.

[00:10:23]Um it's kind of weird hours. What Where Where do you look? How much do you pay?

[00:10:28]What makes sense here?

[00:10:29]Yeah. Um well, I started with one mother who she had actually had a party for her daughter um and she had reached out to me and said, "Hey, this is really interesting. Do you need any help?" And for a while I was just like, "No, I don't even know what that looks like. I don't know how to ask for help." Um but she was ended up being my first test case cuz she's on the exact opposite side of town for me.

[00:10:51]Okay.

[00:10:51]>> it really worked out well. She was almost like our west outpost and we gave her a bunch of tents and like the most popular themes and so she could do all the prep and set up on the west side of town when party inquiries came up. So, I really just started with her and and her tween, I think she was 11 at the time, daughter um would come along and help her.

[00:11:13]And we realized that this is just such a great you know, and we were doing with our own daughters, so we should have known this. This is such a great kind of first job for a young tween or teenager that can go with a parent, but there's a lot it's very hands-on, it's very like visual, it's very satis- it's very satisfying for them to be a part of, but having that adult with you. Um and so they were doing that for a while and so I used that as the model then when we were going to hire more teams and posted in my We have a huge local Facebook group um in our part of town and just said we're looking for some more teams to help us and this is what works really well, like a parent-teenager combination or two older teenagers um that can drive and that you're comfortable going in other people's homes. Um so it was a lot of just making sure you know people understood the responsibility of going into these families' homes and paying attention to detail and I mean every time I posted I need help, I get 20 to 30 people instantly contacting me that they want to do this.

[00:12:18]Um >> Yeah, and they when they're representing your brand, they need to understand the aesthetics of it and I guess you kind of have a a playbook like look make it look like this when you're but then you get to a room that is shaped a little weird, the couch is in the way and Yeah, I have like visual sheets that I print out with every party that says this is exactly what it looks like and here's some I mean it we've got that part down to a science, but um people love it cuz it's so flexible.

[00:12:42]It's like the perfect part-time job because I don't make anyone commit to a minimum or a maximum even, so people um we use the band app and have polls on your availability and if a party request comes in for a certain weekend and we see you know, Lisa's available on this weekend, we'll ask her if she wants to take that one if it books and if it says yes, you know, if they book, then she gets assigned to that party. The number one thing I've always asked for people is once you say yes that you'll take a party like there's no backing out because I've never ever canceled on a kid's birthday party and won't do it. Like but there are times when I'm out of town and I'm like if you commit to doing a party, there's no backups. Like you have to we I have to be able to depend on you and rely on you that you're going to show up and that ruins some kids' 12th birthday party.

[00:13:31]And we've never had an issue with it.

[00:13:32]So, but it's so flexible. You can do one party a month. You can do Some people do one to two parties every weekend cuz they're like saving up for a trip to Italy with their daughter, you know, so they can kind of scale up and back as much as they need to.

[00:13:46]Which app was that again?

[00:13:48]We use the BAND app for our staffing staff management. So, all the team communications goes through BAND.

[00:13:55]Um it's kind of like the GroupMe. Yeah, it's very similar to GroupMe. A lot of kids' activities use it like school teams and you know, baseball teams and soccer teams and cheer teams. So, a lot of parents are already familiar with using it.

[00:14:07]Um but it lets you do like the calendaring and the events and then the chats and then they upload their pictures after the party. So, I can take those and use them on social media, but all communication stays within that um I also have a full-time now um customer service manager. So, she's the one doing all the party bookings and customer communications. So, she manages the staffing schedules um and all the client bookings and does all that BAND communication um with all the team members and she's just a godsend. She's just is a lifesaver.

[00:14:42]Okay, which set is going where, who is in charge of setting it up? Yeah, this is the these master spreadsheet jockey of coordination.

[00:14:51]>> That was a big unlock for me, too, because for the first probably 3 years, I was managing it all in Google Docs, Google Sheets, and spreadsheets.

[00:15:00]Um and it worked for me, but then it didn't work. So, I got to a point of scalability where I was just like towing that line of messing something up. Like I knew at any day I was walking a tightrope of missing something or uh it was it was a terrifying state of the business where we'd grown big enough to where my systems were not scaled to keep up.

[00:15:22]Um And I finally just like put a pin in the ground and did a bunch of research on other technology platforms that I could use and did trials on Dubsado and HoneyBook. And we've been on HoneyBook. I paid a consultant like a like a Upwork HoneyBook person to come in and set HoneyBook up for me and that's where all the client bookings and the invoices and the contracts and everything go through and a complete game-changer is finally like paying for a tech system to manage all the client stuff.

[00:16:00]Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:16:02]For the setup and teardown helpers, is are you paying per job, per mile, per hour? There's a lot of different ways you could structure it. After tinkering with it for a while, we just do one flat rate per party. So, it's it's $150 per party and that includes setup and pick up. There are some instances where one team can only do setup and another team will come and do pick up, so they just split that. We tried doing it per tent and it just got so complicated because people would add a tent last minute. Like it didn't feel fair. If it's a long distance, like if it's somewhere outside our normal area, we'll charge the customer a distance fee and then we we pass that straight on to the the setup team.

[00:16:46]Um and if something ever goes wonky, like you know, it's rare, but I'll sometimes just kick a little extra money over and then they also get tips. So, most customers will throw in tip money and so that goes straight to them as well.

[00:17:02]Oh, okay. That's pretty cool.

[00:17:04]Yeah.

[00:17:05]So, now just looking at kind of the gross margins on it if I'm charging $800 to the customer and I'm getting or paying $150 for somebody to set it up, it's like, okay, now I've got a $650 spread and if I could do Right.

[00:17:19]>> two, three, four of those in a weekend and I didn't have to, you know, drive around on a Friday night and do a bunch of this stuff myself, like it's looking like a pretty sweet business.

[00:17:29]Yeah, it is. Um, and that's why we raised our minimum to 425 because when you're staffing this out at that 150, like you got to have some margin cuz there is upkeep. We we have costs.

[00:17:40]It's not like >> it's it's completely free, but most of the the physical that inventory costs are sunk costs. We're doing replacements, but yeah, I mean um it's it's kind of a big deal. So, >> [laughter] >> I just want to make sure we're like not We like doing it, but we're not doing it 100% for the fun of it either. So >> Right.

[00:18:00]Are the delivery people storing the tents and materials in their garage? Is there kind of a central storage unit for the stuff?

[00:18:11]Yeah, that is also the hard part to crack. So, it's all at our house. We have a one-car garage that's separate.

[00:18:18]Um, and it's basically a Firefly storage unit. Okay.

[00:18:22]And so, you walk in there and it is it's where everything is stored. We would do all the packing and all the prep. And so, during the week, um, my husband and I or one of my daughters, depending on who's drawn the short straw that week, um, will help us get everything ready for the weekend. And so, we're packing the bins and the totes and then the bags and all the pillows and the rugs and the blankets and the sheets Um and getting it ready. And then the teams come by and we have a, you know, keypad on our garage. They come by and they pick everything up when they're going to set up the party.

[00:18:53]And then after they've picked everything back up the next day, they stop by our garage and drop it back off.

[00:18:59]So, we really had to hire people. That's why I did it in my local Facebook group because they need to live near me so they're not, you know, driving 20 minutes to my house and then driving to the party house and then it's so we're trying to minimize the time needed for them.

[00:19:14]Right. Yeah, and everything has got to be labeled in a way they can find it quickly and easily and get on their way.

[00:19:20]And okay, we need the Taylor Swift thing, and we need the Harry Potter thing, and we've got to go over here at this time.

[00:19:25]>> Yeah.

[00:19:26]And that's the difference. Some of the companies across the country that um have done this kind of on a larger scale, they do have their teams pack and prep everything themselves, and they'll have little systems where someone comes in and you know, pulls the right little decor items for that theme. Um we've talked about it. I just again, like control freak, I have to like lay physical eyes on every single item before it goes out the door to make sure it's all in perfect shape and working condition.

[00:19:51]Um so, it's just a choice that we've made to still be really hands-on with all the the party prep and packing for them.

[00:19:58]I'm just checking if anybody is doing this near me. It Seattle has one, but out in the 'burbs. It looks like the there may be an opportunity here.

[00:20:09]>> We We have helped people start in Dallas and East Tennessee.

[00:20:13]Um there were some people in Savannah and Jacksonville. So, we've helped a lot of people get started. So, we are available if you want some coaching.

[00:20:21]Is that where So, now coaching other people to help like is there a franchise in your future of doing this? Like where does where does it go next?

[00:20:30]We um we have dabbled in licensing, and that's the Dallas-Fort Worth um Fireflies a licensed model. Okay.

[00:20:38]>> I have just come to the realization that the way that this business works, you really just need help like the first year.

[00:20:45]Um and I'm not in this to make money off the branding. Like I love the coaching aspect of it. And so, we've really transitioned our business cuz we get asked all the time like hey, I want to start one in Pensacola or wherever it is. And it does take an amount of time. It and I am sharing trade information that has been tried and proven out. Like I'm We're to save people a lot of time by telling them the tips and tips and tricks that we've learned over the years.

[00:21:09]So, we've shifted to this coaching service where we'll help you get started and that can look like a variety of different things. If you just want we have a startup guide on our website that basically just says the number one question people ask is can I even do this? And there are some things that you need to know going into it. So, we have this here's what you need to know if you're thinking about doing a slumber party business kind of startup questionnaire guide info packet and it has a lot of information in it. Um so, I've developed that and put it up on the website.

[00:21:39]>> for most people?

[00:21:40]Transportation, number one.

[00:21:43]Um you got to have a car that fits a tent.

[00:21:45]>> Okay. Yeah, which is the number one blocker for me for staffing. I mean, people think they have an SUV and I'm like, well, these tents are they're not giving. Like, they have to fit your back of your trunk can't have any weird like plastic, you know, >> [laughter] >> indentations. So, we have to like physically test it. Storage space, availability. I have someone helping me do all the weekday stuff now with the customer communications and emails.

[00:22:10]Like, you're going to need liability insurance. Like, there's kind of those hidden costs that when people are thinking side hustle, I don't know that they necessarily have thought through all of them that we've kind of cobbled together over the years. Contracts, are you comfortable, you know, managing like a Stripe or a PayPal or payment method?

[00:22:27]Like, these are the things you have to get in place to be able to do this.

[00:22:31]Yeah.

[00:22:32]So, yeah, it's really the like here's what an average weekend looks like for us. Um here's the kind of things that we do run into with customer issues. You know, there will be dogs in people's houses. Are you allergic to dogs?

[00:22:44][laughter] Like, stuff like that. Um are you a people person? You got to be a people person cuz you're coming into someone's house Sunday morning and mom and dad are still in their PJ's and have had the roughest night cuz their kids were up all night partying.

[00:22:58]Um so, it's just stuff like that that we try to give people a really full picture before you take the plunge and buy all this stuff um >> That's right. What What you see on the social feed may not be the reality that you're walking into on Sunday morning.

[00:23:11]>> Yeah, exactly.

[00:23:12]Okay, that's fair. [laughter] Where is your time going now now that you've got the team in place and it seems to be running pretty well.

[00:23:24]Yeah, I mean we're kind of at a point where if we were going to get bigger um and make a time you know transition to doing this outside of just our side jobs um we'd have to get a warehouse and get a lot more inventory and probably a a van and there's just like we have a trailer that we use for some things but we're kind of at that like jumping point where we if we're going to scale and do this full-time we're going to have to make some big changes and at this point I don't think that my husband and I um are wanting to do that. So, that's really where I think just to kind of scratch that creative itch for me is to help other people do this um cuz it's such a well-oiled machine for us right now in Nashville um and it's been so great for our family and our teenage daughters like being a part of this and seeing us working our butts off on the weekends and you know mom sits behind a desk all day and she's they're seeing us carrying bins up people's stairs and um I want to give other kind of families that kind of guidance to be able to do the same thing especially if they have young younger kids like that that want to be a part of it. It's just really fun seeing people take off with it.

[00:24:33]Yeah, I was going to ask if you foresaw it becoming a full-time business or full-time thing where you take the leap and give your notice at work.

[00:24:44]I thought about it but um I don't know. I I kind of like the I like doing both. You know, I'm a corporate America girly for better or worse and I get to be around a lot of people and grownups during the day and but I have this really creative side to me, too, that is really hands-on and I'm like crafty and get to make all these little sleep masks and um all these things that are not a part of my day job. And so kind of having that balance, for me at least, has worked really well.

[00:25:17]Um so, I don't know. I think I think if I did this full-time, and a lot of people do and do it very successfully. A lot of people out there killing it. Um I just I I might go a little crazy. But I don't know yet. Maybe. Ask me again in like a year or two.

[00:25:34]Yeah, we'll have to do a follow-up on that. I'm on the the um the impulse buys, the upsells, you know, as you're checking out guard. You know, would you like to also add on the the candy bar, the uh the the you mentioned the personalized sleep masks here. Yes, I love those. Um the karaoke machine, the popcorn machine. These are great.

[00:25:52]These are just little Look, if you're already having a sleepover party, have you thought about this, this, and this, right? It's a natural addition to offer this stuff and increase the average order size.

[00:26:03]The little sibling tent was such an aha moment for me a few years ago because just party after party, I would see these poor little kids that were like you know, three, four, five just having a meltdown that they were left out of, you know, big sister's party that was being set up in the bonus room or whatever. Yeah. And so I just started offering like, do you want me to bring a tent and a mattress for them? And I can pick out, you know, you can put a little Minecraft pillow on it for a little brother or superhero like a you know, Captain America pillow that I have and people love it. And they put it in their room like they put it in their little brother's room and he gets to sleep in the tent on the floor overnight. I love stuff like that.

[00:26:38]Yeah, that's that's cute. Have any of these other ones kind of come from customers asking for stuff or is it like, oh well, we'll put this up, we'll we'll offer it and we'll see if anybody takes it?

[00:26:49]The invitation graphic for sure. I was not doing that for a long time, but now, you know, a few years ago when I kind of was using Canva all the time, I was like, I I don't know why I'm not doing this. So, that takes me, you know, 10 minutes. The thing about them it's almost always the moms booking this party, let's be honest. These moms are generally very busy women, and a lot of them work full-time themselves. Um, you know, this demographic is, you know, a pretty successful demographic. They're busy, they outsource a lot of things, including their kids' events. Um, >> for for a kids' birthday party. Yeah.

[00:27:21]They're like, "Please come do it all. Do it all." And that's part of our selling point is like, "We're going to leave in the morning, you're never going to know we were there." And they love it. Um, but the invitation graphic, just for years, they were like, "Man, I got to put together an invite to send out." I'm like, "That's one more thing for you to do. Let me just It's $25. It takes me 5 minutes. Let me do it for you." So, yeah, we've got a a dozen different templates in Canva we can use now. It'll be super fast.

[00:27:43]>> just fill out this little form, I send it to you, and you text it out to all their friends. Done. So. Yep.

[00:27:49]That makes it easy. Cool.

[00:27:51]Yes. What else You mentioned transportation, you mentioned kind of the storage logistics. What Are there any horror stories where You mentioned I had Look, I never had to cancel on a customer, but like, what are some of the bad things that could happen here? So, horror stories, very few, knock on wood.

[00:28:09]Um, there have been times where we have shown up, and it was like a war zone.

[00:28:16]Um, it's very rare, but we There are times where you just it looks like a hurricane blew through that room. Um, >> you need a clear space to work.

[00:28:27]Yeah, and just broken items. So, some And this is another reason why we've really targeted our marketing to older kids over the years, not the younger kids, cuz they're crazy. Like, you put a group of of eight-year-olds in a room, and nine times out of 10, they're going to break something. Um, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have an eight-year-old birthday next weekend, and you're I'm really looking forward [laughter] I can give you some tips.

[00:28:51]No chocolate, no sticky candy, and no glitter. God, the glitter. Um Yeah, I think the only thing my personal nightmare situations have always been showing up to a party that's a 45-minute drive away and they asked for eight tents and we brought seven.

[00:29:10]Now, that has happened like once or twice because of just communication breakdown or me moving too fast and like reading all the setup, you know, things for the weekend. But again, like >> every single time I go I bend over backwards to make it right, you know, I'll discount half their party. I always come back and bring something if I've forgotten it. We always always always make it right.

[00:29:33]So, those are my my nightmare fuel is like showing up with the completely wrong stuff and >> Yeah, we had a last minute RSVP, we need one more and you're like, "Okay, shoot, now I got to go back to the garage."

[00:29:46]Yeah, yeah. So, and especially with the teams, that's I There have been a few times where again, like in packing everything, I used to have checklists and now I just kind of do it all.

[00:29:57]But like I'll leave out a sheet or there's missing a lantern or something and it is every time I do it I'm like, "Oh god." But I will I jump in my car or I get my husband to jump in his car and we drive across town so they don't have to come back and get it. Um Yeah. And that like we're so careful now about triple counting everything. Um But yeah, that's the kind of stuff that can go sideways.

[00:30:20]Yeah, you need to have those checklists and really be airtight about it cuz it's um a customer service type of business where you're it's like a an experience in a box, but it just needs to show up and be kind of a white glove uh well-done, seamless type of thing.

[00:30:38]And and then again, if something does go wrong and you have the opportunity to make it right that oh, they went above and beyond and they did this and now hopefully that turns into a positive review and then some word of mouth.

[00:30:49]Yeah, and I think it's all just about honesty. You know, we're like, "Oh my gosh, so sorry. I messed up, but I'm going to be right back and I'm going to take a major discount for the time, you know?" Um and I'm so careful about it, but it's never me like you just can't try to hide your mistakes, you know?

[00:31:05]They Everybody gets it. Like we're human.

[00:31:07]We're doing the best that we can. So, it's just trying to make it right.

[00:31:11]What's surprised you the most over the last five, six years of doing this?

[00:31:17]I can't believe we're still doing it. If you had told me in 2020 that this would still be like the pace at which we're doing it still on top of I mean, we both have very demanding full-time day jobs.

[00:31:29]Um is kind of mind-boggling to me that we've we're like side hustle people. Um but >> Welcome. Welcome to our world.

[00:31:39]I think the thing that surprised me the most was how much I really was missing that kind of hands-on aspect of work. Um you know, again, like corporate day jobby stuff scratched so many things for me, but um I like being able to like physically set something up and see it and see people smile and react to it and like seeing kids' reactions when they come in cuz I never we always make them leave the room when we're setting up for a lot of reasons.

[00:32:07]And then have that big reveal moment where they >> Yeah. And it is so satisfying to see how excited these kids are. And I'm not like one of those big like, "I love kids" people. I mean, I like kids, but like if you had told me that I would get joy out of watching other kids >> [laughter] >> see their slumber party, I would have been like, "That's really cheesy, but okay." But turns out I love it.

[00:32:27]>> [laughter] >> Like I love the joy.

[00:32:29]>> a little bit different. This is something for me, too, and and for my wife as well. Like the side hustle could exercise a a different portion of your brain that you're not using at your day job. It kind of scratches some creative itch as it it sounds like it did for you, too. So, I like that.

[00:32:43]>> Yeah, I know. And it's so my my family my sister is saying all the time. She says it all the time. She's like, "I did not see this coming with you."

[00:32:52]Like this whole like artsy-craftsy, you know, kids event business is just so off-center for me, but I love it. I love it.

[00:33:01]Yeah, it's in it's in there. And I think too this business would appeal to is kind of that parent and you know, husband and wife team in that child age range of that you know, 8 to 15 where you already know the other parents at the schools. It's a natural fit to do these silent auctions and be maybe you're already active in these parent groups or neighborhood groups and it's just kind of like raising your hand and say, "I'm going to test this out.

[00:33:27]Let's see who wants to be the guinea pig here." And if you've got that creative [snorts] aesthetic eye and can take a good picture, you know, who knows? Maybe somebody else will will book it.

[00:33:37]Yeah. And I can tell real fast if someone has that because we do we have a really kind of bulletproof now training program for both for the teams to try this out and then us for kind of test them out.

[00:33:48]And I can tell if someone's going to be kind of as OCD about the attention to detail as I am.

[00:33:55]And a lot of the times it's the teenagers. So, the teenagers come in and they get so excited about making things look perfectly and like lining up all the little garlands and the trays are perfect and I think a lot of people just have that visual thing inside of them.

[00:34:08]And so this is this is a great way to do it. Um and the thing too is it is so hard. I don't know if it's like this where you are. Um it is so hard for teenagers to find jobs these days especially just with activities and all the other things.

[00:34:23]Um having a job that you can do with your mom or your dad that's super flexible and you're spending time together in the car driving to and from the parties, like it's pretty it's pretty amazing. It's just such a unique kind of setup.

[00:34:36]>> Yeah. Yeah, totally. There's definitely some money in kids birthday parties. We had a guy on last year who was doing outdoor foam party setups with these, you you know, commercial grade foam cannons and you'd come and blast your kids for an hour and then run around in the foam. Even my son has been invited to a couple of these video [snorts] game trailer parties, which is like Yeah, there's some overhead if you already if you don't already have the the truck for one, but then you bought this horse trailer, three of flat screen TVs with a couch along one side and then like three different video game consoles. So it's like there's some overhead, there's some setup costs, but I don't know. I It wasn't We weren't the ones hosting the party, but he's like, "This is a blast. This is super cool."

[00:35:19]So I know. Well, that's the other cool thing about this, too. There is this whole ecosystem that did not exist 5, 10 years ago of children's events.

[00:35:29]Whatever it might be. Balloon businesses, you know, it's face painters, it's the princess trucks, the video game trucks, but then there's like the spa trucks and people that do these like dessert carts where they'll come and like set up a soda a soda pop cart or a dessert cart. And we actually partner with a lot of them. So that's been really fun, too, because we're all just like referring business to each other. If someone wants to add on something to their party and we don't offer it, turn odds are good I know somebody that does that. And so I'm constantly pitching business to other people and they're doing the same back to us and so it's like this fun little Nashville party ecosystem where we all know each other.

[00:36:08]Yeah, parties party suppliers essential.

[00:36:11]Pretty much.

[00:36:12]>> in my wife's wedding photography business. It was kind of this strategic referral partner, you know, you gathered the business cards for the DJs, for the florists, for the caterers, whoever's there, but those were kind of different slices of the event. But it's it's like here, well, if I'm referring the video game truck person, it's like that may be a direct competitor or like people really adding that stuff on. Yeah, I mean, it depends. Some people just go big, right?

[00:36:39]Like Like sometimes we'll do a graduation party. Like we do a big outdoor backyard glamping tent, too, that we set up in people's backyards and then it has all the mattresses inside, but you could also use it as like, you know, um we'll set up tables and chairs in there and have grad parties. So then they'll start adding on all the other things. A lot of people will add on, I don't know if you've seen those big light up letters that have or the numbers. Um the one here is called Letter Bright Nashville and they're these huge wooden numbers and letters. So you'll have like the 16. Yeah, yeah. So a lot of people will add those onto their parties. So things like that are just And that That is a great side hustle, too, man. If there's not somebody doing those light up numbers or letters in your town, you need to do that. They're They're killing it.

[00:37:25]Yeah, I love I love this idea and I'm already like, well, shoot, yeah, what what would it cost to buy these? How long to break even? And then after that, everything is gravy. I love that.

[00:37:32]>> Yeah. All right, well, fireflyslumberparties.com, check it out. It sounds like there is a training program there for aspiring slumber party entrepreneurs. You mentioned licensing, the training program. What else has got you excited for this year?

[00:37:48]I am trying to figure out what the next cool theme is, always. That's kind of where my hat is always, you know, like I want to know what's got my ears perked up and asking the girls like, what's coming? What's on the TikToks? Um Okay. So, you know, you're always just trying to stay ahead of the trends and figure out what the next new kind of party thing cuz a year or two ago it was this preppy pink thing and Taylor Swift is kind of dying down now, bless her heart. I don't know. The kids don't want those parties anymore.

[00:38:14]>> sets of each one? Is like in case multiple people want to book it?

[00:38:18]>> ones. Yeah, we had to. Like when Taylor when the Eras Tour was going on, we had Taylor Swift parties going out literally probably two or three of them every weekend. And I had to buy, you know, multiple sets. It's really like pillow covers are kind of the big decor item that we switch out for all the themes.

[00:38:35]So, it's not it's not a huge cost. But yeah, for the most in for the most popular parties, we definitely have multiple sets.

[00:38:42]Um >> I believe it.

[00:38:44]Yeah.

[00:38:45]How do you think about I mean is there Okay, we want to break even on our cost after one event, two events, five events? Like on terms of like the equipment infrastructure?

[00:38:57]Yeah.

[00:38:58]Um I always tell people when they're starting out, I'm like just mentally prepare to maybe break even in your first year.

[00:39:06]Because a lot of people don't price themselves right. You they price themselves too low and they're just killing themselves for very little return. Um and it just takes a while to kind of get your groove on.

[00:39:19]So, and and again, like some people don't want to do a party every weekend.

[00:39:23]So, when you're first starting out, it just depends how fast you want to go.

[00:39:26]Because if you go too fast at the beginning, you're going to mess up and then you might get a bad review. And one bad review at the beginning will kill you. Mhm. So, I always tell people like go slow and don't you know, you want to book with friends and family for the first few parties. Um or give, you know, give some donated parties. But it can take a while depending on how crazy you go with your themes off the bat. If you start small and just offer two or three, then you're probably going to break even pretty fast.

[00:39:54]I just don't want people going out there and thinking you're making six figures in a year or two. It's not going to happen.

[00:39:58]Um this is this is a long game.

[00:40:01]>> Maybe a little reality check on that cuz I'm like, where do I where do I sign up for something like this? But that's Okay, ground it a little bit. Okay, go a little slow.

[00:40:10]Yeah.

[00:40:11]Again, fireflyslumberparties.com.

[00:40:13]And check Ann out over there. Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.

[00:40:20]Number one tip, customer experience, hands down. You have to do right by these people. It is a special event um for their kid or whomever it might be and you are there to make it magical.

[00:40:32]And so, everything that you can do to make it as perfect and seamless as possible, it's just about making it easy for these families. And that's what people are paying for. I mean, it's not really about the Instagram, it's about making it easy making a special moment um for their kids. And I think that's why people are just really craving ways to make special moments with their kids and their family right now, I think more than ever. Yeah.

[00:40:56]Um and so, being able to do that and make it as perfect as possible for them is really the key.

[00:41:03]I think that's really really helpful if you're selling slumber parties, if you're selling whatever it is that you're selling. You know, what is the customer really buying? They're buying this magical experience. They're buying not having to worry about it themselves. Like, what is that transformation that they're hopefully buying at the end of the weekend um in this case? I think that's really uh really important to keep in mind no matter what you're selling. So, um and this has been awesome. I took a ton of notes. I'm excited to share with everybody about Firefly Slumber Parties and it's got me looking at who who is doing this in my area and what it what it looks like, what it entails.

[00:41:38]Now, um we've been chatting in the slumber party setups in this episode, but this certainly isn't the only thing that you can rent out for a profit. So, to get your creative juices flowing, I want to invite you to download your listener-only bonus for this episode.

[00:41:51]It's my list of 25 other unconventional things that you can rent out for a profit. Uh just hit the uh episode description or follow the link in the description. It'll get you right over there. You can grab that for free. Big thanks to Anne for sharing her insights.

[00:42:04]Thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone.

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[00:42:14]Thank you for supporting the advertisers that support the show.

[00:42:17]That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share with a friend. Fire off that text message to that person in your life who needs to hear this story. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen, and I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show. Hustle on.