In 2007, Brenda Simonelli was working 12-hour days as a senior corporate accountant with a Springfield, Mass. company. The commute from her East Hartford home gobbled up another few hours.
Then one day, like a light-switch getting turned on, she was struck with an unshakeable desire to start her own business.
Simonelli followed her entrepreneurial spirit, quit her job and started a two-year journey that led to her purchase of a BounceU indoor playground franchise that she opened in Rocky Hill last month.
BounceU features giant, indoor bounce houses that include a variety of activities, such as a 38-foot obstacle course, slides, rock-wall climbing, tug-of-war, basketball and T-ball games. The facility is spotless and inviting as the quiet whir of air pumps inflate the play structures that offer appeal to adults and kids alike.
However, her journey hasn’t been easy. Simonelli’s financing fell through when the Lehman Brothers folded.
“Once [lenders] hear the word startup, they are running in the other direction. They can’t get you off the phone soon enough,” she said.
So Simonelli has lived on savings for the past few years and dug in deep to finance the $400,000 business startup costs herself. She’s maxed out her credit cards, liquidated her 401k, and took out two new mortgages on her home.
The capital was needed to purchase the franchise, eight giant inflatable structures, and some arcade games. She also needed capital to convert about 10,000 square feet of industrial space into private party rooms and two indoor stadiums where the giant inflatable play structures are located.
Additional funding was set aside for some advertising. However, Simonelli is counting on word-of-mouth to promote her business.
“Every party is a commercial to 24 other kids,” said Simonelli, who noted that the business is expected to break even in about four months. “This business does ramp up quickly.”
Regardless of the risks involved in launching a new business during one of the worst economic recessions since the Great Depression, Simonelli is thrilled with her decision.
Her commute is now about five minutes, and her company is “truly a family affair,” she said. Both her adult daughters, Elizabeth and Nichole, are helping her run the business.
With just a little more than one month under their belt, they have booked more than 100 parties through November.
Before selecting BounceU, Simonelli carefully researched countless other franchise opportunities, looking for a proven business model. She found that indoor children’s birthday parties in the region offered an enormous business opportunity because there is little competition in that arena.
Her goal was to be able to independently run her franchise and not to have continuing franchise expenses with the exception of royalty fees.
With BounceU selected, next in Simonelli’s journey was to find a heated, indoor space with 20-foot-ceilings and nearly 10,000 square feet.
Again, not so easy, she quickly discovered. Her search for such a facility was not anticipated and delayed her launch. After a false start with a Manchester facility, the space she found in Rocky Hill fit the bill. After receiving local zoning approvals, she signed a 10-year lease.
She points out that BounceU isn’t just for kids and hopes that businesses will consider weekday team-building exercises.
The first business group to try out BounceU will be the Rocky Hill Chamber of Commerce, which has scheduled an upcoming breakfast meeting at the new indoor playground.
Diane Weaver Dunne is the Hartford Business Journal managing editor.
