There's a bounce in Ray's business
"I had no idea whether there was a market for them around this area," he recalls. "But I advertised them as being available for family events, such as birthdays, first communions and confirmations."
And, in business fairytale style, the interest 'exceeded all my expectations', he says. Which encouraged him to invest in a few more units for the following summer. "Again, the business exceeded all my expectations, so for this year I had 11 units available, and for next year I'm expecting to have 15 available and I imagine that will satisfy the demand in my community."
That kind of growth will impose a strain on any new small business. In Ray's case, the strain was on the family car, an ageing Volvo pulling a trailer to deliver the bouncy attractions to his growing base of customers. So recently he invested in a not-so-new Ford Transit van, and that has transformed the logistics of the business.
"It's not just making it easier to deliver the castles, it has become a travelling billboard for me," he says. "The very first day I had the signs put on the van, by FX Signs in Naas, I got a phone call from a mother who had seen it parked in Kilcullen. And now I'm regularly getting business on the basis of people seeing it going somewhere."
It's a seasonal attraction, usually beginning around April and going through the autumn. "In fact, if the weather is good, September and October can be the busiest months. Then, through the winter, I've been moving the castles indoors, at Kilcullen Community Centre. That keeps things ticking over."
By nature a gregarious character, Ray likes his new business as much for the opportunity it gives him to meet new people as for its contribution to maintaining his family. And over the three years, he has developed a big number of regular customers, thanks largely to his personal involvement in the booking and supply. He has a Facebook page and a web-site — kilcullenbouncycastles.com — and the initial enquiry can be made there. "After that, I'm the contact point throughout the process."
While Kilcullen itself was obviously the initial base, Ray will provide castles to most anywhere in Kildare and West Wicklow. "It's really depending on how far I have to travel, and anywhere within about 45 minutes of Kilcullen will be fine."
On the safety of the whole bouncy castle thing, which did get some adverse publicity some years ago, Ray is confident in the latest generation of the attractions. "They're fully enclosed, much sturdier and there are different styles of them, including slides, obstacle courses and disco domes. There's also the importance of guidelines, which we give to every customer, about how they should manage the use of the castles on their property."
Those guidelines are all basic common sense. Such as keeping the same age groups playing on the units at any time, and never leaving them unsupervised. "It's like having children over for any activity in your garden, you simply don't leave them to their own devices, because you have responsibility for them."
If you want to say hello to Kilcullen's newest bouncing entrepreneur, he'll have his Super Slide at the upcoming Kilcullen River Festival.
This article was first published in The Kildare Nationalist.
