Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009

Pumped to play

Katy Tam said she had a hard time a few years ago booking a party place for her kids that met her “working mom” criteria: supervised, hassle-free and no clean up.

She mentioned the “no clean up” part twice.

“I want everything done; just walk in, and walk out,” she said.

It was also a time when she and her husband, Tony Chang, were thinking of starting a business.

Tam, a statistician, and Chang, who works in IT, searched franchises on the Internet and came across BounceU — a full-service party place with giant, inflatable structures for people of all ages.

“It was the same idea as what I was looking for,” Tam said.

In the space of two years, the couple purchased the franchise, found a location and, on Jan. 23, officially opened the Triangle’s first BounceU, a 6-year-old company based out of Arizona.

Though the couple started the process of opening BounceU in a rosier economy, Tam said she’s not worried about business suffering because — as she puts it — “kids’ birthday parties are only once a year,” and she thinks parents will still spend on that special day.

She’s also been impressed with the variety of customers she’s had at the Apex location, like a woman who had her 40th birthday party there recently.

“She said, ‘I want to feel rejuvenated,’” said Tam about the party of bouncing adults. “She wanted to feel like a kid again.”

Hearing the powerful drone of the blowers and seeing the towering structures, it’s hard to resist the urge to pull off your shoes and dive in — something most other party places don’t allow for grown-ups, unless parents are getting on and off the structure to assist their children.

Tam wants everyone to play.

She recommends it for teenagers’ prom parties, companies that want to do team building or just about anyone who wants to blow off steam during their “family bounce” sessions Tuesdays and Thursday nights. The facility has two bounce rooms with 22-foot-high ceilings that house nine inflatable structures — some with more to offer than just bouncing.

One has a boxing ring with gloves and protective headgear so two people can go at each other like heavyweights without risking a concussion.

Tam has a pet name for that one: The Marriage Counselor.

There is also a 20-foot-tall inflatable slide that Tam invites people to try, assuring you she has tried it herself. Parties range from $275 to $435, which include a total of 75 minutes of private bounce time in both rooms and a 45-minute party with options for decorations, food and drinks.

As with all bounce places, the food part always comes after the bounce part — for obvious, gastronomic reasons.

The higher-end party is truly all inclusive, according to Tam, with people they call “party pros,” who do everything from cutting the cake to keeping a gift log for thank you notes — doing all the work so moms, as Tam envisioned, can literally walk in with up to 25 kids and walk out two hours later with calm nerves and happy children.

She encourages parents to play themselves and said that her structures are safe for adults up to 300 pounds.

The personalization of Tam’s franchise is evident amid the official BounceU colors of red and purple — a picture of her 9-year-old son, Kevin, on one of the party room’s walls.

In the big, circular black-and-white photo, his eyes are lit up and he’s laughing, which, to Tam, is what it’s all about.

“I like seeing people happy,” she said. “Moms come up to me and say this is such a great place.

“That proves my ideas were good.”