Sal Longo began as an 18-year-old delivery worker for a daycare's lone bounce house and later took ownership, expanding the business after college. By 2006-2007 revenue reached about $200,000 to $250,000 as the delivery area and customer base grew to include schools, municipalities, churches and first-responder departments. A pandemic-era pivot narrowed inventory to high-margin core rentals such as bounce houses, water slides, obstacle courses and tents. The business adopted tighter technology and a community-driven operating playbook and shifted growth strategy toward franchising rather than adding corporate units.
By his early 20s, he'd taken the reins and turned his small side hustle into a successful seasonal business. But after a hard pivot during the pandemic, Longo led his company, Busy Bee Jumpers, to become a thriving professional franchise operation focused on high-margin core rentals - bounce houses, water slides, obstacle courses and tents - delivered with a tech-tight, community-driven playbook.
It was a great secondary business for them for several years. When I graduated from college at 22, I asked, Can we put a main focus on this and go from a side hustle to something bigger? They said yes. At the time, this was 2006-2007, we were doing about $200,000 to $250,000 in revenue and we expanded the delivery area and put real focus on it.
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