The children walk out
of the day care center in single file, across a small parking lot and
board the lime green school bus parked on a quiet side street.
But this isn't any ordinary bus.
First of all there are no seats, and second of all, the children won't
be going anywhere.
The only journey they will take today is one into the world of physical
fitness - cleverly
disguised as play and accompanied by an upbeat pop soundtrack.
The floor and sides of the bus, up to the windows, are covered with blue
carpet. Strewn about are rainbow-colored tumbling mats, foam blocks, a
small trampoline and a parallel bar. A pair of rings hangs from the roof.
For the next 25 minutes the children will get to literally climb the
walls and swing from
the ceiling, things usually discouraged in the classroom and at home.
The children at A Bright Beginning Child Care Center in North Brunswick
just got their
first visit from the Fun Bus, and the squeals of delight signal it has
lived up to its name.
Having almost as much fun as the children on this visit to the center
earlier this month
are the mother-daughter team of Dawn McGarry and Kari Denton, owners of
Fords-based Fun Bus Inc.
The pair started the company nearly two years ago after deciding work
days of 12 hours or more at their Somerset day care center, Kids Come
First, was getting to be too much.
Denton, a certified teacher, and McGarry, a former mortgage representative
with bookkeeping experience, sold the center and began operating a two-bus
fleet with the slogan ""Fitness Fun on Wheels.''
In the beginning they traveled all over the state, wherever there was a
paying customer.
But in little more than a year their services for children ages 2 to 7
became so in demand at
local day care centers, schools, summer camps, churches and birthday
parties, that they limited the area they would drive to and began turning
away customers.
"Chuck E. Cheese
is getting old, it's Fun Bus now,'' said McGarry, of the company's
thriving private birthday party business.
That is when they decided to expand their reach by selling franchises …
"when we were
tired of saying no,'' said McGarry, 52, out of whose Fords home Fun Bus
Inc. operates.
""Our lawyer said you either lose business, have someone copycat you, or
you franchise,''
explained Denton, 28, of Tinton Falls.
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In October, they
got their franchise license under the name Fun Bus USA and this year they
started marketing 23 territories in the state, which sell for a $25,000
franchise fee and 7
percent of all future earnings.
McGarry and Denton said they earned about $51,000 in their first 10
months of operation,
and $80,000 in the past 12 months. They gross about $2,000 a week, serving
200 children a month.
They have two workers on the payroll who log about 13 hours a week, while
they each work
part-time, putting in about 25 hours.
There are over 4,000 day care centers in New Jersey and each franchise
territory will have
about 200, said Denton.
Some centers pay for the service at a rate of $150 an hour, but more
often it is offered as an elective to parents, who pay $8.50 per child per
session. Birthday parties are charged at a rate of $200 an hour.
McGarry and Denton's own territory of northern Middlesex County, with
their established
client list, is also for sale. They said they are ready to give up working
on the bus and
concentrate instead on overseeing their franchises to ensure success. They
eventually want to
expand out of state.
The pair say they are in discussions with a handful of serious potential
franchisees and have had inquires from a dozen more, including some as far
away as Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts who learned about the company from its Web site,
http://www.funbuses.com/.
The idea of a
fitness-oriented bus serving customers at their home or business is not
original. There are other buses outfitted with exercise equipment that
travel to different
sites.
Denton and
McGarry got the idea for Fun Bus from one they hired to come to their day
care
center. That bus was associated with a gym and focused on gymnastics, and
while Denton and McGarry liked the idea, they didn't think it was much fun
for young children.
On the gymnastics
bus, children had to wait as each one took a turn on a particular
apparatus, learning one move with the help of the lone instructor.
Denton and
McGarry thought it would be more exciting for children if there was upbeat
music, singing, and all the students got to participate in a variety of
activities at the same
time, so no one would get bored standing in line.
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""We were probably
putting 50 to 60 hours in at the day care center,'' said Denton. ""We
wanted a little more flexibility. We said there's got to be something else
out there where we could work with kids and still make a living. We picked
up on (the gymnastic bus) concept and made it more fun.''
""We keep
them going,'' said McGarry, adding a main component of every session is an
obstacle course with about six activities that the children run through at
their own pace.
They bought an
old school bus with 72,000 miles on it for $1,500 and had it gutted.
Denton estimates it will cost franchisees about $25,000 to purchase and
outfit a bus.
There are
always two adults with the children and the bus never moves with children
on it.
""It's not
just "come on the bus and play'. It's very structured,'' said Denton of
the sessions, which begin with warm-ups and end with a cool-down
sing-a-long. ""We're doing fitness, coordination, gross motor skills.
""Most (day
care centers) look at it as a fitness program,'' said Denton. ""They like
the
fact the kids have a chance to run and play and swing, other than in a
classroom because
that's so limiting.''
With the
franchises, McGarry and Denton said they are selling their experience and
an
operating system that works … now.
It took a
lot of trial and error to get to this point, they said.
The first
summer they didn't have air conditioning on the bus and McGarry threatened
to
quit because it was so unbearably hot.
They soon
installed a $10,000 heating and air conditioning unit.
They bought
a ball pit, but discovered it was time-consuming to clean and children
either sat in it for the entire session or threw all the balls outside of
the pit. They don't use the ball pit anymore, unless it is specifically
requested by a customer.
""We spent a
couple thousand dollars on mistakes, things that were just not practical
but
looked good in the catalog,'' said Denton.
Bright
Beginning owner Sandra Sino said she paid for the Fun Bus to visit to see
whether it
would be another service she would like to offer parents, who would assume
the cost. She said she thinks it will be, noting the center does not have
a gymnasium.
""I thought
it was creative,'' said Sino. ""It's really good for the children to get
out of
the school and get some fresh air and exercise, and it's safe because it's
right outside the
door.''
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