Today we’d like to introduce you to Louisa Barnett.
Hi Louisa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My husband, Asa aka ‘Coach Ace’ started out his career as a behavioral therapist working with special needs children for LAUSD and was a former college athlete.
He’d always loved the idea of combining his passion of sport with working with kids and started coaching kids part-time, calling himself LA Kids Coach.
After having our first daughter, Marni, I used to take her to a kid’s gym in West Hollywood called Fit for Kids – a hugely popular spot which was frequented by A-listers and their little ones.
One day, the owner told us that after 18 years she was going to have to close her doors as the landlord was hiking-up the rent again and she’d decided it was time to close.
I instantly saw it as an opportunity and rang her the next day asking if she was planning to reopen and if not, if she’d be willing to sell us all the equipment. To cut a long story short, we drove up to her home with a truck, made a deal with her for all the equipment and drove away with an entire kid’s gym which we just about squeezed in our garage. We got almost $100k worth of equipment for about a 5th of that and would never have been able to set-up our business buying it all brand new.
We’d been saving for a house but decided to put that money into a business so we found a space in Beverly Hills and fast-forward six months later, Bounce was born and we officially opened up the doors to our own kid’s gym in July 2017.
We managed to build a profitable business with a wonderful community and client base, but sadly when covid hit, we were forced to close the doors. We quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a week-long issue and decided to get out of our lease – fast – in order not to bankrupt ourselves with months of rent payments and no income.
Thankfully, we did and while our competitors switched to online, virtual classes, we knew this wasn’t sustainable and decided to come up with another plan.
We bought a second-hand van and Asa began doing small group classes and one-on-one sessions at people’s homes outdoors in their backyards. If anything, kids needed physical exercise and it became a Godsend to our community.
Thankfully we were blessed with an incredible clientele we’d built over the last three years and we quickly became so busy that Ace was working seven days a week and we had a waitlist of over 100 clients.
Fast forward 18 months, we have a team of four coaches all with our brand-new vans wrapped with our logo out on the road doing private at-home classes, sports coaching, birthday parties & pre-school movement programs.
This summer, we secured a deal with The City of Beverly Hills to become their kid’s sports provider and we now provide our award-winning movement program at Coldwater Canyon Park with 20 classes a week in addition to our private clients.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Struggles is an understatement!
We built a kid’s gym in the heart of Beverly Hills from scratch. To the point that my husband spent 25 hours hand-picking staples out of wall mats until his hands bled before we opened our physical location just to save a few hundred bucks when having them re-covered.
Running a 7-day-a-week consumer-facing business with daily challenges and two young children meant I was single parenting given my husband had to work every weekend. He even had to leave me just after our second daughter was born to do a party when a staff member called in sick.
Add to that a pandemic and having to close our doors permanently and face liquidating the business. After shutting down our physical location, we were worried about how we were going to keep a roof over our children’s heads.
We worked night and day to pivot and completely overhaul/re=model our entire business to turn it into a mobile kid’s gym and thankfully it paid off.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Bounce is LA’s No.1 Mobile Kids Gym offering age-appropriate classes, sports coaching, school PE/movement programs and birthday parties across the city for kids aged 6-months to 12 years old!
From obstacle courses to gymnastics and sports-based games and activities, Bounce’s award-winning programs help to boost the child’s physical – and social development. From strengthening their core, balance and gross motor skills to helping them develop leadership and socialization skills – all while having fun.
Our brand mascot is our Toy Poodle, Chewy, who appears on all our branding and is a huge hit with the kids. She often makes an appearance at classes which is a big treat for our Mini Bouncers!
What sets us apart from others is what people describe as our Bounce ‘magic’ – an energy we bring to each one of our classes and parties which gives us the ‘X Factor.’ Many of our clients say our classes are “the best outdoor experience for kids in LA”.
We offer a premium, bespoke service with top coaches who have at least ten years of experience and are absolute experts in what they do – as well as having a true passion for their job.
We have been fortunate enough to have garnered a string of A-list clients too and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved and are excited about what’s to come!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Hard work, determination and the ability to HUSTLE!
We live and breathe our business and never take anything for granted.
We are passionate about what we do and that is reflected into the energy and the magic we bring to our programs.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.bouncela.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/bounce_la
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bounce8/
