Las Vegas (part 5): Jump N Kids, Inc

This is my brother's small business that I have been helping out with.  Hopefully one day I can duplicate his business model back home and give my family a solid business to provide a source of dependable income.  At which point I can either expand the business anywhere I want, or finally start down the path that is uniquely my own.

Still asking what is Jump N Kids exactly? No worries, that is what this post is all about.

Jump N Kids is a company that offers party equipment for rent.  From bounce houses/inflatable jumpers, water slides, party concessions, tables, chairs, dunk tanks, to inflatable carnival games.

The majority of Jump N Kids business comes from these inflatable rentals.  Above are a sample of the bounce houses/jumpers, water slides, and inflatable games.

However, as I said he has plenty of other items available for rental.  Party concessions like popcorn machines, sno-cone makers, cotton candy machines, and hot dog rollers/steamers.  Also as I mentioned in another post, my brother has the beginning of a dj kit with speakers, a dual cd player, microphones and an amplifier w/mixer.  All-in-all this is all the equipment one might need to throw a pretty bangin' party, that will bring a smile to any kids face no matter the age.

Still curious?  Check out the website: jumpnkids.com

Any ideas as I begin the process of expanding this business and taking it back to Kentucky?  Don't be shy, let me hear it!  I may start working on a website of my own in the near future, when that happens I will be sure to share it with you.

Las Vegas (part 4): Been a while

I initially started this with the intention of writing every week.  The sad part is, most of what I wrote part 1-3 happened all in one night.  Part 4 was supposed to be the second week, but by the time I got done with part 3 the second week was already over.  My issues with writing persist, but I have been wasting most of my time writing in yahoo! comments.  Which is a much worse idea than blogging and there are more than just this one idiot there.

I had pictures to post, but they are all on facebook; go look there to see them.  As I sit here wondering what to write that will not just be one tangent after the next and at the same time take me nearly 4 hours to write (it's already 11:30 PST), I cannot help but feel like it is hopeless.  There is so much to write and yet nothing that I really want to write about.  This is only compounded by the knowledge that hardly any one will read it.

So, my day went as follows:  I awoke at 7:17 am not sure why so early.  I have not used an alarm clock since I came to Vegas.  Mostly because I do not want it going off while I sleep through it, or maybe that is just my excuse to sleep in until 9 am.  I grabbed a bowl of Trix cereal and hopped on the internet.  I did a search for something like "beginner's guide to dj equipment."  For an hour and fifteen minutes I read about effects.  However, I would have to read it again to even repeat back what I read.

At 8:30 my brother says we need to be leaving for the Nevada Get Your Business Online seminar.  Yeah it started at 9:00 am, we would ultimately arrive a few minutes late.  I did not even realize we had to be there so early until he said something, I just happened to be up.  Two and a half hours hearing about search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and building websites with sitebuilder all dumbed down for people that had to be walked through signing up for a g-mail account.  I thought it was a big waste of time, but my brother made a good point.  We did learn a few points and we did not pay for the bill, but somebody did.

It rained all day.  It was raining when I got up, it had been raining during the night.  My brother was delighted he said he loved days like these.  After the seminar we stood under the awning of the convention center for a while.  It did not really protect from the rain.  We drove to the World Famous Pawn Shop, that place is packed with tourists.  I spent almost the whole time we were there on the phone.

I called my Dad.  He loves karaoke and somewhere along the way he got the idea to be a karaoke dj and he has acquired some equipment.  However, he needs an amplifier (minimum specs of 450W x 2 @ 8 ohms).  The problem is that it costs a lot of money, especially the one he wants.  Nevertheless, my brother and I have been searching for amps, despite not having a lot of understanding.  My family is not big on talking, but today I talked to my Dad and Brother a lot.  Not that I liked it at the time, I am one of them too (it's true, we are not big on talking).  Yet in retrospect it was nice.

So by 12:30 we arrive at my brother's house and I am starving.  I am not quite sure what the plan was, but my brother already talked about getting something to eat.  Seems like I spent an hour or two, just being hungry and wondering what we were going to do.  Finally, I went to the refrigerator and got out last nights beans, rice, and a couple tortilla flours.  With my stomach finally quieting down, it was time to do something productive.

I hooked an amplifier, speakers, and CD player up that my brother has been keeping in storage.  He wants to start renting it out with his business, providing a DJ for musical entertainment.  Which is why I have been talking to my Dad and reading up on the internet all day.  My brother does not really have a full DJ kit though.  He does not even have a big playlist of songs.  The more I read, the more I am thinking there is more to this than just popping songs into a playlist.

I spent some time hooking a laptop up to the equipment and then we had a mobile dj come over and talk to us.  Unfortunately, he speaks English as a second language, my brother's wife was interpreting for the most part.  I wish I spoke Spanish, hell I wish I learned French (if I just tried a little harder, maybe I would have).  I have not looked at any French for about 3 months now, probably lost it all again.  We did learn some things, like where exactly the RCA jacks plug into the amplifier from the laptop.  I was told the wrong place initially.  Also apparently the speakers we have are good for indoor, but outdoor parties would need better speakers 700W.

Other than that, I spent more time studying beginner dj guides.  After which I wasted some time on youtube.  I just finished applying for a couple jobs; probably should do many more tomorrow. That is pretty much it for the day, got plenty done, but not sure anything was accomplished.  I have plenty more to talk about, but my patience with writing/typing it all is beginning to wane.  Perhaps I should get some sleep.

Las Vegas (part 3): The First Week

My brother backed his truck in the drive.  I hopped out and grabbed my bags ready to settle in, check out his home, and just relax or whatever people do after five and a half hours of security, airports, airplanes, and turbulence.  My brother works out of his home and my first surprise came right after stepping out of the truck.  I set my bags down in the drive-way and we got to work right away.  I cannot remember what we were doing at this point, it did not matter.  We worked and he spoke to me with an urgency that I did not understand.

In the house I finally put my bags down, but never really felt like I got settled in.  My brother did not show me around the house; it was not necessary, but it is so customary that I was kind of expecting it.  I finally got a chance to relax; taking a seat on the couch, my brother invited me to watch television.  Since, I do not have television at my place in Kentucky, I told him I do not really watch television and then I just sat there for a moment letting my brain catch-up with my body.

Nothing else worth recalling happened that first night.  The kids were shy; I was almost a stranger, except Maxson did not think so.  I am not sure if he remembered me from Christmas or he is just not shy like his sisters, but he was hugging all over me.  His speech is almost indecipherable, but his actions said, “Hi! You are a friend.”  Aunt Kate (my little sister) was also here.  She is a regular to these parts and the girls will tell:  she is pretty cool.  She got most of the attention and that was fine by me.

In the morning I awoke before everyone else and took care of some chores.  My brother asked me to pick up the dog poop from the back yard and to water his plants.  Waking up early seemed easy; I had been waking up at the same time for two months.  Only now I was two timezones away and that time came two hours earlier!  It was going to be a busy day, my brother had two customers, we were going to go to church, and the big shocker my brother was getting on a plane to Miami.  He would be gone for a week!  Nobody told me about this (I did not mention his wife was in Bolivia).

Taking my shower, to get ready for church, I noticed something strange.  I am not quite sure what to make of it since no one briefed me on the proper showering procedure.  In my brother’s shower there is a squeegee.  I have used it a few times after a shower to squeegee the shower doors and walls.  I am not sure if I am supposed to or if they just happen to have a squeegee in the shower.  That is something you really should tell people.  I guess one day I will figure it out, but until then the question is to squeegee or not to squeegee?

We missed most of church, with Miller kids I have learned you will be late for almost anything.  My brother and I left church early so we were there all of thirty minutes.  The deliveries that day were easy though, nothing big, no difficult set-ups.  Before I knew it my brother was on the airplane bound for Miami.  It was me and my sister and three kids that hardly knew me.  My family has communication problems; I did not know he was leaving for Miami until the day before or maybe the day of (he did not tell me before I got here).  I was left thinking, "Is this what I signed up for?"  The next day Alba or Elba came to babysit/housekeep/hang out (confirmed as Elba the El Salvadorian Nanny).  I am not really sure, since she knows as much English as I know Spanish.  My sister knows a little Spanish, but she said she was as lost as I was.  Elba also had someone drop off another kid so there were four and outside of a list of tasks that my brother gave me, the only thing we did was hang with the kids and watch Nickelodeon.  Victorious is now my favorite television show, sadly.  This is followed by iCarly, but I do not like that nearly as much.  These two shows is about all that we watched on television the whole week.

I did some driving around.  Not joy-riding mind you, but I had to go some places for my brother.  Driving down Sunset road is pretty cool, McCarran International is basically right beside Sunset and there is a run-way that is parallel to the road.  On a clear day, one can look down the road and see four planes coming in at a time.  The planes do not really stop; anytime I am outside I can look up and see a plane flying by.  It is kind of cool to think about.  There is even a little parking lot beside the air strip people can park and watch the planes (of course it reminds me of a movie).  Incidentally I found myself on the strip one day, but I have been here before so it was not really a big thing.  The mountains are different.  I have seen them before, but it is still so strange to me having all these mountains around.  The mountains back at home are in Eastern Kentucky and I have not really been there, so it is mostly just hills that I am used to.  Plus these are desert mountains the rocks themselves are visible on the horizon and they are not covered over with vegetation.

My brother ended up going to Honduras from Miami.  That meant working without him over the weekend, but fortunately for me he has this guy named Jose help him that knows pretty much everything about the business.  I did what he said and we got everything done without any issue. All in all, I think I got more than I bargained for in the first week.  I found out first-hand what I signed up for.  Had a few surprises and had my eyes opened.  Next week could not possibly have this much in store for me.