Former Orchestra Iowa CEO pumped up about new business opportunity

Jeff Collier is hearing a different symphony of sound these days.

Instead of hearing strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion singing great masterworks, he’s hearing resounding choruses of “Happy Birthday.”

Collier, 42, of Cedar Rapids, stepped down from his position as Orchestra Iowa’s CEO on Aug. 31, after being there “for eight years, almost to the day,” he said, adding that leaving there was “incredibly hard.”

“I keep an eye on what's going on there. I pay attention to upcoming events and concerts, and I'm always curious how they're going,” he said. “I actually went back to the Paramount for my first time as not part of the orchestra — for the Bluey concert.”

Spoken like a good dad. That’s a role that weighed heavily on his decision to trade his orchestra CEO duties to become the owner and CEO at Pump It Up’s Urbandale franchise, a popular spot for bouncing birthday parties in the greater Des Moines area. Birthdays are the core business, but the site also hosts open plays, field trips, parents’ nights out, and other events. Target audience is ages 3 to 8, but Collier has seen teenage siblings “have a blast,” too.

He had been looking for a more entrepreneurial opportunity the past few years, checking various broker websites and listings, probing the ones that sounded interesting. Pump It Up came up on his radar over the summer.

“It got my attention and got my family's attention,” he said. “ … So we went out there, took a look at the facility, ran the numbers over and over, and it seemed like a really good business opportunity and a great next chapter for our lives. So we put in an offer and managed to come to an agreement, and here we are.”

Collier declined to say how much he paid for the franchise, but the site has weathered the 2008 recession and 2020 pandemic.

“Annual revenues are typically between $400,000 and $500,000,” he said. “Average for all franchises within the system is a little over $600,000, so I think there is room for growth and opportunity to move closer to that average.”

Family was the driving factor.

“One of the primary reasons for going into this (business) was to be able to be more deliberate with my time with my family,” Collier said. He was single when he arrived in Cedar Rapids in 2015. By 2016, he was engaged, then married his wife, Michelle, in 2017. Together, they have daughter Piper, 5, and son Harrison, turning 3 in January.

Michelle is keeping her job as development director at KCCK-FM in Cedar Rapids, but also serves as co-owner for Pump It Up. The family is staying in Cedar Rapids, since Jeff can mostly run the business remotely, traveling to Urbandale twice a week, typically on Mondays and Thursdays.

Otherwise, he “relies heavily” on the on-site supervisors and on-call personnel among his 22 part-time employees.

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Facility

With a footprint of 11,200 square feet, the facility includes a lobby, two large areas with inflatables and games, and two party rooms where kids and families can celebrate with pizza, cake and presents. The guest of honor can even sit on an inflatable throne.

These aren’t your garden-variety inflatables. They’re made of durable, heavy vinyl and never leave the building.

“A lot of these are enormous inflatables,” he said, with some measuring 40 feet long, as well as a new 38-foot obstacle course.

“There's a lot of treatment and a lot of care maintenance that goes into them,” Collier said, adding that patrons are required to kick off their shoes and go sock-footed.

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Other features include a basketball bouncer, a jump-across canyon, air hockey tables, a wind machine and a kind of climbing wall that kids can race up to the top, then come back down via double slides. Party add-ons include a bubble experience; a glowing experience with black light and neon lighting; and a balloon drop.

Collier’s kids “already have their favorite ride and their favorite inflatable,” he said. The smaller bouncy castle is a hit with Harrison, and Piper “already runs into the space like she owns the place.”

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Weekends are the busiest times, averaging 14 to 16 parties per day — but with a capacity of 18 parties — sometimes running from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Each party lasts two hours, broken into 35-minute increments for each activity room, ending with 50 minutes in the party room. Groups are rotated through the areas, with cleaning time in between, so each group is the only one in a specific area at a given time.

Prices start at $200 to $250 for a smaller group of 10 to 12, and go up to $400 or $500, depending on the size of the group and the package they choose. Collier said the most popular option is the “deluxe,” which includes pizza. The “ultimate” adds pizza, drinks and options like bubbles, glow in the dark and photos.

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Room to grow

Michelle Collier is co-owner, “cheerleader and chief trusted adviser,” with more of a behind-the-scenes role.

“She’s great to bounce off ideas, and with her continued role at KCCK, is at arm’s length with the business itself,” her husband said. “But we're constantly talking about what's going on, and how staff are reacting to changes, and the different elements of the training that I’m gathering from the franchise corporation.”

Looking toward the future, Collier sees “room for growth and opportunity there.”

He’s already thinking of ways to add to the Urbandale site, which sits off I-35, north of Living History Farms. And he’d eventually like to open a site in Cedar Rapids, which had a Pump It Up franchise for a couple of years on J Street SW, beginning in 2006.

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Learning curve

Approaching 50 days in this new venture, Collier has faced a steep learning curve. But with a master’s in business from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a career built in arts management at various orchestras and music programs, the bounce hasn’t been as high as it may seem.

“The easiest thing that I can point to is that those are all event-based businesses and this is also very much an event-based business, focusing on how to keep people flowing through a space, keep them engaged, interested, and put on an experience that will be meaningful for them. The big difference being that those experiences are large and tied to birthdays,” he said.

Still, he’s not a party-planner.

“My job is management and growth and strategy and working on the back end to make sure that all the processes are being implemented, and then following up and talking with customers at the parties or after the parties,” he said, which is akin to what he did as an arts manager, with tasks that slide right into his new venture.

“I'm learning a lot about how to apply some of the other business skills that I've learned and developed and had opportunities to explore in the past, but never really implemented myself,” he said. “I’m learning to set very deliberate goals for business outcomes, and even personal outcomes, to make sure that I'm making the right amount of time for the business, but also (for family).”

An immediate goal is “getting a solid foundation of how the business model works,” he said.

“A lot of what I do right now is around staffing strategies and training opportunities, and creating and implementing marketing plans.”

In the end, he’s most looking forward to “learning new skills and developing and stretching some new muscles,” he said. “And obviously, exploring ways that we can bring in more parties and give more people the opportunity to celebrate with Pump It Up.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; diana.nollen@thegazette.com