We were lucky to catch up with Shanice Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shanice , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

In 2020, I graduated with my Masters Degree and shortly after I found out I was pregnant with my first child. Once I had my son in 2021, I stopped working in corporate America and decided to be a full time stay at home mom. In 2022, I decided I was ready to begin working again, but not a full time job as of yet. I still wanted the freedom and to be able to spend majority of my time with my son. I knew I needed to start a profitable business that would give me the ability to continue to be a stay at home mom. I actually ordered a soft play package for my son’s first birthday birthday in 2022, with another soft play business and then I thought to myself “maybe this is a business I can start for myself!” I began to research and I sat on the idea for a little while until I took action on it! I ordered all of my equipment and I began an instagram page. I wanted to create a business that would be kid friendly and I knew this would be the perfect business, especially after seeing how much fun my son and the other kids had with the soft play at his party. My business has been an absolute hit and I haven’t been in business for a full year! I have now expanded and added on bounce houses, character mascots and more! I am so grateful for my small business that I have built from nothing to my full time job.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Shanice and I am a stay at home mom to the most wonderful son ever! I am the owner of Busy Baby Soft Play, a mobile soft play business, in which I provide an indoor playground area to children for birthday parties, baby showers, religious events, weddings, etc. I am most proud of my business because what was only a thought in my mind has become my source of income and has been the reason I can continue to be a stay at home mom to my son and work for myself! My business is a unique business where people still have not heard of “soft plays”, it is the perfect addition to all events and keeps the kids occupied for hours! I take joy and pride of continuing to watch my business flourish and I am able to make all of my customers happy with the touch I bring to their parties.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The funding of my business came from my savings. Before I got pregnant I saved and saved and saved for a “rainy day”. As we all know, being a stay at home mom doesn’t pay, so it was a good thing I had a savings! When I thought of my soft play business, I was extremely hesitant at taking such a large portion of my savings to invest in a business, but I went out on a limb and now I was able to make back what I invested.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Once I knew for sure that I was going to start my business I started an instagram. I started it way before I purchased any equipment or legalized my business. I began to post that I was a new business coming and I utilized hashtags! I began to follow moms in my area and started to run instagram ads on my posts. Once I started to get my equipments I continued to run ads on instagram and on Facebook and started to have deals on my packages. I did this for the first couple months and was able to get me a good audience on my social media! I know post reels and Tik Tok videos on all the parties I do, which has now gained me a great audience on Tik Tok.      

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Busybabysoftplay
• Other: Tik Tok: busy baby soft play