Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mandy Sim. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mandy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

Our business started with just my husband Malcolm and I splitting the work. As an indoor playground, we’re open 7-days a week and back when we opened in 2010 our kids were just 2 and 4 years old, so it was a definite struggle! When we opened our 2nd location, we grew our team and then again when we opened our 3rd and 4th locations. Now we have over 10 full-time employees and nearly 50 part-time employees who help us run weekend birthday parties. At first the challenge was learning to let go but now the challenge is how to retain our quality staff so they are a part of the team for the long term. Even though we have 4 locations, we want Jam Time to have a family feel when it comes to our team. Doing things like employee of the month, doing a summer outing together, and our end of year Holiday party really keeps us feeling connected. We want our Managers to stay with us until they retire and creating a fun work hard play hard atmosphere is a part of our philosophy!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Jam Time is the creation of husband and wife team Malcolm and Mandy Sim. Malcolm and Mandy now reside in Sudbury, MA with their 2 kids and 2 dogs, but the idea of Jam Time started way back in 2009 when they were living in Los Angeles with their little ones just 1 and 3 years of age, while working in the animation and theme park industries. While in L.A., they visited numerous indoor play centers with their kids for recreation, play dates, and birthday parties and always found themselves discussing what could have been better, added, or changed to make for a more fun, ideal play space. It was after one of these conversations that they started to build the business plan for Jam Time, using their entertainment backgrounds to create a creative space catered to little ones that’s also enjoyable for parents and caregivers.

Having always talked of moving back to their east coast roots and with the plan for Jam Time underway, they started doing location research that led them to choose the Boston area for their new home and family business. Having now been open for over 12 years with 4 locations and more underway, Jam Time is the go to destination for parents and young children in the cold months of winter right through the hot and rainy days of summer. Jam Time has been repeatably been voted the #1 Indoor Playspace in Massachusetts by multiple media sources!

Jam Time is a premiere children’s indoor playground located in the greater Boston area. Jam Time offers state-of-the-art climbing structures, play houses, a bouncy house, play tables, kiddie gym equipment and infant + toddler soft play toys amongst many other activities unique to their center. Adults can enjoy comfy seating and free wi-fi while enjoying yummy coffee and a variety of organic and healthy snacks from the café area.

Jam Time offers a wide variety of classes including our All in 1 class with music, movement, obstacle course, sensory and art, Tiny Toes Ballet, Jammin’ Science, Music Together®, Lucky Day Music with Stacey Peasley and more. Our energetic classes encourage imagination, learning through play, socializing, motor skills, with FUN being the core to all of our activities. Jam Time hosts both private and semi-private birthday parties catered to each child where kids are entertained and can run free while the adults sit back and enjoy themselves.

We are open to the public 7 days a week for open play and require NO membership. We host tons of special events, so be sure to visit our social media or calendar page for what’s upcoming.

It is our goal to offer a clean, safe, play space where families can come throughout the year and always be guaranteed a jammin’ good time!

Have you ever had to pivot?

The pandemic was not great for indoor playground owners. Obviously the pandemic was not great for anyone, but a playspace is the first place you stop going to and the last place to go back to visiting so the pandemic truly destroyed about 80% of our competition. We started making our own hand sanitizer during the pandemic when there was a sanitizer shortage. We took the Easter Bunny and Santa and our character mascots like Mickey Mouse to the outside of people’s homes for birthday celebrations and car parades, we created sensory packs we dropped off for kids to play with. We got REALLY creative in order to stay relevant and try to survive. Once we opened back up, we offered private playtime where families can rent out our facility for just their small pod of family and friends. We kept at it. 3 years later, we are nearly at capacity and busier than we’ve ever been with plans for future expansion. Our passion for our business and our commitment to pivoting truly paid off!

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My co-owner is my husband Malcolm and we met in college! Many people told us not to go into business together, but we ignored them all and persevered! It helps that we really divide and conquer our duties as business owners which ends up complimenting our business (and our marriage) in the end!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jamtime.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamtimeplay/
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/jamtimeplay/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandysim
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jamtimeplay

Image Credits
Mandy Sim, Jam Time Owner