SEVENTEEN-year-old business owner Tylah Armato has always had an entrepreneurial spirit.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Before she started her own jumping castle and party hire business, she ran a small cleaning business with her friends.
The cleaning business led her down an unexpected path that resulted in Ms Armato establishing Bendigo Jump 4 Joy.
"I used to run a small cleaning business with my mates, going and cleaning houses," she said. "One day we went to this house that had a had big skip bin out the front.
"The owner told us there was as-new stuff in there and if we wanted it, to take it. We saw blue bag about a metre by five metres big and took it. When we opened it up we found it was a jumping castle.
"That led me to starting my business."
Ms Armato, who left school after year 10 due to bullying, has been operating Bendigo Jump 4 Joy for eight months.
Aside from jumping castles, Ms Armato provides balloon garlands and party props such as slushie machines and fairy floss carts.
"It was very slow when I started up. I have only recently started and am a 17-year-old," she said. "We were just getting a lot customers around Christmas - it was flat out. We had jumping castles, balloon garlands and a lot of things going out every weekend."
Ms Armato's business has slowed dramatically since the Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy occurred in December. Six children died when a strong wind picked up a jumping castle, raising it 10 metres into the air.
Since the tragedy, Ms Armato has seen cancellations and even people aggressively messaging her about jumping castles.
"People have been messaging saying they hoped I have things pegged correctly, asking if I have got insurance and what if it blows away," she said. "I have to explain to everyone mine are mesh and not like the one (in Tasmania).
"It has been very stressful, through Christmas I was relying on jumping castles being hired to pay my insurance. (Business) is starting to get back up, I have got some bookings in next couple weeks but none for jumping castles."
Ms Armato said she can't keep going with her business if she can't hire out enough equipment to cover her insurance
"It's given me no work but I have to still pay insurance, so I have lost a fair bit of money due to that," she said.
"Especially with my wage at my other job, which is $16 an hour, it is very hard to get $14,000 insurance in a month. It's coming out of my own pockets. I haven't earned anything for myself during this.
"You get your jumping castle checked every month or so to make sure there are no faults in it. You also pay your insurance, so that you are covered if any injuries happen during hiring."
Ms Armato said it was devastating to see the Tasmanian jumping castle tragedy unfold.
"I felt horrible. it was so sad to see parents and family members going through that," she said.
"I also felt like something would come in where jumping castles couldn't be used any more. The jumping castle operator, I'm not sure if they were there, but they would get so much hate from it.
"But it's not their fault. It was an accident and we have to try and find solutions to prevent it from happening again."
She said her jumping castles were a different design to the one involved in the Tasmanian incident.
"The one in Tasmania had a roof on it and was one of the bigger ones that most schools and big parties hire," she said. "The castle was pegged correctly but the wind has gone into the small entry hole and stuck in roof of the castle.
"My castles don't have a roof at all and all the sides are mesh, so a wind if comes through it can go straight through castle. It's a lot safer.
"Also, because I am only 17, I can't lift the bigger castles. The biggest one I have is 3.5 metres (squared) and 2.2 metres highs and I struggle to lift that."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter @BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram @bendigoadvertiser
- Join us on Facebook
- Follow us on Google News