Many businesses are driven by customer demand, which can often transform them in unexpected ways. James Gottfried and his partner experienced such a journey when they started a food truck that offered snow cones. They soon received many requests for birthday parties, which led them to provide a self-service solution. After a while, they expanded it into a full-service party rental business and chose Booqable to manage the online bookings and inventory.
Gottfried Entertainment
In 2019, James and his partner started a food truck named Flavr-Js that offered desserts, including snow cones and donuts. While they found success operating solely as a food truck, they began getting an overwhelming amount of requests for birthday parties. This led them to offer a self-serve solution, a rentable snow cone cart with a flavor station, a professional shaver, and other necessities.
The snow cart was incredibly popular, and parents started asking if they rented out slushie and cotton candy machines, so they started offering those, too. From there, their offering snowballed with tables, chairs, tents, inflatables, popcorn machines, and more. They now offer everything anyone would need to host a party or event, including heaters, generators, and extension cords.
Gottfried Entertainment remains family-owned and operated, with excellent customer service and giving back to its community as core values. They have put in great effort to provide options that cater to everyone, regardless of their budget. This has led to them working with everyone from families hosting birthday parties to big corporations setting up events.
Booking with confidence
While growing the business, James and his partner tried various software solutions for accepting and managing bookings. Each one had varying levels of success, but it often became too complex to track, and staff had to ask how to do what should have been simple tasks. So, they began searching for a solution that would make operations more efficient and allow them to accept online bookings with real-time availability.
Their search led them to Booqable, and once they had their inventory set up, they immediately saw the software’s benefits. Thanks to the simple and intuitive interface, staff can now confidently book rentals without asking managers how to do it every time, and real-time stock availability helps prevent double bookings. In addition, email templates help ensure that their messaging is consistent for every customer they communicate with.
The built-in website builder has allowed them to begin accepting online bookings. They have created a website with all of their products showcased and all the information customers need to make a booking. Additionally, real-time availability in the online store gives customers the confidence to make a booking and know the equipment is available. This has led to a massive boost in bookings as customers like to be able to do it themselves.
Meanwhile, delivery drivers use the mobile app to access customer information, collect contract signatures, and check items during deliveries and pickups. This helps to minimize errors and prevent product loss.
Expanding to more states
James and his partner have experienced fantastic growth over the past few years, allowing them to open a second storefront in their community. They hope this momentum can continue over the next few years, with plans to expand to multiple states. This will allow them to serve millions of people and help countless communities. Booqable has been a helpful step in making this dream a reality.
