Maximising Fairy Floss Profits

Whether you have a fairy floss machine and you are not using it constantly or you are thinking about purchasing one, the following thoughts may help increase the profits you make out of yourfairy floss machine. To extract the maximum profit from fairy floss I will talk about the different ways it is possible to use your fairy flossmachine and then the basic maintenance you need to do to make sure it is always ready to work.

If you are working an event yourself with a ride the best way to work fairy floss is on percentage, that way at least you have no rent if it is a washout, and fairy floss can easily be worked by a teenager if you have them working in close proximity. A stick of fairy floss costs around 6 cents to make and a bag 14 cents so you can afford to pay the same sort of percentage as for your rides as the capital cost is lower than even the smallest party castle, the maintenance costs are lower, and the machine should have a usable life of at least three times an inflatable.

If you make both fairy floss sticks and fairy flossbags you will definitely increase your gross by about 50% over the person who sell only one or the other, This is because some people want to take the fairy floss bags home while others only want a fairy floss stick because there is no doubt that fairy floss tastes better on a fairy floss stick. If you do decide to do both always charge more for fairy flossbags as there is three times as much fairy floss in a bag and twice as much labour. Unless you know the event is big I would (l also recommend not making fairy floss bags in advance, This is because making floss fascinates people and helps sell the product so the best thing to do is get to the event and start bagging,it creates interest and gives you a buffer for later on when you are busy, so that you get a sale from people who won’t wait for a stick. I recommend that you have your operator make all day, if there are fairy floss bags left over you can sell them wholesale to the local video store but you can get a better return if you are a party castle operator by offering them to all your party customers during the following week.

There are some events where it is not possible to sell fairy floss yourself such as picnics where the organiser wishes to give it away. The three ways to supply fairy floss in this situation,

1)bagged fairy floss

2)hire with fairy floss operator

3)hire without fairy floss operator, each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Selling bagged fairy floss has the advantage that you can service many jobs but it is labour intensive and some customers insist they want fairy floss on sticks.

Sending an operator out with the machine is the most profitable way as you are supplying the customer with the complete solution to their problem, so you should charge a premium price that takes account of all your costs including staff training.

Not all customers have the money or an event big enough to justify a machine with an operator so hire and pick-up from your premises is the answer as this keeps the costs to you low so you can in turn pass this on to the customer. Some fairy floss operators claim that this is difficult but I maintain if you can send an inflatable out and expect the customer to operate it you can certainly send out a fairy floss machine and all the same rules apply. You must have a reliable machine designed for the hire trade such as the Smart Tornado and there is no way you can send out for a machine for hire that uses old fashioned ribbon elements as they are not robust enough.

You must give a lesson to the customer and put in an instruction sheet in case they forget any of the details. AIl items, must be checked off and shown to be in good condition before leaving your premises. It must be clearly explained that all breakages must be paid for and how to avoid this. For example, not putting the perspex bubble in the boot of the car. You must explain that the customer must have adequate power, for example, don’t use a double adaptor as a rule of thumb.

Next issue I will give an example of a basic maintenance program for your fairy floss machine which is not just relevant to fairy floss machines but can be adapted to other small pieces of equipment which you may choose to hire.

Geoff Smart