How to Start a 6-Figure Slumber Party Business

What if you could set up the same tents and pillows every weekend — and get paid $800 to $1,000 each time you did it?

That’s exactly what Anne McGraw has built with Firefly Slumber Parties, a luxury tent slumber party rental business based in Nashville. Anne and her husband run it as a side hustle while both working demanding full-time jobs, and last weekend alone they did five parties at $800 to $1,000 each.

The idea came from Anne’s daughter, who spotted the concept on TikTok or Instagram back in 2020. There was nobody doing it in Nashville at the time, so they decided to build it themselves.

They connected with a couple in Chattanooga who was doing something similar and got some early tips on what to buy and how to set up. A few years later, they ended up buying out that Chattanooga business when the owners decided to close.

Listen to Episode 737 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• what a slumber party rental business looks like and how the money works
• how to build a team so the business doesn’t run your weekends
• the real startup costs and how long it takes to break even

Free Bonus: 25 Other Things to Rent Out for a Profit

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What Is a Luxury Slumber Party Rental?

Gone are the days of sleeping bags on the basement floor. A modern slumber party rental means showing up to a client’s home with beautiful canopy tents, high-quality air mattresses, themed decor, and matching pillows — all set up and ready to go before the kids walk in the room.

The business is hyper-local by nature. Because each setup takes significant time to transport, install, and retrieve the next morning, you can only serve so many parties per weekend. That also means you don’t need to worry much about competition.

Even in a city the size of Nashville, there’s room for multiple operators in different parts of town.

The sweet spot for this kind of party is ages 10 to 15. Anne’s early themes skewed too young (unicorns and ballerinas) but once she and her daughters (who were 10 and 12 when they started) figured out the tween and teen market, things took off. Popular themes include:

• Taylor Swift Eras
• Harry Potter
• Minecraft
• Boho
• Neon Glow
• Superhero
• And more!

How the Pricing Works for the Slumber Parties

Firefly starts at $425 for a four-tent minimum, and that’s all-inclusive: delivery, setup, and pickup the next morning.

From there, clients can add extras from an à la carte menu. Popular add-ons include:

• Popcorn machine
• Karaoke machine
• Bubble machine
• Custom pillowcases with the kids’ names
• Candy bar
• Sleep masks

One upsell that took off unexpectedly: the sibling tent. Party after party, Anne noticed younger brothers and sisters melting down because they felt left out. So she started offering a single tent and mattress for little siblings (maybe a Captain America pillow for a little brother) at a small additional charge. Customers love it.

Another easy add-on: a $25 invitation graphic made in Canva. It takes about five minutes to put together, but for busy moms who are already outsourcing the whole party, it’s one less thing to deal with.

When customers request a custom theme, Anne charges a nominal custom theme fee to cover basic supplies. After that, the new theme gets added to the catalog and keeps paying for itself with future bookings.

What It Costs to Get Started

Anne estimates their initial startup came in at less than $5,000 all in. The tents themselves are inexpensive to build: you buy wooden staves at a hardware store, drill some holes, and connect them with elastic hair bands. The fabric tent covers are the bigger ongoing cost, so keeping them clean and in good shape matters.

The most expensive recurring item is air mattresses. They started with foam camping mattresses, but transporting them became a problem, so they switched to high-quality camping air mattresses at around $50 each. Those need replacing more often than anything else.

Storage is another consideration. Everything for Firefly lives in a dedicated one-car garage at Anne’s house. During the week, she or a family member packs the bins, totes, pillows, rugs, blankets, and sheets for each weekend’s parties.

How to Find Your First Customers

Anne’s marketing background gave her a head start. Her Instagram page has been the main sales driver — beautiful photos of the setups do most of the work.

But the business has a powerful built-in growth engine: word of mouth. At every party, the birthday girl or boy has five, six, or seven friends over. Those kids’ parents show up to pick them up, see the setup, and immediately want one for their own child.

Anne can actually track it geographically — after a party in one neighborhood, she’ll start getting inquiries from that same area for several months.

Local Facebook groups and parent groups were also key in the early days. Outside of social media, one of Anne’s most effective tactics is donating parties to school silent auctions.

Families bid on the experience at fall carnivals or spring festivals, and when the winner hosts the party, every child at it becomes a future potential customer. It’s a marketing expense that doubles as a community contribution.

About a week after each party, Anne sends a templated follow-up email asking for a Google review. Her Google Business Profile has built up 22 five-star reviews, which helps with local search visibility. Adding photos tied to specific neighborhoods gives Google more signals to work with.

How to Build a Team Without Losing Your Mind

For the first few years, Anne and her husband did everything themselves. But as their daughters got busier and the business grew, they had to make a choice: hire help or scale back. About three years ago, they committed to staffing, and it changed everything.

Her first hire came organically — a mother who’d hosted a party reached out and asked if Anne needed help. She became something like a west-side outpost: Anne gave her a set of tents and the most popular themes, and she handled all the setups on that side of town, often with her own daughter alongside her.

That parent-and-teenager model turned out to be ideal. Anne now recruits setup teams through her local Facebook group, looking specifically for:

• Parent-teen combinations (or two older teenagers who can drive)
• People comfortable going into strangers’ homes
• Those with strong attention to detail

Every time she posts that she needs help, she gets 20 to 30 responses. Setup teams are paid a flat $150 per party, covering both setup and next-day pickup.

If a party is outside the normal service area, Anne charges the customer a distance fee and passes it straight to the team. Tips from clients go directly to them as well.

Scheduling goes through the BAND app, which many parents are already familiar with from school sports teams.

Anne’s customer service manager — who now handles all the bookings, client communications, and team coordination — polls team members on availability and assigns parties when they confirm.

The one non-negotiable rule: once you say yes to a party, there’s no backing out. Anne has never canceled on a kid’s birthday and isn’t about to start.

Teams pick up packed bins directly from Anne’s garage using a keypad and drop everything back after pickup. Anne still handles all the packing herself to maintain quality control — she checks every item before it goes out the door.

Tech and Tools

• HoneyBook – client bookings, invoices, and contracts.
• BAND – staff scheduling, availability polls, team communications, and photo uploads after parties
• Canva – invitation graphics for clients

Coaching Others to Start Their Own Slumber Party Business

The kids’ party space — foam parties, character visits, and luxury slumber rentals — has proven to be a real business opportunity, and Anne has helped people get started in cities like Dallas, East Tennessee, Savannah, and Jacksonville.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Firefly operates as a licensed model, but Anne has shifted her focus toward coaching rather than licensing.

The Firefly Slumber Parties website includes a startup guide that answers the number one question people ask: Can I even do this? It walks through the practical requirements:

• Vehicle size (you need trunk space big enough for the tents, with no awkward plastic indentations)
• Storage space
• Liability insurance
• Payment processing via Stripe or PayPal
• Being a people person comfortable walking into strangers’ homes early on a Sunday morning

Anne’s advice for new operators: plan to break even in your first year, especially if you don’t price yourself correctly from the start.

Start with just two or three themes, go slow with your first few bookings (ideally with friends and family), and avoid going too fast early on — one bad review at the beginning can really hurt. “This is a long game.”

What’s Next for Anne?

Anne and her husband aren’t planning to take Firefly full-time. Scaling to that level would require a warehouse, a dedicated van, and significantly more inventory.

For now, the business runs smoothly as a side hustle, and Anne’s energy is going toward helping other families build their own version of it in their own cities.

Anne’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Customer experience. You are there to make it magical.”

Free Bonus: 25 Other Things to Rent Out for a Profit

Episode Links

• Firefly Slumber Parties
• Firefly Slumber Parties Coaching
• Instagram page
• Google review
• BAND app
• HoneyBook
• Canva
• How to Make Money Using Canva

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