Four Yard Games Booked 9,000 Dollars as a Side Business
Vanessa Romano spent 500 dollars on four yard games and reported more than 9,000 dollars in bookings across 65 rentals. The Hustle Blower explains why customer pickup, not the games, made the model work.
A 500 dollar test with a built in backup plan
Vanessa Romano works in corporate communications, is a mom of two, and likes her day job. The Hustle Blower tells how she still wanted a small side business, so she spent about 500 dollars on four yard games and started an event rental company called Little Party Co. The downside was capped on purpose. If nobody rented the games, her family would simply keep and use them.
People rented them. In an October 2026 interview with PEOPLE, cited by the Blower, she reported five bookings and more than 800 dollars in her first month, then 17 bookings and more than 1,800 dollars in the second. Within months she had reached 65 bookings and more than 9,000 dollars in booked revenue. The Blower is careful to note that booked revenue is not profit, and that she reinvested in more inventory as demand grew.
She sells an easier party, not a board game
The insight at the center of the business is simple. A host planning a backyard birthday does not dream about owning cornhole boards. The host wants guests entertained, without buying and storing equipment for an event that happens once a year. Renting delivers the fun for one Saturday, and then the games go back.
That framing changes what a good listing does. Customers need to know whether the games suit their guests, whether everything arrives clean and complete, and whether the set will fit in their car. Answer those questions clearly and the rental sells itself. A blurry photo and a note telling people to message for details leaves money on the table.
The 75 percent decision that protects the profit
The most useful number in the story is not the revenue. Romano told PEOPLE that roughly 75 percent of her customers pick up their rentals themselves, and only about 25 percent choose delivery. The Blower argues that this is what makes the business manageable next to a full time job and a family.
Delivery quietly eats rental businesses. Drive out, unload, set up, drive home, then repeat the whole trip when the party ends, and a modest booking turns into hours on the road. Customer pickup still needs systems, collection windows, instructions, inspection, and cleaning, but it removes the driving spiral. The most profitable feature of a rental may be how the customer gets it.
Buy more only when bookings ask you to
As orders grew, Romano reinvested, putting about 4,500 dollars in total into the business while booking roughly twice that amount. Her rule for expanding is the part to copy. She watched which games customers requested and which ones actually booked, and let that demand choose the next purchase.
That discipline matters in Florida event work too, where it is tempting to buy every lens, light, and backdrop a competitor posts. Equipment is not growth until a customer pays to use it. Start with one clear customer, one simple package of two to four games, clean photos, and pickup as the default. Let real bookings, not enthusiasm, write your shopping list.
Sources and further reading
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