Rising Stars: Meet Shane Braswell of West Georgia (Temple)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Braswell.

Shane, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We started our business during the COVID pandemic, and honestly, it wasn’t some big master plan at first. It started with family.

I’m a family man first. I’ve got five kids. At the time, my wife was working in education and I was an inside wireman with Southern Company. When COVID hit, her school was one of the first to shut down. Overnight she went from being in the classroom to homeschooling four kids full-time.

Meanwhile, I was considered essential, so I still reported to work. I’ll never forget how empty the roads were back then. What used to take 40 minutes felt like a breeze.

At home, my wife was doing everything she could to keep the kids entertained. We started renting bounce houses just to give them something fun to do. Sometimes we would keep one for a week at a time. After doing that over and over, I had a lightbulb moment. I thought, “This could be a great passive income opportunity.”

I used my yearly bonus from the power company and bought three used inflatables from a local owner in Cartersville, Georgia. They needed repairs, so we fixed them up ourselves. Two weeks later, we bought three more. I was blessed to meet some successful mentors early on who helped me understand the ins and outs of running a professional inflatable company.

The first year, it was passive income. The second year was learning and convincing my wife to let me work every weekend on top of my regular job. By year three, B&B Events & Rentals had grown to 25 inflatables and was still expanding.

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset. I’ve had good, steady jobs, and my background as an electrician taught me work ethic and problem solving. But I saw a real need in West Georgia for a professional, reliable event company, and I decided to fill that gap.

As the pandemic slowed down, my job picked up. I was traveling statewide during the week and working events Friday through Sunday. One day I was sitting in traffic. A drive that used to take 40 minutes was now taking nearly three hours, and I realized something had to change. I took a closer job so I could have more time to focus on growing the business while still providing insurance and stability for my family.

Then in October 2024, I was unexpectedly laid off. I had always planned to eventually go all in on the business, but that moment came faster than expected. My wife was home full-time, the business was doing well, and it was time to sink or swim.

That first October, we did $9,000 in sales. I looked at my wife and said, “We’re doing this full-time.”

Today, B&B Events & Rentals has grown to an inventory of 70 inflatables. We have expanded into tents, amusement rides, and full service event production, serving schools, corporate clients, and private events across West Georgia.

What started as a way to entertain our own kids during a difficult season turned into a full scale event company. And at the core of it all, it is still about family.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The short answer is it has been fun.

We went from what started as passive income to running this full time, and watching that growth has been exciting. But the funnest part has honestly been my kids. They range from 15 months to 14 years old, and they have been able to see this from the ground up. The older ones help when they can, whether that is working events, taking units down, supervising smaller tasks, or just being present. And I will say this, they are some of the best cleaners I could hire.

At our peak we were running roughly 500 events a year. Everything from backyard birthday parties to corporate events and school functions. Our prime season runs May through October, so when it is busy, it is wide open.
One of our biggest struggles has been staffing. When you are doing that kind of volume, you have to have dependable people. Finding good employees, training them, and retaining them has been a constant challenge. You are not just delivering inflatables. You are delivering safety and professionalism.

Then there is the business side people do not see. Insurance, payroll, bookkeeping, equipment maintenance, storage, reinvesting into inventory. Growth sounds great, but it requires systems and structure. We have had to learn and adjust as we grew.

We have also watched local companies pop up and disappear just as fast. That can create challenges in the market, but it also pushed us to focus on being consistent, professional, and here for the long run.

It has not always been smooth, but it has absolutely been rewarding. Being able to build something my kids can witness and be part of firsthand makes the long days worth it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are a full-service event rental and production company specializing in inflatables, tents, amusement rides, and large-scale event support. While we service backyard events, much of our growth has come from schools, municipalities, churches, and corporate clients who require reliability and structure.

At scale, we manage hundreds of events annually, with peak demand running from May through October. Because of that volume, we operate with systems in place for logistics, staffing, safety compliance, transportation, and setup efficiency. We approach events operationally, not casually.

Our inventory including inflatables along with tents and amusement attractions, allowing us to execute both small private events and large multi-unit productions.

What truly sets us apart, though, is that we are still a mom-and-pop company at heart. Clients work directly with ownership. There is personal accountability in every event we touch. We bring professionalism, but we have not lost the personal feel.

We do not believe we are in the rental business. We are in the experience business. Anyone can drop off equipment. Our goal is that when we leave an event, the client is already thinking about booking the next one. That means clean equipment, trained staff, smooth execution, and a stress-free process from start to finish. We sell confidence. We sell organization. We sell memorable experiences. And we deliver them with the care of a family business and the structure of a larger operation.

What I am most proud of is being able to feed my family and put food on the table while delivering fun. That balance between providing for my family and helping people create memories is what drives me every day.

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me are my kids. They’re why I do everything. I want to be there for the little moments, Christmas programs, youth sports, homework, even just making sure someone doesn’t eat all the snacks before dinner. Watching them grow and being part of it all is better than any paycheck I’ve ever had.

Freedom matters to me too. I don’t want to be stuck in a corporate cubicle missing the chaos and joy of family life. B&B Events & Rentals lets me coach, cheer, chaperone, and still run a business. I get to make a living putting smiles on other people’s faces and still be home in time for bath and storytime. That’s the dream, family first, fun second, and business third, although I had to convince the wife we work EVERY holiday!

Pricing:

• Bounce houses start at $165
• Event Staff $25 an hour

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.Bbeventsandrentals.Com
• Facebook: B&B Events and Rentals