The joy of children and a desire for more family time inspired Billy and Leigh Fields to take the courageous move sixteen months ago to form their business Cowboy Party Rentals. Watching their young children enjoy bounce house parties, the couple recognized a need for a premium rental company that offered a safe and reliable local option for families and community members. Although the couple started with just four inflatables, their homegrown company now offers over sixty inflatables, along with tents, tables, chairs, snow cone and margarita machines, and much more for weddings, parties, and other special events. The company was built around “serving others and providing them with the rental experience that they deserve.”
Although the company is young, several core leadership and service values have framed its commitment to being a quality rental company. Borrowing from their backgrounds teaching and coaching sports, Billy and Leigh believe in mentoring their employees, who are typically high school seniors or college students. Although the employees do much of the delivery, set up, and cleaning of the equipment, Billy regularly helps with the hard labor, modeling for the employees that he is part of the team and willing do the same work as them. When hiring, Leigh looks for students who have been actively involved in sports, fine arts, or other extracurricular activities, believing those activities prove the students have the ability and discipline to manage their time well. Employees are expected to be courteous, detail-oriented, friendly, and fun. As Leigh explains, “we are bringing the party” and want to make sure clients and guests have a great time.
Safety and reliability are also core values adopted by Cowboy Party Rentals to distinguish its premium services. By offering higher wages, the company is able to attract and retain employees who understand and uphold those same values so that the rental equipment is delivered on time and set up with all the proper safety features. Hospital grade cleaners are used to disinfect the equipment after every use. With young children of their own, Billy and Leigh often find themselves saving the day when out of town rental companies fail to show up for events. Leigh explains that Billy especially can’t stand to think of a kid missing out on the bounce house or water slide he or she was expecting. Now handling rental needs for medium-sized weddings, the company understands the importance of keeping commitments to customers on their big days.
Another value the company holds is the broader commitment to community. Although Leigh and her family have deep roots in Midlothian, the business has provided the family the opportunity to connect with many of the new faces in town. In addition to helping make birthday parties fun for kids of all ages, the couple wanted to serve the schools, businesses, and nonprofits in the area. Bringing the fun to chamber events like the recent Wine and Arts Festival, school field days across the district, and church gatherings has allowed the family to build strong connections across our rapidly-growing community, keeping the small town feel that Leigh remembers growing up.
Connection is the key to culture and a fitting name for our chamber newsletter. As the chamber businesses, we each have the ability to enable and enhance the connections that make our community thrive. Join us later this summer for the legislative series where you can connect with business leaders and elected officials on important governance issues for our community.
Midlothian Chamber Chair Columns 