TL;DR / What You Need to Know:
- The difficulty of pricing inflatables is a mindset problem, not a maths problem.
- There are 11 mindsets: 5 that hold pricing back, 3 that price badly and 3 that price well.
- Mindsets that hold back: customer, Nutella entrepreneur, ex-employee, sole trader and scarcity.
- Mindsets that price well: business owner, investor and visionary — they focus on cost, value and return.
- You charge according to who you think you are. Changing your price starts with changing your identity.
What your mindset says about the price you charge for inflatables
Introduction: The problem isn’t maths, it’s identity
If you manufacture or hire out inflatables, you’ve probably felt that knot in your stomach when setting a price. You look at the number, you look at the customer, you look at the competition, and you freeze. The truth is that the difficulty is rarely in the calculations. It’s in the mindset with which you approach money.
Anyone who manufactures PVC inflatables knows that the material costs money, that stitching requires skilled labour, that large-format printing isn’t cheap and that every piece is unique. But when it comes to charging, many forget all of that and let emotion decide. The result? Beautiful work, destroyed margins.
In this article, we’ll look at the mindsets that hold you back, that price badly and that price well, always with our feet firmly on the ground of your inflatables business. The idea is simple: when you realise who you are when you charge, you can adjust your price without guilt and without fear.
The mindsets that hold back pricing in inflatable hire and manufacturing
Customer mindset: “I wouldn’t pay that for an inflatable”
Someone who thinks like a customer looks at the price through their own pocket. If you hire out inflatables, you can fall into the trap of thinking: “If I were a parent, I wouldn’t pay 150€ for a day with an inflatable.” And so you lower your price. But you’re not the customer. The customer hiring for a birthday party isn’t buying PVC and stitching, they’re buying smiles, memories and peace of mind. The value isn’t in the material, it’s in the experience.
In manufacturing, the same thing happens. You think “it’s just PVC and air” and you charge as if your work has no value. You forget the hours of design, the leak tests, the printing time, the buffer for unforeseen problems. When you charge what you yourself would pay, you’re undervaluing your craft. Fair pricing begins when you separate your role as a consumer from your role as a business owner.
Nutella entrepreneur mindset: “I’ll charge cheap so everyone hires from me”
This is the classic “I’ll enter the market with a low price and put it up later”. In inflatable hire, it’s the one charging 80€ for a full day, when transport, setup, insurance and cleaning already eat up 60€. He thinks he’s being competitive, but he’s simply buying customers with his own losses.
In manufacturing, it’s the one who makes a custom inflatable for 800€ because he was too scared to ask for 1500€. The problem? The customer who buys at 800€ will never accept 1500€. And the one who would accept 1500€ doesn’t even know you exist, because your “cheap” positioning drives away anyone who values quality. A low price isn’t a strategy — it’s a trap that forces you to work twice as hard to earn half as much.
Ex-employee mindset: “I used to earn X per hour, so I’ll charge that”
Many manufacturers and hirers come from jobs with a fixed salary. They bring the lanyard logic with them: “I used to earn 10€ an hour, so I’ll charge 10€ an hour.” But in your own business, an hour isn’t just work, it’s cost, risk, taxes, tools, downtime, prospecting, client management.
If you hire out inflatables, your day isn’t just delivering and collecting. It’s maintenance, cleaning, answering messages, travel, insurance. If you manufacture, your price can’t just be the stitching, it has to include design, cutting, printing, testing, packaging, shipping. Charging by the hour without including all of this is working for free and still thinking you’re doing well. The right price looks at the business, not the clock.
The mindsets that price badly (and how they push you away from profit)
Salesperson mindset: “The important thing is to close the sale”
Selling is good. Always selling is dangerous. Someone who thinks like a salesperson focuses on volume: more hires, more inflatables sold, more turnover. But in inflatable hire, each extra customer can mean more wear and tear on the material, more hours of work and more operating costs. If you close the sale with a 20% discount so as not to lose the customer, you’re paying to work.
In manufacturing, it’s the same. Accepting orders at any price to keep production moving is a fast track to bankruptcy. Selling a lot at the wrong margin isn’t success, it’s exhaustion. The salesperson needs to understand that not every sale is a good sale. Some customers cost more than they bring in. And some prices, precisely because they’re low, attract exactly the kind of customer who gives you the most work and the least profit.
Technician mindset: “My price is what my knowledge is worth”
Someone who has mastered the technique of PVC stitching or large-format printing tends to charge for what they know. “I’m a specialist, so I charge more.” But knowledge alone doesn’t pay the bills. You need to include indirect costs: the sewing machine, the printer, the design software, the space, the energy, the marketing, the management time.
In hire, the technician thinks: “I can set up an inflatable in 10 minutes, so I charge for that.” But he forgets transport, insurance, cleaning, maintenance, the warehouse. The price isn’t the value of what you know, it’s the value of what you deliver to the customer, minus the cost of delivering it, plus the margin you want. Being a specialist is great, but it doesn’t solve pricing.
The mindsets that price well (and that you can adopt today)
Business owner mindset: “What does it cost, what does the market pay and how much do I want to profit?”
The business owner separates the person from the company. He knows that price isn’t an opinion, it’s an equation. In inflatable hire, he calculates: cost of acquiring the inflatable, depreciation, transport, setup, insurance, cleaning, maintenance, taxes, profit margin. Then he looks at the market: what do competitors charge? What do they offer? And then he sets his price based on the value he delivers.
In manufacturing, he knows that a custom inflatable has costs for PVC, stitching, printing, design, testing, packaging, shipping. And he knows the customer doesn’t pay for that, they pay for the solution. The business owner isn’t afraid to charge. He understands that too low a price breaks the business. And he’d rather lose a sale than lose the margin. Price starts to make sense when you look at numbers, not emotions.
Investor mindset: “How much will this return to me in the future?”
The investor doesn’t look at today’s price, he looks at the return. In hire, he realises that charging 200€ for an inflatable that lasts 5 years and is hired out 50 times a year is different from charging 100€. He accepts paying more for a better-quality inflatable, because he knows it will earn more and last longer. He sees money as a tool for multiplication.
In manufacturing, the investor realises that charging more can attract better customers, generate more profit and allow reinvestment in machines, training and marketing. He isn’t afraid to position his price above average, because he knows he’s selling value, not competing over cents. The focus is return, not cost. And that changes everything.
Visionary mindset: “I want to build something that grows without me”
The visionary thinks about product, system, team, recurring revenue. In hire, he doesn’t sell hours, he sells packages, subscriptions, experiences. He creates a business model in which price is part of the strategy: different tiers of hire, add-on services, contracts for companies. In manufacturing, he doesn’t sell an inflatable, he sells a complete solution, with design, production and delivery.
He tests prices, measures results, adjusts. He knows that price isn’t fixed, it’s part of the business model. And he thinks about scale: how does my price allow me to grow without being tied to every single order? The visionary charges for the value delivered and thinks about building something bigger than himself. Price stops being a number and becomes a lever.
Between the lines
The difficulty of pricing inflatables was never a maths problem. It’s a problem of identity. You charge according to who you think you are. If you see yourself as a customer, you charge what you would pay. If you see yourself as an ex-employee, you charge by the hour. If you see yourself as a sole trader, you charge with guilt. If you see yourself as a salesperson, you give discounts. If you see yourself as a technician, you charge for the certificate.
But if you see yourself as a business owner, an investor or a visionary, the price changes. It starts to include cost, value and return. It becomes strategy, not survival. It starts to build a business, not just pay the bills.
In inflatable manufacturing and hire, the material is PVC, the join is stitching, the decoration is painting or printing. But the price is mindset. And changing your price starts with changing the way you see yourself. Because in the end, the right price isn’t born from the fear of losing a sale, nor from comparing it to your own pocket. It’s born from understanding cost, value and return.
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