In this new episode of Connections, we sit down with Amanda Moberly of SweetDreamCampers.com.

Amanda is a girl on the go. It’s a rarity to see her still. Her mind is always turning with new brilliant ideas and she has a desire to be pushed out of her comfort zone in order to grow. In her free time, she is the President of the local elementary PTO and has become an avid tennis player. She and her husband, Matt, live in Georgia with their daughter and 3 cocker spaniels.

TRANSCRIPT

00;00;00;01 – 00;00;15;22
Amanda Moberly
Like, OK, it’s ready. And to catch their surprise when they walk in the room is the best feeling. Like I’ve gotten hugs from these little kids. I’m not much of a hugger. Oh. So I’m like, Oh, my goodness, this is so great. So it’s adding smiles every day. What I’m doing is awesome.

00;00;25;16 – 00;00;46;19
Glen Gould
Hi, I am Glen Gould. Welcome to Connections. It’s an opportunity for us to get together with some of our friends and clients and introduce you to them and introduce you some ideas that maybe will enrich your life. Today. We’ve got one of our friends, Amanda Moberly with us, and she is the owner of Sweet Dreams Campers. Tell us a little bit about your business and and how you got started.

00;00;47;04 – 00;01;10;16
Amanda Moberly
I started about a year ago, and I got started because I was looking for something for my daughter’s birthday and this business is out there all over the country, but there was nothing local to us. And so that’s why I decided I can do this so it is a sleepover tent rentals, indoor tent rentals. So they have a twin sized mattress, a cute little tent, and they all have themes.

00;01;10;17 – 00;01;26;19
Amanda Moberly
So the kids love it. Because like their favorite unicorn theme or Starry Night. And then since then we’ve got started, we have added picnics for the daytime and a daytime rental option for the tents as well for like the little kids, you know, for a play date or something like that.

00;01;26;23 – 00;01;30;19
Glen Gould
Now, does this happen at your home or do you send you set up at their home?

00;01;30;20 – 00;01;32;02
Amanda Moberly
I go to their home OK.

00;01;32;02 – 00;01;47;13
Glen Gould
As I said, that takes a lot of interesting work to make that happen. So you go to their home. Yeah. And you set up this really cool events of the kids. And then I presume you leave. Yes. And they have a great time. Yep. And then you come back and clean up. I mean, what a great thing for parents.

00;01;47;13 – 00;01;48;01
Glen Gould
Yes.

00;01;48;11 – 00;02;03;20
Amanda Moberly
It is really nice. Everybody seems to love it. The best is when the kids are not home. So and I’m setting up on a Friday and they’re at school and then I see the video of the reaction of the kids when they walk into their living room. That’s completely transformed with all these tents for all their friends to sleepover.

00;02;03;20 – 00;02;19;23
Glen Gould
So. So is it typically on a weekend? I mean, yes. Yes. In the summertime. I guess you can do it any time. Yes. Right. Yeah. And and so I didn’t even think of that. But, you know, the kids are at school or whatever they they may or may not know this is even happening. Right. They know they’re going to have a sleepover.

00;02;19;23 – 00;02;20;09
Amanda Moberly
Yes.

00;02;20;15 – 00;02;22;24
Glen Gould
They may not know that. It’s going to be like the coolest sleepover ever.

00;02;22;24 – 00;02;38;14
Amanda Moberly
it has been lots of surprises. And that is the best I’ve had. A few were set up where they’ve been in a different room. And then I I’m like, OK, it’s ready. And to catch their surprise when they walk in the room is the best feeling. Like I’ve gotten hugs from these little kids. I’m not much of a hugger.

00;02;38;22 – 00;02;46;02
Amanda Moberly
Oh. So I’m like, oh, my goodness, this is so great. So it’s adding smiles every day. What I’m doing is awesome.

00;02;46;07 – 00;02;51;14
Glen Gould
So you mentioned that there was nothing local like this how long have you been in the air?

00;02;52;13 – 00;02;55;11
Amanda Moberly
It will be seven years in October.

00;02;55;13 – 00;02;56;09
Glen Gould
And where were you from?

00;02;56;22 – 00;02;57;22
Amanda Moberly
Annapolis, Maryland.

00;02;58;03 – 00;03;04;17
Glen Gould
Oh, goodness. Oh, goodness. I’m just kidding. Now. And how do you end up down here?

00;03;04;20 – 00;03;06;09
Amanda Moberly
My husband flies for Delta.

00;03;06;11 – 00;03;13;14
Glen Gould
Oh, OK. So that’s that’s wonderful. And so were you working before this?

00;03;14;03 – 00;03;31;29
Amanda Moberly
No, not since before I had my daughter. I have a ten year old daughter. I have my own personal training business back in Annapolis. And so I kind of took time off. I really had no intention to start a business at this time. I was like, oh, I’ll just wait till she gets older. But when this came about, I just went with it.

00;03;32;04 – 00;03;34;04
Amanda Moberly
Yeah. I just keep on rolling.

00;03;34;14 – 00;03;37;06
Glen Gould
And how do people find out about you? I mean, how are you promoting?

00;03;37;12 – 00;03;49;01
Amanda Moberly
Everything’s on social media. So we have a Facebook page, an Instagram page, what is it? TicTok page? And then we have our website. So we do everything on social media.

00;03;49;06 – 00;04;10;27
Glen Gould
So now one of the things that really kind of surprised us when Amanda started using us was that she posted an Instagram photo of herself with our bags saying that she was excited about being at the point where you’d grown. And so I want to kind of for our for our business folks kind of cover what has the growth pattern been?

00;04;10;27 – 00;04;20;11
Glen Gould
I mean, you said even this is about a year. Yes. I would imagine this was one of the things you thought, well, I can’t wait till I can send this stuff out to be clean. But it was one of those milestones for you.

00;04;20;16 – 00;04;46;00
Amanda Moberly
Yes. I mean, there’s two things. It’s the professional side of it of having the laundry professionally clean versus in my laundry, I have dogs at home. So, you know, when I’m kind of growing this very grass roots and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m having three to four parties a weekend and with my own family’s laundry to do, I just want to sit it outside our door and say goodbye and then pull it back and pack it away for the next weekend.

00;04;46;02 – 00;04;46;13
Amanda Moberly

00;04;46;13 – 00;05;06;29
Glen Gould
And that’s one of the things that a lot of folks don’t think about. We actually it’s funny because we have a linen company that we, we own as well that does restaurant linens and things like that. And most people don’t know. But if it’s if it’s restaurant linens or like sheets from a chiropractor or something like that, they use a lot of oils and stuff.

00;05;07;06 – 00;05;08;14
Glen Gould
That stuff can combust.

00;05;08;14 – 00;05;08;28
Amanda Moberly
Yes.

00;05;08;28 – 00;05;29;09
Glen Gould
And so, you know, people doing stuff at home and not only do we have the equipment and the expertize to do it better, but also there’s a risk factor as well doing it, like you mentioned with the dogs and all that professionalism really does make a difference. Yes. You say you didn’t really set out to start a business, but kind of fell in your lap.

00;05;29;28 – 00;05;42;27
Glen Gould
Now, when you did decide, OK, I’m going to make a business out of this, did you do the typical things that everyone else or they say that you should did did you write a business plan and all those things and and really drill down that way?

00;05;43;03 – 00;06;10;03
Amanda Moberly
I did do a business plan. It’s very generic just to get my thoughts together. I am a very organized person and I am a visual person. So I have to see it to believe it. And I have set the process in motion for trademarking the business and also patent pending our tent frames. So a lot of businesses similar to mine, they purchased the tents from a third company.

00;06;10;08 – 00;06;29;24
Amanda Moberly
I mean, you can buy it on Amazon. You can buy them anywhere but our tents. My husband designed the frame of it. It’s an A-frame and it locks into place. So when they’re set up, they can’t slide out from underneath of each other. And then I had a good friend of mine who was started off as a business partner, but she life is too busy for her.

00;06;29;24 – 00;07;03;12
Amanda Moberly
So but she still sews the canopies. She designed the canopies. Where they tie and then it just kind of all came together that way. So it’s I like to say that I set myself up separately because we have those design tents. Also, when people see them in person, they’re like, wow, this is so much bigger in person than the photos because I’ve had I’ve walked into homes and it has been like a five by five space and I like six tents are not going to fit there sorry.

00;07;03;16 – 00;07;14;00
Amanda Moberly
So our tents are full size twin mattresses, so we need about three to six feet of space to put all the tents. And then those frames go over the top

00;07;14;11 – 00;07;16;25
Glen Gould
You say a twin match. I mean, is it a real mattress?

00;07;16;25 – 00;07;18;04
Amanda Moberly
It’s an air mattress. OK, so.

00;07;18;04 – 00;07;20;21
Glen Gould
It’s an air mattress, as I say. How in the world transport that stuff?

00;07;20;22 – 00;07;21;01
Amanda Moberly
No, Yeah.

00;07;21;01 – 00;07;39;24
Glen Gould
Yeah, but yeah, I mean, their mattresses are great for you know, for this type of thing. I can see where, you know, somebody would look at what you’re doing and think, oh, you know what? I can do that for my kids until they got into it. Yes. It’s kind of like, you know, I can I can change the oil of my car and, you know, in the past, I could, but now, I mean, they’re so complicated.

00;07;39;24 – 00;07;55;06
Glen Gould
And what you’ve described here really, though, I mean, I never even thought about. But what what an awesome thing where you’ve got this special design for the tent. You know, I didn’t even think about it till you were saying it. But I can see those little cheap little tents you buy a Walmart or whatever online collapsing on a kid.

00;07;55;06 – 00;08;12;04
Glen Gould
And you know, and who knows I mean, you could have somebody get hurt, right? And then, you know, you think that you you’ve got the expertize to look at the spacing, OK, spatially, that’s not going to work. And somebody else has bought all this stuff. And now where do I put it? The kids in the kitchen or whatever you take care of.

00;08;12;08 – 00;08;12;21
Amanda Moberly
Yes.

00;08;12;27 – 00;08;28;02
Glen Gould
That’s cool. Tell me a little bit about your experience. Obviously, Annapolis is a lot different than Fayetteville. Tell me a little bit about your experience locally. You know, the things you found that you like and maybe a restaurant or two that you frequent.

00;08;28;16 – 00;08;52;00
Amanda Moberly
I live in a neighborhood that is very social and quite a few people from the military life that we used to be a part of have moved into our neighborhood. So we kind of found friends very quickly and settled down here very quickly. We love to go out to eat. So I have girlfriends of mine that are we’re frequent Casa Vieja fans, every Friday for lunch, you will find us there.

00;08;52;02 – 00;09;14;17
Amanda Moberly
And sometimes you’ll see me in my pajamas. That’s my uniform because I’ve set up a party and then I’ve gone to lunch. But I also play a ton of tennis. I think I started back in 2019, and this past season I was on four teams. It was way too many and then I have I just last year gave up.

00;09;15;09 – 00;09;37;16
Amanda Moberly
I was the coordinator for our neighborhood swim team. We live in Wood Creek and for last five years I was running that organization. It’s Mad Chaos for the month of june and then this is my final year as PTO president at People’s Elementary School, which we just finished up, the biggest fundraiser we’ve ever had. We raised over $61,000 in two weeks.

00;09;37;16 – 00;09;40;15
Glen Gould
So incredible so what do you do with all the extra time?

00;09;41;02 – 00;09;42;18
Amanda Moberly
Yeah, I know. I like to stay extremely busy.

00;09;42;18 – 00;09;54;15
Glen Gould
That’s, that’s wonderful. It’s wonderful. Well, if somebody wanted to get in touch with you, wanted to have an event for their children or grandchildren, how would they reach you? How would they find you?

00;09;55;07 – 00;10;15;29
Amanda Moberly
We have a website which is SweetDreamCampers.com. We also have an Instagram that is the same thing at our Facebook. Everything is Sweet Dream Campers, right? So if you were to Google us, you’d find us very easily. And I answer all the direct messages and the inboxes for the social media for both are all the pages.

00;10;15;29 – 00;10;42;12
Amanda Moberly
And then our website has everything laid out and it’s very easy, you just select your theme and then you select your package. We have three different kinds of packages for our sleepover tents. We have the happy camper, which is the middle one, which comes with everything that you see in the pictures. And then we’ve dropped one down where it’s a roughing it because it’s just the frames, the mattresses, and the bedding – no pillows or decor.

00;10;42;19 – 00;11;09;08
Amanda Moberly
And surprisingly, a lot of people like that, especially for the boys and then our glamping package is what is offered in our happy camper, but it adds one of our add ons so we have a deluxe spa, we have a candy buffet, balloon garland, activity kits, and we have even the ability to make custom cupcakes, a dozen cupcakes to go with a theme that you choose.

00;11;09;08 – 00;11;26;15
Glen Gould
So you just have to hear it because just thought of this. If somebody kind of went and saw all the opportunities, I mean, first of all, who would even think of, all right, well, let’s say somebody said, you know what, I’d like to add something special that you don’t offer. I mean, are you able to?

00;11;26;15 – 00;11;52;28
Amanda Moberly
Aboslutely! Yeah, I have big goals. One is to be like a one stop shop for any of your parties. So connecting with other business owners I’ve done one with the board room at of Senoia for their charcuterie boards. So Sweet Pops for cake pops for as like a little add on treat for each one. So I try to connect with local businesses to provide those services and just work here.

00;11;53;07 – 00;12;07;24
Glen Gould
That’s all. That’s awesome. And if somebody I mean, I know it’s premature because you’re not quite there yet, but let’s say somebody wanted to get to the front of the line and wanted to, hey, I’d really like to talk to you about maybe being a franchise owner. I presume they can contact you through the website.

00;12;07;29 – 00;12;09;08
Amanda Moberly
Yeah, absolutely. Yes.

00;12;09;13 – 00;12;36;04
Glen Gould
Yes. Well, I just you know, I got to tell you that I knew that your industry was out there because we have other clients who who have done it. But this is unusual and it’s not exactly the same. They never are. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all different. And yours is certainly I think that, you know, one of the most interesting things is that a lot of these businesses, like our business, in all honesty, started out as you know, I need to solve this problem.

00;12;36;27 – 00;12;56;27
Glen Gould
I need to solve this problem. There must be other people have this problem. Oh, look, there’s people asking me about this problem. I guess I’m in business now, but most people don’t go to the trouble you’ve gone to. Right. And so I want to commend you on that, where you’ve actually gone down and written a business plan and and you say it’s rudimentary, but it’s light years beyond most of us.

00;12;56;27 – 00;13;07;23
Glen Gould
Right? Right. I had to go through that a couple of years ago when we were looking for an SBA loan. And it’s it’s work, right? It’s it’s the hardest thing to think of. We hadn’t thought of.

00;13;07;23 – 00;13;08;21
Amanda Moberly
Right.

00;13;08;21 – 00;13;17;07
Glen Gould
Yes. And so so that’s that’s awesome. And the idea that you’re going to grow, I’m just so excited to watch it and part of it. And we’re grateful that you’re a client.

00;13;17;07 – 00;13;18;05
Amanda Moberly
Thank you!

00;13;18;05 – 00;13;31;11
Glen Gould
And so thanks for coming in today. Remember, folks, that if you want to get a party together that Amanda can help you. It’s SweetDreamCampers.com, right? Yes. And we look forward to seeing you on another Connections real soon. Bye now.

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