Connecting small businesses to the world: The internets role in entrepreneurship Day 3, Jump Air Zone
Bowling Green, Kentucky (May 3, 2023) – So far during Small Business Week, we have featured two entrepreneurs who have gone through many of the common trials and tribulations of the small business world.
Today and Friday, we will highlight the managers who assist these business owners in running and growing their businesses. The first one is Antonio Zamora, the 21-year-old son of the owners of Jump Air Zone.
Since Antonio was in his early teens, he has been helping around his family’s businesses in some capacity. As is often the case, Antonio shares the ups and downs of small business ownership with his parents. He is now a manager at both Jump Air Zone and their other family business, Que Pasa Tacos and he has been very close to the action for many years.
Jump Air Zone, a trampoline park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is a popular spot for events and birthday parties. From an outsider’s perspective, an outdoor fun park like this may not seem like a very technologically advanced environment. However, based on what we have learned from our other featured businesses, American Mercantile and Schaefer Construction, running a small company is much more complex than many people realize.
Similar to those other two business owners, Antonio was asked, “What day-to-day aspects of your business rely on the internet?” Antonio listed off things such as birthday party bookings, weekly inventory orders, the company’s waiver system, scheduling and communicating with employees, and a security system.
Here’s where a business can be compared to an iceberg. From the customer’s perspective, their experience is to walk in, sign a waiver, pay, jump around for an hour, and go home — but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the scenes, Antonio uses the internet to operate the company’s payment system, schedule daily staff, coordinate its waiver system, order inventory and more — all of which is the vast chunk of ice under the water that we do not see.
Jump Air Zone is fortunate to have managers like Antonio who are young, energetic, and in touch with the software and technology that help a business run smoothly. If it wasn’t for his and the other managers’ high-level of digital literacy, making Jump Air Zone the successful business that it is would be an uphill battle.
In fact, operating a computer, troubleshooting digital issues, effectively communicating, and navigating online portals for inventory purchases are all requirements for businesses in many industries.
Many people may think that all of these “requirements” are common sense and easily understood by everyone. Unfortunately, that is not the case. According to the U.S Department of Education, 16% of American adults are not digitally literate. Connected Nation’s mission is to lower this number through programs such as our Digital Literacy and Learning workshops, Digital Works training and job placement, and the Teens Teach Tech and Achievery youth programs.
If you are not as comfortable or confident in your digital literacy, getting up to speed may seem like a daunting task. That’s why Connected Nation is here to support you and your dreams. The programs mentioned above are available to empower you to become a digital citizen. Learn more about all these opportunities at connectednation.org.
Join us again tomorrow to learn about Just Whimsy, a women’s boutique located in Jasper, Indiana.
Past National Small Business Week blogs:
- Day 1, American Mercantile
- Day 2, Schaefer Construction
About the Author: Grant Ahlbrand is a Marketing and Communications Intern at Connected Nation. He is a senior at Western Kentucky University, where he is majoring in social media marketing.