“Working from home gives me the flexibility of throwing in a load of laundry, doing dishes or preparing dinner during my business hours, when I’m between customers or it’s quiet,” she says. This year, she has also added Vuly Trampolines to her product offerings, with a starting price of about $600.īelisle loves the work-life balance she has found since becoming a Rainbow dealer. She believes in a no-pressure approach, and understands it’s an investment, with value packages starting at $2,000 before installation. Often, customers will visit several times – and request multiple quotes from Belisle – before finally deciding to buy. “I believe in trying something out before you actually buy it.” “Last year we had six of them set up,” says Belisle, adding customers are encouraged to bring their kids to test-drive the play structures. The play structures are set up in the huge background of their home in Navan – 25 minutes from downtown Ottawa – so that customers can see exactly what they’re getting. She manages the sales and marketing of the products while her husband, Stephane Belisle, does the installations. In 2013, Belisle opened Rainbow of Ottawa ( rainbowofottawa.ca). “Here I had the opportunity to stay home, sell a product that I really believed in and provide a really great product to people in Ottawa,” she says. Thrilled with her purchase, Belisle decided she wanted to make Rainbow Play Systems available to other Ottawa-area parents. “He would climb up one or two rocks and then come down even very young kids find something to do with it.” “When my son was really young, we had the rock wall,” she says. They are also fully customizable – offering fun add-ons like swings, monkey bars, climbing walls, picnic tables and sandboxes.īelisle invested in a play structure for her family, and her little boy loved it from day one. Built with redwood or cedar, the play structures are modular and expandable. In fact, the massive solid-beam structures are “adult friendly” so moms and dads can enjoy them, too – and parents can climb up to help their little ones. “The play structures were so solid and strong, built with 4×4 beams and 6×6 beams there’s no weight limit and the structures do not move.” “I was really impressed,” she says of the products, adding that Rainbow Play Systems has the largest playground factory in the U.S. Searching the big-box stores, Belisle couldn’t find a product she liked the offerings seemed flimsy and the brands didn’t have a long-standing presence.ĭetermined to find something better, she decided to drive down to Kingston to check out a company called Rainbow of Ontario, a division of Rainbow Play Systems Inc., which is based in the U.S. ![]() “I wanted something that he wouldn’t outgrow, something that would be safe and last a long time.” “My son was soon to be three and I was looking for a play structure,” Belisle says. When Chantal Belisle set out to find a quality play structure for her son, she had no idea she would find a great business opportunity in the process.
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