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Gig Wage Customer Spotlight: Triangle Lawn Games

If you think back to your most memorable summer BBQ or your favorite poolside happy hour, you can most likely recall a few lawn games that were present and contributing to your good time. At their core, lawn games seem like a great addition to any event to spark some friendly competition and elevate the overall vibe to one that incorporates playfulness and fun. However, the process of selecting, purchasing, and setting up various lawn games can be tedious and grueling. As we got the opportunity to chat with Gordon Buchanan, founder of Triangle Lawn Games, we saw his unique solution to making lawn games more accessible and efficient for people to ingratiate into the fabric of their events. When you work with Triangle Lawn Games, you have the opportunity to have your lawn games rented, delivered, and picked up at an affordable cost. Combining accessibility with efficiency, Triangle Lawn Games gives people the opportunity to elevate their events with a lot less stress and haste.

A Little About You:

GW: introduce yourself and your business.

GB: My name is Gordon Buchanan and I am the founder of Triangle Lawn Games. We are a chain of yard game rental businesses that specialize in affordable rentals of things like cornhole, Giant Connect 4, Jenga, NERF equipment, and other fun games for parties.

GW: What is your business’s mission?

GB: We strive to make parties and events more fun with the addition of games. We also try to make it as affordable and easy as possible for our clients to make their event awesome.

GW: How did you decide to start your business?

GB: After spending half a decade working for a digital marketing agency, I wanted a side hustle to try and utilize my web and SEO skills. After reading the book “$100 Startup” I realized I didn’t need to spend a bunch of money to start a business. I landed on the idea of renting things, and, after some research, I realized that yard games were something people might want to rent.

GW: What key factors have led to your success?

GB: It has been almost 3 years since I started this in my garage in Raleigh, and now we have 15 locations across the country which seems sort of crazy as I think about it. However, that has probably occurred because we have made it our number one priority to just do what we say we will do. When someone orders games from us it is imperative that they show up on time, in good condition, and as ordered. We also have eschewed some of the standard practices of the event industry — as we give free refunds up to 4 hours before the order, don’t charge outrageous security deposits, and have an easy online booking system tied directly to inventory. We have sort of developed into a technology and customer service company that happens to rent lawn games.

To cap this part we couldn’t do any of this without incredible partners across the country, all of whom we pay via Gig Wage.

GW: What advice would you give businesses that employ contractors?

GB: Be transparent in your communication and don’t be afraid to share of some of your company data with them. We are really open with our people about revenue and numbers because we pay our partners based on revenue, and that helps get them excited to see into the business and feel invested. That said, it’s important to have proper contractor agreements and paperwork in place so there is always a foundation of trust.
GW: What will your business look like in a post COVID-19 world?

GB: COVID wrecked so much of the vent industry, and we were not immune to that damage. We survived, managed to open up new locations, and got our systems in place for higher demand. Now, we are consistently having our best month ever — month after month. So, we are extremely excited to see a return to event planning and party planning, and we are ready to continue expanding to help more people have fun.

Your Thoughts on Us:

GW: What problem(s) were you trying to solve with our product?

GB: I was using Venmo to pay most of our contractors, and that created a few issues. First, I didn’t have a good record of how much I had paid each person, which was a headache not only at tax time but just in general to try and keep our books clean. Second, it was a major hassle to try and pull figures from Venmo and create 1099s at the end of the year — so Gig Wage was a great tool to solve those problems.

GW: How does our product service stand out from other options?

GB: Gig Wage is such a simple yet effective tool for paying and managing our contract employees. I can easily pay someone via the interface, and with the click of a button I can see payment history, update their information, or add a new contractor. Gig Wage has been a real game changer for how we pay our team.

GW: What made you happiest about working with our company? What is your biggest success story? Any other information you would like to share?

GB: From the time I was introduced to Gig Wage by our contact, Scott Johnson, to now having been using it for 6 months, I have always felt like someone on the Gig Wage team actually gives a damn. Scott specifically has shared and liked posts about our business on Linkedin, and I like some of the literature and emails you send out to your clients. I get the sense you are a growing company who wants to be really good at what you do. We want to do the same.

With more social activity coming up on the horizon post-pandemic, Triangle Lawn Games offers a simple yet effective way to bring any event to the next level. With locations from Raleigh, North Carolina all the way to Chicago, Illinois, Triangle Lawn Games makes it easy and cost-efficient for you and your friends to have a good time without the stress and hassle of lawn game prep and purchasing. By offering a flexible and simple approach to renting lawn games, Triangle Lawn Games truly prioritizes their customers and contractors.

We are so lucky to work with a company that values efficiency and reliability as much as we do, and we can’t wait to see how Triangle Lawn Games continues to grow and develop in the future. If you want to see if Triangle Lawn Games offers services in your area, visit their website here. For more information, you can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Written by

Erin Lee