Navy vet ready to ‘Pump It Up’

GLEN BURNIE, Md. (Map, News) - Kisha Phillips has worked for other companies and served in the Navy, but now she’s ready to set sail with her own business.

Phillips runs Pump It Up in Glen Burnie, an indoor party venue featuring inflatable, moon bounce-type attractions for children. Her business has been open for more than two weeks and celebrated its grand opening this weekend.

Phillips, 31, joined the Navy out of high school at the age of 18 and spent four years in Sicily as a cryptologist. She said her time with the Navy gave her the values she’s put to work with her new business.

“Absolutely, discipline,” she said. “Being a sailor you had to be disciplined, organized, self-motivating. It really helped me.”

Phillips worked for several companies after leaving the Navy while seeking the right opportunity to start her own business. She said Pump It Up fit her colorful personality.

“I was definitely the crazy party mom, you know, the party that’s over the top,” she said.

Phillips worked with PIU Management to establish her franchise for more than two years and has coped with ups and downs, franchise consultant Anthony Rodriguez said.

“She’s the perfect person for this,” Rodriguez said. “In this industry, you have to be upbeat and able to deal with a lot of dynamic situations.”

Rodriguez said Phillips has booked 130 parties for the next few months, outstanding by the company’s standards: A facility the size of hers averages 50 to 60 in that time, he said.

One of those will be a party in December for one of Anthony Alston’s sons. Alston, an assistant principal at Georgetown East Elementary School in Annapolis, recently had a birthday party for his other son, turning 2, at Phillips’ Pump It Up and plans to come back.

“She was very professional, very knowledgeable,” he said. “I would not have known she had just started up.”

Phillips credits her Navy experience in giving her the confidence to begin her own business.

“People don’t know they have the ability to start a business on their own,” she said. “What the military instilled [in] me was courage.”

acahall@baltimoreexaminer.com