Food trucks often grab the spotlight when it comes to mobile businesses. But two Tri-City entrepreneurs are proving that going mobile isn’t just for serving lunch – it’s a creative solution to keeping overhead low and staying close to customers.

Faced with rising rents, an arcade-owning couple bring the fun to families in a retrofitted bus while father-son barbers bring out their clippers in a custom trailer. Together, they’re showing how being mobile – and flexible – can keep small business dreams rolling.

Party On Arcade

Richland couple Kevin and Heather Nicholson have an entrepreneurial spark and know when to pivot. Their business, Party On Arcade, offers an arcade on wheels, and if the name has you recalling the “Wayne’s World” catch phrase – you’re spot on.

“We were thinking about starting a different kind of business that was geared toward kindergarten, like a play cafe, but also for adults who needed a place to do homework,” Heather Nicholson said.

But while at an arcade convention, the couple realized another idea could be at their fingertips. “My husband loved arcade machines, particularly pinball, and he always wanted to start an arcade place,” she said.

So, they switched. And when commercial rent prices felt out of reach, they took another direction: going mobile.

The arcade is completely contained in a retrofitted school bus. Games line the walls of the bus’s interior – all hand-picked by Kevin Nicholson, whose favorite is the classic, Joust, which two people can play together.

“We've got some sports games on here. We've got some racing, we've got some fighting, we've got some adventure. I love balance,” he said.

Party On is the latest to offer an arcade on wheels. Kevin and Heather Nicholson stand outside their Party On Arcade where all the fun is contained inside a retrofitted school bus.

| Photo by Robin Wojtanik

130 game options

The Nicholsons bought the bus from a game seller during their game acquisition adventures.

“I told him what we were trying to do, and he goes, ‘Well, I’ve got a bus.’ This was his bus,” Kevin Nicholson said. “He’d pulled out the seats, put the carpet down, added black felt on the walls and had rows of machines on either side. He had the exact same idea as us a year earlier.”

That business model never really worked alongside the man’s other gig, which required him to be frequently on-call.

“The funny thing is, the name of his business was Noah’s Arcade, which is a reference to the old ‘Wayne’s World’ movie,” Kevin said.

While spending a year renovating it, the Nicholsons started accumulating games one by one, storing them in their garage. “Some of these machines, like Dragon’s Lair, haven't been for sale in years,” Kevin said. “So, these are all kind of limited runs, and you have to get them on the secondary market.”

Every physical machine in the arcade has multiple games on it, resulting in about 130 options during a typical two-hour party rental.

Fifty of the games are housed on an “infinity table” which the couple says is in use non-stop during most parties, offering board games, mahjong, Whac-a-Mole and a surprising reigning favorite for the entire fleet: “The 18-year-olds will come on here and play Guess Who for like an hour,” Heather said. The 3D flip-board hit from the 1980s is once again beloved in a strictly 2D digital version.

It's not the only old-school game on the bus; classics like Pac-Man, Centipede and Asteroids can be played, along with newer games like Fast and Furious, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, a claw game that grabs candy, and even Ghosts ‘n Goblins, considered by gamers to be one of the most difficult ever created.

The Nicholsons launched Party On Arcade this fall, booking parties for all ages for $375 for a two-hour slot via partyonarcade.com. Bookings include a party host who helps guide guests through the game offerings. The bus is climate-controlled and can be rented year-round. Parties may include outdoor lawn games when the weather cooperates.

Marco and Joby Hollenbaugh operate their barber shop on wheels in central Richland.

| Photo by Robin Wojtanik

Barbers on wheels

Taking their show on the road was also not the original intention of Marco and Joby Hollenbaugh, who operate Tiny’s Barbershop in central Richland.

The father-son duo ended up in a decked-out trailer parked at 285 Williams Blvd. Tuesday through Friday after plans to buy a space in The Uptown Shopping Center fell through following the death of their former landlord.

“The last lease we signed was in 1988,” said Marco Hollenbaugh, who had been part of Guy’s Place Barbershop, a former mainstay located for decades on the George Washington Way side of the Richland shopping plaza and also once owned his own shop in the Uptown’s alley.

He had a chair at Guy’s for nearly 20 years and his son had been there about six when they found themselves looking for a new spot to cut hair.

“The cost was so high. I’d have to charge 40, 50 bucks a haircut just to pay the rent,” Marco Hollenbaugh said. His son suggested a mobile option and Marco Hollenbaugh found a trailer in Texas already custom-built for cutting hair. The Hollenbaughs paid to have the trailer delivered to Washington and got to work customizing it for their new business, Tiny’s Barbershop.

“We took the back bars out and put toolboxes in and added new mirrors,” Marco Hollenbaugh said. “There was a shampoo bowl in the middle with stylist chairs, so we got rid of that and got barber chairs.”

They named it Tiny’s after a 6’8” family member – far from tiny – who had helped them launch the business. He’s also depicted as a farmer mascot on the side of the trailer which is stored off-site nightly for safety. The trailer neatly fits two chairs plus a couch, so the father and son can each cut hair at the same time, if needed.

Marco and Joby Hollenbaugh’s custom barbershop trailer neatly fits two chairs plus a couch, so the father and son can each cut hair at the same time, if needed.

| Photo by Robin Wojtanik

It was Joby Hollenbaugh and his brothers who initially got their dad into cutting hair in the early ’90s. “I had four boys wanting haircuts every two weeks,” Marco Hollenbaugh said. Prior to that he owned an automotive detail business, but quickly found he was proficient at cutting hair, especially with a tool that isn’t forgiving.

“When I went to school, I wasn’t afraid of clippers, and a lot of people are afraid of clippers,” said the 62-year-old, who has spent more than 30 years as a barber locally.

Joby Hollenbaugh says he has seen how clients remain loyal to his father. “They followed him everywhere he’s gone. Seriously, there’s people who’ll wait two or three months ... to get their hair cut from him. They won’t go anywhere else,” he said.

“They can walk in here and sit down and they don't need to say how they want it. I just know how to cut it,” said Marco Hollenbaugh, who says he has a diverse clientele, including some he’s had since they were children and are now in their late 30s, like his son, who dabbled in the trades after “growing up in the barber shop.”

Unconventional flexibility

Tiny’s has been open for a year, though they still hustle to get their name out, parking the trailer at community events and renting a spot during the summer Live at 5 concert series or during the Men’s Expo.

The ability to bring your business to customers is a key advantage of mobile businesses. It also can facilitate cooperation among them, such as the traveling romance bookstore BAGG Books scheduling visits to wineries or outside eateries in downtown Kennewick, or Patty Wagon Touring Taps, bringing its mobile bar to events.

These businesses may look unconventional, but their approach speaks to a growing reality for small business owners: adaptability is everything.

“I call myself a serial ‘wantrepreneur’ because I started my first business when I was 16,” Kevin Nicholson laughed. “It was a website design business, and I never had a client.” Party On is the first combined business for the Nicholsons, who both work in IT, though they once tried to start a zombie museum in Las Vegas.

For the Nicholsons, going mobile opened a door to new opportunities. For Marco Hollenbaugh, it created flexibility to build a business and be present for his family.

“If I don’t go to work, I don’t get paid,” said Marco Hollenbaugh. “I got to watch my kids do everything. I got to go to every one of my kids’ baseball games, football games, motocross, my daughter's dancing, whatever. Those are the things I'm glad I got to do. If I was out at the area or had some other job, I wouldn't have been able to do that. It's been a great life, and I wouldn't change it for the world.”