Bellevue Business: Dizzy’s Tumblebus Offers Active Options for Parents, Kids

Elizabeth “Dizzy” Fukutomi’s is a business that seems to be riding a winding road to success here.

Fukutomi, a Bellevue resident who formerly worked in the environmental engineering field, says she was looking to do something different after having children. She had been interested in opening a children’s gym space, but couldn’t find the right fit with an established franchise.

But when she came across Tumblebus, a company that doesn’t sell franchises, but rather a complete business including an outfitted bus, training, and use of the company’s trademarked name, Fukutomi thought it sounded like a great fit for her.

“It was mobile, I didn’t have to find a location, it’s not a franchise, and I could call it what I wanted,” she says, freeing her up to apply her own creativity to the concept. She added her childhood nickname, Dizzy, and the Bellevue business was born in 2002. Now, the business has expanded so much that Fukutomi has three buses, a stand-alone business that offers a variety of camps, drop-in child care and a preschool, and employs 19 full- and part-time workers, including Fukutomi’s sister and brother.

The Tumblebus is a mobile physical education lab, which goes to various schools and daycares around the area, offering tumbling and PE to youngsters. The service became very popular and the business received lots of inquiries from parents whose children didn’t attend the daycares and schools that the bus visited, Fukutomi says, so in 2007, she opened Dizzy’s Bus Stop in a quiet corner just of 148th Avenue in Bellevue. This summer, the bus stop is serving about 25 to 30 kids a day, Fukutomi says.

Fukutomi says she continues to listen closely to feedback and the desires of her clients to offer a unique blend of what parents and kids want.

“This has been a work in progress,” Fukutomi says. “At first we offered weekly classes, because that’s what we knew, but parents said ‘I’m classed out. We want to hang out and play.’”

The bus stop adapted, offering drop-in and play options for parents who wanted to take their children to a fun play space, as well as a drop-and-go option for parents who needed a safe and engaging place for their children to play while they ran errands, but didn’t need full-time daycare. When more and more parents started asking about preschool, Dizzy’s expanded into an upstairs space and last September launched a preschool. It also offers birthday party packages, summer camps, and kids night out events that allow parents to have a date night while their children are happily occupied.

On Saturday, Aug. 28, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Dizzy’s will hold its second annual carnival at the Bus Stop, located at 3205 148th Ave SE, which helps the business to provide scholarships for families who can’t afford the company’s programs.

One thing Dizzy’s is not is a daycare, Fukutomi says. In looking at the licensing requirements to become a licensed daycare, she says she realized that wasn’t really the goal of the business.

Though the business still follows virtually every requirement a licensed daycare would meet such as performing background checks on all employees, not seeking that certification has allowed the company to stay more flexible. She says that there’s a four-hour time limit for children to be there, for example, because a daycare is required to provide naps for children who are on site for six hours or more. Fukutomi says she wanted to keep the space very active.

“We are all about engaging the kids in doing activities, such as obstacle courses in the tumbling room,” she says. The site also has an outdoor play area and an enclosed trampoline that is used during the day.

Another difference is that because of the drop-in-and-play times, parents do have to be aware that there may be adults who are not employed by the company on site while their children are there. All kids are always in the presence of a Dizzy’s employee at all times, however, she says.

“Our whole goal is that when the child leaves, we want them to beg to come back,” Fukutomi says.