Shawna Hawk is trying to turn a seasonal business into a year-round one -- while working a full-time job at the same time.

Hawk, an accounting specialist with Rocky Mountain Credit Union, last year with a partner started Big Sky Bouncers, setting up those inflatable bounce pits so popular with kids each Saturday morning at the Farmers Market.

Around July, Hawk asked her partner what they should do to keep up the loan payments on the equipment through the winter, when there's no downtown market to count on for weekly income.

Shortly after that, her partner begged out of the business, Hawk said, leaving her to figure it out for herself.

"I thought, you know what, we don't have any place like this for kids to do birthday parties," Hawk said. As a 33-year-old mother of three, she had run through just about every birthday party option in town.

So last fall, Big Sky Bouncers landed in a permanent indoor location, in a warehouse-type building on Billings Ave. behind Wal-Mart. Three of the bouncy rides are set up permanently. Hawk still works at the credit union and doesn't have a staff to keep the business open full-time, so right now it's by reservation only, mostly on nights and weekends although she relies on help from her mother to open at times on weekdays as well.

In addition to parties, Hawk said groups of moms bring their kids over to get some indoor exercise on occasion.

She hopes to buy more bouncy toys in time for spring, then keep the indoor location open in addition to carting the inflatables to the market and other events.

"It's turned out to be an awesome adventure and we're having a ball doing it, trying to figure out how to grow as best we can," she said. "We're trying to get to where we're big enough to have a staff and actually be open Monday through Friday."

Movin' on up: Montana remains a popular destination with people relocating from other states, if data from one national moving company is any indication.

According to Atlas Van Lines, Montana is one of a dozen states the company categorizes as an "inbound" state for 2008, meaning at least 55 percent of the interstate moves involving Montana were families moving into the Treasure State.

Several other states in the Northwest were categorized as inbound, including Alaska, Washington and Oregon, while several Southwestern and Southern states also made the list.

On the flipside, the Rust Belt saw a continued exodus of families, with Ohio, Michigan and Indiana making up the top three outbound states.

E-mail your Open for Business ideas to

john.harrington@helenair.com.