Finding Success During Covid Pandemic

Well, we arrived and began to blow up balloons to assemble this wall. We worked feverishly and excitedly. We were creating what would be the backdrop for the awards ceremony. We had blown up about half of the balloons that we purchased to use in creating the organic part of it when the director of the gym came upstairs to tell us to stop. She said that they had gotten word from their board members that the meet was going to be cancelled. My heart sunk as we weren’t done with it, but had blown up hundreds of balloons already. I told her I would not blow up any more balloons, but that we would put it together with what we had already blown up. She agreed that it would be awesome for their own gymnasts to be able to do a photo shoot with. So we went to work to finish it. 

For the back of the wall we created a quick link wall 20 feet long and 9 feet tall. We were able to attach it using magnets to the wall. We then added in various sizes and colors of balloons to the front to create the organic look. We added the 34 inch balloon letters for the Lucky part of “Lucky Chance” and the balloon in the front were going to be bases for the place numbers for the awards. So there would have been 10 places. We did not waste blowing up those foil numbers since no one would be competing. We did take a picture of the wall without the L because we felt the whole thing was “ucky” that we didn’t get to complete what we were going to do. 

I had NEVER created a balloon wall before. Not even a small one. I had spent many, many hours researching how I could do this and formulating a plan. I honestly had no idea if I could truly pull this off. It was for my own kids’ gymnastics club so I was donating my time to do it, but the gym paid for all of the balloons. We blew up balloons and worked for about 5 hours on this. Although I was so sad that the event was cancelled and all of that hard work would not be seen by many people I quickly realized that it was a HUGE SUCCESS! It looked amazing! I had done it. I was able to create a massive balloon wall on my very first attempt. While it wasn’t filled with as many balloons as intended it still looked amazing and served as a testament of my skills. I am not CBA certified. And have never taken any sort of real classes. I have watched many hours of youtube videos, but up to that point that was the extent of my balloon training. I have done balloon decor for my childrens’ schools, and activities for many years, but it was always just something I did and wasn’t paid for. This wall was awesome and everyone was send people do things with balloons. But I was just soaking it in. I was still so new to the business side of things that I didn’t really have a business model, so there wasn’t even anything for me to pivot from, which was truly a blessing. I had someone ask me to make a balloon column with a number on it and she was going to use it for a driveby birthday party. I had no idea what that was, but I got to work making a balloon column with a foil 7 at the top. I knew that it would need to be on a heavy base so I taped a paver to the bottom of one of my pvc stands. It was a huge success. And by the end of that week my facebook messenger was filled with others requesting similar things. I was so busy, it was unbelievable. In fact I couldn’t really keep up, I called home one day and asked my husband to bring my daughter to the store so she could at least help me. She knew how to use the inflator and tie balloons and she also knew how to twist flowers. So I put her to work helping. It made such a difference and we went from have a strained mother daughter relationship to a wonderful mother daughter friendship. We were bonding daily over balloon jobs and she was so quick to learn. Had she been in school that would not have happened. It was a covid blessing for me.

We were so busy and collecting so much money, but I didn’t really have any true business knowledge. We were covering our expenses, but we weren’t paying ourselves. I saw a post one night about balloon coach community and I joined the facebook group. I knew that I could do this as a business and do it well, but that I had to figure out the balloon business side of things. I messaged Joette one evening and she called me to chat. I signed up for the mastermind group that night and started looking through the units. I was learning how to run the business parts of things. How to market, how to price for profit, and those things have made a world of difference. I am loving every minute of my balloon business and as I have learned how to word things in my own way as I have changed my pricing no one has batted an eye. Some weeks I set up the next weeks calendar and there are one or two jobs for the whole week. The first time that happened I was a little scared, but we have a store in the mall. So we offer twisted balloons that kids can order from a menu. It’s a very popular treat for kids and adults as well. But every day I seem to get more and more messages for last minute requests. I run my business way different than most, because we ask a few general questions: Who is this for, what is the occasion, do they have any likes, hobbies or interests, do they have any favorite colors? Or are there any colors we shouldn’t use. Then I ask them what their budget is. I tell them most of our celebration arrangements range for $-$$$ and explain that the more the pay the more details get added in the different balloons that we may use, the more personalization can be added, etc. and then we will design something to their price point. Most of those sales started out in the 30-35 range and over time my average sale has grown to be close to $100. I know it’s not industry standard way to do things, but I do know that I am priced for profit, because we only add in what we are paid to do. There are many times my daughter will say “Mom, stop, that’s a $50 arrangement” I have happy customers who are pleased with what they get because the had no real expectation of what it was supposed to look like, because I don’t do mock ups. I did in the beginning, but for me it was taking up way to much time. I also like doing it this way because get to use so many of my pinterest wish list things. Sometimes I give way more than what they paid for, but I am happy, because I got paid to learn how to make something I had only wished to make previously. I am blessed because other than Party City or Dollar Tree there isn’t any competition. So I feel that I can set the standards for the town right now.

Over the past several weeks I have been approached by a few networking groups and was even a part of a weekly facebook live talk show that one group has. Each day my business is growing and expanding. Each day I am learning new things and new ways to run my business efficiently and I know that I will always look back at this pandemic and be grateful for the many opportunities that it gave me to grow and learn. I look forward to looking back at the photo of this balloon wall next March and seeing just how far my business came in this past year. I figure if my business can survive and thrive starting out in a pandemic then who knows where it will go under normal circumstances. I am so excited to seeing out photos of it to their friends. I was so pleased with myself because I had accomplished something pretty great that day. It gave me such confidence going into Covid. I felt that I really could do amazing things with balloons and that I really did have talent.

Over the course of the weekend all the events that I had previously been booked for started canceling and there was nothing left on my calendar. I had just moved into my new store/workspace at our local mall and by the end of that next week many of the stores surrounding mine were closing. I was so scared. How would I ever manage to pay for rent when it seemed that life was grinding to a complete halt.

Shortly I saw notice on one of my balloon facebook pages of the Q Corner virtual convention. I thought where do I sign up! Wait, what? It was completely free! How could that even be? I saw some of those names and while I didn’t know everyone I had read some of their blogs, had many of their things pinned in my balloon pinterest boards and knew that there were major players in the balloon industry. I was so excited. I watched around the clock as much as I could. There were so many times with I would hear something or see something and think “oh my goodness, now that makes sense!” or “wow that makes it so much easier”, or better yet “that’s how that is done.” My husband and kids couldn’t believe all the time I was spending watching.