Everyone says hire help, but very few people can actually explain what that looks like. Hire help to do what, exactly? Answer phones? Tie balloons? Follow up on leads? Most of us get stuck at that question and never take the next step... not because…
A few years ago, my then-new employee Nicole and I recorded our first episode together. It's fun to look back now because we were just figuring out how to work together, and the conversation captures something I still believe completely: the biggest…
Lizeth and Oscar of Mom's Kloset started in 2017 with a bag of balloons. Now, they've pushed their boundaries beyond balloons and are doing three-day weddings with a full ceiling flip overnight. And they shipped a container of custom builds to St. M…
One of the most common questions I get is some version of: what technology do you use to run your business? So here's a list! The apps, platforms and tools that mean the most to Wisconsin Balloon Decor. I've been using each of them for years, a…
I've been doing balloons for ten years and I still had questions about how Betallic and Sempertex work together.Are they the same company? Are they separate? What was Betallatex and why don't I hear that name anymore? Most of us are heads-down in …
Almost five years ago, it was the one-year anniversary of The Bright Balloon Podcast. At that point I had been doing balloons for several years already, so I wasn't a beginner decorator. But I was a beginner podcaster, and honestly, a beginner …
Most of us start in a bedroom or a corner of the garage. Heidy started in her childhood bedroom in South Florida... and ten years later, she found herself opening a balloon business storefront.I had so many questions. What does signing a commercia…
The Essentials Within Experienced Balloon Decorators' ToolkitsOnce upon a time, I posted one question in the Balloon Boss Mastermind Facebook group: what do you keep in your kit that other people might not have?Within 24 hours I had enough ideas…
Balloon Business Organization Tips From a Professional OrganizerI had a bin in my shop that I avoided for three weeks.It was just random stuff from a job... nothing complicated, nothing urgent. But every time I walked past it, it felt like this …
What to Do When Instagram Goes Down (And Why You Should Care)Instagram and Facebook went down for almost an entire day one time.And for a lot of balloon business owners, so did their business.If you made no sales that day because you run every…
Mental health is one of those topics that doesn't come up much in the balloon world... but probably should.When I brought together three decorators for a panel on this exact subject, I wasn't surprised by how quickly the conversation got real. Bur…
My balloon business success has very little to do with my actual balloons. Bold, I know... but stay with me.I believe that once your skills are solid, the thing that actually sets you apart from every other decorator in your market is your…
I booked a product photo shoot because I wanted better photos for my balloon business.What I got was a completely revamped booking system, a cleaner website and... a business that could actually run without me constantly stepping in.I had no ide…
If you're running your balloon business by waiting to see what lands in your inbox, I want to offer you a different approach. One that takes less than an afternoon and could be worth thousands of dollars in repeat bookings: a calendar audit.After …
When Jenna from Festive & Flair told me she DIYed her own foam marquee letters, I smiled politely and assumed I was about to see something held together with hot glue and good intentions.Then I went to her Instagram.I zoomed in. I looked at …
For years, I ran my balloon business without a formal cancellation policy. No deposit rules. No refund language. No “here’s what happens if you cancel” section on my website. And honestly? It mostly worked… because cancellat…
If you have ever wondered what it actually takes to build a balloon business empire that runs at a million-dollar level, Haley and Alley (aka “the Carolina Sisters”) are the real deal.They’re second-generation balloon pros runnin…
If you’ve ever looked at your business bank balance and thought, “I think I’m doing okay?”... same. For a long time, my day-to-day money tracking was basically: check the account, see if there’s enough for the next…
Etiquette isn’t about fancy forks or being “perfect.” In my conversation with Jules Hirst, etiquette coach and fellow 17hats ambassador, she reframed etiquette in a way I think every balloon business owner needs to hear: it’s…
If you were running your business during the big balloon shortage, you know the feeling: refreshing distributor sites, buying whatever you could find and crossing your fingers your staple colors would magically reappear.That’s why I loved si…
If you’re feeling tired just thinking about another weekend install, I promise you, you’re not alone. At the Sempertex International Balloon Convention, I finally got to sit down in person with Loretta of Perfectly Popped Balloons, and s…
If you’ve ever felt squeezed by last-minute requests, impossible color matches, or delivery windows that wreck your schedule, you're in the right place. In episode 49 of The Bright Balloon Podcast I sat down with Joette (The Balloon Coach) to …
One of the biggest mistakes I see balloon business owners make is offering too many options. Too many colors. Too many products. Too many ways to customize. It feels helpful, but in reality it creates friction.In a replay of a bonus episode o…
In episode 48 of The Bright Balloon Podcast, I sat down for part two of my conversation with Ali from Charming Garlands to talk about creating scalable offers with grab-and-go balloon garlands, plus, building genuine relationships with other ba…
