The struggle is real this 2017

Because of several factors, the balloon and party supplies business in general have seen a downfall in sales since the start of the year. It has been very challenging and many customers are opting to celebrate the birthday parties and christening celebration of their kids at a tight budget. Even some party places, hotels and restaurants have seen a decline in bookings and party celebrations.

The good thing about this lean season is that these businesses can be more innovative and think of ways to bring in more clients before the busy “ber-months ” will start. Adding new products and services is a good thing to start during this low season. Giving promos and freebies are also good ideas.

We have seen a different pattern of bookings now that classes have started. Most of the parents chose a weekend for their Christening celebrations and many of them move their kids’ birthday party, that fall on a weekday, to a weekend.

Weekends usually become extremely busy and all the resources will be deployed when necessary. We usually plan the flow of the bookings to make sure we arrive earlier and we will be able to deliver and do everything needed. There are still a few balloon decoration projects from Mondays to Thursdays but Fridays to Sundays will surely be busy. Preparation, planning and proper team coordination is needed to make sure lapses are avoided. We have also prepared a “plan b” if some of the things do not work out as planned.

Because we inflate 90% of the balloons in our store, it is still acceptable if we arrive in the venue 30 minutes prior to the party. Nonetheless, we usually plan for a 2-3 hour leeway to make sure everything works out well and if unavoidable errors occur, we still have enough time to correct it.

Aside from the costly repair and maintenance of the surplus van we bought 5 years ago, our electric balloon inflators and other equipments are starting to show signs of failure, which means we have to purchase a replacement very soon. Our laptops and phones are starting to get old and batteries drain fast. We will soon replace these things so we will be able to streamline the things that we needed to do to make the clients happy.

Yes, it is still a struggle. 5 years in the industry is still not enough to learn and experience everything – and for us it is a good thing because we will never stop learning and innovating. There are ups and downs. We still make mistakes but we make sure our alternate plans are enough to make the clients 100% satisfied. We know that we already have competitive prices but we are still looking to make our prices a little lower once our discounted tax application is approved next month.

More surprises will be coming soon. The struggle is real and we want to conquer it. We know that there will be light after the tunnel.

This page is last updated on Jul 3, 2017 @ 9:32 am