The Bright Balloon Bright Balloon Book Club

Today I'm sharing with you a change that I never thought I would make in my business! I'm increasing the number of times I make contact with my customers, and I'll tell you how... what led to this decision... and why I think it's going to change my business.
If you've been listening for a while you know that I am all about efficiency, so the idea of getting on the phone with more customers is a bit unusual for me. However, I'm feeling like bad customer service is almost everywhere you turn lately, so I want to be a refreshing surprise of great customer service when people contact me!
One thing that has hugely helped free up some time and energy to do this is having a virtual assistant handle much of the sales for me. It's amazing, but does have me wanting to make my own connection with the customer before arriving at the event. I'll share with you exactly when and how I'm starting to do this, plus the other unexpected benefits that have come up since implementing these new touch points.
They include:
a phone call after each new booking a text before delivery confirming colors before inflation a casual call before the event that includes a possible upsell I'm also modifying a couple of touch points that I already had in place: the thank you after the event and the follow-up to rebook.
Listen in to hear the specifics of what I'm doing and saying, and what inspired me to make these upgrades to my customer experience so that I can stand out by providing unparalleled customer service!
From the UGlu Hotline, we get a tip about how to get quality balloons in a pinch for those last-minute parties.
 
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
17hats (get 50% off your 1st year) 
Balloon Suite 
Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 
UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 
Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514
‬Balloon Boss Mastermind & Summit  
PremiumConwin 
2024 Bright Balloon Business Planner 
ALOFT (save $10 with code BRIGHT)
The Balloon Guild (save 20% with code WeLoveSara20) 
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Join the book club 
50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list 
courses | templates | planner 
@thebrightballoon 
The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

This episode is a little different because I'm chatting with someone who works for a balloon company... but not the owner. Heather, who supports Tiffany at the Confetti Castle, comes on the show to give us some tips about keeping your assistants and employees happy while best utilizing their skills.
We'll hear about the range of administrative duties she takes care of on any given day, and how doing some hands-on work first helped her feel comfortable with taking on more responsibility for Confetti Castle.
When we move on to talk about what motivates her as an employee, we chat about the balance and boundaries needed when working with close friends... and how they can shift over time. Then Heather shares the types of things, which aren't necessarily money-related, that keep her happy in her role.
Finally, we get some good tips for exactly how to start with the idea of hiring an assistant, including:
creating a list of tasks you want to offload sharing the list in the interview process sharing information and access releasing control I hope this episode helps you gain some clarity and confidence in the idea of hiring some help if you know you need it!
Then in the UGlu Hotline, there's a nice tip for utilizing rubber bands in our installations.
 
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
17hats (get 50% off your 1st year) 
Balloon Suite 
Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 
UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 
Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514
‬Balloon Boss Mastermind & Summit  
PremiumConwin 
2024 Bright Balloon Business Planner 
ALOFT (save $10 with code BRIGHT)
The Balloon Guild (save 20% with code WeLoveSara20) 
- - - -
Join the book club 
50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list 
courses | templates | planner 
@thebrightballoon 
The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

I completed my product photoshoot and I'm sharing what I got right, and where I went wrong.

I recently did a job alongside a lighting and entertainment company who came in with such professional looking equipment that it had me evaluating my own branding. I realized that some things don't take a lot of time, money or energy to update... and I'm sharing those ideas in this episode!
Of course this all starts with having a logo that you love. I was able to edit mine in Canva until it was the way I wanted it, but you can seek out logo designers for help as well. This was a hugely important step as I was getting ready to wrap my van. And I'll say, wrapping my van is and will probably always be the biggest and best branding investment I've made. If you're on the fence about it, I can't recommend it enough!
Other items that I've branded or am now planning to update with my branding include:
physical things like apparel, my apron, base plates, sand bags, marquees, inflator, extension cords and ladders printed things like business cards, custom thank you cards, postcards and bags digital things like my email signature, social media profile photos and catalog images I'm sharing what printing methods I'll be using, the vendors I recommend and more about who inspired me to make these branding upgrades... I'd love to hear which of your business assets you'll be branding next!
And in the UGlu Hotline, we get a nice tip about removing UGlu dots.
 
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
17hats (get 50% off your 1st year) 
Balloon Suite 
Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 
UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 
Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514
‬Balloon Boss Mastermind & Summit  
PremiumConwin 
2024 Bright Balloon Business Planner 
ALOFT (save $10 with code BRIGHT)
The Balloon Guild (save 20% with code WeLoveSara20) 
Glow Retreat 2024 
Ep. 146 - Deliveries & Pricing | Misti from Balloons by Misti
Grab and Go Garland Bundle
Red Eye Designs 
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Join the book club 
50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list 
courses | templates | planner 
@thebrightballoon 
The Bright Balloon on YouTube 

In this episode I'm talking about how my virtual assistant manages all of my leads and bookings. This was a change I needed to make when I had my second daughter this year and as taken so much work off my plate!

It was such a treat to have 9 other moms on the show for this episode, where we talk about everything from juggling business, kids and in some cases, a separate full-time job; plus partner dynamics and even employing our children!
These moms represented a pretty big range of years in business, number of kids and business plans... I know you'll connect with at least one. Some of the gems that came up were things like:
hiring child care even if you're working from home how to manage business growth when your personal life might not be ready for it ways to pay employed children of various ages managing the "breadwinner" relationship with your partner deciding when it feels right to travel to conventions exit strategies and the most impactful one for me: swallowing your truth I hope this conversation helps to give you permission to make some changes or set some boundaries that you've been thinking about, so that you can have the best of both worlds. Thanks so much to all of our guests for sharing their stories!
And in the UGlu Hotline, we're reminded of the benefits of community over competition.
 
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
17hats (get 50% off your 1st year) 
Balloon Suite 
Havin' A Party Wholesale (save 5% with code BRIGHT) 
UGlu by Pro Tapes (save 5% at Havin’ A Party with code BRIGHT) 
Call into the UGlu Hotline to ask a question or leave advice! (262) 221-8514
‬Balloon Boss Mastermind & Summit  
PremiumConwin 
2024 Bright Balloon Business Planner 
ALOFT (save $10 with code BRIGHT)
The Balloon Guild (save 20% with code WeLoveSara20) 
- - - -
Join the book club 
50 Ideas for Email Marketing | Join the Bright Balloon email list 
courses | templates | planner 
@thebrightballoon 
The Bright Balloon on YouTube