Pump Up Your Business with this Amazing Tool for Calculating Helium Costs

What can I say! The balloon industry is made up of some truly generous people who want to help other "Balloonies" succeed and grow their businesses successfully!

Last week the fabulous Michelle Severino, CBA, of Party Splendour in Peakhurst, NSW, Australia, sent me a copy of her amazing Helium Cost and Volume Calculator to share with the ballooning community. Michelle says that this tool has been invaluable to her business and hopes that it will help others, too!

The calculator is very easy to use. You will be able to find Michelle's original calculator in both the Qualatex and QBN Facebook Groups in the FILE section in both Excel (PC) and Numbers (Mac) formats (unfortunately, I cannot share these files on Blogger.)

To start, you will need to change some of the fields to suit you and your business. I have marked these on the image below and colour-coded them with descriptions.

Those of you who are more familiar with creating documents using Excel and Numbers will be able to customise this form very easily.

• CYLINDER SIZE: List all the cylinder names and sizes that you use. The form is currently set up to take three different sizes. 
• CUBIC FEET: For each cylinder size listed, add the cubic feet volume if you work with cubic feet.
• PRICE/ Cu ft: Change the currency to suit your country. 
• CUBIC METERS: For each cylinder size listed, add the cubic meter volume if you work with cubic meters.
• PRICE/ CUBIC METERS: Change the currency to suit your country

I have customised the Helium Cost and Volume Calculator to suit my business in the UK. I have changed the cylinder sizes to three different BOC cylinders that I use. For each cylinder size, I have added both the cubic feet and cubic meter volumes - I don't think that you need to add both, but I did. I then changed all the currency values to U.K. Sterling. 

I know that this tool will help me greatly when I am quoting for a job and calculating my helium costs.

Chris Adamo Does It Again!

I have some fantastic news to share with you! Chris Adamo, CBA, of Balloons Online in Sydney, Australia, has just added some amazing new features to his Balloons Online Design Tool software.

With immediate effect, you can now design Arches and Columns.

Simply log into http://www.balloons.com.au/tools/  and follow the CLICK HERE TO START as shown in the image below.

Once you enter the software, you will be taken to the Design Template page.

To find the template that you want to work with, click on ADD MODEL - this is on the right-hand side of the page. 

Halloween's Coming, - Let's Go Totally Catty, Batty, Deadly, Ghostly, and Scary!

Halloween is creeping up on us. It's time to get ready with our "balloontastic" designs and excite our customers with witches, ghouls, and ghosts!

The key to any successful holiday sales campaign is in the planning, preparing and of course, organising.

Get displaying!

The purpose of good displays and visual merchandising is to attract, engage, and motivate customers towards making a purchase.

Good visual merchandising can help:

• Create interest and excitement 
• Prolong dwell time (we want people to stop and look) 
• Increase customer understanding of what you can offer



Think about all the potential display areas that you have:

• Windows 
• In-Store Displays
• Till/Checkout area
• Wall Space
• Ceiling Space

If you own a die-cutter like a Cameo Silhouette, create some fun and exciting decals for your shop window and other display areas.

I found this cat image at Snazzy Little Things.com. It has a great selection of Halloween window silhouettes that are free to download.

UpClose and Personal with Jackie Ochitwa CBA

I was very excited to meet the very talented Jackie Ochitwa, CBA, of With A Twist Balloon Creations in Alberta, Canada, earlier this year when we shared the instructor's prep room at the World Balloon Convention in San Diego, California, USA. The prep room is one of my favourite places at a convention because you get to meet some truly lovely and very talented balloon artists. You also get to see all the amazing designs that they are teaching!

I am always intrigued to find out a little about the artist behind the balloons and their ballooning journey. So, I asked Jackie how she converted her former radio show host career into becoming an international balloon artist! 

Jackie Ochitwa, CBA.

"I continued my radio career until my second child was born, and I decided that it was important for me to stay home and raise my babies. So, that’s what I did.

My kids always loved balloons, even at a really early age. We brought them to a fair one summer, and there was a group of teenagers twisting swords and flowers for the little ones. We took the balloons home and the sword unraveled (as swords tend to do when a four year old plays with it). My son was so sad; I picked the balloon up and attempted to put it back together the best I could. The smile on my son’s face was priceless – it was then that I decided to look for a balloon twisting book at the library the next time we went. I mean, how hard could it be?"