Should You Show Your Prices on Your Website?

Pricing can be quite a sensitive subject for many business owners. There are many who do not want to display their prices for a number of reasons:

• Fear of competitors seeing it - the truth however, is that your competitors probably already know your prices. It's very easy to get a friend or a relative to call, and to be honest, you should also know your competitors pricing as well! If you're afraid that competitor will undercut you, don't be. Stop focusing on your competitors, as that takes up way too much energy. Instead concentrate on your own business and create the best product/service that you can.

• Nothing we make is standard, everything is custom designed for our clients -    Yes, clients are all different, but you should have an idea of the average cost of a design, and therefore you should be able to have a DESIGNS FROM price that you can show. You can still give your clients flexibility - for example, by swapping balloons and accessories in and out of similar value, or adding in additional balloons at an extra cost.

• You're afraid that your prices will put customers off buying from you.                  Most customers already have a budget in mind. Being honest about prices on your website will actually help you attract prospective customers/clients. Most people research prices before they consider buying a product or service. If you’re the only person talking about prices on your website, you will be likely to get more traffic to your site than your competitors, which will mean more leads and sales. Having no price looks even more expensive than actually having high ones. Imagine walking into a high-end fashion retailer that had no prices - most of us would think: If you need to worry about the price you’re not welcome here. 

Price is an important decision-making criteria, so if publishing your price on your website makes it easier and faster for them to decide in your favour, why would you get in the way?

So what is the best way to show your pricing structure? 

Here are two completely different ideas: 

Blenda Hughes Berrier of Balloon & Event Construction Company in Florida, USA, uses online catalogues to inspire her clients with categorised decor types. Each catalogue has a theme, and when a customer opens a catalogue, they will find detailed information to help them to make a choice, as well as a fabulous range of design ideas and guide pricing.  This is a very simple way for a client to navigate and choose what they want! 

This is a sample page from one of Balloon & Events Construction Company catalogues.

The great thing about creating this type of price list is that you can update and add new ideas on a regular basis.

The second idea comes from David Mahoney of Balloons Everyday in Texas, USA. This is what he says about pricing on his website:

"One of the best things I did on any of my websites was to add lots of additional information for clients to access to make their lives easier.
By doing this, it helped potential or current clients find answers to questions that they may have had regardless of the hour of the day. This saved me a ton of time and money and built better relationships with clients. If I was having a particularly busy day, I could easily send links to information on the website or communicate to clients that they could find that info on the site.
One area of our website that gets explicitly used a lot is our 'common decor guide.' This simple little pricing guide with illustrations of common decor work has helped us save time explaining what a specific design looks like but also allowed clients to use the guide to help budget or figure out their needs for their event.

A secondary benefit to having the decor guide on the site is that it helps prequalify potential clients. You see, if a client has a limited budget and wishes for a complicated or expensive request, the guided helps by showing them a baseline of pricing, which eliminates a lot of these frivolous requests. You know the ones I am talking about - Can we do an 80-foot organic wall for $100? - LOL!!!! 🤣
We are excited about working on our new website because not only have I updated the decor guide to have a more of a contemporary look but I also added a new backside for trending balloon designs.
I have to thank Rachel Porter and Blake Engel both for having Esty Sites that have a lot of pre-made clipart. Those resources have saved me a ton of time in updating my decor guide because I did not have to build everything from scratch. So if you have not added things like the decor guide to your website or considered adding more information to help clients access regardless of the time of day or how busy you are, consider the many benefits it may have not only for them but for your company too. The internet is open 24/7. Let it work for you whiles you sleep or busy working. I know it has made an enormous difference in our company and clients love the easy."

A huge thank you to both Belinda and David for very generously sharing their on-line pricing ideas.

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler

Terrific Free Ballooning Tools

We all have a desire to grow our businesses. We try to do this through gaining knowledge, learning new skills and designs, and working on our social media activity. 

Attending training sessions, events, and conventions is a fabulous way to gain confidence, knowledge, and improve our ballooning skills. But having access to additional resources is vitally important for the growth of our balloon businesses!

Today, there are many resources available online. These are some of my favourite, and they are all FREE! 

March 2019 saw the launch of the first ever free online Balloon Magic! Until now, Balloon Magic has only been available as a paid subscription, but it's now free and packed with some amazing content! 

One of the great benefits of this publication now being available online is that it includes video tutorials.  This gives us the opportunity to watch and follow while an instructor creates one of their wonderful designs. In this first issue, you can see both Vadim Shushkanov, CBA and Nicole Greg, CBA demonstrate two amazing and very sellable designs - I know I will definitely have a go at making them both! 

To learn how to make this fabulous little balloon sculpture - click HERE 

To learn how to make this adorable Toucan click HERE

In addition to the how-to-video's, there are also some great step-by-step design recipes from Pippity Pop, Matt Falloon and Takehiro Kai - all of whom are incredible artists! 

If you are new to the world of entertaining, there is an outstanding article by guest writer Todd Neufeld of the Twisted Balloon Company, New York, USA. Todd shares the Top Ten Components of an Entertainment Contract!

Even if you are not a twister, you can really learn some great skills from Balloon Magic and maybe even incorporate some more twisted designs into your everyday designs and decor!

Balloon Images also went digital earlier this year, and is now available online. Like Balloon Magic, it has the benefit of featuring how-to-videos, which are a great way to learn new ideas and skills.

Design inspiration is something we are all looking for constantly. Lucky for us, Balloon Images is packed with ideas, tutorials and amazing high quality stock photographs that you can use for marketing and to show your clients.





Where else would you be able to find a great how-to video tutorial, like how to make a fabulous on-trend hot air balloon? Plus some great downloadable high resolution images that you can use for your marketing campaigns! If you are a QBN member, by simply logging in, you have access to even more free materials! 

Check out this great how-to video, simply click HERE

Downloading images is easy, just click on the arrow that appears on the left hand side of the image and choose the size of the file that you want to download! 

Another excellent resource is Q Corner - a twice weekly live-streaming talk show that is aired on YouTube and hosted by Dominic Cassidy, CBA, and Keith Stirman, CBA. Known for their lighthearted banter and entertaining style, Keith and Dom show features a wide variety of topics including: Business Tips, Design Inspiration, Industry News and Announcements, New Product Features and much more. 

Below is one of their earlier episodes where they show Confetti Balloons & Gumballs.

The great thing about Q Corner is if you miss an episode, you can always go back and watch it at a later date! We recommend that you subscribe to the channel, that way you will always get a notification when a show is about to air.

For Russian speaking balloon artists, there is now a Russian Qualatex TV channel. This new channel is hosted by Alexander Solomatin, CBA. Each episode covers a variety of topics and includes some great how-to videos. The show airs weekly, and you can subscribe to ensure that you get notification when a new show airs.

In addition to these excellent resources, there is of course the Very Best Balloon Blog - which of course you must know about, as you are reading this blog post! I wrote my first post in June 2011, and to date I have written 390 different posts covering a wide range of topics! It is very interesting to see which of the posts are most often read - can you guess? Whilst you would think it is a design related post, it's actually - How much should I charge for that... how to price your work! This post has been viewed over 45,000 times! Pricing is one of the hardest things to do, especially if you have never run a business before. Learning how to price to ensure that you make a profit is not always easy. I hope that my pricing related posts (I have written a few) help those who are struggling. 

I am always keen to hear what topics you would like me to write about. There may be a subject or something that you would like to know more about. My posts are often inspired by questions that I see on Facebook groups, such as how to write a Risk Assessment or Method Statement, or how to use a heat sealer. 

If you need to search for a specific blog post, just type in key words to the search bar, and you will see all the posts that relate to those words.

Each one of these amazing free resources is sponsored by Qualatex, and I truly don't believe that there is any other balloon manufacturer who gives so much support to the balloon industry! Thank you Qualatex and all those who work so hard to bring us such high quality support and freely accessible materials.

Happy Ballooning!


Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler

2019 Valentine's Day Sales Strategy

If you would like to learn how to create this fabulous

organic style "Puffed Heart" design, check out the

NEW "Simply Organic" course being taught by

Sue Bowler in the UK and Europe this year! 

Do you have a sales strategy? Do you know what a sales strategy is? It's simple really, a sales strategy is a plan by a business or individual on how to go about selling products and services and increasing profits.

Valentine's Day is a super big event in the ballooning world and one that you cannot afford to miss out on! In 2017, Brits spent a whopping £1.5 Billion celebrating Valentine's Day which was a massive increase from 2016 when we spent a mere £908m. In the US it is predicted that 19.6 Billion will be spent this year!

Valentine's opportunities come in many different guise  This decor was created for a Valentine's product launch for an on-line retail company.
Decor by Sue Bowler, CBA, and Nicci Rene.

Valentine's Sales Strategy

1. Define your target market - who are you trying to sell to?

• Businesses using the Valentine's season to promote their products. For this you may need to think outside of the box, some will be obvious, but others not so. 
• Restaurants - to decorate a restaurant to make it look special during their Valentine's dinner service.
• Hotels - this could be before Valentine's to promote that they are offering a Valentine's event, and also to decorate the restaurant and other rooms being used.
• Shops and Shopping Malls- for window and counter displays - check out my blog post "Valentine's Shopping mall decor with Romana Kolenc, CBA, of Baloni Romana in Šoštanj, Slovenia."
• Night clubs and other party venues.
• Car and furniture show rooms - maybe not an obvious target, but this is a great opportunity for these types of businesses to bring a big splash of colour and the Valentine's vibe into their stores! 
• Retail Sales - this is your obvious target market!

  

  Fabulous Shopping Mall Decor by Romana Kolenc, CBA

2. How do you reach your target markets?  Now you have defined who your target market is, you need to be able to reach out to them. Some will be local businesses within your community and you may have done work with them before. Others you may be connected to through LinkedIn or community and networking groups that you are a member of. Some you will need to cold call. If you are not confident enough to walk through a door without an appointment, you could create a professional looking postcard using an app such as www.canva.com and follow-up afterward with a phone call - it's important to remember to follow up! If you have never used Canva before check out this fabulous tutorial by Zoe Adam-Jones - Good Design Matters for your Business.
Zoe created this fabulous example postcard using Canva - Zoe says "when promoting b2b we want to focus on how we can help them stand out, increase customer engagement, and in turn increase sales... what better way than with balloon decor given that it is one of the biggest trends on social media right now." 

To download the organic heart image that Zoe has used for this postcard click HERE
or follow this link: https://us.qualatex.com/en-us/news/organic-heart-decor/

3. Plan your social media campaign to target different groups of customers. Your Facebook page will be directed at your regular clients, whereas you can use your Instagram account to target businesses and clients alike to give you a further reach. 

4. What are you going to sell? It's important that you plan what you are going to sell. You can start by checking to see what you have left over from last year, though it's good to rotate your stock, especially latex balloons. Also be sure to feature current trends - check out all the new and exciting Valentine's balloons in the Qualatex Valentine's catalogue.













Plan your designs - choose maybe five or six different display styles that you are going to sell. Make sure that you have a good variety of pricing points and themes, not everyone wants balloons that say "I love you" or a red balloon!

5. Order your stock early! As the saying goes "you must speculate to accumulate." This proverb says little to help people in search of a sensible long-term investment strategy, but it does suggest something important about one of the basic principles of investing; the relationship between risk and reward. If you don't have the stock, then you cannot sell it. 


6. Plan your window and other store displays, remember what you show you will sell, so make sure that you put your most profitable designs on display - most profitable does not necessarily mean most expensive. Do a job cost form for each of the designs you are planning to make, and check your profitability! If you struggle to cost your designs check out these past blog posts, both are really helpful.
How Much Would You Charge For This Design
How Much Should I Charge For That


7. Make selling fun! If you have a sales team, set targets and incentives for each staff member - make sure that targets are measurable, create a sales record sheet so that staff can easily record sales of specific designs as they sell them. Make sure that you reward the winners - make the prize meaningful, like the opportunity to leave work early!

It might seem a lot of work and effort but a good sales strategy will:

Help you acquire new customers

Help you expand/strengthen existing relationships with customers

Help you sell more products and services 

A sales strategy is something you should work towards all year, but if it's new to you then Valentine's is the perfect opportunity to start!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler

How Much Would You Charge For This Design?

Many businesses struggle when it come to pricing, and not just in the balloon industry! 
The fear of pricing too high and not getting any business versus pricing too low and never making a profit is an everyday dilemma.

In the interest of today's blog, I asked a few of my ballooning friends from around the world to tell me how much they would charge for this style of air-filled design in their country. I chose this design as it uses very few balloons and it's quick and easy to make.


Before we start, write down how much you would charge for this design and see how your price compares to others.

So how do we know how much to charge? Some of us will "guesstimate," while others will actually work out how much they need to charge to make a profit!

Whenever I am pricing a design, I always start by completing a QBN Job Cost Form (shown above). It really helps to make sure that you have covered all your costs and make a profit, too! 

For my example, I am using the prices that are listed in the 2018 Qualatex European Everyday Catalogue. All the prices in my example are in UK £., and I have included V.A.T.

The weight that we use in a design like this can vary in type and cost. Some will choose to use a purpose-made weight, whilst others might use a sand or water weight - this will have an impact on the selling price.

For my example, I have calculated that I would need to sell the design at £11.24 to cover my costs and to make a good profit. 

Here are the suggested selling prices for the same style of design from some of my ballooning friends from around the world:

• Belgium €12.95 - £11.54 - USD $14.76
• Australia AUD $19.00 -  £10.98 - USD $14.03
• USA USD $15.00 - £11.77 
• UK £9.99 - USD $12.79
• USA UDS $12.00 - £9.42
• Hungary HUF 2190 - £6.05 - USD $7.74

I am really pleasantly surprised at the price range. With the exception of Hungary, there is not a huge price different between these countries. But it does not surprise me that Hungary's price is much lower. If you look at how much people earn around the world, there is a huge difference in the minimum wages. For example between Belgium and Hungary, wages in Belgium are more than three times greater than in Hungary (comparing 2018 minimum wages) and therefore the labour costs in each of these countries will reflect this difference. 

2018 Minimum Wages - this is a helpful guide to compare wages around the world.

Belgium - €1562.60 per month

UK - £1462.60 per month

Hungary - €444.10 per month

USA - USD $7.25 per hour - USD $275.50 per week

Australia AUD $694.90 per week

The job cost form is a good guide to help you with pricing, but make sure that the information that you input is accurate, otherwise it can alter your pricing significantly! You also need to consider perceived value, too. Often designs can look like they are worth more than the Job Cost Form suggests, and there is no reason why you cannot charge the perceived price rather than the job cost price - this is very common in creative-based industries.

I have written a few blogs on this subject:

How Much Should I Charge For That - How To Price Your Work

Pricing For Profit

You do not need to be cheaper to win customers, but you do need to be smarter!

And finally, don't forget we can up- sell and offer personalisation! This is a great way to add value to any design! Below is an example of how Luc Bertrand, CBA, of WaW Balloons in Vichte, Belgium, promotes them.

Here is another way to up-sell this style of design. By simply adding arms, we have created a more interactive design! Finally, the third version is a mini table-top sculpture - all very quick and easy to make!

Thank you to all those who helped me with this blog. For those of you who struggle with pricing, have a go at using the Job Cost Form to help you to work out your minimum selling price to ensure that you make a profit. Making a profit will keep you and your business healthy and happy!

Happy ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler

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.

Balloon Basics - Bubble Balloons

Qualatex^® Bubble Balloons are a relatively new balloon made from stretchable plastic, making it unusual and eye-catching. Unlike a Microfoil^® balloon, it is inflated until all the creases at the seams have been removed, making it more like a beach ball, and looks great from all angles.

Bubble Balloons are non-allergenic, making them ideal for hospital gifts and deliveries. They do not oxidise* and floating times are mainly measured in weeks rather than days.

22" "Birthday Pink Starburst Sparkle"
U.S. Patent No. 6,782,675

Single Bubbles

These stunning balloons are available in 22". They will float for approximately 2-4 weeks.
They come in a fantastic range of designs including licensed characters, birthday including milestones and age. New baby and special occasion. They are extremely versatile and can be used in balloon bouquets, centrepieces and to make fun little character designs.












These balloons are simple and elegant, with 3-D designs that look beautiful from any angle. They have self-sealing valves and come with a pre-attached ribbon.

Balloon Basics - Microfoil® Balloons

This type of balloon is often called a foil, Mylar^®, or a metallic balloon. However, they are not made from foil as you would imagine. They are actually made from a bi-axial nylon impregnated with aluminium on the outside to hold in the small molecules of helium or balloon gas and laminated with a polyethylene (plastic with a low melting point) coating on the inside to allow the material to be heat sealed. The material is then cut to the shape required and heat sealed at the edges. 




Due to their material, Microfoil^® balloons are less porous than latex balloons, so they stay inflated longer. This type of balloon is NOT biodegradable.

Qualatex^® Microfoil balloons are available in a wide range of colours that coordinate with the Qualatex latex colour range. Microfoil balloons range from 4” to 36” with a wide variety of shapes and designs.

Conwin Precision Plus Inflator.

Correctly inflated Microfoil balloons are firm with uniform creases along the seams (you must leave space for heat expansion). The 18” size and larger can be inflated with helium or balloon gas. For correct inflation, use an Automatic Foil Balloon inflator. These inflators have been designed to fill any size or shape Microfoil balloon to the optimum size (leaving the correct amount of creases) and will automatically cut-off when the balloon has reached its correct size. Using the wrong type of inflator can cause damage to the valve of a Microfoil balloon, plus you can easily overinflate these balloons, which could cause them to pop.

Balloon Basics - Inflating and Tying Latex Balloons

For many of you that regularly read the Very Best Balloon Blog, you probably already know all the basic techniques that we use. However, there are many that are new to the wonderful world of balloons, others that are self-taught, and those who might like a quick refresher! 

I would like to start by saying that there are no right or wrong techniques, just those that might be a little easier or have benefits when working with multiple balloons. I know that I tie balloons a little differently from some of my ballooning friends, but like many, I was self-taught and don't feel the need to change my technique as it works really well for me.

Latex Inflation

When inflating Qualatex^® round latex balloons, it is important to fill them until the balloon forms a teardrop shape. An over-inflated round balloon develops a pear shape, whilst under-inflated balloons are more round in shape.

This rule does not apply to the giant latex 30" to 36" balloons, which are produced on different forms* and should be round rather than teardrop-shaped.

Latex balloons may be filled with air, helium*, or balloon gas.* Balloons that are 9" or smaller are generally filled with air rather than balloon gas or helium as they have a very limited floating time, which is generally not suitable for decor.

Balloons filled with air do not float and stay inflated considerably longer (weeks rather than hours) than those inflated with balloon gas or helium.

Balloons inflated with balloon gas or helium are affected by extremes in temperature and altitude. Helium expands in the heat and contracts in the cold. On hot days, when moving balloons from a cool environment to a warm or hot one, ensure that you slightly underinflate your balloons to allow for expansion. It is better to pre-inflate your balloons to their full size first using air, and then re-inflate to a smaller size with helium. For example, an 11" balloon can be pre-inflated to 11", deflated, and then re-inflated to 10.75" or 10.5". By not pre-inflating your balloons you may find that they will still pop even when underinflated.
On a cool day, slightly overinflate the balloons when moving from a warm environment to a cooler one.  In normal conditions, balloons inflated with balloon gas or helium should be inflated to their correct size to ensure maximum float time.
Personally, I would do some floating tests or trials when working in different temperatures to ensure that the balloons offer maximum float time in different conditions.

I recently wrote a blog, Balloons and the Great Outdoors, that may help you when working with balloons in different weather conditions.

Sizing Balloons
Sizing balloons is important for two reasons:

Very Best Balloon Sizer
Available at European Qualatex Distributors.

• Ensuring that all your balloons are inflated to the same size when creating decor will offer a professional finish.
• Balloons filled with balloon gas or helium will have the maximum floating time when inflated to the correct size.

You can use a sizing template to size a balloon. There are various options available to purchase, or you could make your own.