We were lucky to catch up with Aisha Glenn-Bracey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Aisha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?

I went from doing the work to teaching others.

I started my balloon decorating business because I was a single mom who just gotten laid off during covid. I was desperate for money, but I also didn’t want to leave my son home with nannies and sitters. Prior to covid, I had to work two jobs to be able to support us and most of that money went toward his daycare bill. I knew there was a better way. So, I became a business owner.

Starting my business allowed me to take my kid to work every day. I was no longer worried about how to juggle motherhood and provide for my family. If he got sick, I could choose to stay home, and if I had a huge job, I could bring my kiddo along with me. Starting my business opened up a whole new level of freedom that I knew I was extremely blessed to have.

I wanted to share that freedom with other moms. I became a balloon business mentor. The whole idea behind the coaching side of my business is not to teach other balloon business owners how to be profitable (although it seems that way on the outside) but to give mothers the same level of freedom when it comes to motherhood and being a boss. My industry is 95% Female, and the majority of our demographic are mothers. I’m providing them with the best of both worlds.

Aisha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a covid business starter!

In 2020 I started a Balloon POP Studio not realizing that this industry would explode during the pandemic because people still want to celebrate even during hard times.

I started working with a photography studio creating wedding and editorial shoots as a set designer. I used my balloons as a medium to create never before seen concepts. Shortly After I opened my first party shop.

After a year of major business failures, I decided to downsize, and it was the best decision I ever made.

I began making videos on tik Tok about being profitable in the balloon industry. I realized my story resonated with single mothers looking for businesses they could run while being home with their children, and so I launched a sister company to my balloon business called Balloon Business Mentor. Our main focus is creating content for profitable and happy balloon business owners.

My very first digital product was a google sheet called Balloon Profit Calculator. Essentially a Balloon biz owner could input a number that they were charging their clients, and an output of their budget would calculate and show their profitability. And it blew up! I began making thousands of dollars in sales from digital products.

This sparked my love for creating digital commerce products for niched groups. As I made more videos, more and more aspiring business owners started to look to our content for advice. We began hearing how what we were taught online would truly change their lives.

Eventually, my team and I decided, it was too time-consuming to continue taking so many 1 on 1 coaching calls, as I would spend 20 hours a day on the phone coaching balloon business owners. We decided we wanted to help the masses. I took my experience as a set designer, combined with my love for media, and the Balloon Business Magazine was born in September of 2022. Since launching, we have interviewed some of the largest names in the balloon and event industry and we continue to put out content that is inspiring and motivating every month in our publication.

Currently our team is working on creating a monthly mentor membership, courses, and even a podcast!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Initially, when opening my balloon party shops, I bootstrapped everything. I do not recommend it. I sank over 50k into the projects that did not last more than a year. It was a hard lesson to learn but to save my businesses, I decided to pivot.

Now, being completely online, our overhead is extremely low, and costs almost no money to get started. All I needed was good content, and an I phone.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Currently, I sell through a digital product platform called Gumroad. Essentially, we’re able to house all of our digital products, classes, and magazines on the platform for no money upfront. I love the platform because it allows me to make the money first and pay a percentage on what I make. The more money our businesses makes the lower our percentage is. The majority of our customers come directly from social media.

Even though our following is low for Tik Tok and IG standards, we have a conversion rate of over 85% because we are extremely niched. We don’t make money directly from social media, but the link in the bio is our bread and butter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://balloonbusinessmentor.my.canva.site/
• Instagram: balloonbusinessmentor
• Other: tik tok Balloonbusiness mentor Local Business: Balloonpopstudio.com IG Balloon POP Studio