We recently connected with Carmen Castillo and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Carmen, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

RC Party Accents started back in 2019 when my husband and I were looking for extra income. My husband has been the principal provider while I have been taking care of our daughters. We really were looking for something we could do from home. As a mother of three girls, I am always looking for ideas to celebrate their birthdays and I started noticing this new trend of using wooden backdrops and props in party decor. I had never seen something like that in the Lincoln area and knowing the carpentry skills of my husband I thought it could be something we could try out. I told my husband to imagine if we rent it once a weekend at $100 that will give us $400 extra dollars a month. It sounded very simple, right? However, very little I knew about what I was getting into.

The very first time we set up a backdrop was for my daughter’s 7th birthday. It was a LOL theme and I thought adding some balloons would make the backdrop stand out more. I didn’t know anything about balloons nor was I interested in them at all. But it turned out that after my daughter’s birthday, my very first client asked me if I could include balloons as just as I did for my daughter. And so I did. And this is how I started learning about the art of balloons along with the prop rental business.

I have to say that I fell in love with balloon art. I found a whole community of balloon artists and it just keeps me motivated and inspired.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

At RC Party Accents we believe in the magic of celebrations. And we put all of our hearts and creativity to help our clients create the perfect stage to capture those forever memories. Our services include luxury balloon decor and prop rentals.

Every time our clients hire us, they can be sure that they are getting a unique piece of art to make their special celebration memorable.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I still feel that building and growing an audience in social media is not an easy task. Especially because those algorithms are something out of our hands. But I would like to share something that helped me when I was looking forward to growing my audience outside of my friends and family. And that is the power of networking. Back then I started following some local pages of collaborating woman entrepreneurs. I have to mention that it took a lot of me to make the decision to reach out and ask for help. I am from Mexico and as an immigrant, language is always a barrier. Not only in the communication part but also in my self-esteem. I knew they were offering takeovers on their social media platform, but I reached out anyways and explained my situation. They were very kind and offered to make a post about my small business. I have to say that was the best decision I have ever made. Because of that post my account not only grew but I got many of my clients.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Being an entrepreneur is not an easy path. There are always ups and downs along the way. In my case being an immigrant with a language barrier, no community, and a lack of knowledge of the business laws in this country kept me in the shadows for a couple of years. Until I learned about ECHO Collective. ECHO Collective is a nonprofit organization that connects and empowers refugee and immigrant women by providing opportunities for personal growth and building cross-cultural relationships in a nurturing environment. And I am a proud graduate of their refinery program which provides business education and professional mentorships.

To have been part of the Refinery program at ECHO helped me to put all my missing pieces together. It is a really good program. Their intercultural approach to the classes helped me a lot to understand and feel more confident. We learn from the most basic stuff like creating a logo, to more complicated procedures like creating your business entity.

But we also talk about our dreams and barriers. And that helps us work through our insecurities. By sharing our vulnerabilities we bond into a community. The women I share with were wonderful women, full of dreams, all with different stories and backgrounds. And that feeling of belonging really makes you feel more empowered.

Through the program, we also visited local entrepreneurs, and learning about their stories was very inspiring. I learned that we are not too different after all, we all face challenges and insecurities. But we all have the power to face them and fight through them. And if we support each other in our communities that make us even more powerful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rcpartyaccents.com
• Instagram: @rcpartyaccents
• Facebook: RC Party Accents
• Youtube: RC Party Accents