We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caroline Silvious a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Caroline, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission is to inspire other working moms to take risks to reach their personal goals while supporting other moms and small businesses along the way. I am a full time Registered Nurse and a mother of two small children. I started this business at first because I truly loved decorating for parties in such a unique way. It is a true joy and outlet for me. It is completely different from the stress and heaviness that comes with working in healthcare. I also wanted a second income to help with the outrageous costs of childcare. I had no idea that as a small business owner and sole proprietor who started from scratch, that this would take off as it has. My success of my first year in business has only motivated me to keep going until I reach my goal of dropping to part time from my nursing job and allowing me to have more flexibility and more time at home with my children. I have already been able to drop down hours in healthcare due to my business, and am set to go part-time in the next few months. I refuse to settle when it comes to providing for my children as they deserve financially and also being able to spend more time with them. When I first started this business, I would reach out to successful business owners in the same industry to ask for advice on how to succeed, just hoping for any little tip. Now, my inbox is flooded with others in the industry asking me for the same advice. It really is a full circle and a true testament that supporting other businesses goes a long way.

Caroline, 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 started throwing parties many years ago for friends and family for their special events. It’s a true passion of mine. I was always very fascinated with balloon arches in particular. I did some research and learned the basics of how to make these, started practicing, and did a few for some bridal and baby showers for friends. Everyone seemed to love my work and encouraged me to start a business. After much demand and inquiries, I quickly decided to do just that, and Balloon Designs by Caroline LLC was born. My primary goal, other than doing something I truly loved, was to provide a second line of income to supplement daycare costs. Not only do I provide custom ballon decor, but I also offer rental items such as large backdrops and frames, easels, welcome signs and more. I provide custom decal scripts on my balloons as accent pieces within the ballon arches as well which makes my work unique. I also create balloon centerpieces, columns, towers, stacks, and gender reveal balloons.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Balloon inventory seems simple and cheap, however it is not. I use only professional grade balloons and buy in wholesale. Backdrops, frames, vinyl, hooks, and so many other materials really add up as well. Marketing, website costs, is also a major additional cost. When I very first started, I used my own personal savings to build up a starting inventory. I had just the bare minimum to complete each job on request. Each balloon job I got, I was using the revenue to buy more materials for the next job. I was definitely in the hole for the first couple of months trying to supply the for the most popular requests. Finally, I had my first month of several high paying jobs back to back. This allowed me to take off and start profiting. I then started my business account and could fully fund all of my supplies from my revenue at this point on while still also earning profit. I try to stay within a certain budget each month to keep profitable margins at this point.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media started out slow for me. I was following all of my personal friends, just hoping they would follow me back. Now, I can say that over half of my bookings are through social media. I started posting and sharing content as frequently as possible. I then learned that following other accounts in the Same industry and supporting these businesses allowed me to be filed into a unique niche. This has increased my following tremendously. I’ve also had certain content get a lot of attention based on the unique qualities of the post, and this has helped my following as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.balloondesignsbycaroline.com
• Instagram: @balloon_designs_by_caroline
• Facebook: Balloon Designs by Caroline