We were lucky to catch up with Jamie Taylor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jamie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

They say entrepreneurship is like being on a rollercoaster but I’ve always loved them so I was game. But I was not mentally prepared for this type of rollercoaster ride. We launched our business in 2017 to make it easier to celebrate life’s most important moments. We launched our e-commerce site and we are ready to sprinkle the world with fun celebratory party boxes. That little business turned out to be slow and hard but one thing we didn’t expect to take off was our balloon garland business. We were one of the first in our area to start designing organic balloon installations and it blew up! From 2017-2020 we were running ragged, scaling to 4 team members and it felt like 2020 was going to be the year that we started flying to destination installations. But we all know what happened in March 2020.

We went from flying high to events coming to a complete halt, trying to figure out how to continue to bring business in. So we went back to our little e-commerce store and took a backseat while we scaled the balloons. We launched Virtual Party Boxes and it was like orders started to flow in overnight! We even got featured in the New York Times. It was crazy and we felt so grateful. While that was going well it wasn’t steady enough for my employees so one by one they found new jobs. I had to take out an EIDL loan to pay myself and keep our business going. Orders were staying consistent for about 2 years now so I thought we should probably get a warehouse. So I took the scary leap of jumping into a 5-year lease in a space where we could prep for installations and house our inventory for boxes as well.

By this time, in early 2022, balloon installations were also starting to come back. We moved into our warehouse, I hired my first full-time employee, and then BAM! Everything came to a screeching halt. The world was shifting from virtual work to in-person so those orders were starting to dry up. We were now competing in the gift box market which was a little more difficult. I felt like the Google Gods had brought me business that I didn’t have to do any work to get and I wasn’t sure how to get it back. Balloons were luckily still going up incredibly slow.

When I moved into the warehouse I was almost completely debt-free, outside of the EIDL loan, but with taking on that overhead plus an employee my debt came back with a vengeance. I had a complete mental breakdown, I hit total burnout from just trying to keep the business alive during COVID and I found myself with mounting debt that was close to $100,000. I thought I was going to have to file bankruptcy and go back and get a job.

I wanted to quit so bad but I knew getting a job wouldn’t make me happy. I wanted to run so bad but something inside of me told me to just sit in the discomfort and keep going. So I set out to completely pay off my debt within the year. Which felt impossible but I had to figure out a way to do it.

The full-time employee I had hired luckily stayed with me and only worked when I needed her. I tried to do as much myself to keep overhead low. I talked with my landlord and they allowed me to move into a smaller unit which was a godsend. I then set my goal of completely trying to get out of the warehouse free and clear by the end of 2022. I went through my bills with a fine-tooth comb and cut anything out that wasn’t necessary. I realized I had just expected business to continue to flow in without having any real marketing plan. So I set out to create a plan and stay consistent.

In December of 2022 someone wanted to sub-lease my unit from me, after negotiations with my tenant they let me out completely of the space. My next goal, pay off the now $70,000k in debt by the end of 2023 and double my pay in 2024. within the next year and double my pay. I hadn’t been paying myself much. Putting as much into the business as I realized I was working too hard for too little pay and if I didn’t I would likely quit.

2023 turned out to be a decent year but for me to pay off my debt I needed to bring in 90k in Q4 alone to pay overhead and pay off debt. That felt like a total stretch goal but I was willing to go after it. I laid into my marketing strategy, stay consistent and we didn’t just hit our goal but we surpassed it! It felt so unreal. We did all of that with literally just myself and one other employee.

In January of 2024 I doubled my pay and became completely debt-free in my business. When I look back I remember feeling like I was stuck and in a hole I didn’t know how to get out of. During that time I realized I had been dealing with a lot of self-doubt and it was crucial I find some consistency with my routine and thought patterns. I attribute so much to my meditation practice that I started. Without that, I wouldn’t have gotten out of the negative thought loops I found myself in. I knew if I could get out of scarcity and just start completing one small thing a day my life would change. I am so incredibly proud of myself for not giving up. I had months of crying every day. I was so unclear about where I was going. Rather than setting out huge lavish goals I decided to get more granular. Setting quarterly goals that eventually add up to big ones.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We have two brands that organically grew out of the shared purpose of making it easier to celebrate life’s most important moments.

Confetë Gifts + Party Boxes is a self-funded, women-run company specializing in curated gift boxes and virtual party boxes that make your clients and team members feel special — and make you look like the boss you are. We ship gifts across the United States through our online shop. You can choose from Ready-to-Ship gifts or Build You Own Gift Box. We also help businesses put their brands in the employees and clients hands through our Custom + Branded Gift Boxes.

Confetë Balloons happened by accident. A company that started small but quickly ballooned into something extraordinary (pun totally intended). What began as a simple balloon garland for Jamie’s niece in 2015 has evolved into a premier large-scale installation business, making waves on King 5’s Evening Magazine, New Day Northwest, and even earning a nod from the New York Times. We’re not your grandma’s balloon company.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

When I was at the height of burnout but knew I had to keep going I forced myself to continue attending marketing events. I had agreed to participate in a vendor event for a venue where we setup the venue like a wedding and all the vendors have booths. We had a table for our gift boxes and created a large scale balloon installation. If you read my backstory you knew I as on the verge of burnout/quitting and was totally desperate to just make money to pay off my business debt. With all of that I showed up, networked with people i had known in the industry and forgot how much I really enjoyed doing events like that.

No one signed up or bought anything from me at that event. However, because I networked with the other vendors I ended up getting a call for a balloon installation that was over $6,000. I learned that the most important thing you can do in business is show up.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I don’t think it was any one thing but I think it started with our branding. We wanted a brand that was colorful, yet refined and sophisticated. I think our modern aesthetic drew people in on both the boxes and balloon installations.

On the balloon side what grew our reputation was hands down our design. When I did marketing events where I didn’t get paid for installations I took that as an opportunity to show people work that I wanted to do. From that my installation grew in size and my requests started to flow in. I was more creative than others who were doing the same thing and showed people that there is such a thing as luxury balloon design.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.confeteparty.com. www.confeteballoons.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/confeteshops/ https://www.instagram.com/confeteballoons/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/confeteshops https://www.facebook.com/confeteballoons/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeczbRVwNmb1co-VPk80wkg