We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shanay Bute. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shanay below.
Hi Shanay, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I am currently earning a full time living from my creative work as a balloon artist and has been truly a dream! It has its ups and down, we have slow and busy seasons but I try my best to prepare for those times and save as much as possible for the slower months. I have been blessed to have a very great beginning to the balloon business. Balloon companies have been around for years but there was a big boom in adding balloon decorations in trendy ways to elevate events and I began my business at the perfect time, in the midst of the boom! I was in a rough place financially quitting a full time job with no backup plan just hopes and dreams of starting a business where I can be creative and have a steady income. I interned with an event planner to learn the business of events and saw the need for balloon decorating services. The event planner hired me for one small event, 2 Balloon Columns as a trial. I did great and every weekend she would give me more jobs advancing in designs and once I brought my work to social media, in 2015 and slowly but surely begin to grow. It wasn’t an overnight success but I did advance quickly due to the high demand and low availability of balloon artist. I believe everything happened and is still happening the exactly how it’s supposed to and I don’t think I would change much because everything I experienced taught me so much to get here and beyond.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Shanay Bute, the owner of Balloons By SB. The business started in 2015 during a time when I was in between jobs and reflecting on what I wanted to do with my life. Like so many others, I knew I wanted to work for myself, but I struggled to find something I was passionate about.
My Mom is a successful cake decorator in Brooklyn, so I had some knowledge of the event planning industry and knew that elaborate events were becoming very popular in NYC. I’m not a baker, so I knew I didn’t want to do the cake thing, but the idea of doing something in event planning did appeal to me. I did research on that industry and found that event decor and balloon designing piqued my interest. Not too many people were doing it, and it was something that provided an outlet for my creativity.
I watched YouTube videos, and took many professional balloon courses, and 6 years later, I can truly say this journey has been nothing short of amazing! Balloons By SB is a thriving business. I’m blessed to have many happy and amazing clients. I’ve connected with fellow designers, and a supportive community of fellow business owners. I continue to develop my skills and learn new techniques so that I’m able to provide my clients with trendsetting designs and limitless possibilities for the special events in their lives.
I now offer an array of balloon decorations for all events and occasions! We have recently been moving more into corporate events and I’m very proud of that. We offer small balloon delivery items and large scale balloon installation, we do it all! My favorite are challenging balloon sculptures and fun kids events where we bring themes to life using balloons!
I’m mostly proud that I have been able to stick behind my brand for all of this time and not give up on my company or myself. This journey has been far from easy but being able to be paid to be creative is something I always dreamed about and to live it is amazing! I now can say I have a growing team and we enjoy working together! I have some of the greatest clients, vendor friends and it makes me proud to have the same clients come back to us repeatedly for their celebrations!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The biggest and smartest pivot I made for my business was during the pandemic, as did the world. Unfortunately, we all had to find ways to pivot to make our business survive if you were fortunate. With my birthday being at the very beginning of the 2020 lock down, I was devastated and under much stress and uncertainty for the future. Nobody knew what would happen and the world was full of confusion and chaos. Events were being canceled every day, venues were being shut down and then the world literally locked down. After spending my birthday via zoom with family and friends, as unconventional as it was now I realized you didn’t need much to celebrate. As a balloon artist, I of course have access to tons of balloons so I inflated a few balloons, my mom baked a cake and we ordered in some champagne. We had as much fun as we could and I thought I’m going to help keep the celebrations alive by offering social distancing balloon deliveries! I created small balloon delivery options that could be delivered to a front door without coming into direct contact with the client and they was a hit!!! We were typically known for full events and on site event setups but our clients were thrilled to have safe options and the ability to order or send balloons to a loved one they couldn’t physically get to celebrate, to with. It was a great opportunity during a dark time and it brought me true joy being a part of keeping smiles on my clients faces during such an unexpected moment in time. The clients reactions were always a highlight and the best part of all were the smiles, laughs, tears of joy and the happy screams made it all worth it!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
The best thing society can do to support artist and creatives is to share! Share our work with as many people as you can. Share our social media post; share our information in the right rooms and conversations. Also, share the information of artist and creatives you like because you never know how one small connection can literally change someone’s life. If you are in a position to help a creative or artist and can hire or promote their business on a broarder platform, even better. Also give smaller artist big chances! As a small business, I feel sometimes we are overlooked for bigger jobs because we haven’t had the opportunity to do large-scale installations but this doesn’t mean we’re not equipped. My staff all came with balloon knowledge and we work well together I wish we had more opportunities to show our full capabilities but I know its coming and we are prepared!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://balloonsbysb.com/
- Instagram: Balloons by SB https://instagram.com/balloonsbysb?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: Balloons by SB
- Linkedin: Balloons by SB or Shanay Bute
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@shanaybute7306
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/k0Fhd5
Image Credits
@sha.simms