I have quit 11 years of my IT career to sell balloons…. and I can help you quit yours!!
During my 11 years of IT career, I have seen quite a few people who want to quit their job and start something on their own. But not many have quit and started a business, the obvious reason is ‘fear of failure’
Even I have spent years in exploring various business ideas but I couldn’t dare to start any business. Most of the times I would be excited about an idea but that enthusiasm wouldn’t last longer.
I always wanted to find some idea which can ensure 100% success, but as you know every business has some risks & challenges associated.
But today what if I tell you about an opportunity, which can ensure you a great success ( and along with an exit plan, in the worst case if the things doesn’t workout). So now you don’t need to reinvent the wheel and go through all the pains and struggles that most of the business owners face while building their business(including myself).
I am Ramesh Nagubandi, Co-founder of Balloons Unlimited(India’s Most Admired Balloon Brand).
Balloons Unlimited imports premium balloons from across the globe and sell them through the chain of Exclusive Balloon stores across India. At Balloons Unlimited stores, you can find 1000’s of varieties of balloons which you can not find anywhere else in India. Also we have 100+ theme decors to choose from!!
We were definitely sure that we have Amazing products and services that would revolutionize Indian Balloons & Party decor market. Yet, we have encountered major problems while competing with freelancers, local party shops and hydrogen gas balloon vendors.
At times, we had struggled with the various challenges for months. We had put tremendous efforts to overcome these hurdles, but failed to find any permanent solutions. I could have closed our business and went back to IT field or I could have continued my efforts to make the business succeed. I chose the latter.
I just wanted to tell you couple challenges we faced and what we did to overcome, so that you will get some idea on what kind of the problems you may encounter if you start any business (These risks/challenges may differ from business to business, but if you look at the root of the problem they are pretty much same.
Challenge 1:
At Balloons Unlimited, each day we do multiple decors for home parties(like 2nd, 3rd, 4th birthdays, newborn baby welcome etc..), most of the times budgets for these party decors would be less than a couple of thousands.
But it was a big challenge for us to offer the decors at such a price range, because auto transportation (to and fro) cost would be anywhere between 300 to 800 (in Hyderabad). Also again the next day we will have to send someone to collect the Iron bases used in the decor which is adding up to the total cost.
We have faced similar problem for stage decors as well, we had to engage a goods carrier auto, because stage decors would need a backdrop which requires Iron frames, they can’t be transported over a regular passenger auto. Also we would have to pay double the charge because of the odd times(evening parties would require the transportation back to our godown in the midnight, and morning parties would need the transportation to the party venue in the early morning hours).
We were denying lot of the requests (for starting range decors) from the customers due the feasibility issues. But we know that we are loosing out a bigger opportunity. We were deliberately exploring the solutions to cut the costs.
After months of brainstorming, we came up with disposable bases, and assembled frames.
For home decors, when we use disposable bases(which are lightweight), our team can travel by bike(cutting up to 80% of the transportation cost), also there is no need to send someone next day to collect the bases (more savings in terms of transportation cost and time).
Also this enabled us to provide more value the customer, because customer can keep the decor as long as he wants(earlier when our team goes to collect the bases the next day, they had to dismantle the decor). Usually the decor would look good for 2-4 days indoors. So now customers can keep the decor as long as they wish.
Similarly assembled frames can be carried by bike or a passenger auto (it won’t need a goods carrier auto or truck), so now we are saving a lot on the transportation. Also assembled frames requires less man power than regular frames resulting in more savings.
These 2 things (Disposable bases & Assembled frames) enabled us to offer the simple decors at a minimal prices resulting in increase in our market share.
Challenge 2:
As you know Balloons Unlimited sells regular balloons as well (along with wide variety of premium balloons). But those who buy regular balloons, use to buy from local gifts/party stores. We realized that there are huge number of people who buy regular balloons, so we wanted to offer something more which a regular gifts/party stores are not offering.
So we offered them Flexibility.
When people buy from those stores, they will have to buy a pack of balloon (usually 35 pieces) either single color or multi-color pack, they can’t buy individual balloons. We offered the flexibility that when the customer walks in to our store, they can buy any number of balloons (no minimum quantity required). There is no need to buy a pack with fixed number of balloons, they can also choose the colors as per their wish.
Moreover when they buy from regular gifts/party stores, they need to buy a hand pump and also they need to spend good amount of time blowing the balloons. But at the BU stores they can also get the blown balloons tied like bunches/columns. So they just need to take them to home and arrange it as per their choice.
This helped us gain more footfalls to our stores. And made Balloons Unlimited as their favourite balloons store.
Challenge 3:
We also had problem grabbing the market of gas balloons, 98% of the gas balloon market is catered by Hydrogen balloons. Because hydrogen is about 15 times cheaper than Helium.
At Balloons Unlimited we only sell Helium balloons(because Helium is safe and doesn’t smell), but because of the huge price difference many people prefer buying hydrogen balloons though they smells bad and can cause fire accidents.
As the Helium is not produced in India, it has to be imported and there is nothing we can do to reduce its pricing.
So we thought if we can’t reduce the price, we will provide more value at the same price. So we invented a liquid (FloatMore) which will increase the float time of gas balloons up to 10 times. Also we have got portable cylinders, which can be carried by bike thus cutting the transportation cost.
Then we have started acquiring the gas balloons market share by offering free Delivery( by leveraging portable cylinders) and providing 10 times more float time (using Floatmore liquid).
When you think out of the box, you will be able to find simple solutions to your biggest challenges.
If you are planning to invest in in any business, there are 2 ways you can do it.
Quit your job, invest in the business. Face the risks and challenges and then finally succeed. Or if you fail you might again need to go back to your job.
But if you are looking for low risk method…
Stick to your job, invest in the business. quit your job once the business is stabilized.
In this approach, your primary income source(job) will be intact. But managing a business (especially in initial days) is like taking care of a newborn baby, you will need to dedicate all your time and efforts to it, managing the job and business will generate tremendous pressure on you also it might delay your business success(or even your business could fail).
But instead of starting the business from scratch you can plan to take a franchise of any successful brand so things will be relatively easy for you.
There are bunch of people who took our franchises and quit their job after their business has been stabilized.
Our franchises break-even quickly because Balloons Unlimited have balloons/Decors for every occasion & budget.
Just to give you an example, let’s say an auto driver wants to celebrate his newborn baby arrival. We have balloons starting from 5/- related to the occasion (Welcome Baby), so even if he plan to spend 50/-, we have balloons for him.
Similarly, if a multi millionaire walking in to the store to buy balloons for the same occasion(Welcome Baby), we have balloons and bouquets ranging up to 10,000 and we have home decors(related to the occasion) ranging up to 20k and beyond.
Moreover, balloons are not only meant for kids birthdays. We have balloons for adult birthdays like Mother’s birthday, or Grand pa’s birthday or a teenage girl birthday. We also have balloons for Wedding Anniversaries, Baby-showers, Bridal Showers and special days like Father’s day, Valentines day, Mother’s day & New Year etc.
My point here is that we have balloons & decors for every budget and every occasion.
We already have plenty of market to tap, so we are continuously working on tapping the existing market and in parallel we are working on creating new market(demand generation).
For example, gifting Balloon bouquets on Birthdays & Anniversaries doesn’t exist in India. But our demand generation strategy has been very successful in selling the balloon bouquets, and we are very optimistic that our team will make it grow exponentially in the next couple of years.
Eight years ago, Balloons Unlimited was started as a small business, All these years created immense challenges that we didn’t think we were capable of overcoming. We’ve learned a lot during these past 8 years, and gained a strong confidence that we can build a brand that will change the face of Indian Balloon & Party Decor Market.
If you are interested to be a part of our success story and want know about the risk-free opportunity, please fill in the form below.
Ramesh Nagubandi
Co-Founder
Balloons Unlimited(India’s Most Admired Balloon Brand)
