Today we’d like to introduce you to Ekaterina Luneva.
Hi Ekaterina , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Hey everyone! I am a part owner of WOW Balloons along with my business partner and friend Daria. We have been in business for almost 3 years as of right now and are very excited that we have made it this far in our journey. Something that was supposed to be a small side job to get us some extra money at the end of the week became our passion and very soon grew into a fully functioning small business that we are so proud to have.
We have started working on this business idea back in September 2018 and in October we already got our first order. Putting together a website, looking for clients and learning social media marketing has been very challenging at the beginning – but as of right now we are providing educational programs for other young entrepreneurs to walk them through all of the business processes.
We are currently working in new directions, learning other ways to grow. Recently we have opened our first small venue called Allsocial Spaces in Bishop Arts and we know that is just the beginning!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
One of the biggest struggles was definitely facing COVID outbreak back in 2020. In April 2020 we have decided that it is a time to expand, we wanted to hire more people, finally, get a large company vehicle – we had so many plans for the upcoming year. When we first heard about COVID situation – obviously no one took it seriously. We were watching the numbers of people getting sick across the whole world but we did not realize that all of it is coming our way. You never expect a random Apocalypse to happen, right? Cause it only happens in the movies. So realization came pretty quick – in April we were preparing for our busy graduation season, bought a lot of new merchandise, stocked up on lots of things. And then we started receiving phone calls about parties being canceled. And then breaking news – people are not allowed to get into groups over 50 people, at first, then 10 people after that.
For us – it was the beginning of the end. We were completely broken realizing that basically all of our business depends on events that were basically prohibited by the law. At that point in time, all of our business was offline – in person. And we blamed ourselves for not having “all of our eggs in different baskets”.
Honestly, COVID is probably one of the best things that happened to our business. It forced us to learn how to start new things, work on our weak points and become a better and a stronger business. We have retargeted our audience to other small businesses who were willing to learn by launching an educational series of webinars. And by the time that happened – our regular clients started to come back with outdoor events and non-contact deliveries.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Our company specializes in luxury balloon installations and party rentals. We have a large stock of backdrops, flower walls that will help you create a one of a kind backdrop to celebrate your biggest milestones. I feel like one of the strongest parts of our business is customer service – the majority of our clients are repeated clients and we are very proud of that. Besides the balloon decorations for our clients, we also offer a variety of educational opportunities for beginners in the industry. We host large live master classes twice a year and series of webinars in between.
As I mentioned earlier – now we are able to provide a venue for our clients – we have recently opened a space in Bishop Arts called Allsocial spaces. It’s a beautiful, clean, modern space that is 1000 sq feet that can host smaller events – birthday parties, baby showers, gender reveals, bridal showers – you name it!
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
The most important apps that help me stay on top of things are different time-trackers. I have recently came to point where I understand – time management is everything. In order to be efficient, you just have to have a to-do list for every single day. I am trying to put a lot of effort in reading, but unfortunately I don’t always have enough time for that. One of the books I have recently read was “No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits: No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take-no-prisoners Guide to really getting rich” by Dan Kennedy. That really helped me with my management skills at work and I am still working on myself every day to incorporate some of the new knowledge into my business.
I don’t listen to many podcasts, but I love watching interviews with successful people. I guess one of the recent ones that impressed me was Brian Tracy. Does not matter what type of business you have – you have to go and listen to that guy.
Contact Info:
- Email: Info@balloonswow.com
- Website: Www.balloonswow.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/balloonswow
