Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.
Balloons with a Twist
Who? Angel Fuentes is the owner of Balloons with a Twist.
When? Fuentes opened his business in 2015.
Where? Based in Arlington, Fuentes puts together the balloons at his home and then sets them up at the final location.
What? A family-owned business that sells balloon decors and customizable set-ups.
Contact: https://balloonswithatwistdfw.com/
(817) 692-0486
Angel Fuentes, owner of Balloons with a Twist, spoke with the Fort Worth Report about how he got his business started.
Sadek: How did you first get the idea to open this business?
Fuentes: It was not a business that I was taught, honestly.
My daughter was in school and her school had a program called Dance Club. Every year they put on a father-daughter dance and that year I joined, they’re like ‘Hey, you’re in charge of the party set up. So you’re in charge of these balloons, you have to get balloons and we want a drawbridge castle made out of balloons.” I’m like, ‘OK, I can do that. I can hire someone to do it for me.’
My budget was $400. So I called around and no one would do it for $400. It was more expensive than that. So the next two months, I studied and Googled and YouTubed and learned how to make this castle they wanted for this dance that we were going to have.
And behold, I end up making what looks like some kind of castle with a drawbridge and they were amazed. So the next couple of days, all the principals asked me for some columns and stuff for the awards ceremony coming up and from there, it just took off.
It’s such a joy to work and bring people happiness. That’s what we do. We just bring people happiness because every time we give a balloon out, the smiles on their faces is the reward itself.
Sadek: Tell me a little bit about the process of starting this business. Did you ever have any struggles?
Fuentes: It’s always there. We still struggle.
I never knew anything about business. I worked at a company with a 9-to-5 job, so going by ourselves was really a challenge. There are a lot of things behind the scenes that you don’t know.
Marketing is one of them. It’s very hard to market yourself out there, but I do that every day by going out, meeting people and talking and just showing people what we do.
On the work side, it’s ‘Where are we going to hold all that?’ We’re a small business so I do everything out of my home basically. Balloons get done the day before and they get sent out the next day. There are things that we’ve never thought of like, how are we going to take all this stuff from one place to another so we’ve got to rent trailers, buy trailers — things you don’t think of when you start.
I have a lot of help. I do hire people to come help me, which at first was just the family but now we have expanded and got people on the payroll.
Sadek: Since starting this business, do you have an event or a balloon decor that you’ve made and looked back on as a favorite?
Fuentes: My favorite one will probably be the carrots I did. I had a friend who worked at Alley Cats and he said, ‘What can you do for us? Can you make two columns for our Easter event?’
I told him, ‘Two columns, I can do you better. I can give you two carrots.’ It was carrots made out of balloons and he had no idea, but when I showed up with these five-foot columns in the shape of a carrot, his mind was just blown.
Ever since then, those carrots have always been on all my advertising. To this day, I’m still selling those carrots. Right now, with Easter, I have four sets going out.
Sadek: Anything else you’d like to share?
Fuentes: We’re family-owned and we just love providing our services to people, making it easier for people who have parties. We go out there, we do all the hard work and they take all the credit for it.
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