Watching the news oversaturated with stories of murder hornets and the pandemic nightmare, the world was left in a pool of panic. But East parents Rachel Condon, Emily Penke and Liz Beedle had something positive going for them: balloons. As the pandemic still stretches on, these three moms have expanded into their new business: Jubilee Balloon Co.
Once Penke discovered she had an interest in creating balloon bouquets and arches for her friends’ birthdays and events, she introduced the craft to her friends Beedle and Condon. Months went by as the group made balloon arches for events ranging from 6-year-old’s unicorn themed birthday parties to Mizzou football tailgates, with no thought of turning their hobby into a business.
When Condon received a phone call requesting their balloons for a party, the group decided that making balloons could be something even bigger for them – a business. They spent an absurd amount of time working together to piece together a plan for their newfound idea of Jubilee Balloon Co.
“Learning to manage and create our own business was our greatest challenge,” Condon said. “Learning all the ins and outs of having this company was something all of us spent our time getting down and mastering.”
Moving at a fast speed building this business, they didn’t have time to assign specific roles. However, they all agreed that of the three women, Beedle mastered the organizational and coordinating aspects of the business side.
This balloon business is unique to the Kansas City area since they use several different types of balloons, including foil and latex balloons of different shapes and sizes to create custom arrangements for a wide range of events, like birthdays and weddings.
Despite the fact that building a new company and gathering customers was challenging during a pandemic, Penke feels they were lucky because the lockdown and social distancing requirements weren’t their biggest obstacles.
“Honestly COVID-19 didn’t really affect the business — we really lucked out on that,” Penke said. “Creating these balloon pieces didn’t require close contact or any of that, which really allowed us to take off.”
Not only are these women best friends and entrepreneurs, they’re also moms, wives and employees in other fields. Before venturing into balloons, Penke was — and still is — a photographer and eyewear sales rep. Beedle balances the balloon company with being an administrator at her church, Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.
The women believe their children have taken after them in becoming balloon experts — but other than that, the women don’t see the business as a burden on their family like they initially expected.
“Granted that our free time is dedicated to the business, our families didn’t see too much of a difference,” Penke said. “We included all of them in helping out with the business. They’ve always been a part of it too.”
After starting their business in July, they’ve designed for 275 events in just four months. In this short amount of time, Jubilee Balloon Co has prospered quicker than the moms expected.
“We’re already booking for grad parties,” Condon said. “It’s really exciting and shocking to see how fast this has taken off and how much business we’re getting. Since July we’ve worked on 275 events.”
Sophomore Calleigh Nachtigal’s family hired Jubilee Balloon Co for her sisters “foco” — or fake homecoming — and was astonished at their ability to create the setup. The Nachtigal family appreciated the unique balloon arch display, especially due to the challenges of COVID-19 that affected their event. Nachtigal was not able to have an official homecoming for her Senior year, so adding the unique balloons gave the event a special touch, according to the Nachtigal family.
“It was such a different type of decoration that was so unique to me,” Nachtigal said. “I absolutely loved what they did. It was obvious they had a tight bond and built some of my favorite decorations I’ve ever seen and really made our event special.”
All of the moms were in agreement that balloons and business have brought them closer together and they now know more about each other than they did before.
“All of our free time is now spent with each other for the business,” Condon said. “Once we get a request we try and use all the free time we can to assess the event and plan everything out from figuring out what to make, how we are going to and what would look best.”
Beedle, Condon and Penke have discussed their hopes of expanding their newfound hobby while continuing to stay an event-focused company in the future. If their success in the past few months is any reflection on their success for the future, these moms have no doubt they’ll be growing and continuing their unique balloon setups in no time.
As their first public event, the moms recently opened a pop-up-shop in Corinth Square to use this opportunity to connect with the community and hit their target market. These women were in agreement having a pop-up-shop gave them the realization of how far their business has come.
In a span of just a few months, Jubilee Balloon Co went from a hobby to a business, and now to doing pop-up shops and creating custom arrangements for events.