11.1: Introduction

How you should and shouldn't react to an unexpected problem or situation which you are forced to face when running your balloon modelling business will depend largely on what that problem is.

No matter how meticulously you plan your business and how carefully you manage your finances, bookings and marketing, there will always be unexpected problems which crop up from time to time. The problems are difficult, if not impossible, to predict and often come at the worst time possible. But there is no need to panic when these situations do arise. Every business in the world experiences a setback at some point or another, but the ones which survive these setbacks are those which are the most resilient.

You will need to be prepared to look at the whole overall picture, not just at the small detail which seems to be the problem. With small businesses, everything is interconnected. A problem in the finances of the business could be down to a problem with marketing, or with the way in which you are taking payment for your bookings. Whatever the problem appears to be, you should make sure that you look at it with the appropriate context. It might not be as serious as you thought it was and it might have a much simpler solution than you first imagined.

11.3: Dealing with a lack of bookings

If you haven't taken any bookings for the past week or so, and you've got very little lined up in the future, don't panic.

A lack of bookings doesn't necessarily mean that no one wants to hire you, but there could be several reasons why nobody is getting in touch to make a booking. Before you panic and decide that you want to throw in the towel with the whole business, think logically about what the problem might be.

Double check that your contact details are correct on all of the advertising and promotional materials which you have been using to market your business. If all of these are correct, think about the last time that you actually went out and put adverts in the paper or stuck up flyers on local noticeboards. If you've had a run of bookings in the last few weeks and haven't managed to get out there to continue to market your company then this might be catching up with you. Spend the free time that you have now that you don't have many bookings to go on a marketing offensive. Update your website and your social media accounts and get your name out there again.

If that doesn't work, you might want to look at your prices. Check what other people in a similar line of work to you are charging per hour. It might be that they are pricing themselves more cheaply than you and they are therefore stealing all of your business. Offer a discount through social media channels or temporarily reduce your prices until business picks up again.

Whatever you do, don't waste the time that you have off. You can use it to rehearse new models, add new skills to your act, brush up on some models that you haven't made for a while or design some new promotional materials to hand out locally. The time you have been given off should be seen as an opportunity to improve your business, not as a sign of failure.

11.5: Broken equipment

Seeing as the equipment necessary to become a balloon modeller is not expensive, you should really operate with a backup of most of the essentials.

You should travel with more balloons than you need and with a spare balloon pump so that if one breaks, whatever the time of day, you will be able to carry on with the show. If something breaks but you don't have a spare and you don't have time to go and buy a new piece of equipment, you will have to quickly assess the consequences of this breakage on your performance.

You should do everything in your power to avoid a last minute cancellation, so always try to improvise. If you know someone who has a similar piece of equipment then you should try and get in touch with them to see if you can borrow theirs on a temporary basis. If not, contact your next client as soon as you can to explain the situation.

Always offer an alternative, saying that you can postpone the show to another time, offer a different performance to the one that you had agreed (which does not require the broken piece of equipment) and try to arrange a discount for them so that they are not still paying for a show they didn't book.

Remain calm and think on your feet to try and come to the best solution possible for everyone involved.

Now that you have come to the end of this final chapter on the theory of balloon moddeling, you should recognise what it takes for a business to be resilient, and exactly how you should react in different difficult situations. Hopefully you will now feel confident about dealing with the unexpected in your balloon modelling business and about managing situations which you had not previously planned for.