Greetings.
My writing has slowed. I don’t love it. Here is an update about the empire I am trying to run.
I didn’t want to bore you with so many bubble posts that this became a blog about bubbles. I only wrote one full post about it and haven’t gone far past that. To snap out of my writing funk, I decided to dive deeper into what has consumed my life for the past 3+ years.
While living in Seoul during the pandemic, I decided to move back to Canada. It had almost been ten years since I moved to Thailand and I wanted to spend more time with my family. While I enjoyed teaching, I had heard that teaching at home can be a challenge (it is) and might not be the right career choice for the next 25 years when I moved home. I had been interested in starting a business and the idea of entrepreneurship. I started to think, “What is similar to teaching but a bit more fun?” and “What do people spend a lot of money on?” This guided me to birthday parties for kids which led me to find lots of bubble businesses in Los Angeles and New York. I wouldn’t need a storefront, seemed simple enough and half the year I could do the majority of shows outdoors.
From the day I started looking into how to start a bubble business to today, this idea has essentially taken over my life. Nobody in Ottawa was doing this. A few small businesses were doing this in Toronto but that was about it. Bubbles were not a thing. I was terrified that someone was going to take this idea and have it up and running by the time I moved back to Ottawa. I created a Google alert for Bubbles in Ottawa. The only emails I would get would be about housing bubbles and COVID bubbles; turns out I had nothing to worry about. It’s been three years and if someone wants bubbles in Ottawa, they reach out to me.
When I write that someone reaches out, it is about 99% of moms who e-mail me. Occasionally, a dad will reach out but for whatever reason, birthday planning seems to fall on the mom’s side of the planning fence. Here are some other timbits of information that I have learned since starting Bubble Birthdays:
-Free food! Sometimes. Lots of pizza and cake being served a parties and usually lots leftover for the bubble guy to eat in his car on the way to the next show.
-Ottawa is super windy and wind isn’t ideal for making big bubbles.
-I have so much bubble stuff. The number of bins, tarps, wands, chargers, signs, tattoos, bookmarks, guar gum, baking powder, Dawn, gloves, glycerin, cutting boards, straws, books, paper towels, pony beads, pipe cleaners, pipettes, first aid kits, tables, towels, signs, speakers, etc. It’s wild. In Seoul, I owned one plate. That plate broke one day and I started using my cutting board. How times change.
-Google ads work. More than half of my business comes from Google ads and while it isn’t super cheap, I would be in big trouble without it.
-People call bubbles balloons a lot. “Oh, look at that balloon” or “Pop those balloons”. It shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does but it gets me.
-Whatever goes right, I take the credit. If something goes wrong, it’s a bit harder to blame someone else but I try.
-Nobody has not paid me for a party or event. I thought it would happen maybe once or twice a year. People are generally good.
-I have thirty-six 5-star reviews. Not bad but I should probably have more. Some people LOVE writing reviews but if I had a review for every time someone said they would write me one, I would have many, many more reviews!
-I thought once someone hired me, that would be the end of it. It turns out, multiple people have hired me for another party or event. I have been to one kid’s birthday party three times! It’s also somewhat common for me to have gone to one kid’s party and their younger brother or sister wanted me back for their party. This pleases the Bubble King.
-I dressed up as a Bubble King for Halloween…
-Kids LOVE stickers and tattoos. The bookmarks I give away aren’t as big of a hit but I hope they are being put to good use.
-I have forgotten a lot of materials in a lot of different places. This might not surprise you. The number of gloves I have lost is very high. Should this encourage me to make and bring a checklist with me to every show? It should. It should.
-You know what song still gets young and older people going? The Macarena.
https://www.theringer.com/2023/2/8/23590543/los-del-rio-the-macarena-podcast-history
-Having a graphic designer design marketing materials or anything else that helps a business look good is essential. Canva has also been a big help.
-I have been doing more and more shows for kids with special needs and it warms my heart that I can bring joy to kids of all ages and abilities.
-I make a lot of bubble solution in my bubble lab; I mean A LOT of solution.
-I thought at one point I would be in the newspaper or have a TV morning show reach out to me; that has not happened.
-I put Santa in a bubble so that was something that happened.
-I made T-shirts that said, I like big bubbles and I cannot lie. Apparently, parents don’t want to dress their kids in them.
-End-of-the-year BBQs are a huge thing here in Ottawa.
-I did 50 shows in June. 50.
My ultimate goal is to turn Bubble Birthdays into a franchise. My dream would be to have them all over the world. Australia, Europe, Africa. The warmer the place, the better it would be because there is a significant drop in the winter months compared to when I can do shows outdoors. I am working on my franchise idea this winter and hopefully, I can make some progress in the upcoming months.
I run this business full-time from May until about October and then I supply teach a few days a week in the fall and winter.
Would I consider this venture a success up to this point? Yes, but I want more.
Has giving up the majority of my weekends been a challenge? Yes, but I have some time during the week. Unless it is summer then I have a show almost every day.
Am I worried someone will start a rival bubble business in Ottawa? No, and I welcome the challenge.
While I doubt too many people thought this was a great business to start, I think it has turned out as well as I could have hoped. I like being in charge and making all of the decisions. I enjoy the marketing side and helping organizations that help out in the community. It’s been fulfilling to start from zero, and have no bookings to now when people reach out fairly consistently because they have heard such great things.
I hope my bubble update didn’t pop the fun out of reading my post and I hope to be back soon for non-bubble-related updates.
Sincerely,
The Bubble King
"You’re too big to blow bubbles." Kid at a party.
