Small Business Highlight: The Pop of the Party

Danielle Carver is a full-time dental hygienist whose office closed down for a few months during the pandemic. During this time off, she started The Pop of the Party and made balloon garlands. She got this idea from wanting to have balloons for her daughter's first birthday party.“During this time at home, I started researching quality balloon brands, colors, and how to assemble garlands. I started creating garlands for around the house, and my love of the trade grew as I learned the lingo and followed large balloon companies such as Balloon Therapy and Pop Park City.” She told me how her friend convinced her to start an Instagram account to document her creations, which led her to create balloon installations for her friends and other family members. They would pay for the supplies and she would install them for free. “After several of these events and posting on Instagram, my first customer saw my posts and hired me. Now I have thousands of followers across multiple platforms.” You can see some of the amazing installations for yourself on her Instagram page: @thepopoftheparty.

The Pop of the Party has done birthdays, weddings, Valentine’s Day, Homecoming, and the 4th of July. Since Danielle has done many different types of parties and events, I asked if she had a favorite. She said, “That’s like picking a favorite child. I like all events because they are all different, so it allows me to be constantly creative and come up with new ideas.” Danielle’s balloon displays also come in many different sizes, so I asked her what the most amount of balloons you’ve used for an event. She said her biggest installation used 138 feet of balloons.

Since it didn’t take Danielle very long to fall in love with creating with balloons, I asked her what she loves most about creating with this medium. She said, “I create in an organic style, meaning not linearly or symmetrical, therefore even if I am asked to recreate a past project, I won’t be able to do it. I will use the same colors, but the location of the colors would be different. This organic style makes it so much fun to see the project come together as I add more and more balloons.” Danielle loves how it allows her to be creative and gives that side of her brain a chance to stretch its legs and run wild.

Another question I had for Danielle was if she had a childhood memory attached to balloons and she had an interesting answer: “No, I never thought of balloons or had any interest before my daughter’s birthday. But it’s funny, now when I watch movies or tv shows, I notice the balloons- they stand out wherever I go and whatever I see.”

The last question was what do you love about being a small business in Memphis. Danielle said, “I have greatly enjoyed the community of other balloon artists. Several of us have met and become friends who help each other with supplies and provide tips and tricks to make our projects better. We like and comment on each others’ posts on social media and encourage each other throughout the process.” They are always there to help each other out. One way they do this is by recommending each other to clients if they are all booked up. Danielle does this with four or five other balloon artists around Memphis. It keeps their businesses thriving together instead of solely seeing them as competitors, which is just another example of how amazing Memphis small businesses help to see each other succeed.

We would like to thank Danielle from The Pop of the Party for taking the time to talk to us about her business. You can find her website here: The Pop of the Party, and also check out her social media here: Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. If you would like to be featured on our Small Business Highlight Series, you can contact us at blog@theprofitlink.com and you can find us on social media here: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Twitter.