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Steven
Jones,
Cincinnati, OH USA
“My favorite Conwin
inflator is the
Dual
Split Second Sizer."
"This device literally
changed my business. The precision and speed of the
unit allowed me to work faster, cleaner and more efficiently.
It freed up time in my day to further market myself
and take on more work. In the end, I made a LOT more
money! The unit has paid for itself 100 times over!!”
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Being an art major in college, I always knew that
somehow my future plans had to involve something that would allow
me to express myself creatively. I never realized, however, my ultimate
medium of choice would end up being balloons!
I started dabbling in twisting in 1996, making balloon animals for
kids at a local swap meet. Then, a trip to the International Balloon
Arts Convention in Chicago, convinced me that there was more to
my new found hobby than just a few dogs and swords.
In 1998, I founded Aeration Decorations, the company I run today.
It grew from a home-based part time venture into a full time, studio-based
business in just a few years and we just keep getting bigger.
One of my proudest accomplishments in the balloon industry actually
took place in 2003 when Larry Moss, one of the founders of BalloonHQ.com,
asked me to become a columnist on his website. It was very flattering
to have someone of Larry's stature and success specifically seek
me out to be an author on his site. To this day, it's one of the
biggest compliments I've ever been paid.
In 2004, I founded BalloonTown USA, the largest annual public balloon
exhibit in the United States. The event grew from 18,000 balloons
in '04 to over 30,000 in 2005. And the 2006 project is expected
to surpass 50,000 latex balloons in the sculpture, tentatively titled
"Farmer Floyd's a-Floatin' Farm."
2005 was a very good year for me. Aside from having a record year
in overall sales, I also won the title of Designer of the Year from
Flowers Inc. Balloons / Burton and Burton. Two weeks later, I won
the Large Sculpture Competition at Balloon Summer Camp in Las Vegas.
It was the seventh national award I won in just over a year.
And 2006 has become another good year already. Aside from being
chosen as a Conwin Spotlight Artist, I was also asked to serve on
the advisory board for Betallic, LLC. In addition, I have already
taught this year at Twist and Shout and will be an instructor at
Balloon Summer Camp.
A selection of Steven Jones' BalloonHQ.com editorial:
"...We had been hired to build at the time
our biggest job ever. We knew that our little single balloon inflator,
while great for certain jobs, just wasn't going to cut it for this
one. So I dug deep and shelled out the dough for Conwin's signature
piece.
At the time, all I could think about was how
much money I had spent. But it wouldn't be long before I realized
just how much money I had SAVED by my purchase. Jobs that were taking
three and four hours were now knocked down to a half an hour. Instead
of being able to take on one or two bookings a day, we were now
in the position to handle multiple jobs every day. We were now able
to step our business up a notch because of this new gear.
But something else happened as well. It added to the "wow"
factor that is so important to our profession. When we would show
up to an event and start hooking up the equipment to a tank, our
clients would marvel that we actually used a machine to do the inflation.
After a quick 30-second lesson of how it worked and why it was so
important, we were able to accomplish two things. First, we were
able to educate our clients and demonstrate why we are balloon PROFESSIONALS.
Secondly, it further reinforced why they should hire us over some
of our competitors because of attention to detail..." ---Steven
Jones
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