When I first stumbled upon "The Prosper Digital Balloon Business Start Up Kit", I was sceptical. The sales page contained just too much "hype" for my taste. Still, I kept coming back to it, mainly because the name Charles Prosper seemed to pop up everywhere in the world of balloon decorations.

Not only has "The Baron of Balloons" (as he is often referred to) written a series of excellent articles about various balloon decorating topics at EzineArticles, but he also created videos with step-by-step instructions about some of his popular designs and shared them freely over the Internet. I had even featured the "Bride and Groom" video on Balloon Decoration Guide before I knew about his balloon business start up kit.

Hm, I thought to myself, if this guy gives so much great information away for free, information where you can tell that he has first hand experience, perhaps I should give his balloon business start up kit a closer look?

I am glad I did. I only wish I would have had access to Charles' wealth of hands on tips, training materials and professional advice when I started out with balloon decorating myself!

You are lucky, because you can have access. So, back to our original question: "Is The Prosper Digital Balloon Business Start Up Kit right for YOU?"

• are determined to start a balloon decorating business,
• learn best with a combination of reading, watching and listening,
• like to be "taken by the hand" and guided along with patience,
• enjoy diving really deep into the subject, including excursions about history of balloon decorating and
• prefer having personal contact with the trainer rather than buying from a big corporation

• you don't know yet if starting a business in general, and a balloon business in particular is the way for you to go, or
• you are already good at balloon decorating and just need some quick and easy lessons how to start a business

You'd be better off with a more basic course that helps you in deciding whether you want to become an entrepreneur and - if so - guides you in becoming one. My newly released  "How to Start Your Own Balloon Decorating Business - 7 Easy Lessons to Success" does exactly this.

My Review

How will you benefit from "The Prosper Digital Balloon Business Start Up Kit"? First of all, as it's a digital kit, you will have instant access to all parts of the kit after you purchase. No waiting for any DVD or book to arrive in the post.

Now, let's look at the different pieces of this training kit:

First published in 1987, Charles revised it completely for his Millenium Edition in 2000. He mentions its value with $35, but if you actually wanted to buy the book at Amazon, for example, you will only find used copies on offer for $175. A price that comes closer to its actual value, in my opinion.

With 20 chapters and 160+ pages, it's not a quick read. Take your time when you go through it. Only then will you absorb the little pearls of wisdom and hands on tricks from 25+ years of balloon decorating experience sprinkled throughout the book.

Tips like how to reduce the time to do a 50 balloon arch with 3 people in 3 minutes rather than 15 minutes, or what the single most important word is after a potential customer calls you, or how to get 3 new customers from every wedding you did ... they seem so simple that you wonder why you didn't think of them before!

I only wish there would be more spacing between the paragraphes. The small font and few line breaks make the reading more difficult than it should be. But that's about the only minus point I could say about Charles' book.

Don't just take my word for it though. Charles has agreed to share the first three chapters of his book for FREE with my readers.

Click here to read the first three chapters of The Book "How To Become A Balloon Artist And Make Up To $100,000 A Year" in your browser, or right-click to download it.

2) Four Balloon Decoration Training Videos
For teaching how to do balloon decorations, videos are the second best medium to live balloon decorating classes. And Charles has done countless videos, many of them are freely available on YouTube.

• How to do The Bride & Groom
• How to do The Balloon Clowns
• How to do The Dance Floor Arches
• How to Put Balloons Inside of Balloons for Creative Centerpieces

Watch the free sample clip and you will agree that the videos not only show step-by-step how to create the designs, but that they are also professionally done, with excellent image and sound quality. Nothing more annoying than if you can barely hear what the instructor says or see what he does.

3) 24 Photos to Jumpstart Your Portfolio
Your portfolio is your most important marketing tool. If you can't SHOW potential customers what designs you can do or have done, they won't hire you. Would you trust someone to decorate your wedding if they only TELL you what great balloon artists they are, but do not SHOW any proof?

But if you are just starting out, how do you get those crucial photos for your portfolio? One way would be to do various decorations at home, or offer them for free to public places like libraries or charity events. This way, you'll gain both practice and photos.

Still, you can only do a small number of decorations this way, as you'll have to cover all the costs yourself. That's why the 24 high resolution photos included in Prosper's Balloon Business Start Up Kit are a phantastic way to jumpstart your very own portfolio.

Below are a few samples of the photos you'll receive.

4) 8 Weeks of Recorded Balloon Seminar Training (Bonus)
The combination of different learning mediums is what I especially like about Charles' Kit. You have the book, you have the videos, and you have audio recordings.

Whether you work full time or are a stay-at-home mom, one day never seems to have enough hours. So what I would do is transfer the audio files onto my Ipod, and listen to the sessions on my way to work, or whilst doing household chores. The second reason why I really like recordings is that you can listen to them times and again - and we all know that we learn best with repetition.

The 8 weeks of teleseminar are based on the 20 chapters in Charles' book. This gives the course a good structure, and allows you to read up the main points in the book. I found that once you start listening (and have passed the somewhat tedious admin tasks at the very beginning), you can hardly stop.

Charles has a talent in weaving personal experience, hands-on advice and interesting facts about balloon decorating into an exciting story that makes you yearning for more. Yet he never looses focus of the seminar's main purpose: to teach you how to earn a good living as a professional balloon decorator.

5) 15 Minutes Business Strategy Telephone Session with Charles Prosper (Bonus)
You won't get such an offer from the other big players in the balloon business, who offer training kits as well (Qualatex and Conwin). Having personal advice from an expert with 25+ years of experience is priceless.

One caveat though: 15 min will fly by like nothing. So be VERY well prepared before you arrange a call with Charles. Come up with your one to three most pressing questions and let him know upfront what you want to address. This way, Charles will know how much time he can spend on each topic.

To sum up, if you are serious about becoming a balloon professional AND earning a decent income with it, "The Prosper Digital Balloon Business Start Up Kit" is your best buy right now. I haven't seen a better all-in-one kit on the market.

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