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32-year-old Dora Lee arrange celebration enterprise Funlah virtually three years in the past with just a few bottles of paint, packets of balloons, and a helium fuel tank.
This ‘gung-ho’ mannerism isn’t an unusual sight seen for Dora. She’s a serial entrepreneur who has seen her fair proportion of ups, and downs. From handmade clay jewelry to customised telephone casing to yoga health put on, the entrepreneur was promoting numerous issues for eight years till she chanced upon celebration gadgets, which turned out to be her long-lost love.
“I decided to look for a new business that could allow my creativity to flourish and something that would bring happiness to consumers when they receive their orders. The first thing that struck my mind was birthdays, which are always happy occasions. Hence, Funlah was born to bring fun and laughter to every special celebration,” stated Dora.
Today, Funlah is worthwhile and has grown from a handful of shoppers to hundreds of frequent prospects, Dora stated.
From cancellations to leap in orders
But the pandemic actually threw a spanner within the works for the enterprise.
“At the beginning of 2020, the sales were down as the holiday season ended and Funlah also took a short break during the Chinese New Year period. Thereafter, sales were not very optimistic as Singapore started to see new cases of Covid-19 and many people were very concerned about it. We started receiving calls and emails to postpone their celebration and some chose to cancel their parties.”
However, after the Circuit Breaker, issues began taking a flip for the higher and it took Dora abruptly.
Even although individuals aren’t allowed to rejoice their birthdays or commencement in an enormous group with their mates and households, gifting of balloons turned very fashionable. “We have grandparents sending balloons to grandchildren and celebrations through Zoom calls, teachers sending graduation balloons to their students, and people doing small celebrations at home,” she stated.
“E-commerce gifting became an ‘in thing’ and the demand for home celebrations increased too. This helped us gain brand awareness which eventually led to more orders of our party balloons.”
Online presence, broad number of balloons entice prospects
The leap in orders was couldn’t have been attainable with out the enterprise’ e-commerce presence and Google search visitors, the place a bulk of the shoppers discovered Funlah by way of natural searches.
The broad number of balloons and aggressive pricing additionally helped the enterprise entice new prospects.
The enterprise’ hottest merchandise are balloons, adopted by celebration provides like banners, tassels, backdrop curtains, and pinatas for youngsters to play with. The assortment ranges from generic balloons to animals, sports activities, and superheroes. There are even themes like Disney princesses, vehicles, Pokemon, and Paw Patrol.
“Generally, most of our customers will order online and some prefer to chat with us via WhatsApp or Messenger before placing an order online as it is their first-time getting balloons,” shared Dora.
The majority of shoppers often make their orders upfront, however Funlah additionally does same-day supply. However, the same-day supply typically is determined by schedule and manpower, she stated.
Up, up, and away
Dora revealed that Funlah is making extra earnings than final 12 months, however the entrepreneur has taken the earnings to reinvest into the enterprise.
“More than 50 per cent were reinvested into the business for future growth to support a greater variety of party items and new members joining our team,” she stated.
As Christmas celebrations kick into full swing, she provides that demand and enquiries for Funlah’s celebration gadgets have risen by 20 to 30 per cent and are anticipated to proceed till Chinese New Year subsequent 12 months, which is on Feb 1.
2022, come what might
If something the pandemic has taught her, it’s to be resilient to adjustments and Dora says she is able to deal with 2022, come what might.
“In 2020, we had to deal with a lot of anxiety and frustration as more parties and events were cancelled. A lot of products were out of stock and shipping was delayed. I had to look for alternatives and other new suppliers to source for the items.”
“It was a challenging experience as the supply chain was affected, especially the balloons from the United States and a few of our suppliers were having limited manpower to fulfill our orders,” she stated.
In spite of the enhance in gross sales, Funlah isn’t taking a break and going full swing into sourcing and offering a greater diversity of merchandise for purchasers. Last month, it launched its personalised hand-painted helium balloons collection in order that prospects who plan to present family and friends these celebration gadgets can craft private messages.
Featured Image Credit: Funlah
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