Meet Franchesca Howe-Vachon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Franchesca Howe-Vachon. 

Hi Franchesca, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We are a family-owned business. Believe in Dream Creations started as a hobby, decorating for our daughter’s parties and some close friends. We received wonderful feedback from family and friends, so we decided to bring our creativity to our community. I first began decorating for our daughter’s birthday parties while I worked as a paralegal at a Downtown Dayton Law firm for 8 years. Throughout those years, I would decorate occasionally for friends and family until the requests became regular. That’s when we decided to create our business to potentially grow into something we never expected. 

We began promoting on social media and continued receiving more and more requests while I continued working as a full-time paralegal. Then, in early 2020, we got pregnant with our second child, during the pandemic, we decided it would be best for our family for me to stop working and stay home with our girls. I stopped working at the law firm in August 2020. We took a small break while I gave birth to our second baby girl in March 2021. The support from our community has continued ever since. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It most certainly hasn’t been a smooth road. Many small businesses take the rollercoaster route, we aren’t any different. The swing of emotion as a small business owner is exciting, difficult, stressful, yet rewarding. Making the commitment to pursue a hobby as a source of income, during a pandemic, while pregnant, certainly had me asking myself, “What the heck are we doing?” There were moments of defeat, considering abandoning the idea of running a small business. Inquiries weren’t coming in, sitting on inventory and uninspired creatively. During those times of feeling low we became inspired by our community to keep pushing. During the most challenging times, we were able to grow as a business and more importantly, grow as individuals. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We offer balloon delivery and installations. Jumbo balloons, balloon bouquets, helium balloons, balloon garlands, custom balloon columns, backdrops, and candy cart rentals. We specialize in customized balloon decorations for various events like baby showers, gender reveals, bridal showers, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, business openings, and other special events. No contact drop off of balloon bouquets as well. 

We are most proud of and what sets us apart from others is our attention to detail on each project we are honored to be a part of. From the inquiry to the setup, we work diligently with clients to provide them with the experience they are dreaming of. We use the highest quality and most environmentally friendly balloons we can source. One of our main balloon suppliers is from Ohio. Also, we offer more than just balloons. We make our backdrops and candy carts available for rent and have tables and offer complete setups. 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
We learned how to control what we can control. The COVID-19 crisis was unavoidable and impacted businesses and life everywhere. We learned how to adapt our options, what we could control, to our clients. The idea of setting up large decorations and inviting people to events was no longer an option. We began offering no contact delivery of balloon bouquets. These became a huge success and got our name out to our community. 

Contact Info:

• Email: Believeindreamcreations@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.believeindreamcreations.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/believeindreamcreations/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelieveInDreamCreations

Image Credits
Kiley Shea Photography
Sandunga Photography