Welcome
Prospective and Enrolled Students!
Enrolled Students:
We have just
switched venues for our classes. For the
Comprehensive 6 day Classes the first 4 days are being
held at the Holiday Inn Express, 9402 Corporate
Lake Drive and Anderson Road, Tampa 33634
813-885-3700
www.hiextampahotel.com The last two
classes are being held at another venue (changes for each
class).
For the 3 day Techniques and Portfolio class, first 2 days
are there and day 3 is else where.
Manager Soraya Fernandez,
sfernandez.hiexpress@hotmail.com has given our Balloon
Class a great deal of $69 per night at her beautiful
hotel. This includes a full hot breakfast and coffee
service all day! Across the street is a Starbucks, 3
restaurants, Subway, and AMC 24 Theater. Make sure you
book in our "block" when making the reservation to get
this price!
Also available is The Homestead Studio Suites
Hotel/Airport is at
5401 Beaumont Center Blvd East, Tampa FL 33634
The phone number is 813-243-1913. The website,
to see what the rooms look like, is
www.homesteadhotels.com. This place is in a safe location --and is right next to the
airport. You will need transportation/taxi from the
airport to the hotel which should cost you no more than
$15-18. (If the cab driver says it is more, get another
driver unless you are going in rush hour!). Special Prices for
our balloon seminars-so you need to mention that, at the Homestead are $49- per night
1 occupant and $ 5 or 10 more per night for 2 people.
Please tell them you are with the balloon seminar or you
will not get that rate!
You have to book it by phone /or fax/ at that location to
get this rate.
(Melissa is our contact person if
you have problems getting our
rate) You can booked
directly on the web too- sometimes there is a sale and you
can get it cheaper on the net! (The rooms have a
full size refrigerator, microwave and stove top- and they
do housekeeping only once a week if you stay 7 nights- the
ladies tell me.) They do accept
pet and have a pet fee. PLEASE note: In FL, tourist
city, hotels put a hold on your credit card for the total
amount of the cost of your stay, even if you are going to
be paying in cash at the end of your stay. Please
realize that this hold, once released by them, sometimes takes up
to 5 days to get the available funds/capability back to
your credit card account. Reservations not
booked with a credit card get cancelled at 6 pm- so if you
are arriving at 10 pm, please make sure you have a credit
card against your reservation. IF you are bringing
someone with you and need 2 double beds: Book early
and confirm that you have that reservation. They
only have a few of these units. Most are queen beds
or king bed and a couch for the second person. The Couch is
NOT comfortable! You have been warned!!! ALWAYS
reconfirm your reservation a few weeks before
coming!!! They have a habit of putting you in the wrong
place. They do take dogs with a pet deposit.
BTW they put in new beds at the this hotel.
The newest ones are very hard/firm. We have had many of
our students move over to the Holiday Inn Express
because of this.
Please note that if you book at any other hotel besides
the Holiday Inn Express, you must have a car to get yourself to class.
I transport you from the HI to our second venue- so you do not
need a car. Also you are
responsible for getting back and forth from hotel to
airport.
IF you make your return plane reservations during our
class time, you have to make arrangements to get to
the airport for yourself as we cannot stop the class to
accommodate your flight. (Tampa needs you to be
there the whole two hours prior to your takeoff!!!
Really! Unless it is the first flight of the day /am)
Note: Do not
buy anything before you come here. Please
use all my stuff and decide what things you like...then
buy!! SO MANY people buy equipment you don't need and
waste so much money. I will teach you how to make things without
all the extra equipment these manufacturers tell you need! I can always save you the cost of this course.
Additional notes
for the 6 day Comprehensive Seminar:
1. Everyone needs to have
their training manual in hand before the class starts and
have it read. This suggestion came from all previous
classes and said this is a must. The hitch is
you have to be fully paid. (Past bad experience)
When all the students complete the reading at home, we end
up with more hands-on time in class & ultimately do more
decor work!!!! It has been a tremendous time
saver. This means that
you tuition has to be paid no later than 14 days before
the start of class so I can 2 day air your book.
Don't put in a deposit unless you are prepared to do this.
I don't want you wasting your deposit money!
All I can say is plan ahead if
you really want to be in a
class. I am the only seminar in the US that teaches
A-Z Everything on how to run a balloon decorating business like this.
You will be up and running as soon as you leave this
class.
ABOUT
DEPOSITS: A $200 deposit means you are
serious about attending a class. Given enough
time ahead, you are allowed to move your deposit to
another session (4 weeks before class start date- if life throw
you a curve about attending,) without losing it. You may do
this only 1 time. At any given time I have 12-14
enrollment forms on each class of people wanting to
attend. What happens is someone will read
the website, decide they are coming, pay their full tuition by
Paypal the same day so they can get their training manual to be
assured a seat. Seat Gone! Happens fast and it happens ALL
the time. As time get closer to class the
ones who pay up
get the seats. A class I had in 08 I had
deposits on all 8 of the seats for 6 months. No one put
any more money down on their seat. 4 weeks before,
new people started coming in an buying up the seats with 1
payment and booted out some of the students who did not
secure their seat 30 days prior. They then moved to the next
class. Word to the wise: My Summer class is always
sold out months ahead. This is the most popular
class of the season!
Student Homework:
1. Find out what the cost of a helium
tank is in your area. You are looking to rent a 242
cubic ft tank. Find out what they charge you for demurrage
(daily rental) or cost to contract for rental of a tank
for a year. Know what deposit they need from you and how
long they will be holding it.
2. Call your local yellow pages
and find out when the new book is coming out for this year
and when the deadline is to get in it. Ask for their
rates. We are NOT going to buy a display ad....just
a normal ad in the column-no color. Get price quotes.
3. Work on
picking out a name. (Do not do this until your read the
first chapter in your
manual!) Per book instructions, have at
least 4-5 choices ready and we will tweak them with you.
We do this at lunch or dinner time.
4. If you are already getting balloons
wholesale, know what they cost you.
5. Set up a Paypal account in your
name. It does not have to be your business name.... It takes time to get
one verified so it is a good
idea to start ahead. You will be using this form of
payment if anyone want to pay you by credit card.
6. If you are using an email from hotmail.com, get a new one. I send you tons of stuff
after the class is over to a mass mailing of graduates.
Most free hotmail accounts dump anything that has many recipients, too big a
file or too many pictures. I will never know what
you did not get. You don't want to miss these updates and recipes.
Yahoo still has free emails. I have not lost one
email yet. Be simple, just use your name @yahoo.com
7. RESIST the
temptation to buy anything. Wait until after you
take the class! (or email me first) Trust me! ONLY thing
you need before the class are
some back issues of magazines I would like you to get-
this info is on
page 1 of your training manual.
8. Please fill out the class information sheet link (at the
bottom of this page) so I know what drinks to have
available during the class. Note if you drink Coffee, I can have a coffee pot there too.
*Take my plea for resting and
coming refreshed seriously. Bring your vitamins.
I'll give you last months class's email addresses and they
will confirm that this is a necessity. Cramming 29
years of experience into is hard enough for me to do...much less for you
to absorb. It is intensive, along with fun. NO ONE
has ever accused me of not getting their moneys
worth------ever.
Please make sure you fill out an
enrollment form first before you fill out the
Preference sheet
www.learnballoondecorating.com/Enrollment%20application.htm
Once
your money is in....THERE IS ONE MORE
FORM TO FILL OUT
BEFORE YOU GET HERE
Please go to:
www.learnballoondecorating.com/ClassInformationSheet.htm It helps greatly with planning
and class roster.
If you need to call me after you read all
the info,
please do so at 813-885-6500.
Info for payments: My address if you do
not want to use Paypal:
Mail check to: Linda
Kiss, 7515 Winging Way Tampa FL 33615
Here is my alternate email address in the event my site is
ever down...
lindakiss@verizon.net
To return to the main site click
link:
www.learnballoondecorating.com
