Buying one is easy. Keeping it flying is what separates the ones that work from the ones in a box.
Placement
Put it where the traffic is, not where it is convenient to tether. The balloon needs a clear line of sight from the road that carries your customers, which is often not the road your front door faces.
At 120 feet it clears rooflines, sign clutter and most trees. That is the point of the height.
Sourcing helium
Use a local welding-gas or industrial-gas supplier. They sell industrial gas by the tank and are used to accounts that come back monthly. Do not order helium online.
Expect about $300 for a 200 cubic foot tank, roughly $1.50 per cubic foot. Ask about cylinder rental terms while you are there.
The top-off habit
You lose about one percent a day, so nothing fails suddenly. The balloon softens and starts riding lower on the tether.
Use that sag as your signal rather than a calendar. When it stops looking taut from the road it has stopped selling. That works out to every three to seven days.
The one rule
Winds over 25 miles per hour in the forecast means bring it inside. Not when the wind arrives, when it is forecast.
Almost every serious loss traces back to somebody deciding to ride out a forecast. It deflates, folds and stores flat in the box it arrived in, so bringing it in is a ten minute job, not an ordeal.
Who we are
Forty years manufacturing polyurethane advertising balloons and blimps. Around 40 fly weekly in greater Phoenix on our equipment, and some clients have been with us more than thirty years.
One million dollars in liability insurance, and one claim in forty years, for two thousand dollars. If your first question is what happens if it comes down on a car, that record is the answer.
More at advertisingblimps.com.