One of the most colorfully successful businesses in the Nashville area is called LaMarvelous Balloons, a creative company that provides spectacular balloon sculptures and designs for almost any occasion.
The founder and owner is an entrepreneur named Lamar Allen, and he’s caught the fancy of everyone in Tennessee, making numerous appearances on Nashville TV, on podcasts, and in magazine spreads as the community marvels at the LaMarvelous success of his business.
What they’re discovering is that Lamar Allen’s entrepreneurial success all goes back to the foundational education he received as a student at Chandler Park Academy in Harper Woods, a K-12 charter school that’s authorized by Saginaw Valley State University.
“Being that my family are native Detroiters, my mother wanted her children to attend a school conveniently located near our home,” Lamar told us for a story in our Charter Connect magazine a few years back. “We lived right across the street from the Harper Woods area, so Chandler Park Academy was within walking distance. Most importantly, CPA had a history and reputation of providing quality education to its students. This is what attracted my mother most.”
Lamar enrolled at Chandler Park Academy as a seventh-grader and blossomed academically, socially and in every other way. By the time he graduated in 2013, he had been voted Senior Class President and was a member of the school’s National Honor Society.
Lamar knew that his next stop would be college, but he knew that his family wouldn’t be able to shoulder that financial burden. That’s when the people at Chandler Park Academy stepped in and gave him all the support he needed.
“CPA provided me with multiple financial resources, connections, and opportunities that not only helped me get into college, but get through college,” he said. “With the help of CPA’s administration and faculty, I secured over $300,000 in scholarships and aid from five HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) including Fisk University, Morehouse College, Johnson C. Smith University, Philander Smith College, and Tuskegee University. The scholarships awarded to me were also from local organizations including the Coleman A. Young Foundation, Skillman Foundation, MI First Credit union, and Detroit Omega Foundation.”
Lamar decided to attend Fisk University, an HBCU in Nashville, and thanks to the help he received from Chandler Park Academy, his education was paid for. He also enrolled with a head start on his education thanks to a dual-enrollment program that Chandler Park Academy had with Wayne County Community College. He had 21 college credits by the time he got to Fisk.
Lamar graduated from Fisk University in 2017 and began a career in business, working as a financial analyst in Nashville. He was also spending time, though, with a side gig he had launched in college – a balloon business he called LaMarvelous Balloons. His weekdays were spent in the office and his weekends were spent making spectacular balloon sculptures – a talent he’d picked up back during his Chandler Park Academy days.
“When I got to Fisk, I had my phone bill and some responsibilities and I wanted to be a little independent,” he said. “I wanted to dive into figuring out how to make some cash. I had a talent. There wasn't anybody else on campus that was using balloons as a way to celebrate and to have fun at events, so I started a business.”
And just like a balloon, his business kept expanding once he graduated from Fisk. It wasn’t long before he realized that his side gig needed to become his full-time gig. Making balloon creations was his passion, and now it was going to become his career.
I actually resigned from my finance job to pursue LaMarvelous Balloons full-time,” he said. “And what's really, really, really crazy is that I never in a million years thought that I would be in this position today where the business has grown to where it has. It's really mind blowing because when I started the business, I was taking this thing that I really love to do, just make some income on the side and now it's my actual full-time job. It's how I pay bills. It's how I eat.”
The business has become hugely successful, with groups and companies throughout the Nashville area looking to hire LaMarvelous Balloons for every event under the sun. His company’s Facebook page shows that he recently made a series of colorful balloon creations for the Black History Month event at the Vanderbilt University Black Cultural Center.
“I really do believe in me,” he said. “I have a support system of people, whether it's in the professional industry or whether it's just some, you know, some Fiskites that I've met, mentors or whatnot, who always gave me encouragement when it was needed. I knew that I had a business that had a model that worked. I had clients who always said that you know you have great customer service, love to working with you, love your artistic ability. So I knew these things and I'm like, if I know these things, then of course the business is going to be successful.”
And it all started as a charter school student at Chandler Park Academy.
“My foundation is strong because of the resources and opportunities that CPA provided me,” he said.
For more on Lamar Allen and LaMarvelous Balloons, check out the Floating to the Top mini-documentary!
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