Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Gonzalez.
Karen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Everything started right when COVID-19 happened. I had been just laid off work and needed to find something to do to pay my bills and found out that I was pregnant in April, that’s when I talked to my mom, and we decided to sell fruit basket and chocolate-covered strawberries; we knew that people love surprises and what a better way to eat a yummy treat when given as a treat. Also, we are from Colombia, and over there, there’s many many stores where they sell chocolate-covered strawberries with roses, sunflowers, teddy bear and they do huge arrangements personalized as well, which is very common and popular over there. We wanted to be exclusive and create this business as a long-term business, not just for the pandemic, so we contact a designer who made out boxes; I came up with perfect name and started creating the website to be live for Mother’s Day, that was the perfect holiday to promote and get our names out there. On our first Holiday, we had more over 30 orders just for Mother’s Day; we used social media to promote at first; I created a post and just started telling friends and family to share our page and promote it too; thankfully we did really well. People love our boxes, the brand, the presentation, and even better they just LOVE our white chocolate, which you guys must try!!! Haha.
We created our website, and now we come up on google search, we have had people reach out from other states to ask if we can have something deliver to a family member, and we are extremely proud, and beyond thankful for everyone’s reviews and for wanting to support our small business, it hasn’t been easy, but we are striving to do our best and have our physical store in the future.
Also, I wanted to add since I received my bachelor’s degree in Event Management, we also do event setups such as birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, and so on. (I am also an event planner)
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?
Yes and no. It has been smooth since we have had the support of family and friends and the word of mouth, which I think that has helped us so much, but we have had also months where it’s been pretty slow, and we struggle with bringing orders in.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now, I am a real estate agent; I got my license a couple of months ago and have been focusing on selling real estate along with promoting so sweet designs to all my lenders and colleges. I have specialize in customer service all my life; since I started working, I worked at Chase Card Services as an account manager for 6 years, then I worked for the Tax Collector, where I just love to help people; I love serving my community, I love building lasting relationships, I love to connect with others, network and I’m known to be polite, nice, friendly, giving, caring, I put myself on others people shoes, and I wish I can just help everyone, I go above and beyond to help people on their needs, and if there’s no way I can help, I try to acknowledge them and be there for them. I’m most proud of graduating with honors from the Rosen College of hospitality management at UCF at just months of having my son, and I honestly don’t even know how I did it; I change my major and just saw my graduation so far from happening when I received the email of honor invitation and being the first immigrant graduating from my family was a moment that I will never forget.
I make my dreams come true by working extremely hard on them, I am a go-getter, and I find a way to commit to myself and push myself and get it done, I feel that what sets me apart and had me being so successful in this life is that I’m willing to help others without asking for something in return and I truly do it from the bottom of my heart.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I remember being the one who always went first to everything; at school, I was not shy and will just go upfront and be an extrovert; I was not scare of anything. I was always this outspoken girl that will get my mom in trouble because I would ask her why was she using the new dishes when people went over. With my cousins I remember being the “mandona” the I tell you what to do when playing, I would set rolls, and they will follow; I loved going to school and being in every event, performing and acting. My mom and my dad put me in a modeling school when I was 7 or 8, and the agency took me right away because of my personality and way of being. Since very little, I remember wanting to be a businesswoman; where I would put my mom’s clothes and pretended, I worked at a bank and needed to be dressed up, looking nice, and always on the phone.
Pricing:
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Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sosweetdesignsonline.com/
- Instagram: sosweetdesigns_
- Facebook: sosweetdesigns
- Other: TikTok sosweetdesigns_
