Today we’d like to introduce you to Georgina Silva.
Georgina, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. I went to law school, have some studies in Business Management, Criminology, Culinary Arts nothing related to exploring my creativity or designing, my background is more about reading & comprehension and problem-solving.
Since I was young, I’ve always enjoyed decorating parties, all of my birthdays were themed birthdays (black and white, Las Vegas, neon party, White party) and I’ve always done all the crafts and decorations. My friends may say they didn’t but I’m sure they loved getting outfits for my parties lol. I enjoy making any small gathering something special and something to be remembered. I think something doesn’t have to be big to be memorable, it’s all about the little details.
My mom is very creative and my grandmother too so I got that from them. I grew up watching my mom drawing, helping us with school projects and planning our parties. I will always remember a birthday party I had in my school when I was little, she made this little mermaid’s pen hats with felt for me and my classmates.
I moved to the United States in 2018. I started working in office jobs but kept doing small DIY projects on my own for the house, friends/family birthdays or mine. In October 2020, I found a Circuit machine on sale that everyone in a Facebook group I follow were looking for and I decided to buy it. I thought, well if I don’t use it, I might as well sell it for the full price and earn some extra money, but once I opened it and connected it to my laptop, I started watching YouTube tutorials of all the things I could do with the circuit and my mind started creating. I said to myself… this is your thing. My first project was Christmas ornaments. I took pictures and showed them to my mom and some friends and they loved them. Made some for my aunt with their names and she loved them too. She took pictures and showed them to her friends, my mom did the same thing and friends of theirs started texting me that they wanted ornaments with their names and asking for prices and pictures. I honestly wasn’t planning all of this so I opened an Instagram account to upload the pictures of the ornaments that were done, like a catalog, just to make it easier to show the pictures and I realized that people started following me so I kept creating. Then, I posted the pictures on Facebook groups and the marketplace and more people started ordering them. I ended up making around 600 ornaments from October to December 2020.
As I kept doing ornaments, people started asking me for Christmas and birthday gifts and a lot of other items they wanted to personalize so my catalog of products and services started to grow. It became my distraction from work and my side business.
In December 2020, I thought that I have to keep adding more services and products so I bought a heat press machine and a new printer for sublimation. I learned how to use them by watching YouTube tutorials. No previous experience in any of this.
I’ve always liked to plan parties so in January 2021, I started investing in props for parties. Wall flowers, Shiny walls, cylinder stands, cake stands and offering ‘Rent for parties’ service.
Since I was working in a Law firm during the day and working with Unbox after work there was a point where I was really exhausted and orders kept coming so I decided to go full time with my -now register- Business ”Unbox Happiness LLC”.
I took balloon courses and stationary courses and now I’m offering a more complete party service, from personalizing any kind of product, making party favors to decorating parties in just a year.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been easy. I don’t think starting a business will always be a smooth road. There’s been times when creativity is gone, you’re completely blank and you feel the pressure to keep showing new things, posting new work, keeping your followers interested in your work but you can’t. Also, there is the administrative/economic aspect of owning a business, you get to question yourself a lot of things like “is it really profitable? Would I be able to live out of this?” There is Good weeks and weeks with no sales.
As you know, we’re big fans of Unbox Happiness LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Unbox Happiness was created to bring joy to people. Like the name says it by itself. I want people to receive something made by me that brings joy and a smile. I make every product by myself and believe me, I put my heart into it. I won’t make something and deliver it to you if I’m not satisfied with the final product and if I think I could have done it better. I’m a perfectionist. All I do is like I was doing it for myself. I try to get people involved in the creating process as much as I can, I want them to feel that it is really made by them too.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The major risk I’ve taken will probably be quitting my 8-5 job and going full time with Unbox Happiness, talking about the money aspect. Having an 8-5 job, we may say it’s ‘safe money’ but when you start your business some weeks can be amazing and others may not and you’ll get worried. We all have bills to pay. Other than that, I used to have my own Business in Venezuela and being able to start a business here was an idea I had in my head and I wanted to materialize since I moved here. God gave me the opportunity to do it without looking for it… it just happened. I’ve been learning and growing during this last year in a way I could never imagine and every day I wake up and go to sleep thinking about what is going to be next for Unbox Happiness.
Contact Info:
- Email: unboxhappinessusa@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/UnboxHappinessUSA
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnboxHappinessUSA
