We recently connected with Morgan Alvarado and have shared our conversation below.
Morgan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Being a stay at home homeschooling mom of seven daughters with a husband who started a new career path as a plumber and his 30s going to night school and working for the union until he could build his own company meant we had to be very tight with money and creative. Yes, seven daughters That means every night was like a slumber party ( in our small apartment) and there was a lot of birthdays… and tea parties. And growing up, I was an only child who cried, at every hungry kid and animal commercial, I tried to save every stray and feed every hungry and lonely animal I could find. I saw that my kids had the same love for animals we got a cat, she got pregnant we got hooked on kittens and started breeding Persians and of course we turned into a rabbit rescue😂. Cause that’s what you do right? So we started doing field trips to our rabbit rescue / “bunny farm”. And what’s cooler than a bunny and kitten party? A bunny and kitten tea party!! Through this experience, my children all have skills and customer service, animal handling, business management, educating and teaching, photography, Marketing, economy production style work, and how valuable the hard work is the dirty work, how to be kind when you’re in a rush, how to work as a group and deal with the public, which can be very difficult sometimes. Something that everybody learns when they come to my farm or has a petting zoo of my animals at their party is empathy. Rabbits can’t talk you have to watch their body movements to know their feelings to know how to treat them. Our oldest daughter went to college to be a teacher. Our second daughter has her own dog walking and sitting business and works at an elementary school in the afternoons. Fourth daughter works for our church in the team center department getting kids off the streets. Our fifth daughter works at Starbucks while going to school for cosmetology. Our sixth daughter has her own commissioned art and cartoons business on Twitter. Our seventh daughter is still at home , in high school and my business partner. She’s looking forward to being in the childcare/preschool industry until she becomes a mom and then she wants to stay home with her kids and teach them how to be entrepreneur as well. Owning your own business doesn’t have to just be that means to an end. Entrepreneurship can be a legacy you can leave your family for generations. I’m very thankful to Jesus for giving me this opportunity to grow up these women, and very thankful to my husband, who with his work ethic and provision, for this family taught all of us hard work and made all this able to happen. we didn’t learn anything as kids. Both of us grew up with single moms on welfare and on drugs. We took care of both of our moms until they passed away. They were both very proud of us for breaking the cycle. Not everyone can get out of that rut with the scholarship to play ball, but you can be empowered when you believe that you can. And even if you don’t believe keep going and don’t give up and you’ll probably surprise yourself. I have Philippians 314 tattooed on my finger. It says, forgetting the past looking forward, running the race, keeping your eye on the prize of the upward call of God in Christ.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I think that the last question I answered, answered a lot of these. But as for the industry and details of what we do we have a rabbit rescue/Bunny Farm, where we do field trips, rehoming, tea parties with bunnies and kittens and we do Petting zoos at other peoples parties and schools with bunnies and kittens and ducklings😍. Our goal is caring for the animals and helping people build memories they’ll never forget. Our tea parties are definitely not your grandma‘s tea party although many grandmas, have a great time when they come. One of our favorites is our mad Hatter tea party. It’s a fully immersive experience and it’s a costume party where everybody gets to be in character,( if they’d like). We bake and make everything ourselves. And we really go for the wow factor on every party. And everyone gets to interact with the animals. And we are full service people get to show up and do nothing. We do everything. My favorite thing to hear that I hear so often is this is the best birthday I’ve ever had . Our petting zoos are at other peoples places we bring bunnies and rabbits, kittens, and cats and ducklings. It’s very clean we can do indoors and outdoors. The field trips we host at our farm are very educational and memorable. We can also do Girl Scout badges for troops that come. In the fall, we are planning a homeschool pod/ farm school. We will be teaching A variety of subjects including farm to Table living, creative entrepreneurship, consumer math, how to live in this world with all these people and all these feelings and of course, lots about animals!
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
I like to use social media platforms, Instagram, and Facebook. I advertise on Facebook groups and direct them to my Instagram. Facebook has so many helpful groups. Most areas of my county have a group called everything for your party. Everyone in the group is either looking to find vendors or is a vendor. I also bring business cards with me when I go on events and people usually ask me If they can get my card.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
A conclusion I have come to on my business journey and my social media is I think I would do better if I would stay more specific about my brand. Example, if I would just stick to parties or if I would just stick to education and field trips, I think it would be easier to concentrate All my energy into one thing. I tend to spread myself to thin doing too many different types of things.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Lisbon_bunny_farms
- Facebook: Morgan Alvarado
