We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sandra Contreras. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sandra below.

Sandra , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I started my small business in January of 2021 I needed a quick name to be able to open up an instagram account. I came up with “Creations By Sandra” because I wanted to keep it broad and open to all sorts of different creations. After about a year, I started to become more serious about growing and expanding my small business. I wanted to rebrand and come up with a name for my business that would immediately let people know I was a Latina owned business while still being personal to me. After discussing this with a few friends and getting feedback we came up with “Cositas Contreras”.

“Cositas” in spanish translates to “knick knacks or little things” which still allowed me to be broad in all of the different creations/items I brought into my business. Contreras is my last name, and something I have so much pride in.

Sandra , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started my business as a creative outlet to give me something to look forward to. As a mom of two young kids (now 5 and 7) I felt myself in a constant routine of going to work, coming home and being a mom, going to sleep and doing it all over the next day. I didn’t have anything that “belonged” to me or something I could be motivated by. I looked into different crafts such as polymer clay jewelry, becoming a nail tech, and one day came across resin. I watched videos on what materials were needed to start, how to mix, learning different factors in different types of resin for a couple weeks until I gave in and ordered what I needed to start off.

This started as a hobby for me, I just wanted to learn a creative skill for myself while being able to make unique pieces for family and friends. After quickly seeing the high interest of people in my community for more of a variety of pieces and customized items, it quickly expanded into a “little” side business. Joining different craft fairs, meeting the small business community local to me, learning how to manage and push my social media out there, Cositas Contreras grew quickly. In May of 2022, I decided to believe in myself and quit my job. This is when we went full force full time in small business life.

As I’ve grown over the past two and a half years, Cositas Contreras has expanded into so much more than I would’ve ever imagined. Specializing in working with only real pressed flowers in each and every item, bringing functional unique pieces into many homes. You can shop Cositas Contreras items in 9 different stores around the Bay Area and one store out of State (Texas!)

With the growth and expansion of Cositas Contreras, I’ve been able to collaborate and bring in more items to my business making it a unique “one-stop-shop” boutique of handmade latina/o owned businesses. I now carry stickers, candles, soaps, jewelry, accessories, pins and greeting cards. Keeping all items brought in only from latina/o owned small businesses.

My biggest pride with my “small” business is that I am a one woman show. Everything is handmade by me and my business is fully run by me. I love being able to run my own markets, talk and get to know customers, see and reconnect with reoccurring customers, travel across the bay area and meet new cities.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

As much as I think having a unique product helped me build my reputation, I would say being able to meet and connect with people in person at craft fairs, markets and events has helped me most. Being able to talk to people face to face, letting them see my personality, talk about my business and get to know me as a normal person just working on my dream has built strong connections with customers. I see a lot of repeated customers who think of me when thinking of gifts or wanting personalized items for special occasions and I think it has a lot to do with being able to have that close customer relationship with them.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

I started with primarily instagram story sales and customized orders for those who were interested. I slowly pushed myself into markets and learning my customer base and areas I would do well in. I still very much do events (mostly every weekend) but also have now added my items into different stores that offer “maker spaces” and have found it to be a consistent extra revenue in my monthly income. This has also helped me expand my customer base into areas I am not necessarily local to.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cositascontreras.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cositascontreras
• Facebook: facebook.com/cositascontrerass