We recently connected with Karla Santillan and have shared our conversation below.

Karla, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Coming up with a business name was very important as I wanted it to represent a bit of whom I’m without using my name. I remember making a list of words that I wanted women to feel when they shopped my product. They were all words such as powerful, beautiful, sexy, gorgeous and so on yet nothing felt correct, then I asked myself what would be the one word I can use to describe women. That word would be queens. We are all queens, talented gorgeous and deserving of all good things. So I came up with House of Queens, a place where we all come together to rise one another. I kept looking at House of Queens and it just felt as I still needed to add something to make it mines, and that’s when I decided to swap the Q for the K. And that’s how House of Kueens was born. A place where Kueens are confident to go from casual to chic, chic to sexy, sexy to elegant and everything in between.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Since I was a little girl I was obsessed with fashion. At the age of 18 I started working in retail where I soon realized this was the career I wanted to pursue . It wasn’t just the fashion that caught my attention but more so the building relationships with clients, visual merchandising and team building. All which I enjoyed and led me to work in various retail companies. I found my home at Guess Inc where I worked for 10YRs. This was an amazing opportunity for me as I oversaw a variety of stores across all divisions and different markets. It was after the lockdown of 2020 that I decided it was time for me to start my own business. I felt prepared to start this journey after 15yrs of experience. I think is important when starting a business to have some knowledge of what you are about to embark so you can succeed. Social media makes it seem that it’s so easy to start a business, which it is but you must educate yourself and be consistent in order to succeed. You can be successful in anything you desire but you must put in the work.
I think is very important to stay true to yourself, to design your business the way you desire it and not get side tracked by what someone else is doing. Instead of imitating you must learn to be innovative.
As a business owner we love to have a plan and stick to the plan but is very important in this volatile market to make changes.
House of Kueens is my baby, I’m so proud that I made my dreams come true. There is no going back only forward.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I always knew I wanted to have my own business so while I was working at Guess I made sure every paycheck I had a designated amount saved so when that time came I wouldn’t have to worry about the expenses. Which that allowed me to start with a good amount of inventory and pay for a professional photographer to do the first campaign with a video for the website.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In retail we have slow months such as right after the Christmas holidays and summer. Those are the months where sales aren’t where you expect them to be. And you have to keep going, the expenses will still be there but nothing is incoming. So you must learn to save throughout the year for those slow seasons.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.houseofkueens.com
• Instagram: Houseofkueens
• Facebook: Houseofkueens