We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Celeste Torres a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Celeste thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

Since the start of The Bohemian Find coming together in 2016, I envisioned it growing to become what supported my family financially as well as a way of being able to stay at home with my children. At the end of 2019 my husband joined me full time and we created what is now, a full time family run business! Since this time we have experienced both the joy of what building a successful business is, as well as the sometimes difficult balancing act of parenthood. Being able to be close with both of our children and experience their early childhood days right by their side has been the greatest gift of running a business from home. We are a close family, and the freedom this lifestyle has provided has been our favorite part. But with that, it has also created challenges that we have and are constantly navigating through. Sticking to a schedule is what we always go back to, and anytime we run off course we have to quickly remind ourselves that with young growing children and a business that needs your constant attention- schedules are a MUST.

The pro’s for us are not only the quality time spent creating as a family, but also the management of our youngest son’s autoimmune disease. In March of 2022 at the young age of 3 years old, our son Phoenix was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. An autoimmune disease that attacks the pancreas which creates insulin used within our bodies to regulate our blood sugar. Our son will need insulin injections for his survival for the rest of his life. Not only was this a great transition for our family but this disease requires minute by minute management by myself or my husband. Our son’s health greatly depends on responsible and careful watch over him, and running a business from home has indeed helped with managing his Type 1 diabetes. A gift that we are absolutely grateful for everyday.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Celeste Torres, and I got into this business the same as I believe most other women and mom’s get into it- for the love of secondhand and vintage hunting! After giving birth to my first son Indigo in 2016, I wanted to find a way to earn some supplemental income to help my husband with bills as well as feed my hunger for this new hobby I found! I was first inspired through the amazing stay-at-home-mom account’s of early Instagram vintage selling. I have to give a shoutout here because she truly inspired me to begin this journey- Sharon @whiteelephantco. After watching her, I knew I too could strap my baby into my baby carrier and hit the thrift stores and begin a business in selling secondhand goods just like her!

The beginning for me was full of learning curves but I quickly found out that in order for this business to become successful, as well as the development of my brand, I needed to stick to items that I would personally have displayed in my own home. All of the other things I was collecting were indeed vintage, but my love for them wasn’t based on what I liked, and those were the items that usually sat for weeks and weeks. Once I really honed in on my own sense of style, design and color palette- the rest became fun, exciting and more intriguing than before. l really started to create a brand that I loved that included bit’s of who I am, my choice of design and decor, while also sharing parts of at home family life too.

The Bohemian Find has transformed from a place where I as a first time mom, started my first business out of my garage with my baby on my hip. Filled with lots of flaws, evolving styles and pockets of inconsistent listings. Now into a full time family run business. Filled with family memories and lessons in growing together. We have also been able to expand our profit margin since my husband joined in 2019. His expertise filled in the gaps where I lacked knowledge and has helped increase our total gross revenue year after year. Coming together has not only made our dreams of earning income as a family, but also provides inspiration to our children to find ways to create and pursue what their hearts desire. This experience of balancing business and family all in one place has created a pool of generational knowledge that will only continue to grow and give life to our children as well as their children’s thirst for exploration and growth. We are thankful to every loyal customer from the very beginning to now. Having an open relationship with my customer base has created loyalty that we are truly thankful for. At the end of the day, it’s your customers support that keeps you going. So I believe having a great relationship with your audience is the door to success.

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

This is going to sound crazy but- my initial investment was a $20 bill found in my husbands pockets after doing laundry. At the time we were on a very tight budget, with a new baby, a new house, and only one income. I never wanted to ask for money because I knew he had taken on all of our financial burdens. But I also knew that I could make something happen with $20! I looked around my home for cute vintage pieces I was no longer using that I knew I could make a profit from, and I was able to come up with around 10 pieces of inventory that was sitting around my house not being used. For the first few months I used what I was making from selling to invest into more inventory. Eventually, I was earning a profit that was starting to feel like this could turn into something more than just a hobby. In 2020 I launched my website and started receiving multiple offers for capital based off of my businesses new success. It was a slow start, but being a new mother I found it to be the perfect beginning for me.

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

Going back to our son’s diagnoses in early 2022, once he was diagnosed with this disease I found it to be all that I cared about, naturally. I was living in fear of loosing my son every day and with that I lost my ambition and drive to post, stay up to date with new social media trends and even communicate with our customers. I noticed the affects it began and (still does at times) have on our business. It’s still a learning process for me but the biggest lesson was how to stay money motivated while also experiencing adversity that involves your young child. It’s hard, but sharing that experience with my audience was and has been a magnificent thing! It highlights the community that I’ve created through building this business, and shows just how wonderful strangers can be at times. It also made me realize that these strangers are also our customers, they are our biggest supporters and opening up during this difficult time to unseen ears was actually very healing. Handling a business that makes up for most of your families finances WHILE simultaneously learning about a disease that you have no knowledge of was very hard but together, and with the support of our customers, we made it through. I will forever be grateful for that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thebohemianfind.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thebohemianfind