We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dania Alvarado. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dania below.
Dania, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
The idea came to me naturally. I was already collecting houseplants as an enthusiast. I also grew up watching my mom take care of and grow plants. Strangely enough, I never intended to build a business out of it. This was just a form of expressing my passion and love for plants with others during my semesters off of college. Additionally, this helped me raise funds for medical books before the beginning of each school year. I continued to sell plants every summer and fell a little more in love with it every year. I began to dread the end of summer because it meant going back to school and my plant season was over for the year. That’s when I finally realized I had to follow my passion instead of following the career path I originally thought was right for me.
Before branding myself as, “La Chiquita Selva”, I used to sell plants on Facebook marketplace and other online platforms. Even though I didn’t realize it at the time this was a period of trial and error. I knew there was a lot of public interest and not many people selling the houseplant selection I loved because trust me, I looked and searched. I decided to give myself one summer season, and if it was fairly successful and I didn’t hate it at the end of the season I would continue to do it each year. To my surprise, I loved every minute and I had such amazing support from friends and family. Of course, at this time I started off very small and only local, I wasn’t quite a traveling plant shop yet. This idea came later on when I wanted everyone to see my own little jungle outside of my hometown. I also had requests and suggestions to expand to other cities from customers. Slowly, throughout the years I’ve expanded my plant selection and continue to travel to new cities in Ohio and hope to reach surrounding states as well one day.
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?
My name is Dania Alvarado; I am the sole owner and founder of La Chiquita Selva, which means The Little Jungle in Spanish. I run a traveling pop-up plant shop that journeys all across Ohio. In my plant shop, I carry many varieties that I locally grow and curate. Unlike big box stores, which have many employees, I’m a one-woman show. I do everything from growing, marketing, photography, social media, and even crafting my own artisan pottery. During the growing season, (spring and summer) you can find me at different farmers markets, craft shows, plant conventions, and even collaborating with some of your favorite local businesses. In my off-season, (fall and winter) I’m mainly online with a few holiday events sprinkled around. Since I’m a traveling plant shop I don’t have a brick-and-mortar yet but instead, you can find my full popup schedule on my website to see where I’ll be traveling to next.
Here at La Chiquita Selva, I love to educate everyone about plants- for example, their origin, care requirements, different flowering types, and growing techniques. I believe gardening is all about sharing, which is why I think it’s important to share what works and what doesn’t. Of course, no two environments are the same so what works for me might not for someone else. Regardless, I like to make sure that when a customer leaves my plant shop they feel confident in taking care of the plant they’re taking home. I even help others with identifying plant problems or plant IDs that weren’t even purchased from my plant shop because, at the end of the day, my goal is to help you take care of and keep your plants alive. If I’m able to do that and deconstruct the notion that you’re a plant killer or have a black thumb just because you had a bad plant experience or made a mistake along the way then I did my job correctly. I believe that everyone can grow plants but just like everything else, it’s a learning journey.
How did you build your audience on social media?
To be completely honest I used to think social media wasn’t important to building a business. Oh, how I was wrong and would come to regret it later on. I am now paying the price of that belief. I look back and wonder how many customers or potential customers I lost due to this misconception. The customers I met at the beginning of my journey had no way of following my plant shop unless they stayed connected with the shop or found me on social media later on. I try to give myself some slack for this since I never meant to be a business owner. This was just supposed to be a fun summer project to explore and share my passion for plants.
Now that I’ve learned this lesson, the past two years I’ve made it a goal of mine to put as much effort into social media as I do into my products. Instead of viewing social media as something negative, I view it as a platform to stay connected with my customers. It’s become an important part of my business because it’s how I share my pop-up schedule, new products in store, what’s currently growing in the greenhouse, and ask for customers’ opinions on what they’d like to see in the shop next. I’ve honestly grown to enjoy it especially since it gets everyone excited about what’s to come or getting a peek behind the curtain. Don’t get me wrong I still struggle with social media to this day and I’m still learning the ins and outs while also figuring out what content my customers want to see from me.
The best advice I can give to someone looking to build a social media presence is to stay consistent and start sooner rather than later. Also viewing your social media platforms as a resume or credential for your business helps to show potential customers, followers, or partnerships that we’re a serious business and others are interested in what you have to offer all while keeping an intimate connection with your customers.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The story that stands out the most about a time when I was resilient is the time I accidentally killed around 50 plants. The reason I remember this so well is because I had spent all of late winter and the beginning of spring growing these plants to sell them at one of my summer pop-ups. Unfortunately, I tried to acclimate them to ambient temperatures too soon and there was a late frost that year. I had woken up that morning to all 50 of my plants dead due to low temperatures. All that time spent growing this stock of plants had gone down the drain due to a simple mistake I had made. However, not everything was lost. I brought the plants back into the warm greenhouse and started back at square one. After a bit of time, love, and care they grew back into beautiful full plants. They weren’t quite ready to sell at the time I had originally intended them to but in the end, I still saved them. This was a valuable lesson for me because it showed me how as business owners we have to make difficult decisions every day that can affect our overall business. Regardless of the outcome, just like plants, we’re resilient and sometimes have to roll with the punches. There may be difficult times or dormant periods in every business but at the end of the day, we’ll grow from it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/lachiquitaselva?fbclid=PAAaYJIy5eZ53yn62XBdMtelGQ7erGB5h9zZ5di-T_Q61_-UMHguwqbsoMcMs_aem_ATrG6E06ZONs0yYCX0NbzNHUpJ41aKIcPphS5sjRb5zjg2yfOrqLNk3AWBB1dD310dQ https://linktr.ee/lachiquitaselva?fbclid=PAAaYJIy5eZ53yn62XBdMtelGQ7erGB5h9zZ5di-T_Q61_-UMHguwqbsoMcMs_aem_ATrG6E06ZONs0yYCX0NbzNHUpJ41aKIcPphS5sjRb5zjg2yfOrqLNk3AWBB1dD310dQ
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la_chiquita_selva/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lachiquitaselva
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lachiquitaselva?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8Ft4SQc6FztxK7XE0MxMhIA6Dd3jcPCXIxamRrOqtSLRDVHoNo6a%2BAoezXa%2FE1LWgcXV3ZxO90eZFi4i8GgA%3D&_r=1&checksum=ae231a432e725057287755a1c98b1e4b1bd1d2b1c0d5b71794a334bb6f40066b&enable_clips=1&language Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
All image credits to Dania Alvarado.