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

Erika, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a customer that you appreciate them?

I started a business to share my creativity with others and their pets. I have so many customers tell me they enjoy my products aesthetic. They enjoy seeing what products I have coming in the near future and are always excited to get their hands on the latest products.

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’m Erika, I started my business in 2020 after the pandemic had put me on unemployment for a few weeks and I decided to use my time wisely and get crafty with things. I found my moms old sewing machine and decided to try it out. I ended up teaching myself how to sew and I begin my sewing journey with practicing on products for my dog. Practice makes perfect and it took me many tries to get it right.

Next thing you know I started buying more fabrics and had the craziest idea of starting a business out of it. As I’m coming up with all these great ideas, I had to give this new business a name. I decided to choose KhloeKo because of my German Shepherd Khloe. It was perfect and her story made it even better.

I used to work at a dog daycare during the start of my business and my former coworker found a small puppy under his truck one morning. He decided to ask around to see if anyone in his neighborhood lost her but nobody seemed to claim her.
He couldn’t keep her so I told him if he couldn’t find her a home I would most definitely rescue her. A few days passed and next thing you know she was mine and we were at the vet getting all her puppy shots.

At the time I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but in my heart I knew she needed me and I had to be the best dog mom. Throughout these past few years we’ve been together I found out she didn’t need me, I’m the one who needed her and she’s the one who found me. There has been many tough times in my life and the one thing keeping me going was her.
I was working to support her but emotionally she was helping me become a better person and helped me look at life differently.

I thank her everyday for rescuing me because I have no idea how I could’ve done it without her. This month of September I celebrate her 4th birthday and I cannot wait she deserves it all.

So because of her KhloeKo existence and we thrive to make our products meaningful and very unique with a great story to tell when people visit us at small markets.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started my audience on instagram and from there I created a website that way everything was organized and easier to deal with.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Probably signing up for small business markets around Houston and sharing my products with new customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: Khloeko.org
• Instagram: Khloeko.store
• Facebook: KhloeKo

Image Credits
N/A all done by myself