We recently connected with Gabriella Rochin and have shared our conversation below.

Gabriella, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

Running a family business has been a generational endeavor beginning with my great grandfather, who owned a grocery store in new Jersey, during a time where family businesses were the norm. Cut to today, we are starting to harken back to that concept. Our family owns and operates a local grocery shop, The Canal Market, carrying on the tradition of our great grandparents.

As a family owned and operated business, it comes with its own unique set of advantages and challenges. We can really key in and focus on what values we hold important, and have more control over the long term vision of our company. Of course, working with family has its set of challenges and different dynamics, but overall it has brought us all closer together. Spending time together with family is something to be grateful for. Working together as a family is what makes our business thrive, and I hope to carry it through to the future generations.

Gabriella, 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?

By trade, I am in the architecture and design business, working on both residential and commercial projects within the LA area. Designing creative and functional spaces has been a long time passion. Especially bringing architecture and design to curate spaces centered around food and beverage. In some ways it is the perfect combination of the two worlds I am most passionate about.

Launching into this new industry has been exciting and at times very challenging. My background in design and art definitely helps bring the store to life. The curation of goods throughout the shop is of high importance, with the focus on working with smaller sustainably focused businesses. As a small business, it is easier to control the brands we work with. We strive to bring environmentally conscious and locally sourced goods to our shop in the hopes of bringing awareness to the importance of shopping small and shopping sustainably.

Starting our family business and building the Canal Market, has been a journey, but a very fulfilling journey. Our family has brought this market back to life, back to the neighborhood market it has always been. This truly is a passion project bringing the whole family together. My sister brings her beautiful floral designs and coffee expertise, my father brings his extensive knowledge of wines and business, my mother strives to bring awareness to environmentally conscious and sustainable products, and myself, I bring forward the curation of local goods and products within the store. It is definitely a partnership between all of us to bring our vision to life and to create a community oriented business where all are welcome.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I am in a constant state of change in my life. I mean this in that I am always open to taking on new opportunities as they come my way. In the beginning, I believed I was meant to follow the path of visual arts, as art and creation has always been the direction of my life. I soon shifted my creativity to focus on becoming a chef, and felt that was my true calling. Turns out, I couldn’t fulfill my creativity to the maximum capacity I wanted, so I in turn pivoted into the world of architecture and design. This is where I believe all of this change in direction has led me to opening our store. It combines all of my deepest passions in life, a place where high quality ingredients for cooking and entertaining meet art and design within a space. Big changes in career or business is often scary, but I do find embracing the change is where you can really find what you are looking for.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

As a small business, we have a very small team. This comes as a benefit, as we can really support our team and encourage them to be a part of our family in some ways. We want our whole team to be involved in the business and share their ideas and strategies with us, engaging in the overall success of the business. We try to have monthly meetings, where we can all get together and socialize as a team outside of the usual working hours. This helps to keep us all connected and boosts the morale to ensure a more cohesive working environment. We can have a little fun while building this business with our small but amazing team!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecanalmarket.com
• Instagram: @gabsrochin