We recently connected with Griselda Ortega and have shared our conversation below.

Griselda, appreciate you joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

It started as a hobby of mine, I love planning and decorating my planner with stickers and journaling cards. I then realized, there was a whole planner community on instagram! So that’s just what I did, I created a instagram for my planner. I know it sounds silly. That was my dirty little secret for a while, nobody knew but my husband. Overtime my page started to grow. One month before my instagram page was going to be one year is when the idea came to me. At this time I already had almost three thousand followers. Which is insane I couldn’t believe so many people were following me for my planner. I found this vendor for clear journaling cards and at the moment they were so popular. The idea just clicked to me and I talked to my husband about it and he was very supportive and told me to just go for it. Starting a business like mine, felt very whimsical at the moment.. At this time I had no idea what I was doing, what were my goals for my business, or if I was even going to succeed. It all came together within a month. I announced my launch date, created my Etsy shop and it was honestly a success!! One product I started with began the business I have today. I always tell my friends that ask, if you have an idea run with it. Even if its one product, you can grow from it. I set myself goals, short term goals and long term goals. A short term goal was to begin selling planner stickers within the next few months. Sure enough, six months later I launched stickers. My stickers became very popular, my customers would tag me in their posts and that would also help other planner friends find me and be potential customers. That is when my page started to grow a bit more. I would also post often. Another thing that helped me grow was a PR TEAM! I became part of a bigger stationary shop PR team that eventually I did a collab with them and it went great. I loved the idea of a PR team. I opened applications for my shop PR team and they were required to post about my shop so often. In return, they would get shop credit to my shop, monthly. The PR team would be for three months and then a new team would be chosen for another three months. While this is a great idea for some businesses. You have to weight out the options, if it would bring more customers and help you grow. I ended up only having the one time PR team. They did bring in customers and their posts were great, however , I had to be bringing in new product often and it was other smaller things that were a bit stressful for me to be honest. I decided to ask bigger planner “influencers” if I could send them a package from my shop and they agreed and it worked out great for me.

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?

I am a Latina entrepreneur building a empire;). Hi, my name is Griselda, as you may know from my brand name , MOMPLANSXO, I am a mother to 3 boys! Yes, I have my hands full! I have a newborn, five and six year old. When I had my first born I quit my job as a retail manager to be a stay at home mom. I wanted something that was mine only so I started my business November 9, 2020. It gets so difficult at times to complete orders on time, keep up with my house and take care of my kids. It’s a lot on my plate but its worth it. I love packaging orders, coming up with new ideas and having them come to life. Another huge part of my business is my husband, he supports me so much. He goes above and beyond to make sure I have everything correct in the back end. He is the one i consult with when I want to bring in a new product to my shop. July 2022 I extended my brand and decided to bring in apparel and lifestyle into my shop. It was a huge deal doing so because it required special equipment, and keeping a lot of inventory at home etc. Also, with launching that, i decided it was time to have my own website and close down my Etsy shop. Another huge milestone for my shop, that my husband helped me with. Having my own website is honestly the most rewarding part of growing my brand. It’s so special to me. I can go online to my shop and I just think wow, that’s all me right there! My brand definitely evolved the way I always dreamed it would. From selling stationery goods, to lifestyle and it won’t stop there.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I started November 9,2020 selling on Etsy. Etsy was great to me and I always recommend it to friends starting out. They bring in traffic to your shop, its easy to use, easy to get paid and a lot of people use Etsy. I did make it a goal of mine, once I created my audience and brought in some customers I did want to eventually get my own website. So I did just that on August 2022. Having your own website you of course have to work harder. You’ll have to bring in your own customers, and create your entire website from scratch, not just add the listings. I like it more because its more personal to you brand. From the font to the colors and photos you use. It’s more work but it’s more rewarding – in my opinion.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Honestly. It’s social media. Constantly posting your products helps so much. While some people may get sick of seeing your products, it will help new people discover your shop. I always tell everyone “no one is going to promote your business more then you.” Posting reels, TikTok’s helps tremendously. Since I recently started to sell apparel, I do plan on putting my business card in my sons school party goodie bags -LOL.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.momplansxo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/momplansxo/ https://www.instagram.com/mpxodesigns/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GriseldaOrtega