We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Haley Gonzalez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Haley below.

Haley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Once I drafted a business plan to make sense of the vision, I had plenty of research to do in order to better understand the home decor, wholesale and retail industries. Obvious upfront tasks involved applying for a seller’s permit, forming an LLC, etc. which all came with its own legal language foreign to most small business owners like myself, and had to be done before making any purchases from wholesalers. The most exciting yet intimidating step was sourcing and placing inventory orders. Being a one-woman shop who bootstrapped and self-funded the business makes the risk very real when clicking that final order button. The most difficult challenge I faced through this process was creating a spreadsheet from scratch that would fit my inventory model needs. This isn’t a typical buy & re-sell business model. Creating “bundles” entails putting together a vision for the collection, ensuring the pieces look good together as a group, and meeting and matching minimum order requirements for all pieces simultaneously, which makes the inventory model and spreadsheets a very intricate numbers puzzle.

Without any previous experience in the industry, it took some time to build an understanding of all the moving pieces. From conception to execution, it took about a year to finally see House of Homebody come to life.

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

Real Estate has been a part of my life since the day I was born. I practically grew up at my parents’ brokerage, and knew it would be a cornerstone for my future career. I graduated from Baylor University with a business degree in Entrepreneurship and a dream of one day starting my own company.

After college, I joined my family’s business full-time to help run the brokerage and started saving money to launch what would become House of Homebody. As I would work with clients to close the purchase of their homes, I put together housewarming gift baskets to thank them for their business. I have always had a love for gift-giving and taking the time to curate thoughtful gifts for family and friends, which translated naturally into client gift baskets. I realized how busy Realtors are in the days leading up to a closing, leaving little time for them to purchase closing gifts. I wanted to create a solution that offers a convenient, thoughtful gift option to thank and congratulate clients at a very special moment in time for them. My goal is to support Realtors, Escrow Officers, and Title Representatives who all rely on gifting as a crucial way to form long-lasting business relationships.

House of Homebody offers thought-out housewarming bundles as gifts to clients and loved-ones to help turn a house into a home. I hand pick essential items in a complementary color scheme, to be used and displayed in a welcoming home.

So much thought, time and love goes into each bundle and collection. It’s all about evoking emotion and adding warmth to a home with a beautifully curated collection.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’m that Type A perfectionist who overthinks everything and anything. In hindsight, this tendency delayed my launch and added unnecessary pressure. Through starting this business I’ve had to shift my mentality away from overthinking the little things and allow myself to simply start. I hear time and time again from successful entrepreneurs, when starting, you just need to take action. It’s an ongoing mental battle I’m constantly working on to unlearn my perfectionism.

“Complexity is the enemy of execution.” – Tony Robbins. This is the voice I hear when I find myself in that cycle.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I give myself a lot of credit for entering a new industry during COVID-19 and navigating the resulting supply chain issues. I didn’t have prior experience with placing large inventory orders and the complexities associated with planning for a surge in freight fees, port delays, backorders and sold-out items. Through it all, I was a first-time buyer operating alone and trying to navigate inventory purchasing in a hectic B2B marketplace during an unforeseen, unprecedented time in business. Travel was restricted, touching and sourcing product was severely compromised, and I was trying to make my vision come to life with extremely limited options.

I appreciate how much I learned immediately by jumping in the thick of the storm. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and I often look back and realize how far I’ve come and remind myself how resilient I am when I need it the most.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.houseofhomebody.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/houseofhomebody/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HouseofHomebody
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haley-gonzalez/

Image Credits
Haley Gonzalez