We were lucky to catch up with Marla Truitt recently and have shared our conversation below.
Marla , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
As with any parent, we all worry about our children and their future. But when you have one with a disability that concern magnifies. I wanted to create opportunities to help our special community live a happy, healthy, strong independent life for themselves. By creating a system that trains, teaches, and encourages them to create a life with purpose and to give them the independence these awesome people deserve.
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
Everyone prays for a healthy child with ten fingers and ten toes. Seths birth transformed us. We saw him as a gift, then a gift with purpose, and finally into creating Joy House. Both my husband and I have retail experience, We reached out to our community and saw many families looking for a solution, all with the same concerns for their special needs adults. These special people have talents. Our store is the perfect place to sell their crafts and products. But it’s not enough. We need to reach an online presence. Currently we are working to create an e-commerce platform. We are searching for more suppliers and product lines for our special needs adults. We just launched the JOY HOUSE CLUB, which offers a 10% discount on all online product purchases. It supports our education and training, enabling special needs adults to become financially independent. What sets JOY HOUSE apart is our program helps educate, train, and provide hope to the families of special needs adults to have a bright future. Not to be so dependent on government help, but instead create jobs and to pay taxes.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
We have a monthly newsletter, keeping customers updated on new products and highlighting new suppliers and success stories.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
Growing a business can be extremely challenging, especially when you have had very little confidence in yourself to accomplish it. But, when you have a vision and a purpose things just seem to happen. Building this business has taught me a lot about myself, and has taught me to believe in dreams bigger than me. Our business is now 2 years old, but it hasn’t come without trials. Back in 2021, our first few months open, my dad passed away suddenly and this caused a lot of stress on my family. We had a good year in business, but it was not my top priority as my family navigated through our grief. We got behind on paying our bills, but God provided a way to recover.
We are here for the long haul with so many beautiful plans ahead.
Contact Info:
- Website: Joyhousestore.com
- Instagram: @joyhouseproject
- Facebook: Joy house