We recently connected with Monica Herrera and have shared our conversation below.

Monica, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Our business success was definitely not overnight. When we first started B.A.M. Creations we only had 8 loyal customers throughout the first year. But that didn’t stop us from creating our products. We knew we had to work hard to succeed. When the pandemic hit the world we knew we had to bring joy someway. We created new things and immediately posted them on our social medias. That is when more and more people started to support us. But what really changed our lives was our glitter pens. Glitter Pens were a new product we were trying to make and we loved them. We posted a video of making them on out social media and it blew up. People loved seeing how a pen went from being black and simple to a colorful and bright. From there we didn’t stop. We continued to post all our creations and kept on growing. People often tell us that they find it therapeutic seeing our video tutorials. That is what motivates us to continue to do what we do. We want people to see our creations and smile and relax. Our success took us time, but we never gave up.

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

My mom and I started B.A.M Creations in August of 2019. It was just a way to pass the time and make things we loved. We started making custom tumblers for our friends and family in our living room. Then we expanded and made face masks, acrylic album covers, glitter keychains, and much more. To us it was about pouring our love into a product we knew would bring joy to other people. After our first year we began to make glitter tumblers, this was what we absolutely loved to make. There was an endless possibility of ideas we knew we could create. We made tumblers for people all over the United States. But then we discovered Glitter Pens and that was our true calling. We made custom glitter pens with names, animal print, characters, school supplies, and charms. We now make glitter tumblers and pens for people and we love it. People tell us our products are beautiful, unique, and well made. That our product made someones’s day. And that is why we do what we do. We went from crafting in the corner of our living room to a full craft room in our house. Our creativity was expanding and so was our supplies.
People often as us what does B.A.M. stand for? B.A.M. is the initials of my brothers and I; Bryan, Angel, and Monica. Since we were kids we would call ourselves B.A.M. because it was our names from oldest to youngest. It has always been us three against the world, we are constantly supporting one another.

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

Social media is your best friend to grow your business now and days. We started our business onInstagram. To promote and showcase our product. When TikTok was introduced we knew we had jump on the train and create content to grow. We posted videos of our products but people didn’t engage on those. They loved to see video tutorials. We posted a video of how we made a glitter pen and people absolutely loved it. we got so many new customers from that one video. We knew this was how we were going to grow our business. So we began to record our everyday work process. Thing included putting glitter on tumblers and pens, adding decals, designing, packaging, and everything in between. People want to see what you do on a daily life as a business owner. This helps people understand your hard work and slo inspire and help someone else start a new business.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When we first started B.A.M. creations it was a hobby. We did it on our spare time and did what we could. But as we continued to grow we knew we had to put time aside to create great things. My mom worked her full time job and I went to college. And when once we were both home, we started to work on our business. It was definitely hard for us to manage our time as we continued to grow. I was a senior in in college taking seven classes and running a small business during a pandemic. But we worked hard and dedicated our time to each thing to do it well done.

My mom still works her full time job while I stay at home creating. After graduating the University of Houston, I decided to take some time to work on our business and grow. It’s something we truly love to do together and we want to grow with it. We want to be able to ship our products international and maybe even start our own crafting supply line.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b.a.m.creations/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BAM-Creations-105140905048439
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@b.a.m.creations?lang=en