We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Olivia Martinez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Olivia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?
My mother has always been my hero because she grew up in Mexico living paycheck to paycheck very humble person always helped my grandparents cook,do house chores and work the farm since she was second oldest out of 6 siblings she then became a mother at a very young age and unfortunately ended up being a single parent to my brother! I’ve learned from her to never give up on your dreams to always keep pushing forward no matter what because she did the same with no help whatsoever nobody to motivate her because my grandmother as always been very old fashion so one day my mother decided to save money for a sewing machine and eventually she bought one and she started sewing, she made wedding dresses. Formal dresses, outfits etc and she ended up with a small boutique at home until she meet my father and moved to Detroit Michigan. Unfortunately my mother passed away two years ago due to Covid and I had just became a mother to my first born and had to leave my job to be a stay at home mother and one day sitting at home I started doing crafts and remember what my mother always said to never give up on your dreams to always keep pushing forward so I did and ended up making a instagram for my crafts and started getting orders.
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.
For the folks who haven’t heard about Aj’s creations by Olivia I’m a crafter who does personalized gifts such as Coasters, Infinity Roses, Cups, Door signs, crayons, memorial candles and many more. Everything I make is handmade with love I pay attention to every detail or idea a client as I dedicate my time to make sure every order is perfect and making sure my client as a big smile when they receive their orders.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
To start my small business it was hard I’m not gonna lie I had to save money from helping my sister do her errands while she’s at work so whatever she gave me I started my piggy bank and eventually I had saved enough and started buying my machines and things I needed to start off
How did you build your audience on social media?
I started my audience by sharing my creations on my personal page and one day my cousin said everything was nice that I should start my own creations page and I did I started creating reels, posts and videos and my followers started growing! My advice to anyone starting to grow a small business is for them not to be shy to push forward and make posts, give promotions, free gift do a pop up event and trust me that will boost your social media audience
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/ajscreations.by.olivia
- Facebook: fb.me/ajscreations.by.olivia
- GMAIL: [email protected]