Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sara Rojas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Sara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

We can’t believe this collaboration with a magazine that has highlighted so many incredible people in business, small ventures, and individuals who have dared to take a step forward.

We currently own the first Talavera gift shop in Brenham, Texas, with multiple awards and achievements, and it’s a favorite among many of our customers. But like most small new businesses, it wasn’t always like this at the beginning, and we had to make ourselves known and build trust with new clients.

I believe our biggest risk to date was leaving our stable jobs and starting that “incredible idea, that dream” we had in mind: selling amazing Mexican crafts in a small town (Brenham, Texas) that loves Mexican art and its culture but didn’t really have a place to fully experience it.
Our start was with a total of 30 boxes of merchandise—around 200 assorted pieces—and ”enough” money to start in a small old small shop on the outskirts of downtown Brenham, leaving our secure jobs behind, not fully fluent in the language, and with a ton of bills coming in nonstop because life & bills don’t wait for you to figure out what your next step should be.

The only thing we were sure of was that we wouldn’t stop until we had tried everything to make this project work, and at that moment our biggest goal was to have the money to continue paying our bills and taking care of our daughters without having an inaccessible schedule

Of course, we weighed the pros and cons a thousand times before even deciding to make our first post on social media, but it was either take the big risk or continue with our routine, Apparently we love adventure, so we decided to go down that path.

Sara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In addition to this, we want to share a little of our story behind the people at A Little Piece of Mexico.

My name is Sara Rojas, and I’m a single mother to Sofia Rojas, my 9-year-old daughter, who inspired me to say “Yes” to the commitment of my business. I own the first Talavera artisanal gift shop in Brenham, Texas, and I created the first Hispanic-Latino festival in Washington County, holding a total of three markets a year: “Viva La Vida, Latin-Hispanic Market,” “La Fiesta Market,” and “El Desmadre Market.”

Our family makes our Talavera pieces from scratch, and we import them from Guanajuato, Mexico, to Brenham. We sell wholesale to businesses around the area and create custom products for festivals, restaurants, and social events.

For the past two years, my sister, Alma Rojas, has been working full-time in the business, bringing in exclusive pieces, handcrafted accessories, traditional dresses, and other artisanal gift items for the shop.

Like me, she’s a full-time mom. She left her secure job to start her own mini donut business called “The Donut Shop,” but had to put it on hold because it required more time than she had at the time. Now, as the head of the clothing and accessories section, she manages her own time and is our content creator on TikTok: @littlepieceofmx and @littlepiecemexico
Our goal isn’t to “sell” but to bring people “a little piece of Mexico,” that’s why we chose that name. Most of our customers connect with our pieces because they bring back memories of a vacation, where they used to live, their parents, and many beautiful and sentimental stories we’ve heard over these 6 years.

And this is frankly what has given our store its identity; people who, even with more options in gifts or decoration, choose our store over chain stores and more.
Of course it hasn’t been easy; sometimes showing “sensitivity” to people or revealing your needs can be seen as risky in business, but we try to be transparent and authentic when we’re in our business so that people see the reality and the story behind our products, and not just something “pretty” to buy.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

In our shop, more than just “selling,” we want our customers to know that we want to be part of the community and that we want to express our culture and country through our pieces.
Our family makes each piece from scratch, a process that takes about three weeks to complete, in addition to the import from Mexico to Brenham.

Our first goal was to find people who were already connected to our culture, so seeing our pieces brings back those memories. We work hard to get to know our customers well to determine which pieces we should focus on most: decoration, kitchenware, costume items, etc.

Once we had a little bit of everything and started making exclusive patterns and unique pieces, our customers became loyal to us because they felt connected to the pieces and the experience of having a truly unique piece for their spaces.
We stood out as an “out-of-the-box” store, an award we received from the City of Brenham in 2023.

In 2022, we collaborated with MnM’s and H-E-B, which brought us media attention from many places around our county. We made our customers part of the experience by initiating the creation of the first Hispanic cultural market in Washington County, called “Viva la Vida – Latin/Hispanic Market,” incorporating vendors, traditional Mexican food, live music, and folkloric dances.
In short, don’t forget that you work to provide an experience for your customers; we work to take them out of their comfort zone too and immerse them in the experience of a Mexican market where they enjoy bringing their friends and visitors to our business.
When your customers enjoy their experience, their purchase, and the item they take home, then word-of-mouth recommendations are among the most valuable assets a small business can have, especially when it’s just starting out.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our growth has been 100% organic. How many times have you seen or followed a page with thousands of followers that barely engages with its content or hardly posts anything?
Every business is different, and you should never focus on the number of followers to compare your business’s success.

Now my sister Alma Rojas is in charge of social media, while I handle in-person customer service at the physical store, and this is a key factor because you need to rely on trustworthy people who understand your mission in the business.

It’s always better to have 100 real customers who buy regularly than 20,000+ followers who have never made a purchase or visited your store.
Times change, and these days, only dedicating yourself 100% to content creation can make it a good source of income. However, creating content to let people know you’re in business is always good for staying top of mind.

We’re now close to 20,000 followers across our combined networks, all 100% organic, and we know most of our customers through interactions during live streams!

The most important takeaways from this are providing quality content, offering conversation topics that contribute to your product, and staying as close to them as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.littlepieceofmx.com
• Instagram: littlapeiceofmx
• Facebook: littlepiecemx
• Other: Lemond8: littlepieceofmx
  Tiktok: littlepieceofmx
  littlepiecemexico