We were lucky to catch up with Toni Biscardi recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Toni, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I never thought of myself as a crafter but my daughter began attending shows with her passion which was photography. I used to join her in those shows before covid. During covid, I needed to do something with my time in addition to working full time at home but things were slow. I began making handmade soap but saw I was spending more time making it than selling it and wasn’t a big mover. Therefore my daughter-in-law showed me some videos on TikTok about freshies and so I tried that route as I had some of the supplies leftover from soap. Well here I am 2 years later and have sold appx 538 in 2022 (didn’t track much in 2021) and in 2023 I have sold (keep in mind it’s early and I don’t have my Feb numbers in) sold 79 this year so far.

My daughter’s name is Lia (which everyone calls her Lisa or spells her name Leah). Bella means beautiful in Italian and we are very proud of our Italian heritage (side note I love cooking and a lot of people told me I should sell my food but took too much to get a license which I didn’t have time to do). Creations because I make many different items.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Bella Lia Creations is a business focused on handmade products such as Freshies, garland beads, beaded bracelets, keychains, gift packs and much, much more. Freshies are my biggest draw to my booth especially when I take one out of the bag and people wonder where the smell is coming from. What is a Freshie? Shape made of scented beads, colored with mica powder and decorated. And they smell amazing. Most often used in your car but can also be used in a home, locker, laundry room, etc. They come in lots of shapes, scents and colors. We can’t wait for y’all to come out and shop!! We accept all forms of payment – Cash, Venmo, Cash App and credit card through Square.

Make sure to follow us on
Facebook -www.faacebook.com/creationsbellalia
&
Instagram – www.Instagram.com/creationsbellalia

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My resilience is that I keep going. I know I am not going to be a millionaire but I have met so many wonderful people in this process of attending craft shows, setting up in small shops across town and the connections have been great.

Craft vendors at shows are always willing to help and support each other. This is what drives me to stay not the money as I spend most of what I make to make more crafts.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Life for me has been challenging for over the past 3 years – moved to Arizona briefly only to move back to NC start of pandemic, husband suffered a stroke in 2021 and he was major breadwinner so stress was on me right as I was starting up my small business. We began building a house right before the stroke so that was added stress of building a house, working full time, starting a side business, assisting with my husband’s medical appointments and care. He started to improve but not enough to work full time somewhere so he began his own landscaping business which he has grown tremendously and I help him with all administrative and billing so another hat in my many hats I wear. However he has begun to help me with my business in getting set up at shows, delivering product to my shops, etc.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/creationsbellalia
• Facebook: www.faacebook.com/creationsbellalia

Image Credits
www.chromephotoco.com