We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yaritza Rojas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Yaritza , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I believe I started my business just at the right time just because I think the process of getting to start one was  an entire learning experiences. Specially working in retail for so many years , it kind of help me as a person to grow and shape me for who I am today . I feel like different jobs helped me to be where I am at today specially skills . I feel like every job served its purpose in my life In different ways . When I-started my business in 2021 , I was in a very difficult situation where I had to manage my kids at home schooling , therapy, my retail job and it was a lot that I had to work with. I believe that happened so I could push myself and start my own business. If I would have started my business sooner I wouldn’t  have know how to manage it as well as I do today , just because you have to be extremely organized and set time for absolutely everything. Specially because I have two boys that were just a year apart  and where so small when all the covid situation started and having  for them to start school at home was a big change .I believe starting a small business when they  were both of them  babies would a been a bit more difficult  to manage than what it is right now .

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Yaritza Rojas , I am 30 years old and  I started  a businesses named Lunita Artesanal a year and a half ago  . I  was born and raise here in San Diego by two immigrants parents .  I am a mom of two boys and a wife and the oldest of 4 .I make polymer clay jewelry /accessories . I got in to this business because of my kids and the time management of still being able to be with my children and be able to work and provide that financial stability . What sets us apart is our different style of jewelry specially because I want to incorporate my culture in each and one of my pieces thats shows any one can be poderosa, chingona  and a resilient women that we can do it all but also be able to be stylish  and chic. I want my pieces to have that vibe when any one would wear them . Something I’m most proud is being a mom but also have that time to be an entrepreneur and be able to manage my business and be able to grow it step by step with my kids along the side of me . I am also proud that I was able to start a small business from scratch and build and shape it the way I want , also my jewelry being part of where I grew up at Logan Ave , my earrings are now inside two shops which are at El puesto and thirtyflirtyshop. This two Chingonas gave me the opportunity to be able to grow and be able to put myself out there .

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I manufacture my own products, they are made out of polymer clay , it’s a clay you have to bake at certain temperature . I started to learn step by step  through YouTube , there was times where things would break when ever I would drill a hole in to a piece . It was all a learning experience and it was a new skill that I was learning as I was growing my business. Some lessons I learned along the way were to be more patient with manufacturing a product. That it takes time to make it and there’s a process to make it and if you skip steps they don’t come out as good as you want or as good as you expect it to be .

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I do have Have a website of my own for Lunita artesanal and also an Etsy as  in sales and marketing it those have its pros and cons . I feel pros about having your own website there isn’t much fees and also you can create a page that unique from scratch but it’s cons is that you have to do all the the constant marketing to bring in customers . As to Etsy it has more marketing of its own and it’s more straight forward and easier. Some cons are that it those have a lot of fees but it all varies as to what you want your business to be or how you want to shape it .

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lunitaartesanal.com
• Instagram: _lunita_artesanal
• Other: You cal also find our earrings ELPUESTOSD 2195 Logan Ave , San Diego ,CA ,92113
• ThirtyFlirtyshop 2117 Logan Ave ,San Diego,CA , 92113

Image Credits
Araceli Cano Martinez