We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristina Rosa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristina below.
Hi Kristina, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from my past experiences. Whether positive or negative, I have learned from every situation I’ve gone thru. Challenging experiences have pushed me out of my comfort zone and create learning opportunities that often foster my creative side.
When I was a child, I was very shy and didn’t feel comfortable around new people. It wasn’t until I started working, in my case in the food service industry, that I truly came out of my shell and started feeling comfortable interacting with the world outside of my bubble. I had to navigate a whole new world and it played a big part in shaping who I am today. Today I seek interactions with new people, as I enjoy the growth I get from engaging with people that have different perspectives and experiences.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about your work before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
What do I do? This is always hard to explain. I first tell people I was a Montessori teacher, as it helps set the stage. I explain that I loved teaching, it was what I wanted to do since I was a little girl. However, it became difficult for me once I had my own child and I decided to make a change. So I choose to venture into a whole new world. I decided to turn what I really loved most about being in the classroom into a business. What I loved was making the sets that children used in the classroom. I now make them for other teachers and parents that don’t have the time and resources to make them on their own. But that’s a mouthful! And people in passing don’t always want a whole story…so my simplified answer is that I am a former teacher that makes and sells nature based educational sets. Okay, still a mouthful… it’s a work in progress!
My two favorite things about my job are that it allows me to be creative and it allows me to used renewable resources. Those are both passions of mine…and there is so much joy in crafting a business from things I truly love.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
There have been many qualities and skills that have helped make this a business a successful one.
Most importantly was having a strong knowledge base. I knew the intricacies of Montessori extensively. I knew what materials worked well in the classroom, the type of materials children gravitated towards, and which materials could use improvement.
Additionally, I had the skills to make these materials. I had the tools that were needed and the knowledge of how to make the sets.
Lastly, I had a great platform to sell my sets. Initially I sold exclusively on Etsy, a reputable site that protects the buyers as well as the sellers. I later sold in person as well as thru my website, which expanded my customer base.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
My business is very seasonal…I have extremely busy months and months that are much slower. Because I sell primarily to schools, I get a ton of orders in the summer, as teachers are getting ready for the new school year. I also have another peak in sales around the winter holidays. The first couple years of starting my business were a learning curve, I had no idea sales would be so inflated at certain times if the year. As it happens, the busy times for my business are also busy times in my personal life. Summertime is when my son is out of school, so we like to go on trips and take advantage of our beautiful Colorado weather. Similarly, the winter holidays are a time to visit family out of state and enjoy the festivities together.
So this creates quite the obstacle. It is truly a balancing act of managing business demands and personal life commitments. Because of this, my workload can become extremely overwhelming at times. The first couple of years I was up until the early hours of the morning working overtime to fill my orders. This wasn’t sustainable and I needed to figure out a solution.
The biggest way of helping manage these peaks is to make sets ahead of time, cutting down on the time needed to fulfill an order once it comes in. I try to always have the more popular sets in stock…then during the slow months I work on rebuilding my inventory. This has helped tremendously. Another option if I become overwhelmed during the busy months is knowing that I can close my shop and put a hold on sales. I avoid this at all cost, as closing my shop also means losing money. However it simply helps to know this is an option.
Finding the right balance has been a continuous challenge, but it’s also taught me the importance of effective time management and planning to make everything run smoothly.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arborinspirations.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/arbor_inspirations
- Other: Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/arborinspirations
