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Cositas Pequeñas was founded and created on May 2020.
I am the daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, born and raised in Ridgewood, New York. I began traveling the world at the young age of 5 years old when my parents took me to visit their home town in Cuenca, Ecuador. It was there where my journey of understanding my heritage and my passion began. At the age of 17, I enlisted in the United States Air Force, where I moved to New Mexico. I became a Logistics technician and continued my career in the Air Force for 8 years, until I separated in 2015 to pursue a different career in Early Childhood Education.
When I returned to Ridgewood in 2015, my attempts to pursue early childhood education weren’t successful due to the rising cost of living in New York City. As a result, I returned to the logistics field and entered the corporate world. By working for a BIO company based in Argentina, OCASA, this allowed me to grow financially and helped me fund the start of my business.
On December 2019 the world began to shutdown, something we never imagined possible. New York City closed its doors, March 2020. My constant working came to hault. Being in quarantine forced me to physically feel everything going on with my life and body causing me to go into a cycle of depression, stagnation, and panic attacks. In an effort to cope, gain extra income, and keep myself sane I read and did small craft projects.
I researched “how to begin a business”. After hundreds of articles I went on FB one night and found myself watching a FB LIVE (I never knew these existed). There was a lady selling to people via her phone camera. She sold all kinds of things and to my surprise, many people were shopping. It was intriguing and amazing how this huge online world existed and I knew nothing about.
As I worked from home or while I worked on my sewing skills, I watched lives everyday for two months to analyze gestures, techniques, rules, and audience structure. I also began sourcing items from various small sellers as I continued to search manufactures and build my network.
My first task was to develop my own unique concept. At the time we were in, the challenges we faced, I wanted to offer high quality items at an affordable price to everyone.
My company’s name, Cositas Pequenas, was created with two goals in mind. I wanted something that was familiar to my roots but also embodied what we offer, small things from everywhere.
On May 6, 2020 I pulled my vanity table, chair, kitchen plant, bought a black satin curtain, and picked a corner in my living room and went LIVE. I made my first 5 sales to people I had never met. I had made something from things I had in my home and made FIVE SALES! I kept doing this every week and I expanded to a small studio by the end of the year. We continued to grow and created our online website in 2021. In search for a warehouse, we came across a store front in my hometown of Ridgewood, New York. This place was especially important to me because it was on the block my mother would send us to do laundry, and the deli my siblings and I would get our favorite ice pop every summer. Now I have a little store with my name on it on that very block.
Ridgewood, I hope to add but also keep some of our old community by building a business that welcomes everyone and helps our community.
I would like to thank everyone who has supported my vision, to everyone who has inspired me, to everyone who continues to push my dream. All my customers: past, current, and future thank you for supporting my small business. I hope to continue to meet new people and build new relationships.