Today we’d like to introduce you to Marisa Moreno.
Hi Marisa, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Luxo Design Workshop™ began in our home right after I (Marisa) lost my corporate job due to Covid-19 that caused downsizing. My husband Alberto helped me while working a full-time job for the first six months of our business. Gratefully we were both officially able to do the company full-time after almost a year in business! We now are able to offer wholesale and custom merchandise produced in-house by us. We love working with other small businesses and uplifting our community the best that we can. Being a Latinx-owned business, we try to help and show love to our own Hispanic community by uplifting their voices and working with them one-on-one. We know the struggle personally of trying to find opportunities to help make your small business more successful every day, and we want to share that so that others don’t have to struggle as much as we have by being more accessible than most big-box retailers.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Being a small business owner has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my life. While I recognize we are very fortunate to have a business to survive on, it has not been easy. Nobody really tells you that your whole life revolves around your business, and how mentally exhausting it is to have anxiety about whether your bills are going to be paid on time or even at all. Everyone tells you that you get what you put into your business, and how you have to be your own boss and manage your time the best way possible. But it is so much easier said than done. But this is what we want to do, and how we want to give back to our community and make an impact. This definitely won’t be our only business in our lifetime. One thing I have learned that I’m truly grateful for is to never stop trying. Ever. I used to be the biggest quitter. When things got hard, I was already ready to give up and throw in the towel. Not anymore, this business has made me so much more resilient and I’m a better person to my family and those around me for that. Overall, now one of our favorite quotes we like to share with other small business owners is “We gave up working 8 hours a day to work 24/7.” Now we feel like we can take on anything together!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our work is mainly based around our Mexican culture. We both spent a lot of time in school art classes. I studied art for nine years and Alberto studied it for seven years. We both love being creative in different mediums which has helped expand our product line over time. We started out making phone grips but now we have stickers, mugs, prints, tote bags, magnets, and more! Aside from our original designs, we also specialize in custom wholesale merchandise for other small businesses. We’ve worked with Chobani®, Las Chicas del Barrio Non-Profit, CocoAndré Chocolatier & Horchateria, Real Soul Food Lovers Dallas, Castillo de Flores, The Social Chica, Scoop N’ Buns Garland, and more in creating custom items like shoe charms, keychains, and koozies! What sets us apart is we are more than willing to meet other small business owners and talk about our own experiences about starting a business and try and collaborate one-on-one on how we can support each other with our services. We are most proud of how far we’ve come from last year when we started during the pandemic. We started out feeling alone and now we are grateful to know so many genuine people in the community that are sharing their space to help others grow along with them.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Networking is the best thing that you can do to help your business grow. We’ve met so many great businesses just by being open and talking to others at our pop-up events and even on Instagram and Facebook. Even if we only meet them in person just once, we want them to know that we are cheering them on. We didn’t necessarily have a mentor guiding us through our business journey, but rather little pieces of advice from every business we’ve talked with. We were never afraid to ask questions on how to do things or just gave up if we weren’t successful at first. We’ve learned from others’ mistakes and we even try to share our own mistakes so others will learn from us. We are here to make our community better and more successful every day.
Contact Info:
- Email: LuxoDesignWorkshop@gmail.com
- Website: LuxoDesignWorkshop.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luxodesignworkshop/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuxoDesignWorkshop
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@luxodesignworkshop?lang=en
Image Credits
@Photographiebymaggie
@thesocialchica
@fromscratchbrand
@LuxoDesignWorkshop
