Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Hart Gonzalez.
Hi Shannon, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Mums and Kisses began as a Homecoming Mum E-Commerce website that catered to Texas students and parents attending their local homecoming football games and expanded quickly to offer a physical retail location. The designs, quality and low prices kept customers coming back year after year. What began in Texas, shipping city to city has now grown to now serve customers worldwide. We’ve shipped as close as 4 miles away, all the way to Okinawa, Japan!
20 years ago, I helped to make our first homecoming mums for the pee-wee cheerleaders of the Azle Youth Association in Azle, Texas. Fast forward 10 years later we had moved away and our son was now a high school Freshmen, I had taken a trip to the big box Hobby craft shop and I couldn’t believe the sticker shock I got when it was time to pay for the ribbon to make a single mum…. $90.00! Are you kidding? I hadn’t bought anything but ribbon! No trinkets, nothing but a silk flower, a backer, and some ribbons. I couldn’t believe it. I know I have expensive taste but MAN! And the quality of the expensive premade mums they sold, yuck! I knew there had to be something better.
Six Months Later
Six months later, my father passed away from Alzheimer’s at the young age of 65. It absolutely devastated our family. I wanted so much to do something with my grief, with my time, with my feelings of loss. I needed an outlet. At that time, I was giving life a lot of thought and the motto in my head that kept repeating itself was “Shut up and Do It” So… I did. Right before school let out that year I ran across the “sticker shocking receipt” of this past homecoming mum. It didn’t take very long to make up my mind that if this was a problem for me that it was a problem for most ALL parents. I set out to make my own website with the goal of not only servicing my area but all of the U.S.
I started this business with .86 cents.
That’s all we had to our name until the next paycheck. The bad news is that in order to get a website domain we needed .99 cents.
I was determined to create a website. I knew at the time, there were no places that offered online ordering AND shipping for mums and I was going to be the 1st. But with not enough money what was I going to do? I called a website domain company and told them, I have exactly .86 cents in the bank and I am .13 cents short, they gave me the domain name and had me pay them the following month. AWESOME!
What Next?
Then I went to work figuring out how to ship a mum without it costing an arm and a leg. Wow.. that that was fun… Then I tried my hand at designing more and more with scrap ribbon around the house. After which I found a supplier, and cut back on my grocery budget to slowly buy supplies. Right before school and homecoming season began, I took a chance.
Sacrificing my kids school clothes money to buy the rest of the supplies for the season, something I would have NEVER done before. I cried the whole way home from the suppliers, worrying about the chance I was taking and promising myself that I’d make it up to them. This had to work, and I knew it.
We sold our first homecoming mum 3 days after the website went live and it didn’t stop.
I was so shocked that people not only liked the designs but wanted them in droves. Life went from normal to warp speed and little to no sleep. With 4 am bedtimes and waking up again at 6 am to take kids to school and back to fill mum orders. We would ship mums anywhere customers asked us to. Little did we know, we were one of the 1st mum creators to ship mums in mass quantities and no one needed an appointment. We started out on the kitchen counter of our home until we got tired of finding glitter in our food. That was one of the hardest, but most rewarding time of our lives.
In our first season online we made it on to NBC News Online and made a mum for a celebrity!
That first season was 10 years ago now. We now have a physical retail store, a workshop a warehouse and a shipping department. The physical business is now bigger than my house! We still ship mums into the thousands, have 12 employees including 3 mum makers. We sell our supplies online and in the store as well as on Walmart.com, Michale’s and other platforms. We’ve expanded to Mexico for production and are excited to keep expanding in 2026. Every year customers are in the parking lot before we open and here long after we’ve closed. We used to be open 4 days per week for 2 months and now we are open 7 days a week for 5 months. We still ship to other countries with Germany and Australia being a few of them. What used to be tiring is now fun and exciting. I love walking through the store and hearing customers say, “oh that’s pretty!” To have the honor to be in magazines, on TV, radio and news broadcasts and this year we’re in our 2nd movie series, we’re over the moon!
I can’t believe how fast Mums and Kisses has taken off and I can’t wait to see where we go from here. I’m truly blessed to not only have the support of my family, but of the parents that have become our best customers. I love hearing how proud they are of their own kids. They cheer me on so much and I’m truly grateful. Mums and Kisses has changed our lives and shown my kids that they can do anything if they are just willing to work hard enough for it.
“Turn a broken heart into art” – Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia)
Dedication
Mums and Kisses is dedicated to my Daddy. He would be proud. I couldn’t have started this business back then without the help of my children who have learned to cut ribbons like pros, and my mom who takes months out of her life and travels 1200 miles to keep the domestic home front going so that we can work, and to my family that has supported this crazy idea from the start. I love you all.” -Shannon Hart Gonzalez, Owner / Founder – Mums and Kisses©
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No it’s not been a smooth road. It was at first, but 5 years in I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. Making 2021 a very hard year. I had plans to expand the business with a 2nd location but it wasn’t to be as I spent the 1st 6 months of 2021 in chemo and surgeries. The day after my last surgery I was in the mum room making mums. I was supposed to be on bed rest but it was August and we had mums to make!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in homecoming mums, both the big and the small. We do nothing but mums. It’s what we’re known for. We don’t have 2nd jobs, or make mums as a hobby it’s our family’s entire yearly income. I think what sets us apart is the customer service we offer . We will go above and beyond to make sure the kids have their mums. We’ve remade orders that may not arrive on time, overnighted, or drove out of state all to deliver a mum. We don’t want to let the kids down.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I was mentored by the first supplier I ever found, I think some mum makers like to join groups or network, I personally like to keep a small circle and put my head down and go to work. At times I’ve taught a class or mentored others but for the most part, I like blending into the background
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mumsandkisses.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mumsandkisses
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mumsandkisses
