You are never too old (or young) to “dream BIG and try your best to make it happen”. That is exactly what the Crafty Cortez Sisters co-owner, 10-year-old entrepreneur Bella Cortez said to us when we interviewed her and her 9-year-old sister Ruby Cortez about their new business venture.
The 2 young sisters are from the South side of San Antonio and expressed their deep passion for creating crafts and accessories at home and for others. They mentioned wanting to earn their own money to spend on their favorite things like, American Girl Dolls, more crafting supplies, and wanting to start their own business with a goal of owning a boutique someday. “When we’re in college and my sister doesn’t have class and I do, she can run our boutique”, said Bella. Ruby added to that by saying her sister Bella was more organized and, she’s (Ruby) the one that can think of creative ideas quickly and on the spot.
“One day we were walking on the beach and brought the idea up to our stepmom about starting our own business since she has her own, and would know now to help us get started”, says Ruby. “She (stepmom) gave us ideas on creating our brand, logo, making notes to ourselves when we have ideas, and created a dream board together with some of the ideas we came out with”, says Bella.
They touch on helping other kids who want to become entrepreneurs by creating a book on “How to start a business” book for kids and how excited they are to be attending and selling their crafts and accesorries at their first big event, the inaugural Southside Artezan Market on August 23, 2020.
“At first I didn’t think anyone was going to buy our stuff, and when we started selling to customers, it made me really happy” says, Bella. “We are thankful my Dad and stepmom ran into each other, because if they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have started our business” says, Ruby.
Both sisters gleamed with pride as they talked about future goals, possible expansion, how cool it is too see customers share their work on social media, and have their business ad in Live From The Southside Magazine. As business owners ourselves, we made it a point to share with the two mini girl bosses that they should be proud of themselves for being ambitious and going full throttle on accomplishing the goals they have set for themselves at such a young age.
The Crafty Cortez Sisters added that have a great support system, as their older sisters have stepped in to help them get their merchandise ready for the market. They gave a special thanks to their sister Jasmine (“Jazzy”) for stepping up without hesitation to help them right away with fulfilling current orders. And lastly, to their stepmom April, for inspiring and guiding them in the right direction to making this dream a reality.
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