Today we’d like to introduce you to Diana Sandoval.
Hi Diana, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, my name is Diana Arlene Sandoval I am 27 years old. I am married to my high school sweetheart and have had the privilege of doing life with him for what will be 13 years this upcoming May. During the day, I work full-time from home as an accounting coordinator for a Mechanical Construction Company while caring for our 2-year-old son. Each day as I clock out of my corporate job, I then devote my time and energy to running my small business.
I run an online boutique with two of my sisters called 3SistersBoutique and we have been in business for a little over 1 ½ years. I am the second oldest in our sister trio and I am responsible for all the daily operations for the boutique which consist of tasks like placing orders, posting on our social media accounts, and planning what events we will attend in the upcoming months.
For as long as I can remember, God has planted the seed of independence and entrepreneurship within me. I started my first job at 17 and have worked hard ever since on trying to create a better life for my siblings and I. After I completed high school, I decided to further pursue my education in business and attended San Bernardino Valley College. In 2018 I enrolled in an online program at Cal Baptist University & by the end 2019, I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Business Administration as well as a minor in Marketing. I always knew that entrepreneurship was a chance to give my family a different and better life and felt that having some form of an education would be the first steppingstone needed to help achieve this goal.
In 2020 after traveling throughout the East Coast and Pacific Northwest for my husband’s work, I found myself living back in California under the same roof as my mother and sisters. During this time, I was pregnant with my son & the COVID pandemic was taking a toll on the world & changing everything around us as we knew it. Being trapped inside with what felt like no positive outlet, my sisters as well as my own mental health began to decline. At this time, my youngest sister Samantha was struggling with finding a job while caring for her son. Seeing my sister struggling to provide for her child left an unsettling feeling within me and made me want to do anything I can to help ease her pain and worrying. This feeling of helplessness led me to having a conversation with both my sisters about starting our own business. After months of planning, researching, and prepping, 3SistersBoutique was launched in March of 2021.
During this last year in a half that we have been in business we have participated in many small business events, made multiple connections with businesses & individuals, had a handful of disagreements, and have made many mistakes when it came to our boutique. Each setback and bump in the road that we have faced, we have done our best to use what we went through as a learning experience and continue to move forward and grow from it. Through all the trial and error that we experienced, I am happy to say that we are finally at place where we have a clear picture for our brand moving forward and know exactly how we want to showcase our brand and what we want our business to represent.
We want to reach others with our merchandise and send a message that we all go through daily struggles and that we all are still so important to this world and have a story to share. My youngest sister Samantha being a teen mom, myself being a full-time employee, mother, and wife all while trying to get my business off the ground and dealing with depression. My oldest sister Alexis, trying to balance her full-time career while finding out what her key role in this business is and prioritizing her mental health. We know that there are so many other women out there going through similar situations and we want them to know they are not alone.
In April of 2022, we attended the FMM Convention as a vendor and we had no idea how much this event was going to impact our business. Prior to this event, we created a collection of tees that were all geared towards women empowerment, body positivity, and mental health. My sisters and I were so excited to showcase this collection as we felt like these tees were a true reflection of the 3 of us and everything we have been through and are passionate about. During the event, we sold out of nearly every design and received so much positive feedback on our collection. We knew at that moment that this is what we all wanted to do with our boutique moving forward. We agreed we wanted to use our boutique and the items we carry as a voice for women everywhere. This is exactly what we have been trying to transform our boutique into ever since.
As the months passed after the FMM Convention, my sisters and I worked on getting rid of our inventory that we currently had and taking the steps to fully transition our boutique to the boutique we all envisioned it to be. In the end of September, my sisters and I were all going through a tough time mentally and agreed the best thing to do for all of us was to close our online store while working on the rebrand and that is exactly what we did.
It is now December 2022 and our relaunch date for our website is scheduled for Jan 1st, 2023. During the time that our website has been closed, we have worked on spreading awareness to our brand through pop-up events, social media outlets such as TikTok, as well as establishing relationships with other members in our small business community. We have not received any awards or grants since 3SistersBoutique has been opened. However, in hopes to bring more awareness to our brand, we recently became a vendor in a small business collective in San Clemente earlier this month.
Although the boutique is not my current full-time job, my goal is that the work that I am doing today will be the foundation needed to make this my full-time job within the next 2 years. My passion for making this boutique successful all derives from being able to provide my family with a better life then we experienced growing up, as well as help be a voice for women everywhere reminding them that we are Strong, Intelligent, and all made with a purpose!
My vision for 3SistersBoutique for the next 5 years would be being able to grow to a scale where we are able to have a location/warehouse where I can employ women in shelters, young women in foster care, and women with disabilities. I would also like to I see 3SistersBoutique being a well-known brand in the community who help to educate young women in schools and host our own community events where we give back to women in need. I envision us having our own YouTube channel where we will be able to reach a wider audience and share stories of inspiring women in our neighborhood who are making a difference, as well as other small business owners and demonstrating the reality of running a small business.
One important aspect that my sisters and I really wanted to implement with our rebrand process was focusing more on helping our community and supporting others who are in the same position as us as; young women who are 1st-time entrepreneurs. We have worked extremely hard partnering with other women-owned small businesses just like ours. When we launch in a few weeks, we will have successfully collaborated and partnered with 8 different small women-owned businesses throughout the United States to curate certain accessories and tee shirt designs for 3SB. With my 5-year business goal in mind, I see us continuing to work and help support other women-owned small businesses in and out of our community and continuing making these vital connections.
Our goal is to help empower other women through our merchandise, be able to grow our business into a support system for others in knowing they are not alone; and provide tools to others and continue to pay it forward, and be a voice for women and our community.
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?
The biggest struggles that my sisters and I are currently experiencing as business owners have been the lack of readily available finances to grow our business, as well as staying consistent with promoting our business while having families and full-time careers. During this last year in a half, we have learned so much through trial and error and have made a lot of realizations about how hard it is to run a business.
As you know, we’re big fans of 3SistersBoutique. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We want to reach others with our merchandise and send a message that we all go through daily struggles and that we all are still so important to this world and have a story to share. We want other women to know and feel safe and think of 3SB as a home. We are a big advocate for community over competition and mental health awareness. We take pride in being our true self to our followers and showing them that you do not have be perfect or have a perfect life to follow your dreams. My youngest sister Samantha being a teen mom, myself being a full-time employee, mother, and wife all while trying to get my business off the ground and dealing with depression. My oldest sister Alexis, trying to balance her full-time career while finding out what her key role in this business and prioritizing her mental health. We know that there are so many other women out there going through similar situations and we want them to know they are not alone.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
One of the most important lessons we have learned throughout our journey is how important it is to believe in ourselves and know that we are in control of your own destiny. No one can hold us back besides ourselves! Friends, family, and strangers may not understand our passion or vision for our life and business and that is okay. God planted the vision inside us for a reason and as long as we continue to have faith in ourselves and him, we can achieve anything that we set our mind to.
We also have learned that we do not grow if we do not take risk. Over this year and a half, we made countless mistakes when it has come to our business, but we realized each lesson learned was a block helping us get to the next level of our business.
Pricing:
- All Tees $32
- Crewnecks $40
- All Accessories under $30
- We try to keep everything under the $50
Contact Info:
- Website: www.3sistersboutique.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3sistersboutique.co/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw6hA19oepr_72lpDjpggQg
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@3sistersboutique.co
