AUGUST 14, 2020 — From T-shirt printing to earring making, over the last couple of months more people have turned their hobbies and passions into home-based businesses as a way to bring in extra cash during the pandemic.
To help these small businesses grow, UTSA alumna Krishna Garza-Baker ’14 has created a space called Home Basket, which serves as a nationwide resource for aspiring entrepreneurs and a directory to find home-based businesses locally.
“Home Basket is an online directory for people to search by location or use keywords to find home-based businesses that offer the products or services they’re looking for,” said Garza-Baker, a project coordinator in UTSA’s College of Business. “It’s a one-stop place to find those home-based businesses, to shop small and make it easier for everyone.”
All too familiar with knowing what it takes to start a business, Garza-Baker knew a gap needed to be filled, where home-based business could promote themselves.
Before Garza-Baker moved back to San Antonio to work at her alma mater, she managed her own cookie business from home called Rock ’n’ Roll Sweets while working for Hilton Worldwide full-time.
“Being into music, I wanted to go to concerts, so I came up with the idea of selling cookies at little events here and there to make extra money,” she said. “That’s what introduced me to home-based businesses and made me realize there’s not a lot of places where you can find small businesses. We always say, ‘Yeah, let’s support the local community and shop small,’ but where do we find these home-based businesses? They’re all over social media, but how can we find them? So that kind of that sparked the idea behind it.”
Home Basket, which launched in July, is a space where businesses in the realms of arts and pottery; beauty; clothing; crafts and stationery; event decor and rental; home decor; pets; and sweets and snacks can promote their craft.
Garza-Baker is currently working at growing Home Basket and hopes to showcase small businesses for everyone, especially ones that are just getting started.
“There’s websites like Yelp, where you can go find some restaurants and reviews, so why not do that for home-based businesses—but for the website to not cost an arm and a leg,” she said. “Sometimes you might not have a lot of funds available, and you need just that little push to get started.”
Home Basket features a lot of perks for businesses, such as linking their social media and websites and keeping track of how many people visit their info pages.
Garza-Baker also recently added space for markets and a blog to feature the stories behind the businesses.
“It’s incredible to see how many people come up with the most unique products. I love that they do what they love because that’s really important, especially right now with the times and the economy that we’re going through,” she said.
With Home Basket, Garza-Baker hopes to show people the importance of supporting small businesses.
“Whenever you’re shopping small, you’re supporting more than just the business. There’s the family that’s behind it and the individual,” Garza-Baker said. “When you’re buying their product, you’re supporting an individual that has to pay the bills, has to pay college tuition and many different things. You’re supporting an actual dream, an actual person.”
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Each fall and spring semester, students convene at the Main Campus at UTSA with booths, ideas and prototypes. A crowd of judges, local organizations, students, faculty and sponsors walk around and talk to the students about their projects and ask questions. Students get the real-life experience of "pitching" their project with hopes of getting funding or support to move to the next level.
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