Mom Quits Her Job and Takes Care of Business
When her third child was born three years ago, Sylvia Munoz received a pretty gift basket from her boss at Pepsi-Cola. With that nice gesture, the young mother was handed her future.
She didn’t fully foresee the changes about to rush upon her, but the corporate career that this driven woman had worked so hard to build was about to collapse. And new blessings in her personal life were about to blossom: closer family ties and a new business of her own--making gift baskets.
Her baby, so fussy and finicky in his infancy, would be the one to show her the way.
She named him Anthony. He was born Aug. 1, 1995, deathly allergic to formula. Even premium product didn’t sit any better with his stomach than it did with his parents’ pocketbook. Human-made nutrients were so hostile to his delicate system that they made him bleed inside.
Anthony needed real milk--his mother’s milk.
At first, Sylvia believed she could handle it. What’s a modern mother to do but balance those domestic and professional demands? She always saw herself as a businesswoman with a briefcase, an image that came to her as an eighth-grader in Cypress schools. To make it come true, she worked three jobs during college at UCLA and later earned a master’s degree in organizational psychology.
Her ambition had not faltered as her family grew. She started at Pepsi in 1993. Jose, her eldest, was still a toddler; Alexandra, her only daughter, just a baby.
Mom kept right on working 60-hour weeks in her senior personnel post, overseeing the hiring, firing and training of 700 employees at the Buena Park bottling plant.
She went back to her job after Anthony was born, but only part-time because of her baby’s sensitive condition. Three days later came a fateful business trip to Texas.
It was impossible to pretend any longer. Her baby needed her and she was far away; for her, extracting and storing the life substance he craved was painful and impractical for a mother on the go.
The choice was becoming clear. It was time
for this achiever to rethink her priorities.
She was already worried about Alexandra. Though her middle daughter craved attention, she didn’t care to come to her mother when Sylvia came home from work. She preferred to stay with Dad.
The distance from her daughter was weighing heavy on her heart long before Anthony started tugging too.
“You carry that kid inside you for nine months, then you go back to work and she’s not interested in seeing you when you get home,” she said. “That was horrible.”
Sylvia gave herself a frank performance review. Her effectiveness was slipping on both fronts, as mother and as manager.
“Many women, and Latinas in particular, are torn between their fast-track careers and caring for their families,” said Sylvia. “There’s this trepidation that they can’t give 100% to each area.”
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Sylvia kept looking for a solution--and kept thinking about that basket she got as a new baby gift. She knew it was a good business. People order these cheerful cornucopias for all occasions: Mother’s Day, Boss’ Day, Secretary’s Day, Doctor’s Day, Nursing Week. Companies buy them for their customers as Christmas gifts, for new hires and for current employees’ birthdays and bereavement.
Somebody’s got to supply them. Why not her?
On Dec. 14, when Anthony was almost 20 weeks old, she quit her post at Pepsi. Simultaneously, Sylvia gave birth to Basket Elegance, her new home business. She took a deep breath and joined the ranks of the country’s fastest growing group of small business owners--Latina entrepreneurs.
“It’s very difficult to walk away,” said Sylvia, who used her savings as start-up capital. “It was gut-wrenching, especially when you’re used to that nice comfortable paycheck coming in.”
Nine days later, her creation had taken wings with almost 200 gift baskets delivered. Her very first order came from her faithful former employer.
In the early days, her staff was all volunteer. Eva Lombardo, her mother-in-law and creative expert, “did all my bows.” Her sister Sandra, an art major, did custom designs and “showed me how to cellophane.” Her husband, Alan, an aerospace manager, made deliveries on his days off.
Nowadays, Sylvia’s client list looks as solid as the Dow. Customers include Anheuser-Busch, Taco Bell, Cypress College and Los Alamitos Race Track. When I called her Monday for an interview, she couldn’t hide her excitement over snaring a new corporate client. Disney picked up the Basket Elegance catalog for its employee service center at the Anaheim amusement park, in addition to the Burbank facilities, which already offered it to film and television employees.
Disney workers can order gift baskets from $25 to $100 with themes such as Mickey’s and Minnie’s Munchies and Piglet’s Pantry.
“Today is a great day!” Sylvia exclaimed.
She gives much of the credit for her business success to her parents, Frank and Sally Marquez. They own a Whittier restaurant, El Pollo Ranchero, and raised six high-achieving siblings, five girls and one boy. Among them are two PhDs, two with master’s degrees and two bilingual teachers.
“I don’t know how they did this,” said Sylvia, child No. 4. “They always taught us to work hard, just by example.”
The family’s immigrant entrepreneurial spirit started with Sylvia’s grandparents, Francisco and Frances, founders of Marquez Farms near Santa Fe Springs.
Sylvia got her start in business there before she started school. By age 5, she was selling corn at her family’s roadside stand, learning self-confidence and customer relations.
The farm was an idyllic weekend playground for her dozens of cousins. Grandmother Frances still lives in the original farmhouse, now hidden behind encroaching commercial buildings.
Sylvia’s family was concerned but supportive of her decision to go on her own. Others warned she was making a mistake.
But “my mom’s ethic is you just don’t give up,” she said. “You’re an obstacle in my way, so just move aside because I’m going to make this happen.”
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Sylvia knew she had an edge. She had that corporate polish to help her make her sales pitches. And she knew how to leverage all her multicultural contacts: her local chamber, her former co-workers and associations for Latinas in business and for Latino professionals.
Basket Elegance, based at her Cypress home, now employs two designers. Sylvia’s trusted assistant, Diane Bruce, is a mother of two who can also work at home and communicate with her understanding boss by computer.
Last but not least, Sylvia has a special partner who joins her occasionally on her rounds to suppliers. Together, they shop for the goodies that go inside her baskets: the caviar, wine crackers, chocolate pears, cappuccino toffee and Belgian white mocha.
Suppliers have all gotten to know her little helper by name: Anthony, her healthy 3-year-old.
Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com.
