We had the good fortune of connecting with Marie Brandalise and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I had just moved to Switzerland when I visited an old friend, Kristy, an hour away, when we were soaking up the last of summer’s sunshine, and starting talking about places we wanted to travel to. We decided to book a trip to Instanbul, Turkey 2 weeks later.

It was during that trip where we were so inspired bring them magic to homes around the world and Casahara Bazaar was born!

Starting a business was a huge learning curve, and while we made plenty of mistakes along the way, I’m extremely proud of what we created.

One collection from Turkey turned into additional collections from Morocco and Bali.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My business partner, Kristy, and I fell in love with the dream of creating a business where we get to combine our passions: traveling the world and home decor. We wanted to bring the magic we were finding into the homes of others. Each artisan has a story and takes great pride in their work. We love working with them and representing what they do best.

It has been a road with ups and downs to get to where we are. From travel delays, to sourcing collections, to international shipping, to building our website, to photographing everything, to marketing, to social media, and beyond…we have learned a lot as we go.

YouTube and podcasts have been a great resource for troubleshooting and learning how to better our skill sets. I felt like I was in a mini marketing masters course…notes everywhere and brain on overload.

As I look back on starting our business, I am so glad that we just dove right in. If we waiting to be “ready” I’m not sure we would have ever started. Diving head first and learning from our mistakes has been the most valuable.

We went from maybe 1-3 monthly orders to daily orders. A big part of our success is our amazing customers and their reviews.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
San Diego will always have my heart and I love that it is still a home base for us.

An ideal weekend would be morning yoga followed by Better Buzz. I love to be active so hiking Torrey Pines with visitors is a must followed by a beach day until sunset.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our shoutout goes to our family. Casahara Bazaar wouldn’t be possible without the support and dedication of our husbands and parents.

We are a two woman show, but behind the scenes our husbands have traveled with us, set up and talked to customers at markets, and have been our sounding boards through this journey.

Our mothers have helped with shipping and worked markets with us…without asking for anything in return.

We feel extremely lucky to have our support system.

Website: https://casaharabazaar.com/en-ch

Instagram: @casaharabazaar

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSocal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.