SAN ANTONIO – In the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic last summer, Rebekah Garcia had a passion to create something unique and beautiful that would bring some joy into people’s lives.
“I really did put my heart and soul into it and I started to do things like that both of my grandmothers would want to see,” Rebekah Garcia, owner and creator behind The Stream Factory, said.
Garcia started creating backdrops out of different materials that she calls streamers. She said her grandmother got sick during the summer and with rising COVID-19 numbers an anxiety of the unknown became overwhelming for her. Her friends encouraged her to find a distraction.
“That was just consuming me at all hours of the night and so what they suggested was, ‘why don’t you do something that you think your grandmother would be proud of?’” Garcia said. It’s how her company, the Stream Factory, came about.
It started with her decorating for her daughter’s small birthday party at home and then creating another backdrop for close friends.
She posted them to social media and people quickly began to take notice.
”Those people referred me and some of my friends and that’s how it started,” Garcia said. “So one project led to another.”
A business coming to life in the middle of a pandemic was something that was unexpected for Garcia, who is a full-time underwriter for an insurance company. She says she creates on her own time at night and now she has been getting so many requests from costumers that she has something to do almost every weekend.
And her advice to aspiring women business owners? Take the leap.
”As crazy as it may be, that crazy idea might also bring joy to someone else,” Garcia said.
She said not letting any obstacles or barriers hold you back can be empowering.
”Life is going to go on and you really have the power to choose how you want to move forward and I would say that’s really empowered me,” Garcia said.