Connect
To Top

Meet Li Li Kosek of Say Yes Bedding in Gilbert

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Li Li Kosek.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Li Li. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.

I was born in a southern city in China named Shaoguan. My father was a school superintendent in our little county and he opened a small bookstore for my mother to run. I spent most of my childhood helping and working at mother’s store. During summer breaks, father would take our whole family on business trips to all kinds of toy and stationary markets where he would purchase the inventory for the store. I showed great interest and talent in business back then as a young girl and was able to learn how to conduct business and run the store in an early age which I think that was probably a great reason of why I become a businesswoman today.

I studied in Foreign Trade English in Guangdong Baiyun University located in Guangzhou. There, I learned my brief English and skills on how to export and import commodities in China, After graduation, I worked for a Qatar- based trading company in Guangzhou China for 4 years. I loved my job, nothing more enjoyable than dealing with different business people from all over the world.  I especially like attending all kinds of tradeshows with my clients and working with different kinds of products’ suppliers and factories. I gained full of sources and experiences on trading and export. When my first daughter was born, in order to have more flexible time to take care of her, I decided to establish my own company. Right then, Say Yes Group was registered in Hongkong in 2008! In the summer of 2012, I visited a home textile tradeshow in New York city. In a beautiful morning, on that same trip, on my way to a bus stop, I met my current husband Jason.. we soon fell in love and got married a year later. Now, we have a beautiful family of five, living happily in Gilbert!

I started Say Yes Bedding in 2016 with the ambition of expanding into the USA the home textile business I have already owned. Since 2008 I owned my own trading company which exports millions of units of hotel supplies and home bedding worldwide yearly. When I moved my life here to Arizona in 2015, I decided to bring my products locally. I wanted to introduce every family to our fun and unique bedding products!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?

No, it is extremely hard! Being a foreigner, and learning how to do business locally, of course, is a huge challenge. I had to think and plan differently from what I’m used to.

In the beginning, It was so hard to figure out how I could let people know of my brand and my beautiful products. Shall we be the retailer selling online ,or shall we be the wholesaler? After participating in a tradeshow in Las Vegas, I learned and decided that we could actually be a supplier to most e-commerce businesses!

Here, today I have launched a fulfillment center in Gilbert. We are working with several online stores and platforms, and I’m expecting to go into mortar and brick stores in the future.  Our products can be found on Amazon.com, Wayfair.com, overstock.com and walmart.com.  We are a manufacturer but we ship small retail orders too! Any interest on our products, don’t hesitate to email me : ) Shoppers are now welcome to purchase their favorite bedding set directly on sayyesbedding.com as well!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?

Plan to keep growing our brand, work with more online retailers who is interested in drop shipping and hope to work with retail chains such as Target, Macy, Bed Bath and Beyond etc very soon.

Contact Info:

Suggest a story: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in