Zefiro, a reusable homegoods store “where sustainability meets affordability” is the business-baby of Carley Pulford.
After an NGO career in China, Canadian-born Carley had settled in Chicago with her husband (and now business partner), Mike, and their two small children when she dreamed up the idea. Six years later, Zefiro sells in all US states, across Canada, and in some European countries. Carley (along with her family and business) recently relocated to Saint Joseph, Michigan, where she became good friends with Orso content creator Brigid Colver. The two worked together to kick off the first profile in our Founders Series, laying out the sweat- and sob-equity it takes to build a business and a brand.
On starting a business
I moved to the U.S. in 2016 and started my visa application in early 2017. Unable to work until the visa process was complete, I started dreaming up my own business idea.
My original idea was to set up a refill store, selling items people could purchase as refills, then expand into bulk foods which we have a lot of in Canada. I’d been to a zero-waste store in Vancouver while visiting home which inspired me, but I was nervous about a store; I had a six-month-old and a two-year-old and wanted to balance my time with them. So I pivoted and launched at the Chicago farmers markets.
At my first stand, I was selling refillables as planned, but also had some complementary products like scrub brushes and reusable bags. I kid you not: my first customer was a wholesale owner. By my first week in business I was almost completely sold out. The income goal I had set for the month? I made it in a day.
Obviously, I assumed this was a fluke. I figured everyone who would have bought my stuff did it right up front. So I wasn’t prepared enough for the second market. I sold out of reusable produce bags within the hour. This kept happening! Clearly, these reusable products were meeting a real demand.
As the business grew, we outgrew farmers markets and transitioned into a solely online presence and warehouse, letting stores stock our goods across North America. Over the years, our wholesale business has grown significantly. In the first year, we sold around 50% direct-to- consumer, but now it’s nearly 95% wholesale.
On building a brand
Zefiro’s brand foundation
When I first came to the U.S., I remember seeing recycling bins full of disposable items like coffee cups and felt surprised that everyone used so many disposable things. I built Zefiro out of a desire to see people consume less. That’s tricky for a business that sells things, right? So instead of highlighting products in our social media channels, I post recipes for homemade pickles and jams, or suggestions for how to dye stained clothing to give them new life. Moving toward zero waste, inclusivity, and building a better future are the rock solid bases of our brand.
We try to incorporate our values in our finances, too. To this day, we donate 1% of our profits to causes we care about. Plus, we’re a family business and involving the family is important to me. You can see that in everything we do. My husband left his corporate job to join the business in 2019. Our website photos include our kids. We bring our children to work; they get to learn from a young age what hard work looks like and I’m really proud of that.
Zefiro’s name and logo
I worked closely with one of my best friends on the name. She and I worked together at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. She’s witty and creative and someone I trust. I dumped around ten name ideas on her, she came up with a list of her own, and together we landed on Zefiro.
We based the name on the Arabic word sifr, which means zero. I love the global nature of it, the sound of it, the meaning of it.
During our logo design process, we ended up with two options – one with a fully closed circle and one that didn’t quite close. I polled my friends and all my friends in marketing voted for the closed circle based on our closed loop values. I’m so glad we landed on the one we did, I can’t imagine a different version now.
Growing brand awareness
I did – and still do – all sorts of funny things to grow brand awareness. This, for example, is way better than my first interview which was me interviewing myself.
Before we got our family’s professional photos taken (which are up on the site today), I took all the photos on our website myself and, honestly? Around 80% of them were taken at Home Depot. I’d bring our wares, march on over to their demo kitchens, and take shots of our stuff on their pristine model sinks and countertops. Or I’d go to Target and use their plates and towels and cutlery to make a little scene with our products. My husband was always mortified. Once, at Target, they stopped me on the way out the door and I had to prove I wasn’t shoplifting our own products!
Over the years we’ve invested in different types of marketing. Over the years we’ve invested in different types of marketing: PR, houseware shows, and software. We tried a free version of the software RangeMe which brought us one of our largest customers so, naturally, we tried the paid version which brought us nothing. You never know!
The one thing that has consistently worked has been social media. We seem to get a pretty good return on working with influencers. But the amount of personal relationship-building necessary to gain and maintain them working with your brand is a lot of work.
Business challenges
To be honest, content marketing and social media marketing have been especially challenging for the past six or so months. Our brand is about caring about everyone, being inclusive, and worrying about the future of the planet. I’m personally in a pretty negative place with the state of the world and it feels disingenuous to post content when there’s so much suffering and meanness.
As far as challenges overall, 2025 has been a doozy for small businesses. Tariffs are hurting us, shipping costs have gone up, Amazon takes a lot of our market share. Small businesses in general face a much bigger struggle than people understand. Access to health insurance is terrible – we have awful healthcare coverage for a family of four – and that’s hard to swallow as someone from Canada.
That said, building this business has been absolutely, one hundred percent worth it.
The one thing I need
I wish I could say that just one big thing would take us to the next level – a brand partnership or a big customer – but really, our needs are small and commonplace and many. Like I said, better options for health insurance would go a long way. Having good, but affordable, accountants that could actually give us time and attention would help. I’d love a fighting chance at competing with the big brands in the algorithms on Instagram or Facebook. So maybe if I had one wish it would be for a dedicated person to run each department: an inventory manager, a social media manager, legal, and so on. But that’s impossible on our budget so… we do it all!
Here’s one particular thing that’s been on my mind. Our consumer sales are up this year and I don’t know why. I’d like to. We have so many first-time customers, which is great, and I’d love to understand the reason so we can lean into it.
“That’s all we can do.”
We’re a really small business trying to do whatever we can to help people make mindful, simple swaps. That’s all we can do. But we hope and believe that contributing in that way inspires bigger changes. It can be demoralizing sometimes: Jeff Bezos just dropped $50 million on a decadent wedding; does buying a reusable scrub really matter? But then you see a big brand like Windex selling refillable options and hope swells. Alongside our small competitors, we are enough of a threat that these bigger companies are coming up with ways to not lose market share. I try to remember that, and do the little bit we can, as well as we can.
Learn more about Zefiro
Thank you for your insights into small business leadership, Carley!
Readers, if you’re looking for beautiful, reusable, biodegradable home, pet, and personal care products, check out Zefiro’s products on their website and Instagram. The Orso team loves their offerings as much as their founder story (and you know how much we love a good story).