Heather Woods-Elya, 38

Heather Woods-Elya admits she did not want to go into the family business growing up. 

But after stints in marketing and publishing in New York City, she soon realized all the benefits of joining the Southwest Florida franchise of California Closets her parents started back in the late 1980s.

Photo by Mark Wemple

After about a year working for the New York City franchise of California Closets, she started working remotely in sales and marketing for her family’s Southwest Florida location. She moved back to the area in 2019, and she and her sister, Taylor, became partners in the business with their mom and stepdad in 2022.

Woods-Elya learned early in her career that just sitting behind a desk wasn’t for her, which is why she appreciates that her family and their staff of more than 80 get to work with clients all over Southwest Florida to find innovative solutions to their organizational and storage problems. “Every day is so different, and I think for me that is what gets me going,” says Woods-Elya. “There’s not a single day I could replicate, and for my personality that is something I need.”

She’s watched her mom, Suzi Woods, in action over decades of building the franchise into what it is today, gaining a lot of insight along the way. “She’ll talk about how excited she was when she had a $50,000 month in sales, and now we have $50,000 singular sales,” says Woods-Elya. “She created an organization that I wanted to work at and be a part of because it really is so incredible.”

Her mom taught her to never take no for an answer. “You always just have to figure out a way to make it happen for yourself and those who rely on you,” she says. 

And while they might butt heads at times, working through challenges is just part of the process. “In the end, we’re able to come up with solutions that are taking both of our opinions into account,” says Woods-Elya. “We allow each other to stretch and grow together, and I think that’s pretty cool.”

Big things are ahead for the franchise, including a fourth showroom in Charlotte County and a new state-of-the-art, 40,000-square-foot manufacturing and headquarters facility in the Alico Trade Center. “We’re here for our clients, and if we weren’t, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are,” she says. “Repeat and referral business is a huge part of what do…At the end of day, we hope clients feel heard and feel that we’ve given them back something in their lives that was missing before.”