I’m still on a high from my first vendor opportunity at Legacy Official’s Women’s Month Pop-up Shop last week! I just want to start by saying that MANIFESTATION IS REAL. People use that word a lot, but this was a wild experience of seeing it happen FAST. When Erica invited me to be a vendor at the event, I had less than two weeks to prepare and I had nothing tangible to sell. The week before, I had just talked to my friend Jessica about wanting to invest in building an inventory. Between Erica and Jess, they pushed me to get it done. No excuses.
So I got my head in the game and decided to figure it out. I wanted to at least sell shirts, skincare gift cards and candles. And I’m proud to say that I worked with all black owned businesses to make it happen.
First, I called Nesha from The Village to design gift cards for skincare service. She does all of our design strategy and helps me bring my ideas to life. I just can’t say enough about how much I love working with her. She also used to do our screen printing, but she’s on to bigger and better things as a web designer.
So I had to find a new screen printing business and she recommended The Work Spot at Boxville. Reached out to them and immediately got good vibes from William who I believe is one of the owners. This time instead of sweatshirts, I decided to get long sleeve tees made for Spring. Both the YIN and The Outsiders Monogram tee. Luckily, he could get it done in time. But when I got there, we started talking about options and I decided to get some hats made too! Because of the rush job and there was no time for samples before printing the full run of shirts, I actually didn’t end up liking the way the monogram shirts came out. I was mad at first, but then William came up with a really good solution for how to save them. Can’t wait to show you guys soon!
Now for candles…I was already working with my friend Naja from Skin Glory Organics who has a candle wholesale business to finalize my first scent selections. I honestly wasn’t planning to move forward this quickly. But when we had our scheduled meeting to discuss it and she told me she could have the samples ready by the following week, I couldn’t pass it up. I got three candle scents made: Power, Perspective and Peace. Then I had to circle back to Nesha to get candle labels designed.
It was a busy week but we got it done! I’m definitely a bit of a perfectionist so there are a few things I would’ve preferred to be different but we did it! My sister and I planned it all out and I had everything I wanted to sell. Sunday 3/27 came around and it was go time!
The event got started and soon enough, people were showing up to shop. Turned out that almost everbody that came to support me wore their Outsiders shirts! I didn’t even ask anybody to do that except the “staff”, my mom and sister. But it made me feel so good. The Outsiders crew came thru!
I loved our setup. And people did a fair amount of shopping! I also got a few new skincare clients out of it.
I saw myself making money back on my investment. And not only that, I saw people at the event and even online starting to pay attention and show genuine appreciation for what I’m doing. THAT was the goal.
But I had more stuff to sell. I got home and realized I needed to set up retail space in my spa suite. This was another idea Jessica threw out. It was happening! I moved some things around and set up candles, hats, shirts and gift cards. And I’ve sold products with every since service since! It feels good because people aren’t just buying to be supportive, they’re buying because they want what I’m selling. My vision is getting bigger everyday. I can really see a lot of things that felt separate coming together and it feels magical. It feels right.
I spent every dime I made on skincare services in March pouring right back into the business. I can already see it paying off. And this is still just the beginning!
xo,
Ness