We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dalaise Hickey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dalaise thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

When I first decided to launch BabyDonna, it was very important that we were purpose driven and truly doing work to make change in the world. Being a social worker for over 15 years, I have mostly worked in the legal non profit world with youth and families often impacted by systemic injustice. For so long I have seen many of my clients pulled into these systems and spit out without any real resources and often in much worse circumstance then prior to becoming involved in the juvenile justice or child welfare system. In addition to working within these systems, I grew up in New York City and witnessed friends and families also become negatively impacted by these systems. Many Black and Brown families and children are disproportionally represented in family and juvenile court and it was crucial to me that I utilize whatever platform I have to try and make some form of a positive impact. And so when I launched BabyDonna, I decided to not only pledge donating a portion of our profits to non profits working with youth impacted by the juvenile justice and foster care system, but also to make my own direct impact. Right now because we are small, I am unable to take on an employee. However, my goal is to bring on a youth as an employee/paid intern who is directly involved in the juvenile justice system in order to provide them not only employment but mentorship as well. As we grow, we hope to bring on more youth and align ourselves with underserved communities to help leverage our platform in creating impactful positive change.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a mom of two and originally became a Social Worker after my own relationship with a social worker as a teen. I graduated with both my Bachelors and Master’s in Social Work and I’ve worked in many fields of social work including the mental health/clinical and legal field. Being a Social Worker is a big part of my identity and has created an empathetic lens that I view the world through. Two years ago after losing my mom and two grandmothers, I felt that there was something missing. I had always had a larger vision and dream for myself, but like many moms life got in the way. However, after so many losses and the pandemic it was clear that it was now or never to take the leap and really follow my dream. I decided to create a sunscreen company because I felt my children like so many other Black and Brown children had been left out in this industry and many of our options were either chemical sunscreens or sunscreens that left our children with a completely gray/white cast. I wanted my children to have a safe option, but to also feel like they too matter and their skin is just as important and precious as other skin tones. BabyDonna was born out of a need to celebrate melanin kissed kids brown skin and show that our children’s skin deserves safe sun protection that allows them to still feel confident in their brown skin. I am beyond proud to have launched BabyDonna’s flagship mineral sunscreen stick just 7 months ago and to see other parents show support and share how they too felt this was a product long needed. Since launching, we have also been able to make over $1700 in monetary and in kind donations which has really been one of my biggest accomplishments and I can’t wait to see how much we are able to give back in 2024.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

As a social worker with absolutely 0 background in chemistry, creating a sunscreen was definitely a challenge. It took me over 30 calls to various chemists/manufactures who either told me what I wanted to create couldn’t be done, they didn’t have the capacity to or the cost was just too much for me as a new business owner just starting out. I spent alot of time on google and searching sites dedicated to chemists and those in the skincare industry. Finally, after many weeks I caught a break and a different manufacturer I had reached out to led me to a manufacturer who saw my vision and what I wanted to create. The first year of formulation and testing was both exciting and nerve wracking. I learned just how heavily regulated sunscreen is by the FDA , all of the different moving pieces that go into sourcing packaging, creating labels and the many required FDA tests for sunscreen. One major thing I learned, is that no matter how much you budget and think you have a sense of the financial cost, be prepared to go over that budget if this is a new area to you. Now that I have the knowledge and am aware of the many different aspects of manufacturing sunscreen, I am able to budget correctly and know what to expect financially, but I certainly did not when I first started out.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

When I launched my business, I knew that it would be an Ecommerce one. I spent close to a month researching the various sites and attended a few webinars. Ultimately, I landed on Shopify because it had the best potential to grow with my company. It was important to go with a platform that could support me as a small business owner, but also as I grow my business into a larger one. Going with Shopify was truly the best decision I could have made, there support for small business owners and BIPOC founders has been phenomenal. I have had so many opportunities come my way due to being on Shopify and I am so thankful I made the decision. I would say to any business owner contemplating options for a site host or platform, to do your home work before hand and to know what your goal is. If you know you want to eventually grow into a larger company, it may make more sense to go with something more pricey but more effective long term. On the flip side, if you plan to stay relatively small it may make more sense to use a platform like Etsy etc. Ultimately, weight the pros and cons for your business before making any decision.

Contact Info:

• Website: babydonna.com
• Instagram: @babydonnaofficial @allyd1320
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BabyDonnaOfficial/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dalaise-hickey-lmsw-642bab9a/