We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lakisha Evans. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lakisha below.
Lakisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
The name of my company is “Princess Niya’s Boutique.” My company is named after daughter.
I actually came up with the name because I wanted to be different than all the other skincare brands and companies out there. Every company now has either the word(s): soap, suds, skincare, beauty, etc in their names.
I know when you hear the word boutique you instantly think of clothing and think it’s geared towards only girls and women, but we’re a skincare boutique and our products are for girls, boys, women, men and infants. We make products for everyone. My daughter’s name is Rayniya named after her granddad, my dad. We call her Niya for short. I’ve always told her since she was little that she’s a “Princess” and I’ve always called her Princess Niya. I started this company because of my daughter. So when coming up with the name Princess Niya’s Boutique jumped out to me and the rest is history.
Lakisha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Lakisha Evans, but I prefer to be called Kisha Shantell, a combination of my first and middle name. I’m a mom of 2 beautiful children (18 year old son & 14 year old daughter). I’m the owner & “Soap Goddess” here at Princess Niya’s Boutique. I’m also a writer & new content creator on YouTube. I was born & raised in Chicago, IL
When we started the boutique it was initially geared toward young people. We opened the boutique in July 2020 and we started out with lip gloss, hairbows and lip oils. However, since then we’ve branched out to a wider and bigger audience. In October of 2020 I decided to start making soap & body butter because both my son and daughter have really bad eczema. We’ve tried every cream & ointment prescribed to them & they still would have really bad flare-ups & scratch their skin until it bled. I was determined to find a solution to help ease their irritation and soothe their itchy skin. I started doing some research on natural ingredients and I formulated a soap & body butter just for them and within a month’s time we noticed a significant difference with their skin. Their skin had cleared up, the scars were gone and their skin was no longer irritated. From that day forward I lived in my kitchen making soap and body butter. Since then, I’ve improved and enhanced my formulas. I’ve also formulated over 15 new formulations for soap & body butter for other skin types. I’m very passionate and dedicated about my skincare products & I know for a fact that they would make a huge difference in your skin care routine. Skincare isn’t an expense… its an investment
Here at Princess Niya’s Boutique we believe every little girl should feel and look pretty like a “Princess” & every little boy should feel and look like a “Prince.” We also believe that all men and women should feel and look like “Kings & Queens!” We’re here to make sure you embrace your natural beauty and release your inner Prince & Princess! We want you to enjoy the PNB Royal Palace experience. Our specialties are creating Luxury Artisan Bar Soaps, Body Butters, Body Oils, Body Scrubs, Whipped Soaps, Premium Lip Gloss, Lip Oils and Lip Scrubs. We also make 100% Soy Wax Candles and we offer Soap Making Classes. We believe every little girl is born beautiful, but with a little lip gloss and some shades her look is complete. Every boy is born handsome, but with a little body oil, a bow-tie/tie, cufflinks and a pair of shades his look is complete. Every woman is born beautiful, but with a little lip gloss, body butter, body oil and a pair of shades her look is complete. Every man is born handsome, but with a little body oil, body butter, a bow-tie/tie, cufflinks and a pair of shades his look is complete.
Through our skincare products we want you to have the ultimate PNB Royal Spa Experience & Treatment. When using our products we want you to feel like you’re on your own private oasis indulging yourself in the tropical vibes our custom blended fragrances release.
GOD planted that dream 💭 in my heart 🫀 & gave me the vision 👀 for Princess Niya’s Boutique 💜🖤🩷 & Princess Niya’s Boutique 2.0 🩷💜🩵 so I can be a blessing 🙌🏽 & help others. We’re more than just soap 🧼, scrubs 🧽, body butters 🧴 & lip gloss 💄. We are a MOVEMENT! It’s a LIFESTYLE! We INSPIRE, MOTIVATE, UPLIFT & SUPPORT you over here as well as IMPROVE your skincare. We spread LOVE not Hate. We want to see everybody WIN over here 💪🏽💪🏽 We are rooting & clapping 👏🏽👏🏽 for you too!
Come check out Princess Niya’s Boutique Lip Gloss line, PNB Skincare Boutique/Bakery & our Sunglasses line. Come get “Kissed by Niya” & “get Shaded by the Princess!”
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When I first started my business – getting the support and people to believe in what I was doing and to take me serious as an entrepreneur has been the most difficult thing to do, especially when it comes to family and friends. Most of the time they won’t support you or believe in your visions unless they see it’s popular to do or they see the success you’ve had behind it.
Being a business owner and entrepreneur can be a very lonely journey. Having the lack of support can make you doubt yourself and your abilities, but I didn’t let any of that discourage me from pursuing my dreams and making my business a dream come true. I’ve had a ton of sleepless nights, I’ve shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
You can feel very confident one day and when you share something you’ve created with people and you get negativity, judgement and all the naysayers and dream stealers trying to push their negative projections onto you, you start rethinking if what you’re doing is worth it.
Posting on social media can be a struggle as well, especially when you do not post, market or advertise like everyone else. Sometimes, when I post I may not get the likes, views or comments and shares as someone who goes live and talk with their audience. When I post on social media I do not go live because I am camera shy. I’m more of a behind the scenes kind of person. I’d rather my work speak for itself. I know eventually I’ll have to go live and get to know my clients/customers and to give them a more personal interaction and allow them to have a more in depth look into my personal business journey and provide them a chance to see my soap making process and how I do things in a day to day basis. It’s going to take time, but I’ll get there.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
I funded my business out of my own pocket with the money I earned from my 9-5. I started out with a very small budget of $500. With that $500 I had a logo made off Fiverr, found a cheap vendor to make my product labels, made my own business & thank you cards on Vista Print, ordered my ingredients and containers from Amazon. As I made money from sales, I invested it back into the business.
Funding your business with your 9-5 money is not easy to do because you have your regular monthly bills, kids to take care of and buying groceries are not cheap. You definitely have to have discipline and not waste money or spend any unnecessary money.
This may sound crazy, but I’ve never tried to apply for a business grant or business loans because I didn’t really understand the process or know exactly how to structure it. When you’re new to being a business owner you learn as you grow.
Finding my own business out of my own pocket taught me just how disciplined I am and how much determination I have. It took me time to build my business to where it is now and I’m still learning and growing as I continue on this entrepreneurial journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.PrincessNiyasBoutique.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/PrincessNiyasBoutique
- Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/PrincessNiyasBoutique
- Linkedin: https://LinkedIn.com/company/Princess-Niya-s-Boutique
- Twitter: https://Twitter.com/NiyasBoutique
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJdIvjDBgQEKm9TY2V5jkw
- Other: Pinterest.com/PrincessNiyasBoutique
https://fanbase.app/princessniyasboutique
Tiktok.com/@princessniyasboutique
Payhip.com/PrincessNiyasBoutique
