We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ken’Ja Pharr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ken’Ja , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
I came up with the. name of my company by wanting to incorporating my mom who I lost to breast cancer. Her name is Candy so I wanted to include that somewhere within my business I also wanted to involve myself so I dropped to C and added a K to represent self. My mom loved sweets and so do I so I wanted it to give sweetness so that is where kandikoatedminks came about.
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
My name is Ken’Ja Pharr. I was grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin later residing to Kennesaw, Ga my senior year of high school attending Allatoona High school. Later transitioning to my first institution East Georgia State College which was a two year college I finished in a year and a half and transition to Georgia Southern University where I gained my Bachelors degree. College is the reason I got into my industry. I started doing lashes my senior year of college. Trying to juggle a part time job where hours where evenings plus study for practicals was difficult. Many nights I only had 3-4 hours of sleep up studying for exams learning the body in and out. I just knew I would be a nurse somewhere after college, but god had other plans. This where the start of kandikoatedminks began Feb. 3rd 2019. At my suite location I currently offer luxury lash extentions soon adding eyebrow services and facials. We also offer luxury lash supplies from lash extension trays, glue, super bonder .. etc . The problems that I solve for my clients is retention, the big. satisfaction is giving great service while being affordable and trustworthy this is how you begin to build your. clientele and learn your target audience. Honestly I think what sets me apart from others is the I build relationships with all of clients I try my best to treat my business as if it was this big corporation I try to give exceptional service the same that I expect when I am serviced is the same energy I give out. I take the health of lash extensions serious is always health is wealth when it comes to a core of my business. I hand test all of my products before applying to client quality over quantity. Lastly remaining humble. Im most proud of seeing the growth process of my business from day one to now it brings tears of joy to see the rise within marketing as well. Much gratitude is given to my salon suite as well its always great energy inside. Lastly the main things I would want others to know is that you should always stay consistent and chase whatever it. is that you want out of life. The sky is the limit.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Building my audience was a process, but a good process you learn so much within those moments which will later set you up for greatness down the line, this will also get you in the habit of staying. consistent. because you will see how important it is to do so. My audience did not start to build until I started to invest in marketing. I started to do research of who could bring my vision to life. Sometimes you’ll even need two people whatever to get the job done because you cannot do everything and think you’ll have a successful business. Once marketing is done I realized it couldn’t be a one time thing it had to be a consistent thing as well. I started. to purchase marketing materials weekly. Marketing could. be expensive so I made sure I did things slow and steady if content post were the only thing I could get that week I would do just that later working of my website etc.. After having a routine with marketing materials I knew it was then time to figure out how I wanted to place the marketing material via instagram. Next thing was staying consistent with reels 3-5 reels at times during a week.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I feel as if honesty and humbleness is what helped build my reputation. One thing I learned from starting a business is that no one is perfect you have to go through many experiences to know how to do better for future purposes. Ive never been afraid to listen to feedback or take criticism whether positive or negative these are the areas that will grow you or keep you stagnant. I listen to the needs of my clients and customers. They are my main priority when it comes to customer service and I believe they know that as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kandikoatedminks.com
- Instagram: kandikoatedminks