Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kanisha Hayden. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kanisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Being an entrepreneur is all about taking risks whether you like it or not. No one ever has the perfect plan to have the perfect business. I thought everything would be easy, but I had to learn the hard way. One of the risks that I took was a financial risk for my business. As a teenager, I didn’t have enough money to fund a business but, my mom had a full-time job as a mom and head of household. My mom could only give so much because she had other responsibilities. A couple of weeks after my 16th birthday, I got a job in the mall. My mother and I would sacrifice other things to keep up with our business. We would need supplies and natural ingredients that we would have to scrape up to get what we needed. Another risk would be able to obtain an audience. Sometimes I would invest in campaigns and pay for promotion posts and, sometimes it wouldn’t bring in any customers. Which made me feel down and hopeless. I was spending money to promote my business and I wasn’t receiving the recognition that I needed. Slowly but surely, my business started to increase in audience and sales. As of today, I am currently working on creative ways to continue to see an increase. Some of the creative ways that I am implementing creative post to engage audience and looking to participate in pop up shops in the local area. These tactics will help us target different type of audiences and engage with the community around us.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Kanisha Hayden, and I am currently a sophomore in college seeking a bachelor’s degree in Biology: Pre-med. The inspiration started with my mom Lekisha, who had been creating body butter for about two years to sell to a small group of close friends. My sister, Anisha, and I wanted in on the action, too, and we both took our creations, lip gloss-Kanisha and sugar scrub- Anisha. We merged and created Kulture LLC on July 14, 2019. Today, we have grown tremendously by adding products to our business. We have recently added handmade candles and wax melts. I am excited to see how well our customers will like our new products. How well we are creative with our company sets us apart from other businesses. We always find new ways to be unique and think outside the box. My mom and I have two different styles and when we collaborate on ideas, we always seem to think of something better and different. I am most proud of being able to bounce back from anything. Having a business is not the easiest thing; there are a lot of obstacles, but to have a great company, you must continue to be optimistic and determined to keep going.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
When starting Kulture LLC, the funding was low to begin my company due to my mother being a single parent and me working a minimum wage job. But we tried our best to ensure we had enough to invest in our business. I would work 25 hours as a junior and high school to support my business. Once junior year hit, I worked 25-30 hours a week to prepare for college and fund more ideas for my business. Also, the sales that we would make would be a financial gain because we would use that money and invest it back into the business. It’s hard when you don’t have any background financially, so you must struggle to put money together to make it work.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele would be self-advertising. I would wear my lashes, body butter, and lip gloss and receive many compliments. I think the best way to promote your business is if you wear or use your products. I always wear lip gloss and use body butter daily, which stands out the most. I would also say that word-to-mouth is a great way to grow clientele because people talk. And when they really like your products, they often talk to other people about them. And they become interested in your products and want to try them. I think word-to-mouth and self-advertising are the most effective when growing clientele.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kultureshops.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kulturellc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KultureKultureLLC/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kulturellc?lang=en
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kulturellc?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8Q0d%2BEz%2F%2Blw1IBJnxD5r4YgGL8maxlKCEb5dVTZ86%2FkSs44PmgcqG1ooNdVG8bPtjSoX381S7ktrLfbRIGgA%3D&checksum=2d097fe95dfe367c051995a4e1f6c1f561202dc62841f275e34a4735ba234488&enable_clips=1&language=en&sec_uid=MS4wLjABAAAAKLfwbeZX7JPWxydTs49wQjqQ6jImtn0xDfOPqeY5c9qYYWimd7CI2Zg81eg3Kbxk&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAZwed5BNgsa55ktMNX5UhJ4l9H0wgvmW3yAQxZ6Ezyl8&share_app_id=1233&share_author_id=7029353466066060293&share_link_id=610DC31F-AC62-4A19-A021-24BA7B3C791E&tt_from=sms&u_code=166ki6&user_id=8199391&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=sms&source=h5_m&_r=1