Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tiese Roxbury. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tiese, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I am an avid traveler and I watched as selfie places began to pop up across the country and I wanted to visit a them. One in Miami and one cool pop-up in New York. Then when my cousin was senselessly shot and killed in Wilmington on Christmas day in 2020, I was looking for pics of us and didn’t have many. I realized that pics become so much more precious when it’s all we have left of someone, so I went from wanting to visit a selfie studio to wanting to give back to my hometown and create one. Violence was rising in the city so we wanted to create a safe space for families to come create memories and spend quality time. It was an emotional and tiring process to renovate, decorate, and open, but it was done with the help of my family so it was a really great bonding experience. Now the hard work has paid off because we have tons of colorful pictures of our family members and have given that same gift to others in Wilmington.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
This was truly a passion project for me. My major in college was Math, so I was never really thinking of becoming an entrepreneur. Even when I went to grad school and to get my doctorate, it wasn’t in business or anything. So there is no MBA behind this. My PhD is in educational research because education is my true passion so I really felt the need to infuse it into the business, hence why there is an educational component to it. That’s what sets us apart from other selfie places because we dive deeper than just taking cool pics for social media. True to our name, we do workshops on self-love, anti-bullying, body positivity, and more.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Not a big story here, but since the idea seemed so time sensitive given the rising popularity of selfie places and the rising violence in the city, I didn’t take time to fundraise or apply for grants. I just funded the initial startup costs of the business with my own savings.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
This has been a challenge for us that we are still working through. We have bounced around from having a billboard, to radio ads, to magazine ads, but the most consistent marketing strategy to reach clients has been social media ads and consistently posting content. We would love to get a TV commercial or get back on the radio.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.selflovemuseum.com
- Instagram: @selflovemuseum
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selflovemuseum
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-self-love-museum-wilmington