We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jamari Boozer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jamari below.
Jamari , appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
What helped me scale up my business Richlifestyle Brand, is being able to step out of my comfort zone and taking more risks. By taking the money that I saved throughout the years or even money that I didn’t want to touch just to try to make more money. I believe once you start to think outside of that typical mental prison “box” that some of us are accustomed to being in you’ll start to realize its a life filled with wonders and the way that you think and the creativity that you bring to your surroundings is what contributes to your success in the future.
I think most people think that when your really building up a business or any company obstacles and losses are real. I can remember when I was getting ready to design and make these sweatpants, and after I have sent all of my Information packs, measurements, along with the payment of course to one of my manufactures. I was informed that the large quantity that was getting prepared would take roughly under 3 weeks to get done. As time pass I began to feel a sense of worry because my deadline to release these sweatpants was approaching fast. With all the advertising I was making and continuous networking to spread the word of my upcoming release, I was doing everything I thought of to make sure the work I was doing was going to benefit me in the end. Days go by and my manufacturer hasn’t replied to any of my messages or calls as well. So at that point I was a sitting duck with no proof of production to show customers, limited to making content due to lack of communication with manufacture, and having social media influencers & artists wait longer for additional garments. Without knowing and soon to find out my manufacturer was under the weather and has been extremely ill. Fast forward a little more and the release of my Chenille Varsity Sweatpants dropped a month later in November of 2022.
Most people would ask how were you able to keep going, how did you still spread the word of the upcoming release even with lack of communication with my manufacturer, how were you able to receive your sweatpants. The crucial thing about “losses” people haven’t realized is you have to understand its apart of life. In school you fail, fail, fail and you end up with bad grades then disciplined because of failing but in reality it’s the complete opposite. Your supposed to fail a number amount of times so you’ll learn “what not to do”. Your goals are never going to get achieved if you don’t learn how to get over losses, always beating yourself up into a slump then your just losing out on time. When your in any type of industry, not just the clothing brand you have to be able to stay transparent with yourself and ask yourself “This is what I went through”, “This is my loss”, now “How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again.” It’s hard especially when your young and having to juggle a bunch of tasks and responsibilities, I learned to never be too dependent even a business partner, always have someone or way to help you produce whatever your good is & always stay resilient.
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 the Creative Director and Founder of RichLifestyle, my journey in clothing started the summer of 2021 but I fully immersed myself in the clothing industry in August in 2021. It’ll be almost two years now since I have been designing apparel and other wearable garments. Starting off before I created anything I created my brand to bring creativity and diversity to the world and also give others the opportunity to have the best outfits or even just clothes that aren’t overpriced like top designer brands but still offers you that same exquisite quality and confidence when wearing it.
When it comes to the type of products I provide, the answer is simple….EVERTHING! We can range from making hat wear, shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, and to any denim garment. If you can wear it, it came be made.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Funding my business for me was a rocky path in a sense that the money that was coming was split into different categories that I know would benefit me and my business down the road. Those categories would range from how I would advertise my products, to figuring out how to get the fabrics and other materials, paying my manufacturer, and etc. Essentially how I was able to release my first ever product I was working a job for a technology warehouse. As I was working there and also creating designs in school for my brand I would manage to separate my earnings for personal use and for business needs. Time went by and I reached my goal I needed to help me bring my ideas to life. I then was able to do a release of hoodies that then made me realize I can actually turn this idea into a reality. Shortly after I sold out of my hoodies I used the money to help me flip the profit for my next release. After that history started….
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Having my business now and experiences I had in life the most effective strategy in any business I learned is to be authentically you. In order for you to want someone to follow the path or idea you have they have to believe that you a clear and real passion for what you’re putting out. I figured to just be as involved as I can to get out and show the work it takes to make something work when you really want to accomplish something. I started to just tell everyone I knew and continued to push and work to get my brand known a little more. It was in a way that if I could promote and get someone to like what I was selling then I could just keep doing that over and over again. That was really my strategy to just continue to push and promote my brand in any way at any place I could.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://richlifestyle.shop/collections/all
- Instagram: @richlifestylebrand