We recently connected with FaLawna Barton and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, FaLawna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I used to work for a church, and I resigned in December of 2022. During the latter months of my career there, I was going through major depression and anxiety, on top of being a single parent. After I resigned, I had to think about what I could do to bring in income for me and my 2 daughters. What could I do? What could I make? What am I passionate about? Because my hair is important to me, I figured that I would try to create an all natural hair product for people with problematic skin. The main ingredient would be Aloe. After trying to figure out where to begin, trying to figure out formulations/ratios, possibly working with cosmetic chemists, and what it would cost me, I figured that I would table this idea and find something else to do. For some reason, I could not get rid of the idea of Aloe, so I thought to myself, I could establish other businesses that is associated in some way. That is when I thought of a clothing brand. I love clothes, and dressing nice, but it I found it difficult finding nice pieces. When I shopped in the junior section at department stores, I found that the clothes were more revealing than I would like them to be, and when I shopped in women’s, I found that the clothes were a little ol’ fashioned and not my style. I am a christian woman, who wanted to have clothing that I felt comfortable, beautiful and confident in. I wanted other women my age to experience that same feeling…Look cute and feel good without doing the most. As for using Aloe, there was a scripture in the bible, Psalm 45:8 ESV your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia… Although I do not add fragrances to my merchandise, I wanted them to be blessed. I wanted women to feel beautiful and blessed. These spices all yield a beautiful fragrance and even possess healing properties. So, I came up with the name Aloe Apparel. I even pray blessings over all of my inventory.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a former worship pastor. I am also an actor, singer and song writer. Like I mentioned earlier, I resigned from my job and had to figure out what I wanted to do next. My current church has a huge community of men and women who are entrepreneurs, and encourages people of faith to branch out into the market place if that is your calling. I sell clothing and apparel for women between the ages of 30-50 online. I will eventually also add in accessories. I wanted women to find clothing that fit their age group, while still being super fashionable, and not revealing too much skin. My launch date is Friday April 21, 2023. I had never started a business before and didn’t think that I would make it this far, but with the help of good ol’ youtube, I was able to get tons of information and learned as I went. I am so glad that I didn’t give up. I am the kind of person that if whatever I am working on cannot be perfect, then I don’t want to do it, but I was reminded of other entrepreneurs who started out of their homes and garages like google and amazon. They are 2 top leading businesses right now. I am sure that didn’t have everything perfect, and maybe failed a couple of times. I knew that if I stopped, I would never know what could be. I am so glad that I have not quit, and I will not quit!

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I am currently using the platform Shopify. I have read so many great reviews on shopify and those with online businesses. What I like most about shopify is that they have a set up checklist that walks you through everything that one would need to set up their online store. My con would be the part of designing your store. Though they offer templates, for me they were a little hard to follow with some of the things that I wanted to do. I had to contact a customer service rep via chat to help me through the difficulties, because youtube didn’t have the answer for me.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

To make the long story short, I won on a good sum of money on a game show last year called “Press Your Luck”(season 4 episode 6). This is how I was able to step down from my job and invest in my entrepreneur journey. It was a nail biter!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thealoeapparel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealoeapparel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thealoeapparel

Image Credits
Headshot provided by Michael Roud