We were lucky to catch up with Jervonnie Moody recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jervonnie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

I feel as though having a supportive community of friends and family seems to be the expectation coming in as a new business owner. Although it would be nice for family and friends to support your business, you quickly learn that they are not obligated to support your business. Family and friends are not your target audience. Lack of support from family and friends actually motivates you to find your people. There’s a target audience out there for everyone and I had to learn not to take anything personal. A like and share or word of mouth would suffice as far as support from friends and family.

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

My name is Jervonnie and I’m a self taught make up artist, specializing in soft makeup for special occasions such as photoshoots, weddings, high school senior activities, maternity events and more. I would say that majority of my audience consists of middle class women who enjoy the luxury of makeup for special occasions and self care purposes- mostly networked through social media and verbal referrals. I am most proud of my natural finish of makeup and overall technique perfected in order to ensure every one still feels like themselves but just an enhanced version. I want every one who sits in my chair to leave feeling as though they are the prettiest women in the world.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy I feel works for my business is partaking in social media marketing trends and paying attention to trending hash tags across different social media platforms. The goal is to reach as many people in your field/ niche as possible in order to bring awareness to your brand. Using trending songs, transitions, hash tags and video edits have helped my business grow in so many more ways than one.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I used holidays as a time to build my makeup kit. For example, I’d ask for Ulta and Sephora gift cards and spend them on makeup for clients rather than myself. I chose to make everything about my craft. I created Amazon wish lists and brought it up once people asked me my Christmas lists.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/opafaces