We recently connected with Nikoji Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nikoji thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I have always practiced self affirmations through journaling and vision boards. I was first introduced to vision boards and affirmations by my mom during high school. I would go through my Seventeen magazines and cut out letters, to reflect what I wanted to get in each class and numbers to reflect the GPA I was aiming for. I would glue all of these things on a large poster board and tape it to my closet door. Every morning that was the first thing I would look at. The first time, I did this I was amazed that by the end of the semester I achieved all of the goals I set on my vision board. Every semester, I would create another vision board for myself. I quickly learned that the thoughts and dreams that I saw on paper and kept in my head can be turned into something real and tangible through vision boards and daily written affirmations. I continue to do this yearly as I think about my New Years resolutions. It has now become a family thing where my husband and daughter do this with me.

In December of 2019, I was talking to one of my girlfriends about affirmations and how it has helped me through the years. In that conversation, I decided that I wanted to expose women to affirmations. During my Christmas vacation, I created a business name, designed a website and researched how to publish a book. Then I created the Classy Lady Edition – Affirmation Journal. I published the book and purchased a copy for myself. When it arrived, I showed it to my husband and he couldn’t believe that I did all of this in 2 weeks. Well, after all of that, now I needed to market it and sell it. The affirmation journal was received well. By March we found ourselves in the pandemic and I had a little bit of extra free time on my hands. My friend and I started looking over a planner we bought at the start of the year and realized we didn’t like it as much as we thought we would. I started thinking about what kinds of things I would want to see in a planner. Something basic with room for my to do lists, yearly calendar, but most important affirmations. I decided to try my hand at creating a planner. Within a few weeks of laying out things- I had a planner. I thought about the covers I would want for my customers, I like floral prints, so I went with that (red, turquoise, pink, green and black). The Classy Lady Edition Planners were born.

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

My name is Nikoji Smith and I am the founder and face of The Classy Lady Edition, a company that I created to keep myself and other women organized and motivated through planning, journaling and self affirmations. My mission…. is to empower the minds and hearts of women with inspirational stationary.

I have always had a love for pretty things and surrounding myself with cute stationery and finding the perfect planner that could capture all of my goals and to do lists for the year. After years of jumping from planner to planner and never being satisfied, I launched my planner collection of The Classy Lady Edition. My collection of planners are especially designed for the mom, wife, businesswomen of all ages that are looking to organize their daily lives in one planner through To Do Lists, Goals, Vision Boards, Budgeting, Daily Affirmations and much more. All of the things that have motivated me over the years. Each planner was designed and created by myself. These 8×10 planners have 10 colorful hardcovers to select from, each filled with 70lb paper bound with gold coils rounded with gold corners.

In the coming months and years The Classy Lady Edition is headed towards having a full online shop and/or becoming a brick and mortar. I look forward to continuing to expand my stationary line to children and eventually having a mens line. Having things that are simple, functional and aesthetically pleasing is a way that I can integrate the parts of my lifestyle that I want to maintain and grow in my business. My line has already expanded to greeting cards, daily writing journals for women and children, coloring books with affirmations, stickers and so much more.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I always like to share how I launched my business in the height of the pandemic. I had customers purchasing my products from as far as Hawaii- sight unseen. These were all customers that watched my Facebook Live, followed me on Instagram then went to my website and purchased my planners. My husband became good friends with the clerks at the post office because the orders were coming in so quickly and in bulk. I was very proud of myself and my product. By the start of December I had close to $7,000 in sales.

But prior to all of this, I had to find someone to print my planner. I had this great vision and no one could make it come to life. After realizing there weren’t too many places in the US that could produce what I wanted for a reasonable price, I circled over to vendors overseas. This was a learning experience for me. I realized that this is where other places were also purchasing their items in bulk. Going into this process was a little scary because it was new and unfamiliar territory for me. Not to mention, I don’t know who these vendors are, are they going to take my money and my ideas and run. I decided to keep pushing though the process with caution. I did a lot of research, read a lot of articles that offered suggestions on what to look for and what to ask. As I started to reach out to vendors, they responded right away. I spent a number of days corresponding via What’s App in the middle of the night. After a few weeks of speaking to a vendor, having her answer my slew of questions and discussing it with family and friends, I shared my work with her so she could send me a sample of the product, When I received the sample, it became real. I actually had a product. Imagine if I just gave up because of my fear of trying something new.

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Have you ever had to pivot?

Purchasing my planners from overseas was a huge cost. I quickly learned that I had to cut out this vendor and reduce some costs some type of way. I was going to have to pivot by finding a local printer. I researched and found one that was willing to work within my budget. I still used the overseas vendor for other products, but I was able to reduce my costs by not relying on her completely.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theclassyladyedition.org
• Instagram: @theclassyladyedition
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheClassyLadyEditionLLC
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikoji-smith-081114140/

Image Credits
Dee Hues Photography All Things Detroit
Annistique Photography