We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexandria Moore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alexandria, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Our mission is to provide women with unique, affordable, fashionable pieces; that makes them feel amazing and help them build self-confidence. We take pride in showing women that what you wear really can have a positive impact on how you carry and perceive yourself. In which I know from my own personal experience. Throughout my teen years, there was a point where I was shy, afraid to take up space, afraid of what others thought of me, afraid that I wasn’t good enough… I truly didn’t recognize the beauty within myself. Yet, once I got into fashion and was able to let my own sense of style come to surface. I honestly began to see myself for who I was. It was almost as if fashion was an extension of who I was, how I expressed myself and what helped me build my self-confidence..

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

I have always known that owning my own business was something that I would want to accomplish in my life. As a teenager, all of my extracurricular activities were established in different aspects of business whether it was business marketing, business principles, photography, graphic design, fashion design etc. I was always intrigued by the idea of having something I would be able to call my own. Even the jobs I choose to work were aligned with my true goals. But, I can not take all of the credit; If you asked me where the first thought of being a business owner started from I would have to say my mother. I was raised in a family where we were taught to work hard for the things we wanted out of life and in my mothers words “faith with out work is dead”. Until this day those words have replayed over in my head like an old CD. She was the first person I saw have a “side hustle” outside of her 9-5 job. My favorite thing to do with her would be going to our hometown wholesale district to purchase t-shirts that she would sell out the back of her car.

In the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey; I honestly was not sure what I wanted to sell or who I wanted to sell too. It took for me to really sit down, self-reflect & evaluate on who I was and what were the things that were most important to me. Originally, I started off selling beauty products such as lashes and hair extensions. Which actually did well for me, I had few solid customers, mostly friends who were in the beauty industry so they shopped with me often. Eventually, I started to realize I wasn’t as passionate about those products and began to go back to my roots which was fashion.

A lot of my beginnings were trial and error. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to use the resources that were readily available for me. I feel as a new entrepreneur you have to wear many hats whether it be customer service, web designer, content creator etc. Especially, when you do not have the budget for these things. I self taught myself a lot. I watched many videos on how to build our mailing list, how to price inventory, how to do campaign launches even joined boutique hubs for tips from other prospering businesses.

Let me tell you, it takes a lot to stay focused but you have to remember your WHY. You have to remember why you started. To me, understanding/establishing your why is one of the most important things to do when you decide to start a business. This is what will make you stand out from your competitors. Sticking to your mission, your purpose.

The ideal of Primadonna Dolls is to make women feel confident in the clothing they wear and to understand that every woman has different phases that they go through in their life and their emotions are often tied to their outward appearance. Sometimes we feel fun/sexy, sometimes we are in our boss mode, sometimes we are in “soft girl era”, sometimes we feel luxurious and we want to show that! That is what makes Primadonna Dolls stand out from our competitors. Our collections are based off of those seasons! That is literally where the “Dolls” in our name derived from. Elle our boss babe (Fall), Fun girl (Summer), Monroe (Winter), and “Soft girl” which is spring. This is not the only we pride ourselves in that makes us stand out from our competitors; in our newsletter when we have specific days where we send out tips on how to build confidence, Wine down Wednesday’s segments, we even have a sister page that solely based on self-improvement.

This is also what want our clients to know its more than just a sale to us! Our brand truly wants to uplift women and create a space where you can show up as yourself with out restraints on what you wear!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The one thing I had to unlearn as I have gone, and still growing through my journey of entrepreneurship is that, there will never be the perfect time. There will be ups downs, things won’t always go the way you anticipated. Even when you you have planned out every detail. But, you have to have faith that it will all work out. Take the lesson you’ve learned and use them to map out the next steps you have to take.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

A lot of times in business, you have to be prepared for when things do not go as planned! Always expected the unexpected. Of course you can never be fully prepared but, you can not give up. There was a time when I was shooting products for a new collection. The day started off perfect yet, when we were down to only a hour before the shoot my makeup artist and stylist cancelled on me. For a moment I panicked. Thinking what am I going to do, but I knew I must go on first because I had already paid for the models, the photographer, the studio etc.. Second, because I had a deadline for when the collection was supposed to be released. Therefore, that day I became makeup artist and stylist doing all of the girls make up and styling each one of them for the shoot. In the end it turned out amazing and I took the girls out for drinks afterwards to celebrate our success!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.primadonnadolls.com
• Instagram: _primadonnadolls_

Image Credits
Photographer IG : icedupmike_ Website: https://www.icedupphotography.com/