We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexis Richards. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexis below.

Alexis , appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

As a small business owner you’re always challenged with the question “What else?” or “What would would you do if you weren’t doing this?” and as a YOUNG small business owner I’m constantly getting bombarded with the question of “What is your back up plan?” or “That’s all you want to do?”. With this constant skepticism you can’t help but think “Well…if I didn’t do this what would I do??” And I always rack my brain trying to answer this question because since I was in kindergarten I’ve always wanted to do my own thing. I was always the artist on Future Career Day while my friends and classmates were doctors and lawyers. As I got older I thought I would grow into the desire to have a more ‘traditional’ career but I’ve never strayed from wanting to be an entrepreneur. Starting from wanting to be artist then transitioning to the desire of owning a nail salon to eventually selling my paintings and art projects to now living out my life long dream of using my artistic abilities to accessorize others and allow them to have personal customized pieces. So when I find myself answering the question of “What would you do if you weren’t doing this?” I can only come out with one answer: A Business Owner.

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.

This is a custom embellishment service called Artista that specializes in bedazzling items for their customers. Artista customizes shoes, clothing, and accessories to order for each customer. This allows the customer to select the color, style, image, etc. They would like on their item.
I started my business seriously in 2021. Before getting serious about my business I was more just making custom shoes and crocs for my family members. With the spike in Croc’s popularity I wanted something that would set me apart from everyone else, which got me thinking if I’m feel like this I’m sure there’s plenty others feeling the same way. At the time I was a senior in high school and was mostly just getting viewed by my family and friends so I didn’t expect much. One of my teammates at the time was interested in buying a pair of my custom bling crocs and that’s when I realized I can really make something of this.
As time went on I got more serious about my craft and got to posting on TikTok and Instagram and was gaining a lot of traction on TikTok.
Now almost 2 years later I have expanded beyond custom crocs to additionally offer personalized embellished tumblers, jackets, tees, jeans, and whatever else your sparkly heart desires!!

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

About a year or so after getting serious about my business a friend of mine inquired about a style I’d never done but I was here for the challenge. After deep research on what vendors are the most cost efficient yet effective and easy to work with I made a custom artist inspired pair of shoes for my friend and per usual posted it not knowing this was going to be a huge turning point for my business. The video went viral and I started to pick up orders nationally from people I didn’t even know; which was a first for me.
As time went on the orders simmered down a bit but the artist I was repeatedly basing my themed crocs on (Rod Wave) was going on tour so I decided to create a video advertising viewers to order some custom crocs for the concert. This was a complete game changer!!
I got over 500k views on the post and my phone was blowing up left and right with order requests. Although this was my goal, it all happened so fast. I wasn’t prepared for this surge in orders, I didn’t even have a set ordering process or policies! That day I realized I had to make a big shift in my operations if I was going to efficiently get all these people their shoes. Over the next few days I created an ordering process via Instagram DMs that leads them to a Google form, solidified what vendor and materials I would use, and came up with a set price list and policy form. For the influx of eager customers I decided to give myself a week to collect orders, regroup, and weed out those who were serious inquiries for the shoes. After a week of regrouping and constant orders I was a smooth running business pumping out 3-4 pairs of shoes a week while balancing college and a part time retail job!!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Considering my business is 100% virtual, I had to figure out how to maneuver and make a name for myself via social media as it is a great marketing tool. My main source of followers stems from TikTok as I discovered that’s the best way to obtain a niche audience while gaining exposure. TikTok is a very calculated app with a specific algorithm for its users. As a small business owner this is a gold mine because all it really requires you to do is push out content and let the algorithm do the rest. Although this sounds simple it’s easier said than done. Due to the fact that TikTok is so niche you have to make sure the content you create doesn’t steer too far from what your audience is used to seeing. Getting people to watch is the initial task but the challenge is getting them to stick around. The hardest thing about social media is grabbing and keeping the viewers attention as they’re mainly watching for fast form content.
My personal experience with TikTok, like others, has been as long as you stay consistent you are golden. This means staying consistent in what you post, how often you post, and how you post. I started off with transition videos that showed the before and after of my product. As I started to grow, there was more viewer engagement, I capitalized on this by responding to these viewers with longer videos of the behind the scenes. This not only made the viewers who get responses come back, but additional viewers engage as well in hopes of being featured in the next video. This led to my numbers increasing and shows the algorithm that they are interested in my content and pushes my content back on their feed.
This technique has allowed me to gain 14.4k followers on TikTok and consistent engagement amongst my viewers.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artista._04/profilecard/?igsh=OTQydm9heHowcmVt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-richards-1184b2246?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@artistaa._04?si=GH8rQ1vupiRd7qNQ

Image Credits

I take all my own photos :)
Photographers always appreciated
Contact: [email protected] for inquiries