We were lucky to catch up with Alicia Boateng recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alicia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My love and admiration for that first sip of coffee is like no other. I have been drinking the same brand of coffee for over 25 years. One morning as I was on my 2nd cup of coffee, I looked at my husband and said, what if my coffee cup was as enriching and empowering as my coffee is to me? I then collected a few stones I had in my workshop, drew out a few designs and created my very first Afro Glam Cup named Felicia. I named her Felicia because that is my sister in laws name and second, she is dazzling in every which way.

When I first started Alicia Boateng Designs, cups were not the focus of the business. My husbaand bought me a cricut machine for my birthday and I just wanted to put vinyl on everything. In 2019, we opened up a pop up shop in our local mall for the Holidays, My intentioens were to sell Holiday decor and trinkets, however, after being at the mall for 2 weeks, everyone kept coming to the kiosk asking for my cups. It is at that very moment I knew I had found my target market and my Niche.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was a top notch Wedding and Event Planner in South Florida for over 20 years. My passion has always lived among being creative and expression my love for the arts. My grandmother was very creative and in spanish you say “muy curiosa”. She was the sewing master, the artist, the creative soul in the family, and I am proud to say that I inherited every single ounce of her talents! The weddings and events I planned were among the most elite events including destination weddings. My attention to detail has always been impeccable and that same attention to detail carries over into each and every cup I design.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

My husband, Edward Boateng, is the cofounder, business partner and life partner. Ed handles the everyday operations, our team, and the postage and handling. Ed and I met eight years ago and not long after we met we knew we wanted to build an empire together. What seems like almost immediately after meeting, we opened up Boateng Enterprises which would end up being the umbrella for all of other businesses.

Ed is the pillar to Alicia Boateng Designs. He is the ultimate problem solver and does it so gracefully. I often call him my poetic justice because when I am lost for words, whether its for a content post or a well versed email, his words flow so easily, leaving me in constant awe of him.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building my audience on social media has been a work in progress. It did not happen overnight and takes true commitment. When my cups started getting attention from celebrities like Tiffany Haddish and Octavia Spencer, their audience began to trust me, trust my product, and my content.

The key to gaining a sustainable following is to make sure your content relates to them and they get to see the real YOU. Life is not perfect and your posts should be genuine and consistent. I’ve learned that people like listening to our story , learning about your why, and following your adventures.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.AliciaBoateng.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/AliciaBoatengDesigns
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AliciaBoatengDesigns
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/MrsAKBoateng