We were lucky to catch up with Alisha Needum recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alisha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

I Fancy Safety first came to mind late January and launched March 2nd, 2022. Now I am 6 months into business, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. I wanted to start another business that I am passionate about, something that can be shipped, and something that can be personalized. I remembered seeing a TikTok video about a self-defense keychain, and right then I knew that is exactly what I wanted to do. The idea of making women feel safer and more confident in this crazy world just made sense. I had been running my first business, I Fancy Sweets, doing event decoration and props for a few years at the time. This often required me, and my assistants (usually my younger sisters) to go in strangers’ homes to set up and frequently, break down the events as late as 1am. Thankfully, there have never been any major incidents while on the job, but the concern can definitely be there, especially living in the city. This made the focus on safety that much clearer for me.
After a slow first month, I Fancy Safety blew up the very next month. I am so grateful for the people in my community, they make all the hard work worth it. We provide stylish and affordable self-defense keychains and more. The amount of positive feedback we receive is overwhelming, and amazing. Knowing all the women we help feel safer is just the best. With all this in mind, originally, I wished I had started sooner. However, after putting more thought into it, I believe I started at the right time. I say that because I do believe everything happens for a reason. Being an event decorator, which mainly just took up my weekends, I was able to put a lot of time and energy into I Fancy Safety. I started around the time TikTok was at its peak and you could go viral overnight, so it benefited me getting a lot of exposure to be able to make people aware of our safety items. I already had 4 years’ worth of experience running a business, so I was able to implement some of the things I’ve learned from I Fancy Sweets into I Fancy Safety.

Alisha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Alisha, I am 26 years old living in Baltimore, MD, and I am the mother of an amazing 5-year-old. I sell self-defense keychains and more. I got into it because I wanted to have a product that I could be passionate about, customize, and that could be shipped. I provide a product to my customers that not only makes them feel safer, but it also makes them feel more confident. The thing that I feel set me apart from everyone else when I first started was the fact that I allow people to customize their keychains on my TikTok lives. My keychains also come with more stuff like travel size lotions, hand sanitizer and ChapSticks, and I make personalized thank you cards addressed to the customers. The thing that I am most proud of is the good that I am putting out into the world. It warms my heart the amazing feedback I get from my customers knowing that they love their keychains. I want more people to know about I Fancy Safety, and know we are here to provide quality. and stylish self-defense keychains at an affordable price.

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

It took almost 2 months for a TikTok video of me packing an order to blow up. I remember driving and seeing a notification pop up on my phone saying I got an order, and then another one. I was super excited because business had started off slow at first. Then I checked and saw I had 600+ new followers, so many likes and new comments on my latest video. Every time I refreshed my notifications, I’d have a hundred more new followers it was crazy exciting for me. I built my initial audience on TikTok by getting lucky and my video blowing up. Since then, I’ve been going on TikTok live to pack customers custom orders. I’ve noticed people love seeing their orders packed on live and the conversations we have. By the end of each live I tell them to go follow my other social media platforms. I also repost my TikTok videos of Facebook/ Instagram reels to help gain a following on there as well. My advice for someone trying to gain a following is to figure out how the algorithm works, use the right hash tags and once you find out what videos work that your audience enjoys the most, keep doing just that. Also, to be consistent and post quality content.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

When I initially started, I used Wix, then decided to switch to Shopify. I have considered selling my products on sites like amazon and Esty but I like the idea of personalizing my website to have it represent me. The pros of using my own site through Shopify is that I am able to download so many apps that increase sales, like text message marketing, frequently bought together apps, tips app, and more. The cons are that it’s more expensive and it’s harder for me to customize my website layout. There is so much potential with Shopify, it just takes more time to research and learn how it is used.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ifancysafety.com
• Instagram: @ifancysafety_
• Facebook: IFancySafety Alisha
• Twitter: @ifancysafety
• Other: Tiktok: @Ifancysafety