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

Aliyah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Back in 2018, I was a sophomore at Morgan State University, I just transferred from Clark Atlanta university and wanted to find my footing in Baltimore. Moving to Baltimore was different, I didn’t know many people and the school was huge. At the time I was an eyelash technician while going to school, after hours of classes I would have people come to my apartment and I would do lashes for hours. One day, I wanted to go to an event that Morgan had going on and I couldn’t find any clothes. I would order clothes from the typical websites, go to the local malls but as a women that always seemed like I was so much taller than everyone I could never find pants that weren’t–you know, high waters. At that time, enough was enough. I wanted to take a look into making or finding my own clothes. From that day forward I talked to a few of my friends and went down a rabbit hole. I had a business portfolio from the School of Business from my time at CAU and I transformed it into my own, I wrote down vendors and manufacturers, sample pricing, shipping cost, packaging, even photoshoot pricing. A few months went by and I started saving money to order samples, I would talk about starting my business with family and it came with laughter, at that moment I knew I had to execute this properly. After time of saving, I teamed up with another local business that was dropping at the time and we collaborated on our first photoshoot and on January 11th, 2019 I launched Merci Ninety Nine,

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 am the owner of Merci Ninety Nine, an online boutique that helps men and women express themselves through clothing without breaking the bank. We pride ourselves on providing trendy staples that stay under a certain price point. I believe what separates us from the rest is that we aren’t so pushy when it comes to clothing and we understand that what may be on the lower side of pricing for us, might not be for everyone. So every other Wednesday we implement “Want it Wednesday” where we come up with different discounts that gives everyone a chance to get something they may want at a discounted price. We also partnered with affirm through shop pay that offers installment plans for orders over the price of $50. So whether you are shopping online or in-person at the many pop-ups we participate in you can get the experience and we will always work with you.

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

I started Merci in 2019 while I was in college in Baltimore, During that time I would travel back home to Delaware to visit family and friends. During those visits I would hand-press t-shirts for customers at $12 a t-shirt with any color way, charging a few dollars more for speciality designs. I would press out maybe 20-30 shirts a weekend in my father’s dining room. One weekend while I was visiting home, my grandmother requested a shirt in her favorite color, purple with white lettering. Since it was a Sunday and I had to go to school the next day, I told her I will bring it to her that following weekend. While I was at school during the week I got a phone call that she had passed away. Her shirt was finished I just didn’t have the time to bring it to her. I always wanted to make my grandmother proud and wanted to see her wear my clothing and being so hung up on time I missed an opportunity that I will never get back. That situation put life in a different perspective for me, till this day I make sure whatever I am doing I take time and listen to what my supporters want and need and what my business want and needs. Whether I need to stay a few minutes after an event, explain a fabric care a little more in detail, it doesn’t matter. Time waits for no-one, spend it on what matters to you.

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

August 2019 I decided to move back to Atlanta and enroll back into CAU, new city and a fresh business–I was overwhelmed to the max. After months of getting comfortable, COVID-19 hit harder than I could have imagined. School got shut down, businesses were closing, you couldn’t even be outside to a certain extent. So with a new business that relies on people going out and enjoying themselves, wearing new clothes, I was scared on what the pandemic was going to do to my business. I had to rely heavily on social media and my faith, I began utilizing the popular sites such as twitter and tiktok, paying for ads in different states so I could reach new audiences. One night, I was up scrolling social media and a popular influencer asked if anyone sold an item by the name of “Stacked Sweatpants” a popular pair of pants that a lot of people wore back then. It was late at night and I figured let me post the link to my site since I just started selling them. I went to sleep thinking nothing of it. I woke up the next morning with my iPhone literally overheating from the overwhelming amount of orders from ONE single post! I received over 30 orders and 3k+ views on my site. Going from being nervous on what the future may bring due to the pandemic to having my website sold out of multiple items from believing in myself and using all of my resources. That post didn’t just sell me out of sweatpants, it brung people to everything I had to offer and it gave me multiple returning customers from all over. If I didn’t take that chance and go from being in-person to showcasing online, I would have never got that push and support that made my business what it is today. I still have people who purchased that night, that still shops with me in 2025.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Merci99.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mercininetynine/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mercix99
• Twitter: https://x.com/mercininetynine

Image Credits

Studio picture: @alexanderbolt_
Merci Sign picture from Reggae in the Park
Table picture from EyezONU Event at Christiana Mall
Multiple customer pictures from events