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

Amber, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

It was 2019. I was several months away from graduating with four associates degrees from my local community college where I was also student ASB President and student trustee of the school board. I had spent almost 4 years studying for and preparing to go into a communication and real estate career. In November of 2019, I received a financial blessing in an amount that I will not disclose, however, I immediately knew that it was my opportunity to invest into a business idea that prior to this windfall, I never saw as a possibility. It was pre-covid and without knowing exactly how everything would turn out, I began investing into what I had the time for while still an active-full time student. I started obtaining the licenses and permits I needed to operate. I started investing in my business as an LLC and I invested in equipment and even sent off for trademarks on my ideas and business names. I was going to open a skincare/beauty and cosmetics line that specifically geared towards people of color. I remember telling my father that I was going to change our lives and that in just a little bit of time I was going to make us rich. As a black woman, living in California, my hair and skin was always dry. I wanted to produce products that would help these sorts of issues. By 3/20, I had not produced a thing. I shelled out so much funding yet with my schedule I was unable to concentrate on business stuff. In fact, I had quite a few naysayers that picked on me and taunted me with disbelief in my capabilities, even if I was a late bloomer. But sadly, in 5/20, my father passed away. It was his financial support that had helped my family stay above water while I went to school. My husband took care of him and he provided help with our housing and bills in return. It was at that point and luckily just days before my graduation, that I decided I had to start and that I couldn’t wait any longer. Especially if I was going to help my husband so we could survive. At this time, COVID was in full effect. Vendors and manufacturers that I had already vetted and was waiting to do business with could no longer guarantee time frames, they we’re running out of inventory and/or inventory was delayed. I was able to launch my store online. I had created labels, business marketing materials, business cards and social media content using Canva.com and I was somewhat ready to bring these much needed items to the world but COVID had other plans. We kept having to shut down. So we decided to go another route because food items were still being sold. We started entering our local vendor markets in 10/20. Doing what we did best (already something we made in our home for ourselves and our families) we started offering chocolates and baked desserts. Trending that year; Hot Cocoa Bombs. We must have sold over 4,000 cocoa bombs alone that season. Again, we used Canva.com to create all our marketing materials, our business cards, our labels for our hand made chocolates, and we even created an online store where we offered local delivery. It was great but it started to get very slow by 2/21 and we had to come up with the next idea quick. One idea that I had was to start a hair and lash line. Using the money we earned and had put to the side from our chocolate business; we invested again into our beauty business. This time I was going to offer items that were more in demand and didn’t require me to house my own inventory. I started offering these items with a dropshipping service. That went well enough and I eventually invested into my own brand of Hair and Magnetic Lashes. I challenged myself even more and I started investing into vending machines that offered essentially needed-on the go-cosmetics and beauty supply. By 4/21, I had a contract with two major locations to house our vending machines. Doing business this way allowed me to remain working from home, it gave customers access to our products without having to wait for shipping or in line; it required very little activity on my end which was a blessing since my husband now had to work full time hours. The external design of all our machines was created using canva.com. This was a major step for me. I had no knowledge whatsoever in the vending machine industry. I didn’t even know how to load one, let alone to program it. The process was intense but fun. My family and I dove deep and really made it essential to know we were doing things right, legally, and with integrity. Fun fact, before investing into the machines which we dove into doing head first and not a clue in the world, we believed at first, that business would pay us to house our machines. Just writing that makes me chuckle. It is the complete opposite and the financial responsibility caught us off guard. But you live and you learn and with the help of many googled youtube videos, we figured it all out to the point where we started offering others the ability to purchase machines sold by our parent company; Plus Me Brands LLC.,

Amber, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am CEO AMBERONIE. Who is that? We’ll I am a mom; a wife; a community leader; a friend; a sister; and lastly a business owner/founder. I have several self published titles under my belt and I consider myself to be a content creator, leadership coach, and empowerer of a positive mindset. After much trial and error, I eventually took the risk and decided that my dreams and/or goals were worth fighting for. I am a college grad. Graduating from school and not giving up was one of the hardest tasks in my life. A great accomplishment, as it was the first thing I never quit in my life. Going to college changed my life and the way I saw myself in this world. While a student in school, I decided to start the entrepreneurial journey, although, my studies were not necessarily geared towards running a business. Many people thought I was crazy for wanting to dive into the beauty and cosmetics industry. It’s an industry that is normally not pursued by African American women, in fact, African American women make up the top consumer group instead. But after experiencing the effects of COVID and navigating the start up and failure of my first business, Drink Plus ME, I realized that I enjoyed looking and feeling confident. It was a feeling not too familiar in the years prior. I had undergone several life changing procedures and lost a few pregnancies which left me feeling not so womanly. I found myself when I finally figured out how to apply magnetic lashes and I remember how they made me feel. I want all women to feel as confident and empowered as I feel in my lashes. I am proud of myself for not being a statistic. I am proud that I never gave up on myself; when I didn’t know something-I researched it or got the coach; when I didn’t know how to create my website-I learned code. I am proud of myself for even trying. Most people will never ever try. I am a GOD fearing woman and I attribute all my blessings to GOD first. But I also attribute where I am now to the fact that I had a vision, then I took all the necessary steps to make that vision a reality. I want others to know that if I could do it..so can they! I want people to know that I exist. And that when they shop with my stores they are supporting a dream and giving us reason to our purpose. We know you feel better and can accomplish more when you look the part. We love knowing that we can give people the tools they need to embrace that concept.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Pinterest is where the majority of our customers derive from. We post pins almost daily on Pinterest. Currently, we have over 1 million views a month and a growing follower count. We tried doing the same with Instagram, Facebook and even TikTok but nothing compared to the success we’ve seen from Pinterest. I would say to figure it out! Hop on a marketing call with a Pinterest expert which is FREE to everyone with a valid ad account. Learning how to utilize the site to its greatest potential has brought us an increase in sales.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

We started selling chocolates and baked goods during the last season of 2020. It turned out to be very lucrative. We thought it could be a full time business and so we invested into it. However, by 2/21, it had started to slow down tremendously and I was worried that our ingredients would expire before we could use them and if that happened we would lose money that we had self funded. Out of fear, I started liquidating all our material and resources. I sold the concept of the store through shopify. Funny thing is, just a day or so after I sold the business, we started getting inquiries. Those inquiries could’ve been enough financially to at least cover what we needed to stay afloat for a while but at that point it was too late. I had already sold over our store and that meant all our labels and anything marketing wise that we already possessed could not be used. It was a little bit of a nightmare having to get rid of so many custom made items. My advice would be to hold out if you can and whenever possible to have extra funding aside to help out with unexpected. Even if you are a new business still reliant on income. You have to be prepared.

Contact Info:

• Website: hairplusme.com
• Instagram: hairplusmellc
• Facebook: hairplusmellc
• Linkedin: ceo_amberonie
• Youtube: ceoamberonie
• Other: TikTok.com/hairplusme TikTok.com/ceo_amberonie Linktr.ee/Ceo_amberonie Linktr.ee/ceoamberonie_ Pinterest.com/hairplusmellc

Image Credits
NA