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

Ambra, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

Prior to starting Kazat, I had 15 years of work experience in Corporate America. Although I did not realize it at the time, the experience I gained during these 15 years were directly relevant to running a successful clothing boutique. The first 8 years of my professional work experience was spent in Customer Retention and Customer Service Management , and the last 7 years were dedicated to Sales and Product Management.

The sum of these experiences truly integrates the key disciplines for running a successful business: sales, finance, and management. Similar to my experience in Customer Service, my experience in Product Management has directly impacted my understanding between the relationship between the customer and the products I provide, and the manner in which I provide them.

My experience as Product Manager significantly impacted my understanding of quality control, product design and development. All of these experiences impacted not only the type of products I offer at Kazat Boutique, but more importantly the quality of the products – another factor Kazat prides itself on. These experiences instilled the importance of providing customer satisfaction at all levels; an experience that Kazat Boutique prides itself on providing.

The entrepreneurial efforts towards Kazat Boutique have depended on my past experiences in Corporate America, but most importantly Kazat has depended on the passion and dedication I have ALWAYS had for fashion and women’s clothing.

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

Greetings! I’m Ambra Motilall the proud owner of Kazat Boutique! Kazat Boutique is a Black Owned, Woman Owned, women’s fashion boutique dedicated to providing high quality, fashionable clothing to women of all creeds and colors at an affordable price.

Fashion has always been a passion of mine. After having a successful career in Corporate America for a period of time I was abruptly laid off. It was at this moment I decided it was time to follow my dreams…

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

Those who know me, know that I have never particularly been the biggest fan of social media. However, the implementation of marketing through social media is necessary in the fashion industry if you want to maximize your brands reach. Entrepreneurs know that there is a learning curve with social media, and a constant every day learning experience. I began growing my social media presence simply by just taking the leap.

Despite being on all platforms, Instagram has been the most successful for me. After creating my account, I decided to model Kazat’s very first collection myself. As someone who hates to take pictures, this was a difficult but necessary decision. I say necessary because I wanted anyone who clicked on my page to understand what Kazat represented, what it was. As a new boutique I felt as if I was the only person who could convey and create the vision that had been inside of my head for years.

My first 100 followers or so were family and friends. It took nearly a year for my account to start gaining traction, and for followers to began interacting with my content. One of the biggest things that I have learned with social media is to avoid trying to keep up with trends. Fashion is constantly changing and what was hot yesterday, is considered old and played out to others today. With that being said, I have always been committed to offering and posting the things that I like, regardless of anyone else’s opinion. Self authenticity has probably been the thing that has grown not only my social media presence, but Kazat as a whole, the most. My particular style varies from day to day, as does the style of clothes offered by Kazat.

I will admit that what I choose to put on for the day has a lot to do with my mood as well as my activities for that day. As a mother of 3 sons my days can be very hectic! I can literally go from wearing a business suit to a sweat suit at any giving time. Now, if I’m out with my husband or my girlfriends that’s a different story. I’m there to show up and show out as a Kazat Kutie. I’m still in attire that reflects who I am but it’s the FUN me, the FREE me, the inner baddie that still lives and burns in me. I’m honest when I say some days as a Mother, Wife, and Entrepreneur I feel like I have it all together and other days nothing seems to go right. But hey that’s life and we are all human.

However, through it all I still try my best to show up as my authentic self and you should too. With that in mind, my advice to those just starting their social media presence is to BE YOUR TRUE SELF. In a virtual universe where nearly everything seems fake, authenticity will yield more success in the real word than a make pretend social media will.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I feel as if the most effective strategy for growing my clientele, and reaching my target audience has been getting out, talking to people and networking , the old fashioned way. I have learned that people remember a real life conversation or tangible item, for a greater period of time than they do a post seen on social media. Social media can be a great tool, and sometimes the only tool used by businesses, however in my opinion it should not be the end all be all. Talk to people, go outside, compliment whenever you see somebody wearing something that you like, start conversation and share a business card! I have learned that when people can put a name and face to a business , they are more likely to support it!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kazatboutique.com
• Instagram: @shopkazatboutique