We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Shante recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Well, I am a foodie and I love fashion. I desired to design food inspired Jewelry as an expression for vegans, dessert enthusiast, and people with a sweet tooth. I have a Fruit Collection, Dessert Collection, Willy Wonka Collection and etc. My Chocolate Royalty Collection will be designed in June 2022; it is a Collection dedicated to Chocolate women. Food is tasty and edible so I call my jewels “Yummy” and added my name to the brand because it shows owner ship. My brand is “Yummy Jewels By AshleyShante”. My mission is for every woman to feel beautiful and look Edible in my handmade jewelry.
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
The craft of jewelry making was a hidden talent that I didn’t even know I had. It took me being laid off from my job in 2019 to have down time to come up with creative ideas and creative projects. Thankfully, my idle time lead me to play around with charms and other material to design earrings and other jewelry pieces. Naturally, I am a creative person, I have published books and podcasts, but my gift for jewelry making was something I stumbled upon. Afterwards, I started selling my handmade earrings and necklaces on eBay. I started from scratch because I was an unknown brand and I didn’t have family or friends to rely on to buy my designs. Fortunately, I am faith filled and God relying person and eventually eBay sales became consistent. I have always been intrigued by entrepreneurship. Therefore, I decided to Bootstrap my brand/business. As of March 2022, I came up with my Brand name called Yummy Jewels By AshleyShante and launched my online store on Bigcartel! So far, I have designed costume jewelry for my Fruit Collection, Dessert Collection, Willy Wonka Collection, Teacher Collection (apple inspired Jewelry) , and Chocolate Royalty Collection (dedicated to black & brown women) coming soon! I think what sets me and my brand apart from other creative artisans is I love community. Community is valuable to me. Many people have no support and I want to share my brand’s revenue with people who need support by growing a charity Fund called “Yummy Funds”. Yummy Funds will help with social needs such as rental assistance, business grants and scholarships, food vouchers and more! So when you purchase from me, you are helping the community! The thing I am most proud of is seeing my customers wear my handcrafted jewelry to represent their lifestyles in health, wellness and beauty. Also, I proud that my brand has been accepted by Amazon Handmade! I really want fans of my brand to know I design out of love! And Love is Charity!
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I gained the initial capital to start my business from a seasonal job position. I started with capital under $100.00 I bought a jewelry making kit, a Bigcartel site, and professional flyers from Vista print. So I started out with a small amount of capital and bootstrapped my business the rest of the way. Bootstrapping means a portion of the revenue generated by your business funds your business. When starting a brand or business from scratch with very little money,you have to use the the resources you already have. You have to have Faith (Matthew 21:22) that your Brand will still grow. It’s not about the the paper chase but Persistence! Your brand needs to be Pushing P! Also it’s about hustling and grinding to meet monthly sales goals and paying yourself an owners draw salary (for sole proprietorship) or if your brand is an LLC pay your self through paycheck generated by quick books. You can meet monthly sales, reach out to target customers daily, and live off your business!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Before, I developed my brand “Yummy Jewels By AshleyShante”, I tried hand making different things. I tried hand making lip gloss and lip balm. I tried hand making essential oil blended perfumes. The lip gloss stuck to the pot I was making it in and the results of these ideas just left my dishes messy. I was just going through trial and error with product making. Also, have made mistakes in social media marketing and video marketing. The learning curve took time to get through but slow and steady wins the race! Today, I make YouTube videos that get over 1000 organic views on my brand channel called “AshleyShante The Jeweler”. Also, my brand’s Instagram page is aesthetic looking, organized, and attracts people organically.. My brand’s TikTok page also attracts viewers organically
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