Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Auvondria West. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Auvondria, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I do think I am happy as a business owner, but I also know that there are some things that I still need to work on. When I first started my business I was promoting everyday, on all my platforms, & business was booming. After about a month or two of business I stopped promoting because I got a regular job. It’s hard to work a regular 12 hour job, make skincare products, & promote them but it’s not impossible. I just have to work on my time management skills & stop procrastinating! I’m not done rebranding but I hope that when I am that I will be able to quit my regular job & really focus on my business because it’s what I love doing!

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 a junior at the University of Toledo. I’m originally from Detroit, MI but I relocated to Toledo for school. I’ve been talking about starting a skincare line since high school but I didn’t really put in the work until my freshman year of college. I started off making soaps with little kits but I didn’t feel like the kit cared about your skin, just the smell of it. I knew that I wanted to create a product that not only smelled amazing & looked amazing but also helps people with specific skin issues. In 2020, I started to plan & map out how I’d want my business to be ran & basically just make my business plan.
In 2021, I started to actually buy things so that way I could begin to experiment on myself to see if these products would actually work! I tested shelf life, I tested how the products would react in different temperatures, how it’ll affect different skin tones & types. I started to give some out as samples to friends & family. Once I received all of my feedback back I opened up the website!
January 1st, 2022, is when I launched!
I sell hair growth oil (#1 seller), shea butter, sea moss butter, lip scrubs, body scrubs, face masks, toners, etc.

I’m most proud of my #1 seller, Liquid Magic, which is my hair growth oil. It’s hard to sell hair growth oil because of so many people selling them & sometimes it doesn’t work for people. Everyone who’s bought the oil loves it! The smell of it, how it’s a light oil, & how it actually works! It took a lot of time to perfect this oil & test it out & I’m astounded!

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I started off using Shopify. I loved it. I loved how professional my website looked. If your business if booming then it’s certainly the perfect website to use but if you’re a smaller business & you’re just starting off Etsy is the way to go! It’s a lot cheaper & it works just as good! You may not be able to design your website but it’s a great way to sell your products.

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

My best source of new clients would have to be my mom. Everyone loves my mom. Even as a kid when I did fundraisers she’s always been the one to go because she would sell just about everything! She promotes my business a lot at her job or on her Facebook & that’s where a majority of my clients came from! I appreciate her so much for believing in me & handling my sales in Michigan when I’m not able to make it up there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SkinnedbyDria
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/skinnedbydria?igshid=YzAyZWRlMzg=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skinnedbydria/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@princessdria

Image Credits
Self, Auvondria (Dria) West