We recently connected with Bilkis (Bili B) Shinaba and have shared our conversation below.
Bilkis (Bili B), thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you manage your own social media?
I am currently managing my own accounts but I hire for certain projects. I have a certain goal and level I want my brand to be so I can gather the best people as a part of my team in the future.
Bilkis (Bili B), before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am an artist and entrepreneur. I started my brand back in 2016 an online boutique. In 2020 I included cosmetics In the brand as Kiss Lane Cosmetics. I also have a full time Career in technology. As far as my music and arts I continue to spread and creating. As for my brand, I Just added a skin care while I have received great reviews on my skin products, It makes me so proud that I am going the right direction. My goal is to keep growing the brand and continue to help my customers, people discover and build trust within my brand. For an instance My Mango Butta Luv has great reviews on helping with dry skin and that is selling and makes me proud that I can create something that actually helped someone.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I tried to keep my brand in one place but as I expand there has been changes with social media and getting the business out there. I believe there are certainly pros and cons. I do enjoy advertising on social media as it is great for gaining new customers and brand awareness. There had also been a fall back when Instagram changed It’s algorithms and way of operation where it effects small business now advertising are limited and it became hard for post and products to be seen than it used to. That being said, it brought an awareness to me to also have my brand on Etsy and that helped.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Since I started my business in 2016. I started as hand made fashion items and gradually I started with some of my savings to help me set up things like my website and other business materials like shipping products, flyers and sorts. Gradually from what was earned Invested it back into the business and it started from there now to business account and so forth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kisslanecosmetics.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kisslane_cosmetics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kisslanecosmetics/
- Other: www.kisslane.com