We were lucky to catch up with Bonisha Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Bonisha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

This is a topic I love to discuss! I feel it all depends on who you ask. I think if a friend or family member has always supported you mentally or emotionally than those are the ones you want to ask. Those are the ones that will help cheer you up when you are feeling down. Push you when it’s hard to push yourself. Which, in the long run, will help your stability when being a ceo gets overwhelming. Same goes for negative family or friends, which I have personally dealt with over the years. No support and we aren’t talking money wise! It was no mental or emotional support which took a toll on my motivation and operating my setbacks in business and also in life. Often I was left wondering who can I turn to for questions? Who can teach me how to work with the money I have coming in and going out? It’s not about how you ask it’s about who you ask! I believe if you have the right social group family and friends nothing should be deemed inappropriate. Being around the right people you will know what to say, what they can help with and what you can do. If they are genuine and you are genuine no lines should be crossed.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a sweet, funny, creative, and hard-working individual. When growing up, I always wanted to be like Nike. I love sneakers! I used to be just a Jordan fan but now I wear everything I like, it can even be runners lol. I wanted to own my own sneaker store and then implement my own clothing brand. In 2015 I Officially started reselling sneakers years later I thought it was time to pivot to starting my clothing brand. It took me a while because I wanted my name to stand out and be different while also having a name and logo that fit up there with the big dogs (Nike). Then it hit me a name I hadn’t heard of or seen before Created Superior! My name and logo are meant to uplift or even bring out your mental and emotional strength from within. Just the name by itself gives you a healthy boost of Yes I am! The logo you can just wear on a shirt by itself and it gives you a boost of confidence. I always aimed to be streetwear but also luxury at the same time! What better way to implement my message than through clothes? Woolah here I come, Nike. I am most proud of myself for getting my message out there and helping other individuals feel strong and confident and doing it in a simple but very effective way through clothes. You love how you look, you know no one else has this in their closet and you feel empowered all at the same time you are unstoppable! That’s what I love! That’s what I want! Be different! Be Empowered!

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I do not manufacture my own products even though I dabble in that field, I learned early on that it was too overwhelming for me. Finding vendors who are consistent in communication and production quality over time was my biggest struggle when first started even now. As of today, I am working with a new manufacturer because one either disappeared, never sent my order out, or sent me bad quality. Finding the right business-to-business relationship with manufacturers took mistakes and also time in my opinion. You know you found the right one if they are consistent, send up-to-par quality products, and communicate effectively throughout the process. Those are usually the vendors who take their jobs seriously and value customer-to-business relationships. Lessons I learned about getting my products manufactured are measurement, material, and print get that right! Know exactly what you want and how you want it, making sure you communicate that. Those are key factors you want to know before requesting a product to be made to be sold. If you don’t know that you don’t. have a ready-to-sell idea that turns into a product.

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

This is a good one because a lot of people want social media fame. I have even been turned down to do pop-ups because my social media following was not up to their standards. Crazy Right! I always stood on this, the best way to market is to put in the footwork and put yourself out there. No one knows your brand til they know you and that can mean your customers too. Your brand is your audience and you can’t find that audience accurately behind your phone. All my customers came from in-person interactions and my followers in-person interactions. What’s so great about in-person interaction is very quickly it can turn into word of mouth so now you get double growth and free marketing all from footwork. This interview was from word of mouth! The best way to go In person is much more authentic.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.createdsuperior.com/
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/createdsuperior
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/createdsuperior
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/createdsuperior

Image Credits
@anteezy on sm