We were lucky to catch up with Briana Pippen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Briana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?
The most valuable lesson I’ve learn not only as an entrepreneur, but as a Christian entrepreneur is to never ever try to exclude the One who has given you the business, out of the business.
About a little over a year ago, life really took a toll on me and I allowed it to affect my relationship with God. Being that my business was literally God given, and I mean down to every detail, the condition of my heart determined the condition of my business. I noticed, when I was good spiritually, so was my business. Oh, but when I started slipping spiritually and I allowed my heart to become hard, downhill went my business. Sale’s started to drop, wholesalers were no longer purchasing as often, I’m a hairstylist also, so bookings started to slow down. The lifestyle I was accustomed to was slowly depreciating as my relationship with God did. Everything around me started to fail, I was failing and in my mind and heart, I’ve became a failure. I temporarily closed my business, but told my customers I was rebranding. I know I shouldn’t have lied, but I didn’t want them to view me as what I was beginning to view myself, a failure. God still provided, I didn’t go without, but I had nothing extra. Nothing in which I was used too.
Once I started to rebuild my relationship with God and surrender my life and business back to the One who gave it to me, everything changed, literally. I relaunched divineRootz after being closed for 6 months, I began to become fully booked, having to turn clients away because I had no room to squeeze them in. Most importantly, I got my peace back!
I’ve decided to share this particular story to bring insight to other Christian entrepreneurs. If God has given you a business, it will not be successful without Him. Yes, your business can do good, it can even do great; but it’ll never reach its full potential or go as far as it can possibly go without the One who gave it to you.
Briana, 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 Briana, owner of divineRootz. divineRootz is a Christian based natural hair care line that I started in 2016 in my parent’s kitchen. I was a hairstylist that had this grand idea to mix a whole bunch of oils together to use on my clients. Due to the results it was producing, my clients pushed me towards entrepreneurship. The hair oil I was creating was growing their hair drastically and fast, that they convinced me to start selling and making it in bulk. I was hesitant, I didn’t believe that I could succeed in the beginning, but I did. Years later, I’m still creating that hair oil. Since then, I’ve created more products to add to the hair care line.
I’m most proud of not giving up, although I wanted to throw in the towel too many times to count lol. Entrepreneur is pretty tough, it has many highs and lows, but I’m choosing to walk this thing out with God. I’ve found it a whole lot better including Him and partnering with Him rather than doing it on my own. I’ve tried it and it got me no where lol
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Before becoming a full time entrepreneur, I was working for USPS. I knew I didn’t always want to work a 9-5, so during my time there, I came up with a plan. I stayed there long enough to fund my business until my business was able to fund itself. I made sacrifices to make sure I met that goal. I cut out the extra unnecessary expenses, put it towards my business and I kept reinvesting my revenue. My plan was to quit once my business was making 3 times as much, in a month I was making at the post office. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t do all this boldly lol I was afraid, but I had faith. I didn’t allow fear stop me from the determination I had to become a full time entrepreneur.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I have built my social media audience by transparency, posting content that displays the results of my hair products and educational content targeted towards hair growth. The advice I would give to those starting to build their social media presence would be, don’t be afraid to promote your business, don’t be afraid to show your face ( most people want to see that you’re a real person), be relatable, but not to the point where you compromise who you really are and don’t overthink it, post the content
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shopdivinerootz.com
- Instagram: DivineRootz