We were lucky to catch up with Chelle Antoinette recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chelle, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

With Berani Femme Couture Scrubwear & Medical Supply being owned and operated by a woman, I wanted a name that not only reflected that but that would also stand out from other stores similar to mine.

“Berani” is an Indonesian word and it is an infinite word that has many meanings such as strong, courageous, resilient, and any other positive word that captivates the positive attributes of “Femme” (women). This is also why I utilized an infinity sign in my logo as an illustration of the name.

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 have been a Registered Nurse for 14 years, originally from Pensacola, FL. I have been here in Douglasville, GA for a little over 2 years now when I relocated due to work as an ICU Nurse.

Although I’m a nurse, I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart. Berani Femme Couture Scrubwear was initially birthed as a Medical Scrub brand. I’ve been working on my own line of Medical Scrubs for the past 5 years. Due to COVID and other issues, I had to scale back on the brand itself but I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.

When I came to Georgia I realized that I was driving 45 minutes to buy scrubs or having to order them online. There were no stores close to me like back at home in Florida. In talking to other healthcare professionals in the community, it was confirmed that something a little closer to home was much needed. With that in mind, I did my market research, located me a retail location, and went to work on opening one of the first Medical Scrub & Supply stores serving West Georgia. .I wanted to bring a shopping experience to the thousands of healthcare workers that reside in the Douglasville and surrounding areas. Where you can come in and actually try on items as opposed to worrying about online ordering and returns should something not work. Having a store to actually go in increases the confidence that you will be pleased with your purchase.

My store will not only have popular brands such as Koi, Healing Hands, Heart & Soul, Cherokee, and other well known scrub brands but before the year comes to an end, I will finally be able to introduce my own scrub line “Berani Femme Couture Scrubwear”.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Honestly I just had to GRIND. I will say that working as an ICU Nurse during COVID definitely helped quite a bit. For a period of time, I worked two jobs in order for one full paycheck to go toward my store and the other to go toward regular living necessities.

I didn’t want to be in debt to fulfil my dream and I haven’t had to take out any loans for funding. All I had to do was focus on the end goal and monitor my own personal spending along with business spending. Having a business plan was a major factor in assuring that I knew what was needed for my business to start-up.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In January, I finally started looking for a retail location. It seemed like every single company or person I approached told me “No” for one reason or another:

I began to get so discouraged. It was either the rent was extremely over priced for a new business or the rent was just right but the locations would require ALOT of work. I got so discouraged to where I really wanted to throw in the towel. Until one day I just drove around Douglasville crying and pouring my heart out in my car… praying for a “YES”. One company called me back and I thought, this must be God coming through for me. I was willing to pay 2500$+ a month for this retail space (although it closed me out to some manufactures) I just wanted to open my store.

Everything I submitted for this company they kept denying me to lease from them. So again I felt defeated. Four months later, I come across an ad and still til this day I don’t know how I found this location but I did and within a week I was approved for the location, lease signed, it was much cheaper than any of the other locations, and in a location that has no medical scrub stores within 20 miles of the location. This alone set me up for success because it opened me up to carry all of the popular brands that we love to wear.

I say all that to say, trust the process. I was ready to give up but I remained true to my dreams and the plan no matter how many road blocks came my way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beranifemmecouture.com
• Instagram: Beranifemmecouture
• Facebook: Beranifemmecouturescrubwear
• Linkedin: Michelle Davis

Image Credits
Shawn Yabui https://www.facebook.com/yabui