We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christina Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christina below.

Christina , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Coming up with an idea for a business is probably the quickest part of setting up a business. The rest of your life will be spent figuring out how to bring the idea to life, and how to put out all the fires that come with operating a business. Once I understood that I wanted to sell vegan glosses, I spent around 4 months locating suppliers and testing out samples. Between the shipping and wear test, about 2 months went into ensuring I had a product that I was confident in! At this phase I felt comfortable with launching my glosses and started looking for customers. However the glosses were just sitting at my workstation and were not being sold because people were unaware of their existence. To remedy this, I would spend around 2 hours a day reaching out to potential customers, or collaborating with other brands! I have always been good at brand identity, creative directing, and storytelling, however I was not the best at ads and consistent content creation. The social media aspect of my business is one of the biggest constraints I have to face to date. My personal brand is steadily growing since I can always record on the go, however it is different with my business because I am not the product. My goal is to scale my business so I must put some type of process in place that allows for content to consistently be made. To remedy this I am currently interviewing social media managers, and a sales team to focus on selling B2B and B2C. The “execution” part of a business will never disappear, as time goes on making decisions and execution becomes easier. However as a business owner you must remain agile and open to learning to ensure that change remains easy.

Christina , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started Cla’ssé Cosmetics in 2023 when I saw a lack of representation in the beauty industry. We are a vegan, cruelty-free cosmetic brand that helps our customers feel good about investing in their beauty. We have a focus on hydrating lip glosses, and long lasting highlights that would complete a natural to a full glam! My business is more than a place to purchase goods, I wanted to create a space where individuals can learn and grow together. While obtaining my degree in Finance I observed the lack of financial literacy I had, and others had before pursuing our degree. While I have the platform and the knowledge I want to bridge that information gap. So our website has a blog that posts content about personal finance topics! Customers are urged to reach out to me directly with any questions, or topics that they would like to see us cover. Last but certainly not least, I don’t want to just make money from my business, I want to be a part of a change that is bigger than me. That is why each purchase of my lip gloss allows me to donate water to our Houston community partners or local families in need. I dream of scaling my business so I can provide job opportunities, feed neighborhoods, and educate the disadvantaged. These are all things we know we need as a society and you are able to contribute by investing in your beauty routine with Cla’ssé Cosmetics!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Initially Cla’ssé Cosmetics was started to add representation to minority communities since they were not being represented at the time. However around the same time Fenty Beauty started to really pick up and they do a phenomenal job at adding representation to the market. They had the shades, the models, and the budget to pull off whatever Rihanna wanted. The gap I originally saw was filled now, which meant I no longer had something that was unique to my brand. My goal was never to “have the first business that represented minorities’” so I was elated to see Fenty Beauty blow up! But that left me with one question, “where do we go from here?”. I had to step away from my business because the sales had slowed, my faith had wavered, and our mission was accomplished by another brand. In the break I had away from my business I realized my want to be an active part of my community. It wasn’t until a homeless person asked me to buy him snacks outside of a shopping center that I realized there is life changing assistance I could offer my community. He was so grateful for some water and chips, and I personally would be more than happy to sacrifice some profits to see that type of joy again. I thought my business had lost its importance and its mission; but once I thought less about the business we started as and more about the business we could be, I found my way.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Becoming a business owner has shown me some hard truths about myself and my ability to successfully operate a business. Before I started operating as a business owner I must admit, I had a very grandiose and fairytale idea of what being an entrepreneur is like. One of the biggest misconceptions I had was thinking that my opinions mattered. My whole life I was conditioned to think “its my way or the highway”. To a certain extent that does reign true, however, in business it is not always that easy. Every day decisions must be made about budgets, marketing, pricing, and everything else under the sun. When making the best decision for my business I must first beware of my options and thoughts, and separate them from the facts. Sometimes what I want for the business, is not what is best for the business and I must be okay with that! For example, my favorite color in my “Classic” line of glosses is this bright fire hydrant red gloss, it is so bright and exciting. However my customers highly favor my shade “Realer” which is a beautiful deep plum shade. It would be insane of me to see Realer consistently sale out, and I choose to increase inventory for Victorious. I had to unlearn the importance of what I feel I want to do in decisions like this. I have a mission statement and core values so there are things that must be the way I intended them to be for the sake of brand consistency and for the company culture, however I am fluid with everything else!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Classecosmetics.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/classecosmetics_

Image Credits
Model: Izzy Iz