Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to DeEtta Gleason-Conway. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
DeEtta, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later
If I could go back in time …..I probably would have started my business sooner . I’ve always been known to be “girly” or “diva” by family and friends (not in a negative way). I am the one who everyone can always expect hair to be on point ,accessories perfect and can’t forget about lashes to envy (lash extensions)lol. But seriously,I’ve always had a hustle mentality,desire for business but most importantly providing things ,services ,experiences to make others feel good . I noticed outside of own personal battles with hair thinning people would always ask ,”where did you purchase your hair extensions ,who installed them,who styled them. Who did your lashes , where did you get those accessories “. So it only made sense to build a business on things I’m passionate about . I remember being in grad school , preparing for graduation,planning a wedding and dealing with other life obstacles. I had a final project in my business marketing class and we had to create our business and include a business plan . I remember really pondering on it and even becoming frustrated with what type of business,what products/services would I provide ,who would be my target audience -you know all the things one would think of when building a business and House of Strands was born . I believe starting sooner would have allowed me to truly go through the growing pains of being a business,allowed me with necessary experiences,connections and mentorships with tenured business owners ,but here I am and it’s still challenges ,but I’m still continuing on just as motivated as before & always remembering to share my experiences in business with others ,being a vessel for other business owners .
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
A little about me …. I am the youngest daughter of four siblings (all ladies). I was blessed to grow up with my sisters and have my first experience of love and support from women ,one of the reasons that I continue to be a champion of women! I entered into the beauty industry providing hair and lash extensions later adding accessories to our inventory through my personal obsession with quality hair ,picture-ready lashes and unique accessories to make any look memorable .I continued to dibble and dabble ,but never being serious about moving forward and growing a business until I started experiencing inconsistencies with the hair provider I once trusted to bring my hair ideas to fruition . My sister approached me and we researched and discussed the possibilities of starting a hair business,but still wasn’t 100% sold . My sister continue to search and communicate with different vendors and when she found one she trusted she begin ordering hair . We would get our hair styled and colored (bleached) to test out the quality of the hair . We found a match made in heaven -we continue buying it and decided we wouldn’t push it on people,but we would let it sell itself . As a business and brand that provide products one of the things that have allowed House of Strands to continue to be relevant is our quality products ,customer service and the rapport we have built with our clients -not only is it our goal to make sure their hair looks good ,we want to know that they feel good about their purchase . I think it’s important that our clients ,future clients, future business collaboration and partners should know is that with House of Strands we are willing to go above and beyond with every transaction to make it an experience. House of Strands truly prides ourselves on making sure that our clients look and feel good .
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
Funding my business was truly one of the reasons I continued to be hesitant about moving forward and being fully committed- I had no idea how I would financially front a business ,let alone knowing exactly what to have in inventory that would be a quick profit /return on investment. Throughout my first years I would utilize drop-shipping ;clients order hair and it would be sent to them from our vendor . Later ,as we continue to grow you start dealing with different issues with providing products so we decided to buy hair in bulk which allowed us a better return on our investment along with creating a process to test all of our inventory and implementing a sanitation process on the hair. As we continued to be our own walking build board,we continued to build clientele which allowed us to grow closer with our vendors and later having other vendors wanting to present their products and services for our inventory as well. Our initial capital was RISK.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Building your reputation is truly what we believe allows you to continue growth in your market. Building our reputation truly came from potential clients seeing us wear our products,being transparent and sharing our journeys with our hair extensions,sharing others experiences as a trusted and loyal clients with help of social media . I believe along with having quality product and always having fashionable updated accessories our customer service,timely response and the ability to meet the needs of customer has continued to allow us to have a good reputation:brag worthy .
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nowherebutstranded.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/nowherebutstranded
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeaveDealer