We recently connected with Destiny Murray and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Destiny, thanks for joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

The first dollar my business earned was very special. It was Fall 2020 and the cold weather was rolling in to signal the upcoming shift from Fall to Winter. As the new season was approaching, it brought with it a sense of newness and desire to uplift and affirm women and girls. Just months earlier, my sister gifted me two strands of waist beads that she had recently began making. Within some months, my waist beads had revealed my weight loss and journeyed with me in my healing. Fast forward to Fall 2020, I got a nudge to recreate the same feeling for other women. See, the same beautiful experience I was gifted through waist beads is what I wanted to give other women. My sister became my first waist bead vendor and mentor; she taught me pricing, customizing, jewelry care, and the meaning of waist beads. Within one week, I had inventory, desire, and was on a mission. I posted to my personal Instagram and Facebook that I was selling waist beads and I posted a picture of my inventory. There was nothing special about the picture; it was taken with an iPhone in really good lighting. My closest friends and family shared my post(s) and interacted with my content. Also, I posted myself in waist beads and shared my personal experience with wearing them. Almost instantly, I received inquiries about my beads and within a week or so, someone (she too was a business owner) followed through with an actual order! This first order took place in my Instagram messages because at the time, I did not have a website, business cards, or even a business name. I was able to get my first client by simply sharing my products, personal story, and making posts on my personal social media. There was no need for perfection; I only needed to show up, take the risk, forget about what others thought of me, and focus on connecting with potential clients/customers who were interested in what I was offering.

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 am Destiny, the owner and creator of Señorita Bonita Cosmetics, a business grounded in uplifting, empowering, and affirming with body beads and body oils. I got in the body care industry because my desire to uplift and affirm women and girls. In the summer of 2020, my sister gifted me two strands of waist beads that she had recently began making. Within some months, my waist beads had revealed my weight loss and journeyed with me in my healing. Fast forward to Fall 2020, I got a nudge to recreate the same feeling for other women. Fast forward to today, I have adorned women, girls, and all genders in the prettiest waist beads, the baddest body oils, and experienced sacred healing, breakthroughs, and affirming with my body beads. Señorita Bonita Cosmetics provides self-care solutions to women by tackling the problem of women not having sufficient time and meaningful tools to experience self-care through waist beads, anklets, and body oils. This makes it easier for my clients and customers to engaged in sustained self-care that will help them reclaim their lives, improve their health, and feel empowered in their beautiful bodies.

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

One of the best lessons I had to unlearn is the idea of achieving perfection. Yes, it is admirable and understandable to run a business with high expectations, supreme services, and dynamic follow through however, my most pivotal and profitable moments came from imperfections. In the imperfections is where I grew my business skills, knowledge, and practices. My mistakes, mishaps, and failures taught me more about myself, my business, and my clients/customers than perfection ever could have. When I shifted from aiming for perfection and refocused on simply meeting my clients/customers needs and requests, I experienced more success. It’s not enough to have the “perfect” Instagram feed, website, or posts, you must be willing to step away from the curated aspects of the business and get into the authentic parts of a business such as directly connecting with clients/customers/potential customers.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Just like some business owner receive cash gifts from family, friends, or crowdfunding, I received free inventory from my sister. She provided with a small amount inventory and basically told me to get to work. The money I earned from my first sales, I reinvested back into my business. At that time, I had less overhead business costs so my expenses were low. With the reinvested money, I purchased more inventory, business cards, paid vending fees, and even upgraded my phone to take better quality pictures. Also, whenever I received additional money (tax refunds, bonuses, tips, etc.), I put a small portion towards my business. With this cash reserves, I was able to buy more inventory, pay to vend at more events, and I was able to gift products as a marketing tool. Also, I used business credit to make larger purchases that I could pay off in a reasonable timeline so that I would not deplete my cash reserves. Essentially, I used a family gift to create more money that I the reinvested to build a larger cash savings so that I could use business credit with little fear because I knew that whatever happened, I could pay repay any business credit lending I had acquired.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://senoritabonitacosmetics.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senoritabonitacosmetics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senoritabonitacosmetics/