We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Esther Akusa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Esther, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I first started my business from creating earrings. I’ve always loved working with my hands, and I started creating earrings in high school because I wanted to look different than my peers. The best way I could make that happen was to create something that wasn’t already out there. I also do paintings, so I started with those two. Of course, my love for creations goes deeper than just creating jewelries. My mom has always been a seamstress, couple that with my love for drawing, I started drawing my clothes for her to make for me. Fast forward during the pandemic, I got a sewing machine, watched couple of YouTube videos, then I’ve been hooked on sewing too since. If I knew sewing was so easy and that I loved it so much, I would have pursued a degree in Fashion designing and go into that full time. All the things I mentioned required attentiveness and patience. I love to see things done quickly, so it’s been a learning journey working on my patience while putting these things together. Especially when it comes to sewing, I see the clothes in my head, but I don’t have the skills and experience yet to bring the designs in my head into reality yet. With patience, and practicing daily, I know one day I will be able to sew any dress in my imagination. The fact that I have a full-time job and I also have to take care of my responsibilities in my family can be a challenge most days. Up to me, I could spend the whole day making clothes.

Esther, 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?

My name is Esther Akusa. CEO of Queennette LLC and a Financial Aid Counselor. I came to the United States in 2004 from Togo, West Africa at the age of eleven. I did not speak any English when I came to the USA, so it was difficult to navigate at first. I remember spending a lot of time watching cartoons like Tom and Jerry and Totally Spice, and all the Disney cartoons such as Kim Possible and the many more just to learn the language. In a few months I developed enough to easily feel at home. Growing up in Togo, I had always thought I would be a Medical Doctor. Everyone in the family knew and referred to me as doctor, but when I got to college things changed. After visiting some rotations at Hospitals and witnessing operations such as Open-heart surgery, Eye surgery, Knee surgery, and other brutal surgeries I decided that I could not take it anymore. By then, I could not stand the sight nor smell of blood. The discouragement made me to start flunking some of the important classes needed to take the MCAT, so I had no choice but to change Majors. I was very hurt and depressed for months, but decided I wanted to still be in the Health Care field, so I opted for Psychology which is what I got both my Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in. I’ve always seen the women in my family sell little things here and there, so I knew eventually I wanted to have a business on the side. In high school I started making earrings for myself because I was a fashionista and didn’t like people having the same things as me. I tried to start my business in 2016 selling jewelry I made. It was called Quenette Closet at the time. Things were going well, but I could not handle doing that and working a regular job while pursuing my Bachelor’s all the same time so I put it on hold. In 2019, I started it back again, this time I changed the name to Queennette Fashion while working full time job and just starting my Master’s. It was very stressful. There were so many times I had to go to the emergency because I was too stressed and was having severe migraine, I thought was going to die at some point. It was challenging trying to manage all of that and finding the right people to work with – someone to design my website, learning to navigate the business by myself with my busy schedule already. I told myself however, that if I stopped again, I would never be able to see the bigger vision I had for the business in the future ever materialized so I kept pushing with baby steps.
When I finished school, I wanted to expand so first I secured a stable source of income with a full-time job to sustain my personal expenses that would help me pay off my student loans and invest into my business. To start my expansion, I started adding clothing and other accessories from other vendors just as an experiment while still learning to navigates. I eventually bought a sewing machine in 2020 during the Pandemic and started learning to sew. I realized that I loved sewing so much, and I wish I discovered this hidden talent earlier in my life. I would’ve pursued a degree in Fashion designing. While brainstorming my expansion still, I wanted my business to be a one-stop-shop for the whole family – A little bit of everything with the dream to eventually have a physical store. Though the focus was on women, I added some men’s clothes, children’s clothes, more accessories, and some home decor. With time I decided to be a bit more focused on women’s unique needs. That’s when I thought, waist beads. I remember my dad’s mom used to sell beaded jewelries and waist beads while my mom sold fabrics. I was more interested in the waist beads and the jewelry, so I got a few when I went back to Togo in 2019 just to test it out. I loved the responses from the customers and my circle so with time, I focused on the things that my customers were interested in. I also listened to the needs of my customers, and it helped me focused on how to serve them better. I recently added one of the essential things we all use daily – Shower net sponges. I loved the ones we used back in Africa, and it was hard to find it here at an affordable price and I noticed that people around me felt the same way, so I decided to bridge the gap and add that to my product line and services. I’m grateful I did because the response has been amazing.
From working with the waist beads over time, I thought to myself, why don’t I make it easier and more fun for my customers and clients by creating combinations. So, I take time to put together combinations of 3 or more waist beads, by color or types. Some of my waist beads are made of neon beads so they glow in the dark. I love those, and I know that my clients and customers who get them are also very satisfied. I love waist beads, and I advocate for every woman regardless of race or background to wear waist beads at some point in their lives. As a woman, there is a unique feeling that comes with having waist beads on – I can’t really explain it. You will have to experience it for yourself. The history of Waist beads dates back many ages in the past originally from Africa where women wear waist beads for various reason. From childhood, babies wear waist beads made of the tiny seed beads to make it easy for the moms to track the child’s growth, weight and to the beads are believed to shape the baby as she grew. The older women of course wore the beads to track their weight, to promote a feeling of femininity, and their men also loved it. Some men prefer exclusively for their women to have waist beads on and can go as far as purchasing the beads for them as well. I believe it promotes intimacy and attraction. Today, many women all over the world wear waist beads for many reasons. I take the time to put the bundles together, I also offer the option for my customers to create their own styles and if there is something they don’t see on my shop, I’m willing to customize it for them. I also make sure my products are affordable, because I don’t believe we have to spend so much money or “break a bank” to look good. I believe this is what makes my brand different from all others out there.
I’m most proud of the fact that I don’t see myself quitting or giving up even when I don’t always make my sale goals. I know that someone out there appreciates my services, and it was just a matter of time before they found me. This philosophy keeps me going year after year, and I appreciate my customers for all their feedbacks and support through the shop and through social media. It makes me feel I’m indeed solving other’s problems no matter how small. By not giving up in my business, I’ve helped several people in my circle and community to start their own business. I believe in women’s empowerment though entrepreneurship. My goal is to also inspire other women to make an impact with their gifts and talents while solving some of the problems others may have, no matter how small.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I remember when I was first starting Queennette LLC, I had some friends who also had businesses at the time. However, when I started, I sensed a lot of resentment and jealousy or anger. There were nasty comments on social media from people I knew, and I felt targeted. It was obvious that some other people who were aware asked me if we were having issues. Some friendships have been ruined till today. I really admired these people in question, so I felt very hurt and devastated at a time. It took me so many months to get over it. I had to go off social media for some time just to get myself back together. What kept me going was the fact that in the beginning I did research on how these challenges will come up. All the obstacles that came with having a small business. Some of these obstacles were that you won’t make sales every day, or the people who will support you the least are those who know you. So, when the situation came up, I had to be my own cheerleader. I focused on growing my business and I kept telling myself that my products are not like another person’s products and that my business is not like anyone else out there. I’m solving unique problems for unique customers, and most of all “there is a crowd for every product”. This was my healing self-talk. Until today, I tell myself those things. At some point I didn’t even think about this person anymore. I see my Brand as a calling and part of my purpose on earth. Life goes on.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

There is a particular story in the Bible of a man who had servants and he was traveling so he gave those servants Bags of money five, two and one respectively. Then the servants with five and two bags put invested their money by putting it to work and doubled it. Before the master came back, the servant with the five bags now had ten bags and the servant with the two bags had four bags. The servant with only one bag didn’t even bother to make use of it. He went and buried it and accumulated no profits. The master rewarded the two servants who multiplied their money and punished the one who failed. I see myself as the servant with either the three or bags of money – my talents and gifts are these bags. I’m putting them to good use and my goal is to make God proud of me for trusting me with these gifts in the first place. My other goal is to be an agent of change, by solving people’s problems through my products and inspiring other young women to get out of their comfort zone and put their gifts and talents to good use. We are all a solution to someone’s problem somewhere in the world

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ilovequeennette.etsy.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ilovequeennette
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ilovequeennette
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@queennettefashion9235

Image Credits
I took these pictures all myself on my iPhone. They are a representation of my products.