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

Excel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My product based business, We Are Crown’d, started with me as its first client. In the summer of 2013 I was diagnosed with lupus and was told that the condition would compromise the appearance of my hair and skin. I went home that very day began creating natural beauty products that would cater to the sensitivity of my autoimmune disease symptoms. As I shared my self care routines and remedies and how the hair oil, face serum and body butter were helping me maintain and improve my natural beauty, I began to have inquiries from colleagues and friends about how to implement similar regimens for themselves which eventually led to requests for my creations.

At the start of 2019, the compliments on my skin and the requests for products became so frequent that I was making several in-person drop offs after work all over New York City…via public transportation. I received my first request from someone in Pennsylvania and I knew I needed to come up with a better system. I sat down with my mom first and asked her what she thought about the idea and she was supportive and encouraged me to pray about it. Next, I met with a friend, Robert Newman, who advised me to come up with a business plan and shared an example of one for me to follow. I remember, it was Valentine’s day evening and I was leaving that meeting…not realizing it was my first business meeting, excited, optimistic, and filled with adrenaline as if I had a mission as serious as rescuing a child from a burning building.

Within that week, I set up the Instagram and Facebook page and purchased the matching domain name so that while I was in my planning stage, it would be secure and I would have something to promote. Now that I had a business plan template, I knew I needed to understand the complexities of business management. The marketing, branding, financial structures, operations, the research, securing vendors, the testing stages, the plans, my dreams…if I followed the status quo of what was recommended to have before starting a business, I probably wouldn’t have started until years later. I launched the February of 2019 through instagram, developed the branding, designed the website myself, conducted research for the product formulations and launched the official website in May of 2019. Within a year, I filed for my trademark and LLC.

Excel, 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?

In addition to We Are Crown’d, I provide marketing services through Excel Grace Marketing & Designs. I believe that this service derives from a few of my core components: my passion for art, my passion for helping people and my passion for business. Growing up sketching, painting and enjoying photography made it even more fascinating to create digital art in the form of branding. Throughout high school and college, I volunteered as a communications leader for my church, designing flyers and logos. I won my first logo competition and the prize was $500. I remember thinking to myself that that was the easiest $500 I’ve ever made.

During the process of launching We Are Crown’d, I realized how important branding is for a business. After studying marketing strategies on my own, and enrolling in the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell, I applied what I learned, first to my own business and then giving advice to my fellow entrepreneur friends. Hearing their success reports only confirmed what I knew, I am damn good at this. It brings me so much joy to share the tools and skills needed to develop business branding and marketing strategies to small business owners who came to me because they were stuck and unable to scale their business.

My marketing services specialize in helping aspiring small business owners and entrepreneurs who are feeling like they have hit a wall in their growth, or just simply need the help to develop and rethink their marketing strategies to see the growth that they are looking for and hit their goals for generating sales and leads. I have implemented numerous campaigns for events that have exceeding ticket sales and revenue goals, as well as helped people establish their digital presence and optimize their growth on social media platforms.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I sell on both my own site and on Amazon.

Selling through my own site allows me to receive all of the revenue from sales, aside from taxes it goes straight to my business. However, selling on Amazon means that Amazon takes a portion of the revenue for storage fees, platform fees and, whatever other fees they decide to throw at you. The pro of Amazon is the ability to expand your target reach. The marketing associated with Amazon is almost effortless once you set up your storefront according to their guidelines as opposed to my own site where I have to handle all the marketing, sales channels (shop, instagram, facebook, etc.), offer discounts, keep up with both important and random sales to announce sales, handle the email marketing and pray for conversions.

Another pro…or con, depending on how you look at it, it is essential for your performance that you maintain the inventory. Amazon FBA has a very unique type of algorithm that is somewhat pushed by your inventory levels. They can’t push your store if they don’t have your products on hand. The reason that sometimes felt overwhelming was because I was having to double and triple when purchasing my supplies and restocking multiple times a month and the growth of my amazon store disrupted the system I already had in place. The growth came quickly, I had to pivot not only my finances and operations, but my mindset in order to rise to the occasion.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

My character, I am genuine, honest and have a sky’s the limit outlook. I value integrity to a high degree and provide the security of knowing your whether it is your business, skin or hair, it is good in my hands. I have the data to show my success results and raving reviews from the people I have worked with.

The “30-second pitch” is my least favorite technique and sometimes doesn’t actually get you what you want. What has worked for me, and the method I enjoy, is getting to understand the person I am talking to and their needs first before telling them all I can do. Whether or not I walk away with a new client or purchase, by showing my personality, compassion and interest in someone else, I have cultivated a lasting impression and addition into my network that has often led to more sales and opportunities.

I cherish this quote by one of my favorite writers, the late Maya Angelou, “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wearecrownd.com
• Instagram: missexcelgrace
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/excel-ansong/

Image Credits
Sinorox Rebekah Oksana Excel Grace