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

Kayla, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The thought of starting my own business began as a joke between me and a friend of mine. We just kept complaining about our jobs and how we just were not happy anymore. I started doing a bunch of research on starting my own baby clothes boutique. I put a hold on my new business venture due to becoming pregnant and my entire focus surrounding this new baby. I had been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) after my fiancé and I had struggled with fertility for a year. Needless to say, our daughter, Lyla, was and still is our biggest priority. A few months into my pregnancy I decided to keep looking into the steps I needed to take to start my boutique. Well, as life would have it, my body was shutting down. On a Thursday morning, I went to the ER for unbearable pain. We learned our daughter would have to be delivered by the end of the weekend. I was 29 weeks pregnant. We were terrified. To this day we are so grateful for the team of nurses and doctors who helped our daughter grow to the healthy and happy baby she is now. After Lyla spending 45 days in the NICU, we made the decision it was best for our family for me to quit my job and stay home. This inspired me to stop procrastinating and finish what I started. I finally launched Gracieluxe.com on February 23rd, 2022. It was difficult juggling a newborn, a new business and adjusting to the stay at home mom life all at the same time. Ultimately, I owe my newfound motivation to my daughter. She makes me want to go above and beyond to make sure she has the life she deserves and a mom who she can be proud of. I really stepped out of my comfort zone by starting my own business. I am definitely proud of what I have been able to achieve so far! If it was not for my fiancé, my daughter, the support from all of my friends and family, I would not have had the courage to get to this point.

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?

My name is Kayla Vingco. I am a 26 year old new stay at home mom to my Lyla Grace. I made the decision to become a business owner when I started feeling unhappy at my job. I put my plan in motion after quitting and bringing my daughter home from the NICU. Having my own baby clothes boutique has always been something that spoke out to me. Baby clothes can be so bland and boring. My goal is to sell trendy and affordable clothes you cannot find at your local store. When shopping for inventory I like to make sure it is something I would dress my daughter in. She is my personal in-home model for my boutique and we both love it! She is featured in the majority of my inventory photos on my website (Gracieluxe.com).

I am a very personable person. I want my customers to feel like they know me and who I am. A lot of my customers so far I do know personally. They already know I keep an open line for any suggestions to help me grow and be better. I want future and potential customers to know their opinions and suggestions will also be valued. I am always looking for what everyone is interested in purchasing, essentially what the people want is what I’m chasing after!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My social media audience is not a huge one, yet! Networking has been a huge part of my social media getting a good amount of traction for barely starting out. As a small business owner, I support other small businesses. I always have! I have quite a few friends who have their own small businesses. We make an effort to support each other whether that be paying for services or simply resharing their business on our business/personal social medias. Being active to stay relevant is key. You have to keep your followers interested. Interactive posts, reels, sharing updates are all great way to stay relevant!

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Gracieluxe.com is powered by Shopify. It has definitely been so easy to play around with. The pros do outweigh the cons for me using Shopify. The only con I have, there are SO many different “apps” you can use to make your website easy and/or better for yourself or for customers. Sometimes it can be overwhelming trying to find what exactly is going to work out. I found it best to join facebook groups of other small business owners to help navigate through the confusion. Overall, it was simple to set up my website, make it look professional and add all of my inventory for my customers to browse and shop!

Contact Info:

• Website: Gracieluxe.com
• Instagram: @gracie_luxe
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/gracieluxe/
• Other: Tiktok: @kaylaelese