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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.
SubscribeWe were lucky to catch up with Kelvena Benson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kelvena, appreciate you joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
I started my entrepreneurial journey almost 9 years ago now. I was currently in school for Business Management and had come to the conclusion I wanted to start my own, but that was as far as I had gotten on my own. My mentor at the time encouraged me to explore all options, and tap into an industry that allowed me to learn and grow through my experience and that path led me to branding.
I was 5 years into the beauty industry, with a very reputable brand that made a huge impact in my hometown, Milwaukee, WI. I was starting to become that go-to person for building beauty brands and I began to offer branding services such as logo and website design. After gaining the opportunity to work with new and existing entrepreneurs, as well as collaborate with local small businesses, I started to see a much bigger reward in that portion of the work I did, and embraced my new lane.
I slowly transitioned from beauty to branding by offering branding services to newly established beauty brands. After relocating to Austin, TX, my network grew, and I began to open up my services to all small businesses. I worked for almost a year as a freelancer, specializing in website development which the demand rapidly increased during 2020 due to COVID and the urgency for businesses to build an online presence. Since I still work a 9-5, I knew I would have to make some changes to sustain the influx of clientele as well as continue to grow my brand.
I started to strategize ways to help scale my brand, first step was to structure it as a management company. I hired a design coach and gained a new mentor for this transition. After, revamping my entire brand identity, and re-structuring my business’ vision and mission, KB Management Brand Operations, LLC was birthed. Building my management company allowed me to hire employees to take branding projects, while I focused on the expansion of my brand. I added additional branding services based on the needs of my clients, and moved to a contract-based platform to assist with building long-term relationships and offer on-going branding support.
The start of 2022 I was blessed to have a team of employees which allowed me to manage more clients than I would be able to service alone. Today, I work with two graphic designers, a virtual assistant, and creative operations intern. Although my journey started much differently than I imagined, my success would not be possible without my team, my village. When in beauty my family, friends, and business associates helped lift me up and supported me in ways I couldn’t have survived without them. Today, some of those same people are still in my corner and I know, I am only as great as those around me.
I made mistakes a long the way, one of the most impactful was funding everything on my own. While its a great accomplishment, I wish I would have learned more about business credit and all the resources available to help fund small businesses when I first started this journey. The most meaningful moment through it all was having the opportunity to reach back and help others. As I researched, studied, and sharpened my skills to learn as much as I could in the branding industry, being able to pass that knowledge along to help further the success of others is what fuels me.
So much so, I wrote a book about it. A Creative Path by Kelvy B is available on Amazon! I wanted the opportunity to tell my story and share best practices as a mentor with as many people as possible. Just like this magazine, it’s important we talk about our journeys with others to help them along theirs. In my book, I shared strategies and tactics that worked and didn’t work for me, with hope to help someone else avoid the same mistakes but also adopt what worked for themselves.
Before we wrap up, I want to touch on two of the most important take aways from my life these past 9 years as an entrepreneur and corporate professional. Number 1, create your own path. Be sure that whatever it is you decide to do, you do it for you. Take time to find what you are passionate about through the experiences of trying new things and taking a leap of faith to go for it. Number 2, never give up. Know there will be struggles and challenges, so it’s important you learn how to pivot as needed and adapt to change. Throughout your journey you may feel the need to restart, reset, or re-align and if you do, know it’s ok, just don’t give up!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The hardest lesson I had to unlearn was underestimating the importance of setting boundaries. Being a mom, wife, corporate professional, and entrepreneur boundaries were necessary to help me effectively balance all the roles I own and function in a healthy manner. I learned this lesson the hard way, by not setting boundaries or setting them and not sticking to them which always led to burnout. Once I started to see the major impact from a minor boundary, I began to adopt more until it became a complete lifestyle change. I decreased my time spent on social media and filled it with more meaningful things. I started to take time for myself in the mornings and evenings to work on things I needed for myself or practice habits that helped me show up as my best self each day. On those days that seemed to be impossible I took time off, poured more into myself, because I knew pouring from an empty cup no longer served me. Small steps like eliminating branding calls from my weekends and dedicating only certain evenings for them changed my life. So, advice to anyone but especially entrepreneurs or those who wear many hats, remember boundaries are for us to thrive, use and embrace them!
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Building a credible and reputable social media presence takes time and consistency. I started building my presence when I first started in beauty and as I transitioned to branding that audience followed. The 3 key components to building a great social media presence have everything to do with brand position and engagement.
Below are some
branding tips I share with my client and audience.
1. Create Visuals
– Keep content eye catching but simple
– Be relatable
– Stay up to date with trends
– Use effective platforms that work for your brand
2. Shape your own Perception
– How do you perceive yourself?
– How do you want others to perceive you?
– Remember, reputation matters
3. Lead with Value
– Show up like it’s already done (confidence)
– Stay credible
– Build trust
– Be consistent
Below are some great engagement tips:
1. Be Authentic
2. Be Intentional
3. Be Consistent
To learn more about building engagement on social media, grab my Free downloaded PDF on my website home page
www.kbbrandmanagement.comContact Info:
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