We recently connected with Keniqua Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Keniqua, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Finding those key vendors can often be make or break for a brand. Can you talk to us about how you found your key vendors?

Finding my reputable vendor for my hair business was and still is extremely hard. I think finding a vendor now is easy because everyone is selling the “best vendor” or the “celebrity vendor,” but I feel if you want a consistent and authentic vendor for any item you will need to search and test them on your own. Back in 2018/2019, it wasn’t so popular to pay for vendor so most information you had to find out on your own. The first vendor I started looking for was a good quality human hair bundle vendor. Alibaba.com was my best friend when it came to finding a vendor. On Alibaba, they have everything you could ever think of or imagine selling, so finding a vendor wasn’t difficult. The difficult part came from finding a trustworthy vendor. I think I spent over $3000 + just purchasing sample hair to test. This was before covid, so the hair market was still reasonable with the prices, so I was able to try different companies. Of course, each one would try to say their company was the best so they could get the sales commission. After going through about 10 different companies, I found my perfect vendor, or so I thought. This vendor had both top-quality hair and reasonable wholesale prices so I would not have to mark it up tremendously to make a profit. Everything was going great until I was sent a bad batch of hair. Majority of the vendors are in Southeast Asia, this vendor being in China. I contacted my vendor via WhatsApp explaining what I received was not what I expected. My vendor didn’t want to refund me nor try to rectify the issue. I tried to file a dispute with PayPal and was unsuccessful with that as well. So, I not only lost my money, but I also lost my vendor who I thought was the best. Now the search began, this time more thorough than before. Luckily, I was able to find a trustworthy vendor who would help maintain my reputation with my clients. My current vendor now, I’ve had for the past 5 years, and it has been a totally different experience. One of the major lessons I’ve learned throughout this process was to document everything and keep record of the prices discussed along with your invoices. Being that it is another country you are doing with, sometimes conversions are incorrect which could cost you to spend more than you bargained for. Another important lesson is to ask as may questions as possible before spending a dime. The more you know about a company the better it will be for you.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started to develop a love and passion for hair at a very young age. I used to comb and style my dolls hair for as long as I can remember. While living in Jamaica, I always had a hairstylist, so worrying about my mom combing my hair was never a concern. Migrating to the United States in 2006, Macon, Georgia go be exact, was a different story. My mom now had to be my hairstylist and man was it rough. I look back at my elementary and middle school pictures and just laugh because she truly tried. The passion started intensifying as I started getting older, and gaining both the freedom and confidence to do my hair. Every time I accompanied my mom to her hair appointments, I would watch her stylist keenly, trying to slack in as much as I could. Then I would go home and try to mimic what they did. I would often put those skills to the test on my classmates in Spanish or Sociology class and even some of the female basketball players. From that, I started gained one client which put my name out there even more. After graduation, I attended Wesleyan College fall of 2015 and had clients that would come visit me there on a regular. I then began to take it seriously and started HairByKenni. Shortly after starting HBK, I migrated again to Cape Cod, Massachusetts in fall of 2016. A bit disappointed after finally establishing a name around town, I did what I knew best and started spreading the word. People saw my hair and previous work which led HairByKenni to start flourishing again. By summer of 2017, I had so much clientele, I had people on a waiting list. I then again migrated to Nyack, New York in fall of 2018 and had to start the process all over again. Luckily I was consistent with social media that I didn’t have to do much work. Word started getting around again and I had the privilege to hold the key/work from the salon in my dorm. This was major for me as one of my dreams is to own a salon one day. This took my business to another level, as my clients were getting top class treatment. After completing a year at Nyack, I moved back home and Covid-19 happened. I now stoped servicing clients, and had much time on my hands. My mom for a few years has been suffering from hair loss and scalp irritation in the middle of her head. It got to the point where she was constantly in pain, but all the doctors would only recommend steroids or pain medicine for comfort. They also told her no hair would ever grow back in the area. I decided to make a hair growth oil to help bring back what was lost and just add comfort. On the first try, I was successful with the comfort aspect, but her hair was still not growing. I went back, revised my recipe, and to my surprise her hair started growing. It was at this moment I decided to start KenniKayCollection and start producing this product for my clients. I launched this business February 5, 2020 and I would sell off the oil every batch I would make. I then sources hand made bonnets with authentic Ankara straight from Nigeria for my clients to keep their hair covered. Despite being in the middle of a pandemic, my business blossomed like no tomorrow. My clients rave about the oil in particular how it has made a difference in their hair. Today, I service clients in over 3 different states and have returning customers/supporters all across the globe.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

From as early as I can remember, combing and styling my dolls hair always interested me. This passion started to grow even more once I started to accompany my mom to the hairdresser. I would watch her stylist along with the other hairdressers in the salon as they serviced their clients. I felt like a kid in a candy store and would often go home and try to replicate the styles I saw earlier. Once I migrated to the United States, my mom started to comb my hair. After having my own stylist doing my hair, to now having my mom do it was not a cute transition. This ignited the passion even more. My first Christmas in Georgia, I received the barbie doll head that I could start perfecting my craft. That poor doll head has been through so many different hair phases. Luckily, she survived because I still have her 17 years later. A few years passed by to me being in 10th grade. This is when I officially started doing my own hair, I would do anywhere from pompadour updos to braids and sew-installs. I had my first official client in 11th grade. I would often play in my classmates’ hair during class or give the girls on the basketball team a quick French braid before practice or the game. I had my first official client in 11th grade. I will never forget, of my classmates came over and I spent over 12 hours doing medium box braids. Luckily, she returned, and my time reduced to 7.5/8 hours. From there, word of mouth to social media, my passion turned into my side hustle. I started building my social media so people could begin to see more of my work. It wasn’t until I moved to Cape Cod fall of 2016 that my side hustle turned into my full-time business. Again, through me changing my hairstyles so frequently, my Instagram, and word of mouth began to pave the way for me here on Cape Cod. I officially started HairByKenniKay in summer of 2017. My clientele grew so much that I started to decline some customers. It is truly amazing to just think that something I enjoyed doing as I child, is now what I spend my days doing and can get paid. The best feeling is going to work and it not feeling like work because I truly enjoy and love what I’m doing.

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

I built my audience on social media by being extremely active on all platforms I started off by making 3 types of posts per week on both Facebook and Instagram along with interacting with my followers daily. One being informational, one personal and the last being customer feedback/reviews. My audience grew the most when my followers felt like they either knew me or could relate to what I was sharing. Another thing that helped was hashtags. Hashtags are very instrumental to each post. Some may think it isn’t bringing much traction, but by using hashtags people who don’t necessarily follow you are able to find you on their explore page or even on their feed based on interests. If you are looking to build your audience, my biggest advice would be to be yourself. We have too many people already trying to be someone and something they aren’t. Transparency and relatability always sell.

Contact Info:

• Website: hairbykennikay.as.me
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/hairbykennikay
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hairbykenni
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hairbykennikay
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kennikaycollection?_t=8ZVKOdgbU4Y&_r=1

Image Credits
Kenard Smith :@shotsby_kmj Keniqua Smith