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

Hi Keosha , thanks for joining us today. What can you share with us about the story behind how you found your key vendors?

When starting my sportswear brand, I only knew local manufacturer, I actually was going thru a middle man. A guy who made t-shirts for the club I was working at. Already having a boutique, selling jewelry, I wanted to expand. I asked him about a dozen shirts, he gave me a price, got the shirts printed and the rest was history. I went thru him for about 4 or 5 years, Until one day he just gave me his plug. I was excited. I still use them to this day. I believe in having relationships with my vendors, so I still keep them around. But I knew in order to expand, doing high volume sales, I would need a manufacturer would could execute the entire collection packed & shipped to my door.

I started going to trade shows in Vegas, a side from conferences and educational classes, it basically had manufacturers from all over the world in one place, with mock ups & examples of their work. It’s like going to china with out actually going to China. You can feel the clothing material & quality, negotiate pricing and place orders right at the booth. I went two to three years in a row. Mind you this was before alibaba was a thing, now you can easily go on alibaba and do the same. Me personally I love to actually see the people behind the brand and them see you.

I found 3-5 Vendors during those trips who I am still in contact with to date. They all specialize in different departments of my sportswear brand. My advice for those finding vendors, vet them properly! Have them send photos, video chat, be consistent with your orders, negotiate (sometimes they will try to tax, if they think you are green). Be polite and know the lingo.

Some lessons I’ve learned is don’t be so quick to accept material or quality that doesn’t represent your brand. Order samples first, review & revise to your liking, this is your money &. business on the line, make sure your product is to your standards, not perfect but to your standards. You can always perfect the product over time. Don’t wait until it’s perfect to sell, but make sure it is sellable.

Keosha , 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?

Well I grew up in a two parent household, middle class if you will. So I saw hustle at an early age, my father has his own business and worked a full time job as a contractor, so I knew early on I would need a job & a side hustle to survive when I get older. So I started early, doing nails & hair for the girls at school & charging. Then Starting my boutique, working in the clubs to becoming my own boss entirely, working for others, I was never truly at peace with life, working for myself & doing things that feel good to my spirit has always lead me. Now a days my job is being a Boss, whatever that looks like in that season, working on my painting company, clothing brand, creating content or helping other individuals start their own businesses. No day is the same, but it is & I love that about this era, it doesn’t get boring, I create money in some many different ways it’s become fun for me. I just started a vending machine company, haven’t done anything with it yet, but I will, I know it’s another source of income that I have to build up.

I most proud of the fact that, I love taking calculated risk, me catching a one way flight to Atlanta with $1,800, only knowing 2 people in the entire city. Here we are 10 years later, I am still here, My Daughter is here and My mom is here, I’ve help create new ives for my family & hopefully the rest will come soon, but what if I stayed in my hometown? Would we be the same? idk. But I am very proud of what I have accomplished thus far and I have more, so much more to offer.

Business Breakdown: GrindLife apparel is my baby, my first business. I started this officially after graduating college 2016. I wanted a full fashion high Courture line, but after further research it was too expensive to start/scale for me at that time. Which was also a time before any relevant content was on YouTube university. So I was doing research, gathering knowledge from the Stone Age. But it was created for the individuals on the daily grind, whether it’s school, work, gym. Our sportswear gives quality clothing at an affordable price.

Painting Company: Provides residential painting, pressure washing. We strive to provide the best customer service to our clients, with our easy to navigate booking site, you can conveniently book, modify your estimate from anywhere, most cases you don’t even have to be home to receive your estimate, giving you freedom to do the things you love.

The Red Print is my newest business, I saw a need for potential & aspiring entrepreneurs needing resources to get started or expand in their businesses. I provide worksheets, templates and ebooks pertaining to business, where you receive an instant download of material that can easily be read on your phone or iPad. I also offer one on one zoom sessions to those who require a more in-depth strategy customized to their business. This is by far my purpose in life, every time I help another business owner gain more knowledge or actually start their business, it fills a void for sure, my heart is indeed full.Can not wait to expand to speaking engagements and conferences to reach more aspiring business creatives.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My initial funding for a longgg time was me, I had a child very young so I would always get big refunds back in the day. I would use those tax refunds to start a business or invest into a pre-exsiting business. If I was doing nails I would invest in more nail equipment or supplies, whatever I had going on. But for GrindLife (sportswear brand) at first, I was working in the club so I would place my order with the middle man, he would get the shirts printed and I would pay him from the tips I made that day. I did that for about 6-9 months, then I started to realize I didn’t know how to actually scale a business, or anything about running an actual business. Because Youtube university wasn’t popping quite yet, I stopped operations & I unfortunately went back to school and obtain a business degree. After graduation, I rewrote my plan & waited for my tax return, I used $1,400. I got a logo, business formation, business cards, website domain and about $500 in inventory and the rest is history. I still self funded up until last year, which I do not recommend by the way.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

One of my best marketing stories was when my daughter would watch a TV show called The RAP GAME on Lifetime. I was making bleached, distressed GrindLife tees at this time, they were all the rage. She suggested I send one to some of the cast members. I hesitantly agreed. I reached out to three of them on instagram. Introduced myself and stated basically they would look good in my new distressed t-shirts. At this time they were all doing promo runs and about to film the reunion episode.

I sent all the girls (Nia Kay, Lyric and Miss Mullatto or Latto) three shirts, they all wore the shirts on school promo runs, radio hostings, features etc. I started gaining tons of followers and sales, then Latto won the rap game competition and wore my shirt for the lifetime screening of the competition. It was chaos, orders and emails coming from everyone. I was personally bleaching & distressing shirts so I was very overwhelming and I wasn’t prepared for the influx. But it was an amazing feeling, so many opportunities arose from that. Lifetime actually contacted to provide items for the set. Latto was opening a boutique on the Southside & we discussed adding my t-shirts to her store. We didn’t come to an agree with pricing but it was still a great feeling. I am very much proud to see how much she has grown since.
But that experience taught me plenty of lessons, it showed me I needed to put systems in place so when those influx of orders come, I can be ready to provide fast shipping and great customer service to my customers moving forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: bykeoshaparker.com / grindlifeapparel.com / parkerpaintingppm.com
• Instagram: theredprintbykp / grindlifeapparel / parkerpaintingppm
• Facebook: Grindlife apparel / Keosha Parker
• Youtube: tharealmlsparker / Bykeoshaparker
• Other: Join GrindLife SMS: Text GRIND to (855) 559-2163