We recently connected with Lativia Henderson and have shared our conversation below.
Lativia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
As a business owner, I am very happy! I’ve been in business 6 years now with 3 of those years working for myself full time. I will say its been very rewarding for many reasons. One reason being a mother, my time is flexible. I get to set my daily work schedule around my children’s schedule and that’s very convenient for me. I get to attend school activities, sports functions, and be available for doctor’s appointments. I work while they’re in school and I’m home after school to help with homework, cook,clean, and get them ready for the next day. I’ve had jobs in the past where the work schedule or requesting days off wasn’t as easy. I hear aspiring business owners say all the time that they can’t wait to quit their job and work full time for their business, I used to have that same mindset when I first started. My advice to anyone feeling this way is to keep your job to help fund your business. Maybe not working full time but at least a part time can help financially without taking too much time from building your business. Business credit takes time to build, and business grants & loans are not always guaranteed. I think of having a regular job often, especially now that the holidays are approaching. I picked up a part time job almost a year ago. Its a weekend job so it doesn’t take any time from my business. At the same time it’s additional income. Keeping multiple streams of income with having a business is a must. You’ll have days in business when it’s booked and busy but when those slow days approach you’ll have your regular job to fall back on.
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?
To those of you who don’t know I am Lativia Henderson, a fashion designer & seamstress based out of Rocky Mount, Nc. I am a 32 years old mom of three beautiful children. Zaylen 12, Zamari 11, and Zaida eight. I was born and raised in Rocky Mount, NC where I’ve resided most of my life. I was around 11 years old when I discovered my love for fashion and clothes. I came from a large family, and being the oldest of five other siblings in the household, my parents couldn’t always buy us the latest fashion or popular name brands. I learned early in life that it’s not what you wear but how you wear it. Before I ever learned to use a sewing machine, I knew how to hand sew. I would cut jeans and old shirts then redesign them with yarn and fabric paint.
So many times my mom fussed at me for cutting my jeans but she took notice of my hobby and invested in my first sewing machine. I had no clue on how to use the machine, and even with an instruction manual, it was still confusing for me. Youtube was not available back then to utilize so my machine stayed in the box. I would find so much inspiration from Disney channel shows like That’s so Raven and Sister Sister. Raven on the show was a designer and made her own clothes. On the show Sister Sister the mom that played as Lisa was a designer/seamstress. Although fictional, I thought the shows were pretty cool. Fast Forward to high school, I attended Northern Nash High School. Class of 2008! Going to high school was like a fashion show every day. I was known as one of the best-dressed females of my class. Dressing up or down was how I expressed myself. My junior and senior years I signed up for the apparel and design classes. This was probably one of few classes that I looked forward to going to daily. Mrs. Harris was my favorite teacher and she made learning to use a sewing machine and sewing utensils fun. I appreciate her for our many talks after class of her encouraging me to pursue a career in the fashion industry.
After high school, I was accepted to the Art Institute of Atlanta to study fashion design. Atlanta Georgia was 7 hours away from my hometown so you can imagine how nervous I was to be so far from home without any family or friends nearby. New experiences scared me but I knew this was where I wanted to be. A year later at age 19, I learned that I was pregnant with my oldest son Zaylen. This is when the real world kicked in for me. I allowed fear and negative influence from other people to deter me from my goals. All I ever heard was “You’re not going to make good money in the fashion industry, the economy is too bad’. Doubt settled within me and the next thing I knew, I was enrolling into Edgecombe Community College to study nursing. I worked in the healthcare field as a med tech and CNA. I’ve always been a reliable and dedicated employee and the “go getter” type. Hard worker was an understatement when it came to my work ethic. I would always work two jobs or double shifts at one job. I began to feel burnt out. Mentally exhausted. I would go to work with a smile on my face, but I was internally unhappy. I changed jobs thinking it was the environment but it wasn’t.
At this point, I hadn’t sewn or designed anything in years. At random one day, I decided to design my children’s denim jackets. There was often mix-ups with the children’s coats at daycare because so many looked the same so I wanted theirs to be unique. I designed each of their jacket with their name and favorite character or theme. I received many compliments and inquiries about their coats. I hadn’t given any thought of making anything for other people but I had nothing to lose and so much to gain from doing so. After receiving payments, and positive feedback from designing a few jackets, I immediately knew this was the part of me that was missing. I wanted to do more with designing. October 2016 my brand Brown Royal Creations was born. Brown symbolizing myself as a black/brown woman, Royal because I see and carry myself like a queen, the female ruler, independent and powerful, Creations because I everything I make I’m creating from scratch. I would still work my actual job then go home after and work on business orders. In 2019, I had the strong urge to quit the job I was working. I really hated that place. The workload was a lot for the little pay.
Furthermore, I felt the job didn’t allow me to focus much on my own business. I would talk to my sister every day and tell her how much I hated the job and that I wish they would fire me. The saying God will make you uncomfortable when he wants better for you was so relatable. I knew I needed and wanted to quit but I didn’t have a solid plan. Well, finally on a Monday morning, I was terminated from that job. I smiled at the supervisor and asked, “what took you so long?” I’ll never forget that look she gave me. I felt relief and before I walked out of her office, I handed her my business card. I put so much time into my business and my craft from that point on. July 2022 will be three years that I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur. I’ve built solid clientele, I’ve done fashion shows, pop-up shops, I even was able to move my work from home business into a store location. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Everything I’ve been through was setting me on my path to greatness.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Me being professional and treating my clients with respect has carried my reputation in business this far. A lot of my clientele generates from social media posts and tags. Majority of times before a person books with me or inquire about the services that I offer they’ve already viewed my social media pages and website. You have to be mindful of the content you post on social sites, you could turn away potential clientele with biased or negative post.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
It had been years since I had been able to sew or design anything. Life had gotten so busy that I hadn’t even realized how much time had passed by. One day I decided to design my children’s denim jackets. My intention was to make their jackets unique & stand out from the other kids at their school & daycare. Once people seen the jackets, I had some inquire about designing them one also. Once I received that first invoice & the positive feedback from my first customer, I knew this was the part of me that was missing. I had a full time job but the more I received orders, I knew this was my confirmation to turn my hustle into a business. Within the last 6 years it’s all been a work in progress. I can say each year I built more with my business to make it into what it is today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brownroyalcreations.com
- Instagram: _brownroyalcreations
- Facebook: Brown Royal Creations