Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lawanda Givens. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lawanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

If I could go back in time, I would have started my business about 13 years ago. I came up with the idea that I wanted to become a boutique owner before my son was born in 2009. I drew up a plan and looked for resources to fund this idea, but to my surprise, there was little to no help for up and coming business owners. Most resources that were available were mostly loans and I didn’t want to start the business out in debt. There were not many boutiques around at that time and it would have been ideal to begin before the market became saturated with boutiques. It takes years to build any successful business and it takes a lot of dedication. I started my business in July 2021 and I have been slowly building up trust in my customers. Since there is no way to get back time, I must continue to move forward with building my business.

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?

I am the owner of L Michelle’s Boutique. We offer high-quality yet affordable clothing and fashion accessories for all occasions. I have been married to an amazing man for 14 years and we have four beautiful children. One of the reasons that I started this boutique was so that I could leave generational wealth behind for my children. I also started this boutique to inspire women to love themselves and to help build self-confidence. We often give little pieces of ourselves to others and forget to take care of ourselves.

Growing up as a child, I remember my dad gifting me a piece of jewelry for almost every special occasion. Anytime that I would leave the house, I made sure that I always had on my jewelry to complete my look. I grew to love to coordinate my accessories with my clothes and shoes. In 2017, my dad passed away and I experienced the most difficult time in my life.

In 2005, I started to pursue my Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Florida. While attending school, I worked as a
Sales Associate at TJ Maxx. My previous job was at the Department Store called K Mart. I worked in the Clothing and Jewelry Department. I gained so much knowledge about fashion working in Retail. I learned how to style clothing with accessories to make an outfit come together on store displays. I appreciate the experience I gained at such a young age. Once I completed my degree, I became employed at a Physical Therapy Clinic as a Clinic Coordinator. I recall the patient’s progress as they went through their sessions and the confidence that was gained along the way. It brought me great joy. I wanted to help bring joy to people and help others build confidence doing something that I was passionate about.

In 2020, I found out that we were expecting our fourth child and knew that I needed to start building a business. I started researching everything I needed to do in order to start a business. I found vendors and ordered samples of products to test for quality. I also gifted family and friends products in exchange for their reviews. My husband and I built our website and got to work. I drew up ideas for my Logo, the colors I wanted to represent my brand, and the props I wanted to use for my product photos. It takes so much more to run a product-based business than meets the eye! I launched my business and really got to work. I advertised on Facebook, Instagram, and in person. I got lots of support from my family and friends and I am grateful.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the fact that not everyone is going to be your ideal customer. Some people will not support you because they may not agree with what you may be selling or how you may price your products. I had to learn that not every person that comes and inquires about a product will buy something. Support is not always shown by purchasing products but in other ways such as sharing posts on social media or by promoting your products to other possibly customers.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I had to start from zero on social media last year. I never had a social media account until 2021 when I knew that I would be launching my business that summer. I started out with a personal account and slowly began getting followers. As I was building up my account, I started slowly promoting that I would be launching a new business soon. I started following more people and when I was on Instagram after a few months, I introduced my new business account. People on my personal page began following me on my business account. I also gained new followers from my current customers by them posting a review of my products on their personal pages. Recently, I started doing reels on Instagram showcasing my products to also increase my followers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lmichellesboutique.com
• Instagram: @LMichellesboutique

Image Credits
Genesis Givens and Gene Givens