We recently connected with Lorna Cheatham and have shared our conversation below.

Lorna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of the company came out of my desire to keep the memory of my mother Clera Wilson-Cheatham alive. I was born in Nashville, Tennessee in a family of 12 siblings. I lost my mother at the young age of 9 years old to violence. My mother was always loving and caring and after she was taken away from us it left a gaping hole. After my mother death seven of us were moved to Detroit, we were afraid to even mention her name in the house, we were treated like she never existed. Which is why I decided to name this company after my mother, my way of keeping her memory alive.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Lorna D Cheatham, I have been an Entrepreneur since 1997. I am the CEO/Founder of Clera’s Creative Gifts, as well as a Mental Health Advocate. We design gift bags and gift wrapping paper exclusively for people of color to celebrate life events and special moments. Clera’s Creative Gifts is certified by the WBENC as a woman-owned business. I consider myself to be a gregarious and outgoing person, friendly, social and cordial.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding this business was a bit of a challenge, so I decided to use a big chunk of my personal savings to fund the business, which worked out in the long run. Once I decided that I did not want any loans hovering over my head I decided that using my savings which was a better option, Going the loan route would mean interest payments which did not set well with me. I also applied for grants but only received one grant. My journey has proven to show my resilience because I am not afraid to step outside of the box to grow my brand as well as my brand identity. Recently while doing a vendor event in Ohio I had no one to come along with me so I had to do everything myself. Then I realized there are going to be sometimes that I will have to do things solo. But looking back I realized that I had been doing everything by myself all along,

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients has been social media and during numerous vendor events at places like the Eastern Market in Detroit, the Hannan House-Detroit, as well as in Harlem for the 2023 Juneteenth festival. Because my product addresses the need for more African American representation on retail store shelves the response has been overwhelming positive. I have received comments such as “I am so glad that you did this” its something that we really needed”. My social media comments have also been so positive, which prompted to add to my product line this year. Social media has grown so much that thru social media you can reach customers in other states or outside of the US.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://clerasconnect.myshopify.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clerascreativegifts
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/clerascreativegifts

Image Credits
Hassan Amadu, Photographer, Product pictures Marvie White Photographer, Head Shot