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

Melissa-Sue, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

My daughters, Olivia Lauren John and Alyssa Simone John, whom the company is named after, were aspiring child actors and models. I shared many stories of my kids on Facebook and two people in particular, Mitsy White and Clover Crumbie, always said I should write my stories. One day I met a mother of twins on a tv show set who shared that she always wanted to publish children’s books. I told her I did too. She told me she believed I could and I thought if this stranger could believe in me, I should believe in myself. Once I figured out how to publish my books, I completed her stories. However, she didn’t pay me for my services. In a few months, I had published 5 books in the Olivia Lauren series and her 4 children titles. I was attending events as a vendor and our books were selling. We got our books in bookstores across the country. Friends and family saw my success on Facebook and soon I was attracting interest. My first paying client was Sabrena Bishop, one of my high school friends. She told me that she was living in the Middle East with her husband and two children and had a couple of stories in mind. She wanted to know if I would publish them for her. I sent her a quote and a contract. She signed the contract and mailed a check. The Madison and Elijah series was born and I was officially in business!! She has remained one of my favorite and most loyal clients.

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

I am a professor of psychology by training. I was working collaboratively with a team interested in increasing diversity in the STEM pipeline. We decided to take it as early as preschool. We recruited Headstart programs and trained teachers how to teach the engineering design cycle using literacy. The stories were great but I quickly observed that the books were either about animals or White characters. The children were students of color or children of immigrants. The stories did not reflect their culture or lived experiences. This was in 2007 and I told my daughters how upsetting it was that virtually nothing had changed in the field in terms of diversity. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center had shown statistics at that time the diversity in children’s books was 50% White, 27% Animal, 10% African American, 7% Asian, 5% Latino, and 1% Indigenous. My daughter, Olivia Lauren, told me to stop complaining about the problem and be the solution. Olivia Lauren was at an engineering themed school herself, so this language was in her vocabulary. As a parent, we have to listen to our children and so we wrote stories together. So today I am the proud owner of Lauren Simone Publishing House, a full-service professional company that helps aspiring authors to become published authors. We offer illustration, copyediting, proofreading, copywriting, printing, and distribution. Our company is small so clients get one on one attention. We also have a group where authors can meet other authors and share successes, resources, and events. On our website www.laurensimonepubs.com you can meet our authors, illustrators, and team, learn about upcoming events, read our blog, and purchase our author’s books. We are also available for speaking engagements and workshops.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think everyone can relate to having to pivot or adapt during the pandemic. We had gained much success creating all these lovely stories. We were doing Black History Month. Women History Month, Career Day, Juneteenth, and other important events in schools, museums, and at fairs. Then suddenly we were forced to shut down and stay at home. For years we were not permitted to enter the school. This did not stop my publishing revenue, but it affected our sales revenue. We lost money for events we had paid for and we simply didn’t know how to increase our online revenue. In addition, one of the youth authors, Imani Ariana Grant created the Love of Literature book club and we hosted this at her middle school. Since we couldn’t meet in person, we decided to host it online. Many parents were looking for things to do with their kids, so we created a writing camp. Children from around the world logged onto our camp and learned how to write stories, illustrate them, and sell their books once completed. It was truly transformative for all involved. I felt blessed and resilient. The following year, most people were over online events, felt zoom fatigue, and many were vaccinated and felt somewhat safer to go back outdoors. Our second camp was not as successful at first. But these experiences gave us an opportunity to pivot again. In business, you have to learn to ride the tide.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I was a full-time Assistant Professor when Lauren Simone Publishing was founded. I had a steady income. I was also consulting for other businesses. I saved the additional income and used it to cover the costs associated with building a business (equipment, incorporation fees, insurance, taxes, and payroll). Fortunately, I didn’t need a brick and mortar, so my expenses were minimal. However recurring expenses (such as Zoom, QuickBooks, LivePlan, Canva, Website fees, design software, etc.) meant that I had to quickly learn how to create recurring revenue. Besides having a fulltime job and other side hustles, there are three things that I see as vital to creating the initial capital for my business.

The first thing I recommend is getting a mentor. I currently have over 6 mentors from SCORE, WBDC, PCV, reSET, and Goldman Sachs OMBW. They each have different skill sets. Some have ran a business, others haven’t. They vary in their experience in strategy, marketing, finance, human resources, technology and equipment, and operations. But each is valuable in helping me to build revenue in some shape or form.

The second thing I recommend is continual education. So far I have completed four business accelerators: Urban Hope, Girls for Technology, Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC), and reSET social enterprise. I am currently in the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women accelerator. I have also taken free business classes from Coursera and Verizon and attended webinars from SCORE and other organizations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurensimonepubs.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurensimonepubs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaurenSimonePubs/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-sue-john-53709626/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC99BBUEjTxgGgXqlV-D3P1g
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lauren-simone-publishing-house-manchester
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@laurensimonepubs