We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Fontaine-Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.
Michelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
Being a “happy” business owner is often a fleeting feeling. We are living in a time that inspired the “Great Resignation” for so many people. I think it’s amazing to see that everyone is thinking beyond the 9 to 5 job and trying to utilize their talents or ideas to change how they make money. However, I think that there is a key point missing here, it is not easy. I can’t lie and say that there isn’t at least one day, weekly that I do. not think about having a regular job. Sometimes I just want to clock in, clock out and go about my day. No added stress, no extra hours, just living life. As an entrepreneur we do not get that kind of break. We never have that work/life balance no matter how hard we try. This is why most business owners struggle with depression and anxiety. It is a lot to have to show up constantly for people because you know they rely on you, whether it is an employee or customer. For me, the worst moment where I felt like going back to a regular job was with the inflation. Prices going up on everything around us, supply chain messing up our production, and demand decreasing really took a toll on me. I continuously had to tell myself that the storm would pass and on the other side is something even better. I know that these things happen to push us into uncomfortable places to make use stronger. I decided to make a huge deal with a company in Germany. This meant a lot of work but I had to take a cut on profits. That ended up being the best decision because we were able to expand into another country, gained new accounts, and had the funds to be able to continue without borrowing money.
Michelle, 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?
My name is Michelle Fontaine-Jones and I am the CEO/Founder of Curls & Potions. Curls & Potions is a natural hair & skincare company. I created this initially for my mother, who at the time was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Our brand has evolved into focusing on haircare, scalp care, skincare, & men’s grooming.
One of the things that sets us apart from other brands within the same category is that all of our products are highly concentrated for all hair/skin types. We use top quality ingredients that are never watered down or diluted. All of our products can be reactivated with a mist of water, so a little goes a long way. Curls & Potions is 100% black, woman owned and we still manufacture each product at our facility in Georgia.
We offer over 45 products and one of the things I am most proud of is that we can offer more! We know what we do well, that’s making amazing, high quality products using ingredients that are now shifting the industry. Larger companies are taking notice and creating lines using some of the ingredients that we began using years prior. That is a compliment to know that we are doing something right!
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
In every business there is someone standing next to the founder. It doesn’t always have to be a spouse or an investor. In my case, it is neither but rather my childhood best friend. It is often crazy how the universe shifts things into places for you. I think it goes beyond, ask and you shall receive. It’s more like, putting a piece into a puzzle. We have the picture of what we want or need but we don’t always see the pieces.
That is how my partner and I landed where we are today, the Universe. As kids, I never thought meeting him at the skating rink would put us here so many years later. I will never forget the day we were introduced. He was laidback and confident on those skates while I was clearly not skilled at all. As you may imagine, we skated together and yes, I fell. As a 13 yr old, I was devastated and embarrassed. From there we hit it off and became the best of friends. We were both popular but at different schools so if anyone knew how cool we were, it was always an issue. So we were friends behind the scenes and stayed that way all through school and life after that. He lived in Georgia while I traveled the world until one day, my family had orders to move to Georgia from Idaho.
After all those years we were literally in each others backyard. I had already started my business and once the shutdown came, I was swamped and he knew it. He asked if I needed help so I hired him. That turned into creating our mens collection, Aboriginal Man which we partnered on. From there we were able to scale the business internationally and created an amazing working relationship.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
We still manufacture each and every product at our facility in Georgia. Initially, when I started the brand, I did what most people do. I had a company manufacturing the products. This lasted less than a year because I noticed that they began to cut corners. The products were inconsistent and not at all the same. When I reached out to them they stated they had to change this or that. I didn’t want to continue to offer my customers products that were different and worst case, watered down.
I then started doing my research on how to formulate. I reached out to chemists, read as many books as I could, utilized YouTube, etc. I did find other vendors but my fear was that they would always have control. Meaning, they can change any ingredient and the product could look the same, maybe even feel the same but I would have no real idea of what is in it. That is the issue I have with getting someone to manufacture my products even if they are highly recommended.
Most of the popular products on the market are created by a few manufacturers and I am sure if you really looked at some of those brands, there are similarities with the products. We can make ours, we can offer innovative ingredients, we can even create things to fit within the market-but we control it. There is never going to be a question as to what is in our products. For that reason, we are holding onto keeping control of our production.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.curlsandpotions.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curlsandpotions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curlsandpotions/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-fontaine-jones-162b76123/sv?trk=people-guest_people_search-card
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/curlspotions
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1e7u_7WP9AUceocp_CBvCA
Image Credits
Michelle Fontaine-Jones