We recently connected with Mo Cisse and have shared our conversation below.
Mo , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Growing up as the youngest of seven kids, with a major age gap between my siblings and I, I was always surrounded by people older than me. As a shy kid, dressing the part became my easiest way to demand respect and the right type of attention in any room without saying a word. As I finished college and began my professional career, many friends, family and colleagues would ask me to take them shopping and help them build their wardrobe. After being a personal stylist to many over 10 years, two of my clients convinced me to take Fashion more seriously. Thankfully I listened, and in 2016 we launched our sustainable luxury clothing line for men and women while offering Image Consulting to our clients as well.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m originally from Guinea, West Africa. My Mom was a big entrepreneurial inspiration for me because she’s been in Fashion as long as I’ve been alive. Growing up back home, she would travel to many African countries and the U.S to sell different African clothes for men and women. That’s how she afforded to bring me to U.S for my 12th Birthday present on October 23rd 1997 to join my older sister and brother that already lived here, yet still my greatest Birthday present thus far.
Growing up as the youngest of seven kids, with a major age gap petween my siblings and I, I was always surrounded by people older than me. As a shy kid, dressing the part became my easiest way to demand respect and get the right type of attention in any room without saying a word. As I finished college and began my professional career, many friends, family and
colleagues would ask me to take them shopping and help them build their wardrobe. After being a personal stylist to many
over 10 years, two of my clients convinced me to take Fashion more seriously. Thankfully I listened, and in 2016 we launched
our sustainable luxury clothing line for men and women while offering Image Consulting to our clients as well
From the moment we launched, sustainability became an important direction for us because we learned that the Fashion Industry is currently the second most wasteful industry in the world. Therefore we wanted to be a part of the solution rather than adding the problem of our industry. Additionally we chose to continue offering Image Consultation services to allow us to serve our clients with a greater personal touch while building lasting relationships with them.
Lastly, as a team of passionate creatives inspired by the meanings of our MERAKI ALLURE company name, we also wanted to inspire more people to do what they love while making a greater difference in the world.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
As most people know that small businesses have faced many challenges through the pandemic, we definitely had our share of challenges through these this worldwide crisis. But before the pandemic we had other overwhelming moments that also nearly took us out of business.
Around may of 2019, a couple of months right after leaving my full time job to do this passion business, our company was faced with a major credit card fraud of over $40,000 that nearly crippled us. An online customer used stolen credit cards to buy thousands of dollars of merchandise from us, and by the time our card merchant company caught the fraudulent activities, the thief had already disappeared with our goods and our local police couldn’t do much about it since the thief was out of state.
Through these dark times, it was the support of family and close friends that encouraged us and provided much needed financial support as things were falling apart for us.
Thereafter we learned to increase many of our security procedures and business insurances that can protect us better in the future. Through these challenges, we understood the power of being surrounded by good people that share similar visions and provide unconditional support to each other.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
How we survived the pandemic: since we were an online company since inception, our expected year sales were great for 2020 which didn’t work out as expected, Since we didn’t have any physical retail spaces to worry about, we began creating strategic partnerships with other professionals that had similar clientele as us. One of those rewarding partnerships was with an awesome online dating coach. Since this amazing young lady works with clients all over the U.S and Canada, her partnership allowed our company MERAKI ALLURE to work with her clients, prepare them for their dates and help grow their confidence. This ability to quickly pivot and create more strategic partnerships has really empowered our company to think outside of the box and work with more like minded individuals.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MerakiAllure.com
- Instagram: @MerakiAllure @MoCisse
- Facebook: @MerakiAllure @MoCisse
- Linkedin: @MerakiAllure @MoCisse
- Youtube: Meraki Allure
- Yelp: Meraki Allure
- Other: www.TheAmericanAllure.com
Image Credits
Photos by JB Norman Verances
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