We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Monique Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Monique below.

Monique , 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

As a creator, my artistic activities have run the gamut from publishing to painting and producing events. Somewhere in the mix was my enduring passion for fashion which included a penchant for purchasing pieces – lots and lots of vintage and secondhand goodies. In 2019, I parted ways with yet another group of creatives who did not understand me or my vision and were stuck trying to implement ideas I’d had a decade before. I needed new energy, a new focus, and, most importantly, a new team of forward-thinking artists. My Asana and Google Drive were filled with concepts for some new fashion events that I wanted to implement in line with a sustainable fashion show I had produced in 2017. First, I wanted to get these beautiful garments onto the bodies of SoFlo’s fashion elite so I started doing personal and professional styling. This was to share my love of thrifting and ultimately pare down my large collection so that I could focus on upcycling to create the Fashion Show of my Dreams. I incorporated my business DAB Gear and Apparel, set up everything to make scaling easier, and hit the Internet Streets to sell my wares. Unfortunately, the Corona virus shut down the world, forcing me to deal with actually living and not the fashions of fantasy. By the time I decided to truly focus on my business, I had contracted COVID. Fighting for my life coalesced with my 40th birthday and some family issues, killing my momentum as I felt that working on yet another creative endeavor was futile. But as time went on, the creator wanted more than the mundane life. I did not survive this deadly disease to let my dreams wither like a raisin in the sun. I started back small, hosting and participating in pop-ups to sell my clothes. This re-ignited my passion, got me outside again, and reminded me that I am a culmination of all my creative endeavors in my life. Now, I am working on the Fashion Event of My Dreams and not allowing the influences of others, including the pandemic, disrupt what I am doing, the pace at which I do it, or what I aim to get out of it. I wished I had started earlier, but I am now thankful for the exact timing because I didn’t share this vision with undeserving people, I have more experience, and I will be at the helm so it will be exactly what I want and how I want it.

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?

DAB Gear and Apparel sells secondhand and upcycled clothing. We are saving the world, one fresh fit at a time. Buying secondhand reduces our carbon footprint, buying vintage ensures we’re not carbon copies of the IG Baddies, and buying upcycled means we’re rocking unique pieces that establish us as trendsetters and DressnAhhBihs. Our clients can purchase directly from us online or in person. We also do personal and professional styling and closet cleaning.

As Gen Z celebrates sustainability in myriad ways, DAB focuses on how to incorporate it into fashion specifically. Rather than just posting clothes on Depop, we showcase our apparel in live events that highlight other aspects of sustainability. We educate and inform our client base at our events and through our online consultations and social media channels. I am proud of how my hobby of 20 years has evolved into a movement and I look forward to more urban professionals to eschew the stigma of secondhand clothing and stylishly embrace ecological fashion.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Before I incorporated DAB, I started selling my clothes on Instagram. I don’t really shop online and didn’t do enough research into how to best sell on Instagram so this was a bust. The Gen Zers in my life steered me to Depop and I did much better there with sales, but it still wasn’t moving as fast I would have liked. I decided to build my own website. With such a high volume of inventory, I thought it would be better to hire people for tasks like photography, editing, even getting both a virtual and personal assistant for the least interesting tasks. I ended up spending too much money outsourcing, dwindling my start-up funding quickly. Meanwhile, my returns were nonexistent. I was paying Shopify $30/month for zero sales and almost no traffic. My hobby turned business was becoming very costly.

When I got COVID, I just abandoned everything, overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted. When I got some clarity and returned to DAB, I realized something that every business owner needs to know when scaling – you can’t scale a business that’s not making money! I needed to put in the work myself and take my lumps, not hire at the onset to make it easier on myself. You need the grind, the hustle to make it! I cannot teach someone how to do something I myself cannot do. So the annoying listing, yeah, I have to do them. The terrible photos? They get better the more I take them. The post office trips? Cheaper than Stamps.com’s monthly fee for God-knows-what.

Now that my head is back in the game, I am eager to do Instagram the correct way, post on Depop consistently, and add Poshmark to my repertoire. Shopify will see me return when it’s worth it. Until then, the 3rd party marketplaces for the win!

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective strategy for growing clientele has been social media. My styling customers are people who know me in SoFlo, my online customers have been referred or seen my social media promotions. Those who attend my pop-ups have found my ads on social media or South Florida event calendars.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dabgearandapparel.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iam.momowilly
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/momowilly
• Other: instagram.com/dabgearandapparel instagram.com/dressnahhbih