We recently connected with Nakhema Spicer and have shared our conversation below.

Nakhema, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

Some great things I’ve done for my customers would probably be providing discounts and giveaways. Also all my packaging comes with a custom sticker and a custom 10% discount code. This is how I show my appreciation to my customers by giving them something in return for supporting me. It’s a great thing because it shows my customers that I acknowledge their support, and it makes them feel important. Without your clients there is no business so you want to make them feel as appreciated as possible.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

The name of my brand is Nakhema Spicer Originals (NSO). I am a ready to wear fashion designer. I specialize in turning my ideas, inspirations, and sketches into hand and machine made clothing and accessory items. Fashion designing has always been something I wanted to do since the second grade. I wouldn’t say it takes discipline to run my business because it doesn’t feel like a job. Usually (in my opinion) when you need discipline for something it’s usually because you have to force yourself to do it or you rather be doing something else. Designing custom clothing for clients is fun and freeing for me, it doesn’t take much discipline to do what you love. Clients can come to me for any custom item they need there is no limits on what I can create. My courage to make garments with very bold outrageous prints and colors look amazingly elegant and chic is what sets me apart from the rest.I’m most proud of how my business has flourished over the years. I’ve came such a long way and I can see a huge difference from when I first started until now.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I’ve had to unlearn with owning a business is you don’t have to have good marketing strategies! I thought ‘well if I have the talent and they like it they’ll buy”. I was going about it all wrong. You have to market properly you have to do the work, and stay CONSISTENT. I use to randomly launch an item and expect it to sell out in a day. When it didn’t sell out I would get discouraged and would want to quit. However, I wasn’t properly marketing, wasn’t making anyone aware of what item was about to drop. I would just put an item on my site and post it. Now that I’ve unlearned that lesson I’m taking my time to actually do marketing ads, videos etc, there’s been a major change in my sales. You have to let customers anticipate what’s coming next , set dropping dates, and promote promote promote if you want to see improvement in your sales.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

So my favorite sales story is something that happen to me recently. A client needed a custom swimsuit by a specific time, but usps ended up delaying the package. So she messaged me and asked me could I make another one and she would come pick it up, so she could have the item when she needs it. Once the other swimsuit delivered she would just send it back to me. Now this is definitely me taking a risk because 1 there’s a possibility she won’t send the other item back. 2 it’s a custom item so I have to spend money out my pocket to go get more fabric and I’m also not getting payed for my labor. Lastly 3 whose to say that id be able to sell the other swimsuit once she sends it back to me. I love coming through for my clients though so I decided to make another one. Crazy thing is though the first swimsuit I sent out actually ended up getting to her on time 😕🤦🏽‍♀️. So Im sitting here upset because that’s time, and money spent. However, she took great pictures. I was able to use the pictures for promotion, and ended up getting multiple orders for that one swimsuit. So it honestly worked out in my favor. Sometimes you have to go above and beyond for your customers, and take risk for your brand. It will all be worth it in the end.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nsoriginals.shop/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nakhemaspiceroriginals_/
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsoriginals?lang=en