We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Mason a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
First I initially wanted a traditional beauty supply store, you know brick and mortar. I wanted to own one because I was tired of going into stores that were not owned by people of color and them looking at me as if I was going to steal something or when I would ask questions about hair products they wouldn’t have the answer. I knew that I couldn’t be the only one in my community feeling like that. I started doing my research on how to open a beauty supply store. And I’ll be honest I stopped for a while. Then started my research back up about 6 months later and it just so happened that COVID hit. I didn’t want my dream to be just that, a dream. No one was renting commercial space, everything was shut down, and shipping of anything was high or not happening. I asked myself how could I still own a hair store when the world is shut down? I thought to myself how cool would it be to have your stuff delivered especially when your getting your hair done and your stylist runs out of hair. And thats when the idea came to me. I was like I can be the DoorDash of hair care. People can order online and I can deliver it to them. I had to pivot my dream a little bit, which was fine because NO ONE in my city or state was doing anything like it. I was going to be offering something that no one was doing. I felt like this was going to set me apart from so many people in this industry. No one was offering delivery of hair care. Yes you could order from amazon but actually having a hair store that strictly delivers? I thought that was genius. I’ll be honest at first I didn’t think this idea would take off the way it did because most people like to shop in person especially for hair care items. People like to read ingredients and just look around to see what else they may need. But once people found out and the word got out about what I was doing it took off and my business has continued to grow since launching. I have even been featured on my local news and been called “the DoorDash of beauty supplies.”
Nicole, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a native of Portland, Oregon, born and raised. I’ve always been into hair. In fact, I actually used to braid hair for years. I taught myself how to braid at the age of 13 and continued to braid until I was about 21. I always knew that I wanted to stay in the hair industry but I didn’t necessarily want to do hair anymore. That’s when I came up with the idea of owning a beauty supply store, and because I was tired of the treatment I would get walking into stores that were not owned by a person of color. What my business, Elegant Boutique offers is a different approach to getting your hair care items. We are a beauty supply store but we are e-commerce based and offer local delivery 7 days a week. We even ship worldwide including international. We also offer wholesale. Yes you read that right. We offer wholesale on braiding hair, products, accessories and more to any stylist, braider or barber. The problem I solve for people is that they do not have to leave their house if they don’t want too, to get the hair supplies they need. All they have to do is go to my website, select the items they need, head to checkout, select local delivery (as long as they are in our delivery radius and meet the minimum order total), pay and hit submit and then within an hour their order is on the way to them and delivered. Those who aren’t in our radius can select the shipping method of their choice and as long as their order is placed by 5pm PST their order is shipped the same day.
What I am most proud of when it comes to my brand and business is that I have created something that is not traditional and that a lot of people haven’t really thought of. When most people think of beauty supply stores they think of the traditional brick and mortar, no one really thinks outside the box. I am also proud that we have shipped to 15 states, 1 country and have had multiple stylists inquire and purchase wholesale from us. I am also proud that my business was featured on the local news for being so unique. What I want potential clients/followers/fans to know about my brand is that I am unique. When I first launched in May 2021 no one really heard of or knew what a mobile beauty supply store was not just in Oregon but across the United States. When I launched and got featured on the news so many people reached out to me telling me they had never heard of anything like it before and how I took a different take on a beauty supply store. I want people to know that I am serious about changing the narrative when it comes to hair stores and that I want not only my community but people throughout the world to know that I am someone they can count on to be knowledgeable about products.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What I think helped build my reputation within my market is being consistent and delivering exactly what it is that I say I am and what my customers are ordering. Also trying my best to keep my delivery and shipping timeframe and if I can’t then I make sure I communicate that. For example if a customer places an order at 11am my goal is to have it delivered to them by noon, but if I have a lot of orders ahead of that person or I’m in a meeting or something and I wont be able to deliver their order in an hour then I make sure I let them know
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The way I built my audience on social media is by posting. I try my absolute best to post every day on Facebook, Instagram, and I’m trying to get the hang of TikTok. I also joined a lot of groups on Facebook especially ones that cater to the city and state I’m in. Whenever someone post they are looking for a stylist or braider, I will tag whoever I know and also throw in there that I own a hair store. Most people who want their hair done especially braids, crochet style, extensions will need to buy the supplies for the style so why not tell them they can get that stuff from me. My advice would be to just stay consistent and post. Also make sure that when you (the business owner) have flyers and/or thank you cards that you include with your orders, put your social media handles on those. Yes most people throw flyers and thank you cards away but not before they read them. Having your social media on marketing material helps a lot. Also ask friends, family, customers, etc. to share your post and and your business page because people who they are friends with, you may not be friends with, so that’s a bigger audience you’re reaching.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elegantboutiquebeautysupply.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elegantboutiquebeautysupply/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elegantboutiquebeautysupply/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elegantboutique503