We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Oszhanae Dukes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Oszhanae , thanks for joining us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

When it comes to starting a business we all want our friends friends family to support us because we know that if it was the other way around we’d be supportive of them and their business. I can honestly say that most of my support came from my husband and strangers and I appreciate them and anyone who has actually supported me from sharing my work, liking my work and even purchasing items from me.It used to hurt my feelings when people weren’t as supportive to me as I was to them but the lack of support gave me the extra push I needed to keep going and not worry about who liked or didn’t like what I was doing. You can’t worry about who does or doesn’t support you because you’ll lose sight of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. I don’t care if I get zero likes on a business post because it’s not about likes to me. It’s about getting my work out there and doing what I truly love to do no matter who supports it If people WANT to support you they will without you having to ask them to. Keep going , keep posting and keep perfecting your craft. Someone is watching you and they love what you do.

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?

I am the CEO of Charmed by Nae. I specialize in jewelry, customs and more. I always had a love for making jewelry .I’d watch my cousin Tamara make custom sets for my younger sisters and I. She even had her very own jewelry business before she passed away. When my mom would take me to the store I’d get different beaded jewelry making sets and make jewelry for my friends and I . My mom was always big on wearing jewelry too but sometimes the jewelry she bought would pop so she’d ask me to fix them for her and I was actually pretty good at doing so. I didn’t realize how talented I truly was at making and fixing jewelry until the age of 20. I told my husband I wanted to start a custom jewelry business and he purchased my very first jewelry set and even made a business logo for me to get my business up and running. From there I took off! I started out just doing charm bangles. Now I make photo jewelry, earrings, custom baby bundles,custom keepsakes and so much more. I really love helping others and making people happy. When my customers love their items it makes me super excited because I made something that put a smile on their face! If my younger self could see me now she’d be so proud of me. I’m proud of me for starting a business, staying consistent and being successful at it. It really does make me happy seeing far I came! I remember I used to be so scared to introduce new items and try new things. Now I introduce new items on a monthly basis. What God has for you is for you. If you’re thinking about starting that business do it! Nothing happens over night. Write your plans out and get started on turning your dreams to reality. I can honestly say that I’m still growing in my business, but I’ve also grown a lot within my business. This is only only beginning!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

When I started my business I was working at a daycare. I really loved the kids that I worked with but the management wasn’t what I expected it to be so I knew that I wanted to leave and start my own business. I told my husband about my plans and he was very supportive and encouraging.He was already an entrepreneur so he gave me some really good advice. I ran my ideas by him and he surprised me with a jewelry kit. I took the kit and made a few different sets of bangles and then posted what I made on Facebook. I introduced Charmed-By Nae and got my first few customers. I prayed over my business and asked God to help me turn my side hustle into a career.I continued working on bangles and trying new things. I can honestly say that there was a lot of trial and error involved in this journey but it helped me out a lot. Now I know so much more than I did when I first started out. I didn’t make a whole lot of money when I first started out but I stayed consistent and through my consistency my clientele increased more and more.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I started out I had a few customers complain about charms coming off of their bangles. It made me want to quit instantly. Instead of giving up like the old me would do I decided to do a little more research and with the research I learned what to do differently. I used to be a perfectionist but I had to realize that even some of the greatest people make mistakes. We’re humans , we all make mistakes but we have to keep going and figure out how to fix those mistakes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://charmedbynae1.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charmedbynae1/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Charmed-By-Nae-110296287052177/

Image Credits
Dukes Digital