We were lucky to catch up with Porcelain Mills and Unique Adams | CEO & Co CEO of U&P recently and have shared our conversation below.

Porcelain Mills and Unique Adams | CEO & Co CEO of U&P, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

Good Morning, This was the perfect question to ask us, because how U&P Consulting got started was completely unorthodox yet the most rewarding experience that we could have been given. U&P Consulting truly was birthed out of turning lemons into lemonade with creating flavor options at the same time :-). I, Porcelain, was contacted on Instagram from an associate from middle school. I honestly thought it was odd, because I didn’t have any communication with them while in school. I only attended that particular school for a year. He contacted me and stated that he was in the process of acquiring a salon suite and would love my help since marketing was my background. I was intrigued and willing to meet. We met at the salon suites two days later, and I absolutely fell in love with the space. It was sleek, sexy, yet bare, but when I entered into it, I just fell in love with this instant vision that was downloaded in my mind. I saw a blank canvas that I could turn into a masterpiece. I had never done anything like this before! However, I was all in… lol crazy right? We sat and talked and later throughout the week I met with his “team”. I say team loosely as it will unravel as the story continues. Out of his “team” that I met that week, I also met Unique separately at her Salon, Unique Perception located in Durham, NC. She was introduced as someone I needed to work closely with on the suites due to her background in the beauty industry, which made perfect sense. He asked Unique if she would be willing to partner on acquiring tenants for the suites. I wasn’t opposed. She is in the hair industry, and I know marketing. Our dual backgrounds created a space for this to become a successful partnership for this project. Unique and I met at the suites the following Sunday to do a walk through. We discussed creating a plan on how to proceed with marketing the salon suites successfully in the Raleigh Durham (RDU) area. During our meeting, we had the opportunity to learn more about each other. We both were transitioning into the single mom life. As a recent divorcee, I was navigating the waters of a new life for my kids and I. Unique was getting adjusted to parenting without her long-term partner. We both knew a lot of the same people and unknowingly connected in the same professional circles.

Now, let’s dive into where things start going downhill. I reach out to the associate to discuss suite lay outs, overhead cost and size. As we proceeded, I noticed a lack of communication. I couldn’t obtain direct answers or information. He ended up contacting me stating that his business partner handled the logistical part of the salon and was out of town. The business partner wasn’t mentioned in prior conversations. There was a hesitation from the beginning, however I fell in love with the vision that Unique and I created. It was hard for me to release that vision that was imprinted in my mind. As the old folks say, “my mamma didn’t raise a fool”. I started inquiring and calling the “team” members who he introduced me too and started asking questions.

In conversations with his “team”, I realize there were discrepancies in what I had been told and what was factual. They were on the same page as I was. He reached out to them just like he reached out to me with the same spill just for different needs. I quickly gathered this was some type of sc*m or a delusional disposition that was created to be real in his mind. One of the team members actually had his “business partners” number and passed it along to me. I called him and I introduced myself and laid everything out on the table. He was absolutely floored. He was the owner of these suites, along with his wife. He informed me that he is in no business relationship with him and that he was given the key to take pictures. OH, MY GOODNESS!!! The level of embarrassment and confusion, yet clarity at the same time. At this moment I could live in the awkwardness, or I can pivot this opportunity into something great. I asked the owner if he would mind sitting with Unique and I. I communicated the plans that we had for the business. Even though this wasn’t the ideal way to start the partnership we still wanted to execute our vision. He had hesitation, several businesses had offered their services before but failed to deliver. I called Unique immediately, to update her on what I discovered. We both were devastated and exhausted. Things were heavy for us, physically, emotionally, and financially. In that moment we had an epiphany. Let’s be and create what other people aren’t and don’t do. Let’s be the type of people we had in our lives and let’s build a business with integrity, transparency, honesty, & authenticity.

We were able to get a meeting with the Salon Suites owners’ wife. We went into our first contract and from there U&P Consulting was created. In 2 months, we filled the suites for the salon creating revenue in the amount of $98,000. We were amazed and what we were able to do and new we had created something powerful. That is what U&P Consulting is about, two women that were put together by God. We both were facing the toughest times of our lives. However, we chose to turn pain into purpose. We chose to become who we needed in our lives. We create and we execute. We help people build their business into the visions that they created. We supply and fill needs where they are lacking, and we birth dreams into reality and help business’s purposes to be fulfilled. Since our inception, we have expanded significantly and are now actively working with three additional companies.

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?

My name is Porcelain Mills, I was born in Rocky Mount, NC. My father passed away when I was 7 and I was raised by Mother Margarette Perkins. My mother has had a successful clothing store for over 50 years, called La’Empress Ladies Boutique located in Rocky Mount, NC. My mom unfortunately became a widow and was left to become a single mom unexpectantly while running a successful business. I believe in that moment character was being built for me. I saw my mom pick up the pieces of a broken heart, at the same time of trying to heal mine and continue to run her business. I saw what strength looked like in the midst of pain and it taught me that there is nothing you can’t do or get through. She instilled God into me early and the foundation of what that looks like and how to stand on Him. I saw how my mom serviced her clients. Her store wasn’t just a place to get unique fashion, but it was a place of refuge and safety for most of her clientele. A place they could cry, they could talk, get prayer, and have a true friend that truly loved them. The way my mom valued and values her customers til this day is such a comfort and peace for them. They weren’t just clients they were family, and I saw how genuine my mom connected with them and how that transformed many of their lives. She used her gift to be a source on how she connected and empowered her clients through fashion and in life

Unique Adams is a Durham native. Her passion for style, beauty and fashion can be traced back to her innovative
mother, a pioneer in the cosmetology industry. Unique’s mom, Denise Page- Morris was the visionary that originated
and established A Unique Perception in 1989. Unique embodies the same spirit of
entrepreneurship as her mother. Unique’s mother’s passing invoked Unique to carry out the legacy she knew so closely in her upbringing and a way to keep her mother’s dream and passion alive through the beauty industry.

Unique and I both have similar backgrounds and those disappointments that we faced were also the very things that drove us. We both come from hardworking women who carried their families on their back and also others, yet still lived in their truth and dreams. Mothers who ran successful businesses and careers. We bring that different perspective and mindset to the companies we help. We don’t just speak it, we lived it, we understand it, and we know how to get people to a place successfully in business that couldn’t be obtain by themselves. Working with us you can feel secure that not just your business/brand, but you yourself are safe and in a space where you can trust that we will elevate your business to higher stakes.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Being a woman, and a woman of color unfortunately at times can still be double negatives in entrepreneurship. We are faced with different challenges and obstacles that other genders and nationalities may not face. We have to push more and be more creative and how we market ourselves and present ourselves to be taken with the same seriousness and respect. Look at the story of how we even met. It was off someone trying to sc*m another business and use us as doing it in the process. Thats not who we are and that is one of the main attributes that sets our business apart. We are authentic and pure in what we do. We look at the needs of a person’s business and we carry it like it’s our own child and create opportunity where opportunity didn’t exist. We bring a skill set in our character and how we do business that can’t be taught. We both came from broken situations that devastated us personally (as others have endured) and we turned our opposition into opportunity. We know how to fix what’s broken and to push through difficult barriers because we fixed it in our own selves and family first. Yes, there are plenty of successful consulting companies that exist, and we admire. However, there are very few that take your company outside of a numerical outlook and actually get in the mud with you to turn it into a vision. We are a two woman workforce that hold 3 company’s that are billion dollar business within 3 months of meeting each other. We haven’t even gotten the opportunity to market ourselves because our work spoke for us. Our names were placed in rooms we weren’t even in and thank God He brought business to us. To any reader out there, understand no matter what situation you are facing there is a place to create a masterpiece in the midst of hardship.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Starting U&P Consulting we didn’t have to have much capital in the beginning. We used social media to really do the work for us when trying to fill the 1st salon suites we had obtained. We would physically go to beauty schools and other places to give out information and recruit where it was suitable. We are now opening up a beauty school called Legacy Hair Institute, which is truly Unique’s baby. Unique has been in the hair industry all of her life and she loves to provide opportunities to aspiring beauty industry seekers. As single parents we have mastered the art of maximizing every dollar. We use the same principals in business. I am currently Chief Operational Officer of a Non-Emergency Transportation Company (NEMT) called Carolina Health Medical Transportation. In both these businesses we used contacts that we knew in getting started and we went into the field of obtaining contracts for work in the beginning. Therefor minimal capital was needed. We had investors for both companies to assist in acquiring the proper vehicles for the NEMT Company and for the construction for the building we acquired for Legacy Hair Institute. U&P consulting is also consulting for Studio 19 suites which are salon suites that will be located in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://carolinahealthmedicaltransportation.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b.jadorellc/profilecard/?igsh=MWx6cm91ZGpyZjc2bA==

Image Credits
Zigg Leyh IG:@iamzigg