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

Raeshawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

Pink Poodle Dress Lounge mission is to provide products and services in an urban community. We’re located in a community that was lacking businesses and more than enough vacancies. We moved at Jefferson Chalmers removing blight in two locations for bridal and the other for special occasion, cocktail, casual, and prom dresses. We are one of two leading businesses at Jefferson Chalmers historic district.

My ultimate goal was to provide an elegant shopping space for young girls to see in their community providing a sense of pride for all residents to shop in their own backyard. We provide prom girls a shopping experience and education on dress fittings and alterations, selecting the best silhouette, and the proper undergarments.

Our brand also provides wedding and evening gowns for curvy women. Most shops lack a variety of dresses to choose from based on their curvy size. Ultimately, a plus size bride feels discourage when wedding dress shopping and/or search for a plus size wedding shop that may not have the typical stylish designs desired. Pink Poodle Dress Lounge offers a great selection of sample sizes for our curvy and plus size brides that’s as stylish and affordable as all our other dresses.

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’m a lifelong Detroiter that decided to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams and is passionately dedicated to empowering young girls and women to achieve their full potential. Prior to becoming a leading-edge entrepreneur, I was an automotive procurement professional in corporate America and provided bridal and hospitality services for over 20 years.

After launching an exclusive online website, I realized that the community needed a physical showroom and bridal lounge to expand the business and meet customer demand. Pink Poodle Dress Lounge is named after the former Pink Poodle Lounge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which was previously owned by my great aunt. The vintage-themed showroom debuted in the Fall 2018 as a part of Detroit’s vibrant renaissance.

Since the launch of the physical showroom and bridal lounge, my brand has grown and led me to becoming one of Detroit’s premier bridal stylist during the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. Our first urban location was not ideal for a bridal salon. I thought my first year in business was the worst year of my life. I had to make a hard decision to close and move fearing brides would no longer take me seriously. The first thing I did was contact my last three brides for alterations. I sat down with the brides and their parents to inform them that we were closing and planning to move; and ensured them a smooth process for their big day. I wanted them to feel comfortable and not lose the trust I’ve gain from them prior to seeing our announcement.

I knew I had to close to regroup and start all over. My closing announcement was we were closing to move into a new location. I moved out my first location without a new location. I never stopped marketing and branding. My marketing strategy was to continue on social media sharing every bit of our move from packing, moving, and planning for the new location. I loved how I incorporated vintage photos of ladies in dresses with suitcases and walking with poodles. It was the ultimate transition moving in faith.

Rushing and forcing into my first location taught me to avoid rushing into new locations that were offered to me. I had to ensure it made sense to me, my personal life, the business, and the community. It took time to accept starting all over and gain my faith back. I invested and lost so much my first year, I couldn’t allow my mission and passion to fail. There was no ego or shame. After a conversation with a friend telling me to push through, I decided to move to Jefferson Chalmers historic district. Things instantly started falling into place.

Four months later, COVID hits. I can honestly say (and I love this story) I had no fear. I thought to myself the lord didn’t bring me this far to fail again. I knew at that moment I gained my faith back. I learned, not forced to be still. I took full advantage of being closed during Michigan’s shutdown continuing marketing, branding, improving processes, and working on proper inventory.

I didn’t stay at home when the world stopped. I went to the shop 7 days a week to work. It was my way of having a normal life. My shop was my statuary. I kept Pink Poodle Dress Lounge’s momentum up by interviewing wedding vendors live on Instagram educating brides. It kept brides engaged and hopeful. The community begin to shop our boutique items online and then taking a vantage of curb-side pickup to support me. I was fully prepared to open for appointment only when the State reopened. Our bookings stayed full. It was actually the best year in business for me. It was a beneficial time for my business to move forward. I was forced to not only be the CEO, but I also had to learn how to sell wedding dresses on my own resulted in 5 Star Google reviews becoming Detroit’s Bridal Stylist and premiere bridal shop.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My audience started on Instagram and Facebook as I was planning to open as an online boutique to introduce the opening of the bridal shop.

I started branding sharing my personal background and life experiences and my family story. I couldn’t come up with a name for the business concept because it was important for me to sell dress to women and girls. My grandmother shared the name of her twin sister’s lounge before I was born, Pink Poodle Lounge. After sleeping on it, afraid of how people would take the name, I woke up the next morning and decided to go with it adding “Dress” in the name.

I marketed the name sharing my family history. Posting photos on social media of my grandmother and her sisters wearing dresses and some of their furniture and fixtures that is currently in our shop. I posted numerous times daily to get my story, name and business out there to make people want to come to Pink Poodle Dress Lounge. It was the consistency on social media that built the brand, viewers, and followers. I spent so much time on social media prior to opening that the community anticipated our opening. My biggest advice is to work on your business everyday regardless of how small the tasks maybe.

I shared my story, and I was honest with my viewers. I never sugarcoated anything. That’s an area I fail in. My viewers woke up every morning to my posts that they wanted more and more. I simply became an inspiration to many. I was shocked by how many men that had businesses and live well told me how I inspire them that they began to do more marketing and social media for their business.

At the end of the day, my followers trusted me, because of my honesty and I didn’t hold back on the human side. People want to know who you are not what you are. I provided facts and all the good and the bad. I made my audience understand the struggles of entrepreneurship and my tough times that they began to encourage me. The power of social media built my brand and people’s trust to schedule appointments to shop with me.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I missed payroll and had death moments. The one thing people don’t know, and I didn’t realize the wedding dress industry game. I went into the business with a heart and being helpful and accommodating not know the wedding dress industry process. These are things not shared when you start accounts with wedding dress designers, but you’re sure to learn how to work it after being burned your first year.

The sample wedding dress brides try on in the shop are purchased by the shop owner. Wedding dresses for the brides are made to order. Therefore, we are forced to purchased wedding gowns from multiple designers every season for bride to simply try on. Can you imagine the cost? The worst part was providing the option for brides to make a 50% deposit on her wedding dress and paying her balance when the dress arrives 4-6 months later. I didn’t realize how much money were in the balances that I wouldn’t see until 6 months later. I couldn’t pay my overhead waiting that long to get paid. In addition to waiting for brides to pay their balances, the wedding dress designers automatically withdrawal the money for dress orders from your account prior to shipping and unexpectedly and sometimes early. I was in deep debit that I couldn’t handle my overhead. I was exhausted using my personal funds.

This was definitely a lesson learned. I wasn’t focused on the one most important thing, my numbers because of all the fires I had to continuously put out on my own. People had no idea how awful it was for me. Although I knew the importance of your business numbers, all the other obstacles of being on a 2nd level and the unknown had precedence.

The old location was a steppingstone that prepared me for my new location in so many business areas.      

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pinkpoodledresslounge.com
• Instagram: pinkpoodledresslounge
• Facebook: pinkpoodledresslounge
• Linkedin: Raeshawn Bumphers
• Yelp: Pink Poodle Dress Lounge

Image Credits
Jorge Flores Stanley Jordan