We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Roshanda McCray. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Roshanda below.

Roshanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

What I would do differently, is actually grow my personal brand first. So many people jump into entrepreneurship and expect people to support their business but nobody knows whose behind the brand. People buy into people! They want to see the behind the scenes, they want to know your why and how. Most importantly they want to know you! When you build a community up of people that loves your personality, you also build trust and those people will support you.

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?

I got into the fashion industry after trying to do multiple things. I first was a makeup artist and although I love doing my own makeup. I quickly lost my passion for putting it on others. However I still loved makeup so I started a cosmetic line. I sold lip stick, eyeshadow & lashes. And again quickly I lost my passion for that as well. I’ve always played in makeup as a child so it wasn’t something I just decided to do because it was a trend, I just realized I like makeup but not enough to keep pursuing a career in it. When it came to fashion though, I was that person everybody came to, to help them get dressed! My first job was at a womenswear clothing store called “Rainbow” and I would always go above and beyond at my job. I would put outfits together and take pictures and post them online with the caption “Come see me at Rainbow, here’s some of our new arrivals” that was years ago before social media and marketing was really a big thing. Even when I left rainbow I went and worked at other stores like forever 21, etc. I can’t even say what made me actually decide to start a clothing business, I just woke up and said that’s what I really wanted to do. I didn’t want to sell wholesale clothes though. I told myself if I was going to do this I was going to created my clothes from scratch. I wanted a brand of clothes that people can only buy exclusively from me. However I didn’t know anything about seamstress, patterns or fabric so I really didn’t know where I was going to start. So I just started selling wholesale clothes anyways even though I knew that I didn’t want to resale clothes that I knew a hundred other boutiques sold. One day I was scrolling on Twitter and one of my Twitter followers said that she does one on ones in LA, where takes you to go meet manufacturers and shows you around the fabric district. I just knew this was God! Because I never seen or heard of her before then. I quickly wrote her asking her how much is her one on ones and when can we meet. Within a few months I flew out to Los Angeles by myself to meet with her and that’s when I knew that this wasn’t something I just wanted to do, this is something I love and truly have the passion for. What I think sets my business apart from other people is my high quality fabric and my actual fabric design. I make camouflage luxury! Other brands were using the same colors, fabrics and looks that we’ve already seen before. I stepped out and used fabric that wasn’t used to make dresses, 2 pieces & skirts. When you think of camouflage clothes you think of camping and lounge clothing. Although I make clothes you can wear and do those things, you can also wear my clothes to a lunch date, club date, etc. I made a brand of clothes that’s universal. I’m most proud of how high quality my items are, usually when people start off they don’t start off with the best! I can say I started off with the best fabric! I didn’t mind spending extra money as long as the quality was great. I always want to provide the best experience and the best products i possible can. I want people to know that Rosh brand only sell items we love, we wouldn’t put out anything we wouldn’t wear ourselves.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I used my 9 to 5 checks to fund my business. I would pay my bills and put money I would usually use to go out with up. I knew what I wanted so I cut back on spending money on things that wasn’t helping my business.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Community building! Connecting with people on a personal level will help you in business. Once I started getting online making videos, telling stories and letting people into my world it was a game changer. What advice I would give to people just starting out is be genuine and relatable! A lot of us have experienced some of the same things, share those things and I bet more people will grow to not only love you but support you.

Contact Info:

• Website: Roshbrand.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/@theroshbrand
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_Vy3tvR6zestDiBD5vb2wg
• Other: Personal page: @roshandadm Tiktok: @personallyrosh

Image Credits
Model: @Arina.ar10