Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shari Perkins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Shari thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea of my brand began in a small town called Starkville, Mississippi. My love for beauty began while I was in high school which was long before my entrepreneurial journey began. My passion for beauty grew during my college years where I did my own make up on a regular basis and consistently changed hair styles as well. During my freshman year at Mississippi State University I was asked to join the student fashion Association as the makeup artist for their fashion shows that would occur on and around campus. Some of the young ladies knew me as being a glamour girl and thought that I would be a great addition to the organization. During this experience I realized there was a great need for traveling makeup artistry not only in Mississippi but in surrounding areas as well. This is because many people desire beauty services however many do not have the transportation to come to a particular beauty salon and/or they are traveling to a place where they may not have time or transportation to get to their appointment. I have also learned that for many events such as weddings, fashion shows, photoshoots, etc. there is a greater need to have someone complete the beauty services at the site of the event to avoid delays between the services and the event. This led me to establishing my traveling beauty business.

Shari, 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?

My name is Shari Perkins aka “LuxxShari”. I am a brand owner, brand ambassador, and beauty service provider. How did I get started? I turned my service-based business into an all-around corporation when I realized that my services led to product sales because many people preferred to use the same products as I did with hopes of achieving a similar look, and they wanted to buy them from me to avoid going to the store to search for the items. That said, I launched my beauty product line which includes but is not limited to lip gloss, eyeliner, hair extensions, lash extensions, beauty tools and more. Of course I wanted to be a legitimate business so I registered and incorporated my brand which is now best known as The Luxxury Collection, LLC and we have been in business for about 5 years. Soon after launching my product line I realized I could be in many places at once. How, you ask? I could sell beauty products to women all over the world and offer 1 on 1 sessions to teach my buyers how to apply their products and extensions professionally and how to use their products in the way that I would on my clients. This revelation was crucial to the growth of my brand because I was able to service many more women than just those in my immediate area. I think my approach to offering goods and services led me to be the great entrepreneur that I am today because I have gained so much support, feedback, and experience over the past six years. With that, I am now able to confidently teach women who also love beauty how to be great entrepreneurs and how to use their passion for profit.

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

Personally, I built my following and audience on social media by being consistent and being myself. I realize now that there were lots of people who supported me because of my passion and how dedicated I was to sharing that passion with the world. I fell in love with creating content on Instagram and on YouTube which ultimately made my desire for posting on these platforms much greater. My positive social media presence built my audience quickly and brought many women together which created a community of women who are passionate about the same things I love and who are passionate about seeing me win! The advice I would give to someone who is just starting to build their social media presence is: “ Be you! Be consistent! And stick to what you know because people love to hear a confident queen speak intelligently and eloquently about a topic that she is passionate about.”

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Initially, I manufactured my own products. I was making my lip glosses from scratch and also printing my own labels/packaging for my products. This process was very time consuming so I converted over to wholesaling my products and drop-shipping my hair extensions. I wholesale my products directly from a factory in China who produces, labels, and packages the products for me before sending my inventory over to me. I then sell my products online at theluxxurycollection.com. I used a wholesale website to compile a list of potential vendors (I ended up with about 10) and then I began testing those 10 vendor’s products to find my top two. It took about a year to find my go-to vendors because I wanted to test the products of many different vendors to ensure quality products and to guarantee my satisfaction of the packaging. I learned that the shipping time from China is extremely long therefore making this process very drawn out.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theluxxurycollection.com
• Instagram: @luxxshari_ @theluxxurycollection
• Facebook: The Luxxury Collection, LLC
• Twitter: @theluxxuryco
• Youtube: Shari’s Life of Luxxury
• Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/theluxxurycollection?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=c728061b-32c0-42a1-90e1-7a2527e96e7c

Image Credits
@bdpfilms