We were lucky to catch up with Shawnie Grant recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shawnie , looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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.

How I came up with the idea for my business: Due to there being a recession the year I graduated from university, many companies within my industry weren’t hiring new college graduates with little to no experience. There was also a huge layoff that year, which limited job opportunities. During that time, I was designing and handcrafting my own accessories and reconstructing clothes in my personal wardrobe because I loved the freedom to express my own style. After being told over and over from friends and strangers that they would pay me to design and style clothes for them, the entrepreneur in me recognized the opportunity to earn money doing something that I enjoyed during a time when it was difficult to secure a job within the healthcare industry. The fear of when I would get hired disappeared and I immediately applied for the Masters Of Business Administration (MBA) program to learn how to successfully operate and business. While studying as a MBA student, I was selling accessories to hair salons, individuals, and startup boutiques. After doing the math on the amount of labor required and Profit & Loss, I concluded that designing and selling custom clothes made by a seamstress would be more lucrative than customized accessories. Due to all of the production taking place in my fathers upstairs den while living in his home, I was able to save money while practicing entrepreneurship and being grad student, After a few years, I founded corporation Tailored Boutique in 2013- a custom garment shop in the Galleria Houston area. I felt like I was on top of the world. A Biology geek/student who had an idea, executed on it, and transformed into a successful business woman. That’s when my journey to find my personal legend began.

The logic of why I felt this would work: To start, I had an idea which I believed was a divine download. While studying as a MBA student and practicing entrepreneurship, I also worked as a part-time bank teller and worked as a unpaid intern to gain experience designing clothes for boutiques therefore it didn’t take me long to realized that as an entrepreneur/business owner I would have full control over my life, my work schedule, and my income. I trained my mind to believe that it would work because I got a taste of how much money I could earn while doing something that made me excited about life. Reading self health books and watching motivational videos every day also played a major role in the logic of why I felt it would work. I didn’t have anything to loose and everything to gain.

Were you solving a problem that no one else was solving? No, I wasn’t solving a problem that no one else was solving. I created a strategy to target a specific audience that had the status and money to order custom clothing. I also targeted an unsaturated market and created an opportunity for fashion design students to have a custom garment shop that would accept and produce their small orders for their upcoming fashion collections. Not many tailor shops in Houston offered this service and manufacturers usually only accept large orders. The marketing strategy was well planned and thats the unique approach that got me most excited.

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

How you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide: My company Beysa Safety Solutions INC currently sells medical devices personal protective equipment (manufactured in China) to the State of Texas and Federal Government in America. I got into the industry of product manufacturing and global distribution of non fashion related products through the experience gained from my company Tailored Boutique INC. Within the first year of operating Tailored Boutique, I decided to close the physical location, scale the business from B2C to B2B, mass produce in China, and sell to buyers in America. I learned that I didn’t enjoy managing a shop with employees but I did enjoy designing and selling. Plus the overhead cost was beyond what I calculated as a new business owner therefore freeing myself of the financial burden of having a physical location and drop shipping clothes to buyers became my next strategy. In 2015, I moved to China and started mass producing school apparel in a small manufacturer, became a vendor with three colleges in the State of Texas, and drop shipped their orders from China. In 2019, I started planning to manufacturer and sell PPE through my new business venture Beysa Safety Solutions. In Q1 2020, Beysa Safety Solutions was incorporated, covid arrived and devastated the world, schools closed down for the year, and orders completely ceased with Tailored Boutique. On the other hand, orders for PPE at Beysa Safety Solutions took off like a spaceship. Due to a strong desire to grow a start up, which was awarded millions of dollars in government contracts within the first 3 months, I made the decision to dissolve Tailored Boutique and focus on Beysa Safety Solutions. This is how I got into the business of product manufacturing in China, import/export, and earned my title as a global strategist.

What problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others: The problem I solved and still solve for my clients is offering a large volume of quality products at a cheaper price point from what’s offered in the market. What sets me apart from others is my advantage to have partnerships with manufacturers abroad, which allows me to keep my overhead cost low, and in return allows me to offer products a competitive prices. Living in China also set me apart from others and opened doors for me to understand the culture, currency, how to conduct business with them, and receive price points created for the Chinese market vs prices created to sell to foreigners. I cut out the middle man cost.

What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc: I am proud to accomplish my goals to be a successful international business woman. There were many celebrations and disappointments along the journey, and I’m proud that I learned to understand the difference between temporary defeat and defeat. I took breaks when needed, continued to believe, and persevere. I am most proud to now share the learned knowledge to countless people around the world through my book Fashion Beyond Borders: Exploring The Global Fashion Industry. My hope is that the readers can save time, money, and become successful by applying the knowledge.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The books I recommend are Think and Grow Rich, The Alchemist, Project 369, The Four Agreements, and Fashion Beyond Borders: Exploring The Global Fashion Industry.

I also watched a variety of motivational youtube videos. Interviews of the greatest business women and men.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my favorite marketing strategies while operating Tailored Boutique was co hosting fashion segments on KHOU channel 11 local news channel. I had a strong desire to be a company featured on Great Day Houston morning show, which promotes local businesses in the City of Houston. I wasn’t sure exactly how to get selected as company to be featured on the show considering that it was my first year in business therefore I signed up to be a guest in the audience. I intentionally wore a pair of custom made trousers from my shop Tailored Boutique, with hopes that the host of the show would notice my pants and ask where I’d purchased them from. Before the show, raffle tickets were handed out to the guest in the studio audience and we were informed that prizes would be given at the end of the show. Long story short, at the end of the show, my name was called as a winner for a raffle, the host and the producers noticed my trousers, and expressed their likes. Opportunity was knocking at my door and I opened it, handing out business cards and introducing my shop. I was invited to be a guest company on the show two weeks later. When that time arrived, my segment for Tailored Boutique was a success and before the show was over, I was invited to co host a 2nd show, and this occurred from 2013 -2017. The lesson I’d like to share is, act on those “crazy ideas” that come to you because it might not be so crazy after all.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.exploreglobalfashion.com
• Instagram: fashionbeyondborderstraining
• Other: Visit the website above to keep up with Grant’s services and new products, which focus on product manufacturing. Fashion Beyond Borders :Exploring The Global Fashion Industry Edition 2 will be published Sept. 2022 and will go deeper into product manufacturing, which included manufacturing non fashion related products. Grant will also publish traveling tips for entrepreneurs and investors seeking new countries to invest in, do business with, and build global business partnerships with. Feel free to follow her 2nd IG page for her investment properties in Mexico, which will be available to rent in 2023. IG @beysa.investment.group.llc

Image Credits
Stevie D Photos