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

Shayla, appreciate you joining 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.

I followed in my grandmother’s footsteps by starting up my own cleaning company. Not content with just offering services to clean other people’s homes, I really wanted to do something different for my clients. I decided that my own line of natural home cleaning products would be ideal, but a conversation with my mom was to lead to something even better. As the all-purpose soap was suitable for cleaning the home or your body, my mom tried a lemongrass scented one as an aid to help her sleep after losing her husband, my dad. The immediate effect was her first good sleep in months.

This was all the motivation that I needed after losing my dad and to help my mom sleep better at night. Before long I had developed pillow sprays that were scented with lavender and lemongrass and had formed my own company, Hill + Daniel, named after my grandmother’s maiden and married names. Soon, I was experimenting with new and exciting fragrances, expanding my range with more complex, like woody scents, while still aiming to keep things simple and classic at the same time.

Now 3 years into my fragrance business and with a fine balance of smooth and rougher textures, that cater for men and women, I didn’t lose touch with my first thoughts which were to have products that can be used for the home, body, car, or wherever. I hope to expand my range further and offer other products in the near future.

Shayla, 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?

Hill + Daniel offer products designed to capture the essence of nature and to unlock its secrets. Scents come in a variety of styles and are designed to relax, calm, and to transform a living space into a loving space. All experimenting, blending, mixing and packaging is done by hand and on demand, meaning fresh and unique products that are perfect for anyone who wants to take a break from the complex world and smell the roses (or woods) along the way.

I am most proud of all things I have accomplished within Hill + Daniel’s first full year. From being featured on Beyonce’s website, to partnering with Netflix’s Jingle Jangle movie and Black Owned Everything, to having the fragrances featured in stores!

Executing may be the most challenging part of starting a business but you just have to do it. Just do it! There will be rewards later. Even when you run into challenges along the way, keep moving forward.

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

Taking advantage of platforms like Instagram and word of mouth has been the most effective strategy for growing my clientele. I am very particular about my content and I try to be as artistic and strategic as possible when posting on Instagram. My feed aesthetic alone tends to capture the attention of new clients. My Instagram feed and reels normally pull them in and once they order, and love the product, they tend to tell a friend, who will also tell and friend.

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

Honestly, when starting my business I made it a point to choose a business that required pretty much no overhead. I knew I’d make the product myself initially and on demand, that way the interior fragrances did not expire with it having a shelf life. Just incase I could not sell many bottles. I designed the bottle shapes myself, the labels, and even printed and cut the labels myself initially. I made my own website, that was free in the beginning, and also took all of my own pictures. I saved a lot of money doing most of the work myself. I even researched how to get LLC’s and EIN’s and did that myself too!

I literally only had to buy textured paper to print my labels, a few bottles to get started with and my base materials. Even with that I only ordered a small quantity to test it out first to see if I could even sell them. And I did, lol. Then I used the profit money to buy more materials and pay the monthly fee for my website.

So basically, the initial capital that I needed to start my business was less than $200. I also used this same concept when I started my cleaning company 5 years ago. I bought $100 worth of cleaning supplies and used that to clean like 6 houses. Made close to a grand then went and bought better cleaning supplies then made more money :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hillanddaniel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hillanddanielfragrances/

Image Credits
Shayla Hill, Andrew Tabb, Keilan Scott