We were lucky to catch up with Shonivia Edwards recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Shonivia , thanks for joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?
In my 3 years of business there are so many things I’ve learned on the promise, it seems impossible document them all, but to name a few, the first thing would be consistency. If I knew how importing was to be consistent I would be so much further. Consistency is the key to not my next one which is believing in your vision, your dream, and yourself matter how hard things, and third thing is not allowing the influence of be people around you to persuade your thought process of what you believe is going to take you to that next level? And the last thing which probably would be the first thing if I’m going in order of importance would be to get HELP lol… omg! I’ve made so many mistakes, but the key to this was continuing to invest in myself and believing that every DIME was worth it if I failed or not. I had to believe that my personal investment was worth my future and family legacy.
With all that being said, there is no 4, 5, or even 6 step process. You will fail in the process, but it’s in that failure that you will learn the keys to what makes your business successful.
Shonivia , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hey beautiful people!! My name is Shonivia! I’m a licensed minister or the Gospel. I love God. He means everything to me. I have a daughter, her name is Zora and she’s four. I love to laugh, travel, and enjoy life and positive energy with the people I’m connected with.
I am the CEO and owner of Z’Nor Avenue! I started my very first boutique in 2020 and I haven’t looked back since. I started this boutique out of true obedience of Gods word and direction to uplift, build,
Inspire women through fashion
I was in a weird space after having my daughter in 2019 and I didn’t like the way that felt. I wasn’t my usual confident self. I didn’t like the way my clothes fit. I needed spunk and sexy but the clothes I found didn’t do that for my new found curves lol! So I needed to provide a space where women like me can be sexy, confident, and spunky, so that was my mission. I wanted to provide a safe place where women can be sexy, bold, and confident as well and so far I believe I’m doing that and three years later I’m still here even though there are many hard days where I feel like quitting, but I still keep going…
🫶🏽side note:📝 I threw the towel in so many times but God throws it right back…
Moral of the story, “keep going” it gets better.
Shonivia
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I thought that year two was going to be my toughest year, lol but honey was I wrong! lol Year three was tough for me. Personally, spirituality, and professionally. Year two I wall in pain a full year, I had surgery, etc, but year three was more mentally draining than anything.
There I was at my job not knowing if I would have a job lol still running my business as hard as I could in case I didn’t have a job, but nothing seemed to be going right. I moved back to the home I owned only to realize it had been ruined in so many areas, so I had repairs from damages, a tenant who didn’t want to pay, a job where my schedule changed affecting my entire life, not to mention my daughter had some things to come up and an accident, my accounts were hacked along with my business accounts, but I still had to keep going.
There were so many days I felt like just stopping. I kept asking myself was it worth it? Was it really for me? Did God tell me to do this?
But I didn’t give up. I continue to fight pass every obstacle and every time I do my business continues to grow.
My resilience has been beyond what I believe I had in me. God has truly shown me how resilient I can truly be.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The story I had to unlearn is that success does not come over night. A lot of time people dream of an overnight success, but that’s not always the case. Yes so many people have gone viral and had the experience of an overnight success but that not the every day entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is
A true grind. You have to work hard at it every day. Its not your typical 9-5. It’s 7 days a week, long hours, sacrifice, tears, broke days lol, and failures, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, you just have to be willing to work to get there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://znoravenue.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/znor_avenue_boutique?igsh=anYwNmkweTRobnAy&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZnorAvenueBoutique?mibextid=9R9pXO
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/geR_04Y_sUI?si=FhQ0Pi_JoIaFBDkt
- Other: It a Brand it’s, a lifestyle, it’s freedom down Z’Nor Avenue …
Image Credits
Damien Moss