We recently connected with Sophie Lumene and have shared our conversation below.

Sophie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

Who is my hero you ask?

I know how cliché this may sound but honestly my mother. The reason why I chose my mother is because of her strong sense of determination, no matter what obstacle she faces she still prevails. Growing up as a child you honestly do not pay attention to the amount of strength and courage it takes simply to get out of bed. My mother struggled with a vast amount of health problems that she is still facing today in which she should not even be working. However, she still gets up, prays, takes her medicine, and goes to work. The worse I have ever seen my mother’s health was when my parents owned a Haitian Cuisine Takeout Restaurant for 11 years; literally, every day was a struggle till we were able to sell it and her surgery performed. She is a firm believer on if God blesses her with another day she can do for herself she will not burden her family. This is just one example of how my mother has always had a positive outlook on life, even laying in the hospital bed with all odds against her; she was still providing her family with encouraging words to lessen our worries. The woman is always determined to be better in anything that she does. She is the backbone of our family catering business and she steadily finding ways to add more menu items to what we provide not only for our large catering but even for our customers.

I thank God for placing her in my life because her determination, strength, courage, love, and prayers are honestly the reason I am the person today. My story is almost similar, unfortunately, some of her health issues are hereditary which I also face. There are many times in which I would want to just give up the entrepreneur world and go back to corporate America using my degree; then I look at how my mother is pushing sixty years old and she still pushes through. I have learned to stay determined, pray, through the challenges, and always exceed my expectation, not others.

Sophie, 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?

I am a proud Haitian woman that resides in Orlando Florida. I currently have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and two other accredited certifications and or licenses. I know you are probably wondering why did I just leave the corporate world if I have all these degrees and certifications? The honest truth is that I invested so much time in the first corporate company that I worked for, I mean about 12-hour days a minimum of 5 days a week and when I fell ill and needed to take time off with doctor orders I literally had to jump through loops. That is when I made my decision that major companies will always replace an employee in a heartbeat. I rather work for myself in which it can directly benefit my family and I if God forbid something happens to me. I initially started entrepreneurship after I graduated high school as a side hustle while working at our family’s takeout which quickly bloomed into a full business of its own. The name of the business that made me a CEO today is Unique Beauty Extensions LLC. The reason that our brand lives up to being “Unique” is that most businesses have a specific target group that they can tend to but “Unique Beauty Extensions” has something for everyone; no matter the age or race with a variety of our products. Once I felt that this business was well established; I now co-own and manage two of our family businesses which are, “Lumene’s Catering Services” and “Lumene’s Cleaning Services” in hopes they can surpass our current expectations. The catering business has been thriving very well due to my parents having a long history in the food industry, which has presented opportunities to cater to many different nationalities and parties as large as 400 people. The hardest part of the cleaning business is finding long-term contracts or recurring cleans since a lot of people will settle for having employees do that part of their daily closing routine to save on their company’s costs. Furthermore, as my mother says “exceed your own expectations”, I am looking to add about four more streams of income, so don’t get too tired of me yet. I would love to hear back from the readers so please reach out to us on Instagram and share your thoughts. Our social sites are @uniquebeautyextenions, @lumenescateringservices, and @lumenescleaingservices; we will be looking forward to your message. All in all, as I am looking for more ways to promote my business I can not express my gratitude to CanvasRebel that they have chosen me to share a bit of my story with you all.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media plays such a major part in our world today. Honestly, before someone watches the local news they usually find out breaking news simply by scrolling through their social site. The advice that I would give is consistency! Just as your favorite YouTube influencer sets an expectation on the next time that you could expect a video then you should also be as consistent if not even more consistent when it comes to promoting your business. Also do not try to be so set on everything to be perfect; most times what you think is a mistake your audience may not even know. Furthermore, everything is content; just keeping yourself relevant and tagging your business on the post goes a long way.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Personally, in all my businesses “Word of Mouth”! Most of my clients come from referrals and that is for everything; hair sales, catering bookings, or even cleanings. I try to place close attention to providing great customer service to every person that I have a business conversation with even if they do not obtain my services. These same people will either use my service at a later date or refer someone to me. In addition, I do referral incentives that aren’t even advertised most times which is a pleasant surprise for the client or potential client.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uniquebeautyextensions.com%2F&e=ATOU9ASQF3nK3xYKX4IF_50rhqIVrH5nVVByGsgT_y8dE583eq5afgCWbQVoLSrmO0YcR8_xnYZ5D9mF&s=1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uniquebeautyextensions/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/lumenescateringservices/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/lumenescleaningservices/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uniquebeautyextensions https://www.facebook.com/LumenesCateringServices/

Image Credits
J. Serenity Photography