We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Takiyah McDowell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Takiyah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

I learned to always be willing to hear another person’s perspective, because you never know how that can change the outcome of an idea or goal. Being able to learn and share with your team or leadership is very important. By learning this concept within organizations I have worked for, it has helped me to be a better business owner. In order to be a great leader, you must have certain skills, such as integrity, self-awareness, courage and respect. Just to name a few, I take pride in my business and I treat my customers and collaborators with great respect.

Also, I learned to have gratitude, the experience of helping others and knowing you made them feel special or it changed their life, is gratifying and fulfilling. From my very first job as a teenager, I learned to always be neat and presentable when going to work. Because your appearance and how you present yourself is important to how someone perceives you. This is why my online retail store is important to me, because we sell items for women and men. And we hope when they purchase from us, they feel empowered and beautiful while wearing our products.

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

I started my online retail store to honor my late mother and father-in-law. They both loved fashion and were some of the best dressed people I have ever known. They were our biggest cheerleaders. They always said, to me, do something you love and help ours and you will be rewarded. Our store gives some of our profits to Cancer Research and Disabled Veterans. Both of them passed away from a form of cancer and my business partner and spouse is an Army Veteran, so, hold a special place in our hearts for those affected in this way. Our store specializes in women and men apparel and accessories. We curate handmade and unique leather goods to beaded items.

We work with craftsmen that love what they do and they create beautiful one of kind items. When a customer purchases from us, we want them to have their items for years and it holds its value. It prides to know we are helping others with business we have created. We aim to solve the problem of them finding the right accessories to compliment their clothing for their special event or just a regular day. What sets us apart, we provide top notch customer service and styling services to our customers. We looking forward in the near future to introduce custom items, jeans and jackets.

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

The way we have grown our clientele is from others sharing their experience and wearing our items. Our customers sends us photos of them wearing our items and they look and feel beautiful while doing so and that is so gratifying. The use of social media has also helped us to grown our clientele. Because it has allowed us to expand our reach for people to see what products we offer. I have also used website marketing to help with growing our clientele.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We treat our customer with a great appreciation and respect. We offer high quality products at affordable prices. We stand behind the items we sell to our customers. We are welcoming to our customers and always willing to answer questions they have about our products. We keep our promises to our customers and make them to feel valued. At VM and TJ Enterprises, LLC we pride ourselves with giving more to our customers than what is expected.

We ask our customers to leave reviews of our business, so others can know their experience and know that we are a great business to support. Also our customer testimonials are helpful to build our reputation within the market of online retail stores.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vmandtjenterprise.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vmtjenterprise/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VMTJSHOP
• Other: TikTok: vmtjenterprise3301

Image Credits
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