We recently connected with Talisha Bolden and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Talisha , thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Yes very happy currently but I can remember back in the fall of 2021 I sold my house in New York moved my family down to Atlanta put about 80 % of my profit into a selfie museum that completely flopped , I never felt so broke and disappointed in my life , it was during that time that I started to think about pensions and how I wish I had started working for the city right out of high school as I would now be approaching retirement , and sometimes I think about it because entrepreneurship can be lonely , no one really understands what you are dealing with or going through when times get hard or things don’t pan out as planned , but then my reality steps in and I realize that I wasn’t created to be told what time I can eat lunch or when I can be off and wanting a job goes right away , and I’m back to betting on myself .

Talisha , 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?

I first started my entrepreneurship journey back in February of 2005 with my daycare I ran my daycare out of my house until March of 2020 I closed during the pandemic something I regret sometimes, I was one of the first home based daycares in my neighborhood especially at my age I was 26, during the time my daycare was opened I opened a boutique called Enfashuated in a mall called St. Charles Towne Center in waldorf maryland that mall was not good at all it didn’t last 6 months it was the location and also not fully understanding what it takes monetary wise to run and operate a store at a mall level I closed that in January of 2020 and closed my daycare March of 2020 , sold my house and headed to Atlanta opened Posh Pose with one of my best friends I had known since middle school , it completely ruined the friendship , and the business struggled bad with Posh Pose , then I put a ad up to share the space with other entrepreneurs I and I met this woman name Tara who had asked me if I wanted to partner up and do events and I was like sure , but then a few days later she called me and asked me would I be interested in opening suites for lash techs and I loved the pictures she had shown me but I said instead of just one particular group I would like to open the suites up for anyone that has a business and that’s what we did , but what we didn’t realize was that my particular suite I had was not zoned for beauty related businesses and so we dissolved that location and parted ways and I moved back to New York and I was determined to get suites here in my home town and so I partnered with a good friend of mines and we began to work on The Bawse Suites NY , what sets us apart from other suites is this is deeper than a tenant landlord relationship we want to strategize with you how your brand can be better , share any resources with you we may have ,for me this is really about building up those entrepreneurs that will come behind me it’s personal because I’ve been where they are and sometimes you just need a chance . I’m most proud of never giving up no matter how it looks how hard it gets I figure out a way to get back up on that horse and give the next thing whatever that may be all I got .

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Social media , Instagram in particular because with Instagram it’s all about aesthetics so I always make sure my visuals are top tier and I use their boost posting ads as well . That always helps me alot with growing our brand and getting it in front of as many eyes as possible.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I was living with my grandmother until her death , I was 24 had a child that was 4 and a brother that was 14 that was now my responsibility I was scared because I was only a temp I had no permanent job and I didn’t know what I was going to do , my grandmother had no will and it was now time to decide what would happen with her house my mother had died two years prior and my grandmother had two children left so rightfully so my uncles were entitled to what was theirs . So my eldest Uncle was the executor of her estate and the decision was made to sell the house well I was scared because where would me and my brother and daughter go so my uncles attorney called me and told me he would be sending paperwork over for me to sign etc etc and I asked him why I wasn’t entitled to anything and he told me because I’m the grandchild not the child and I had no rights to the property so I hung up and called his office back the next day and spoke to his secretary and I had explained to her that my father died and his two sisters had an attorney and that the attorney told me I had no rights to the house and his secretary told me that she wasn’t sure and couldn’t give me an answer but that she would take a message and if he called me back then there’s a possibility that I had a case and he did in fact call me back two times and left a message that he could help me . It was at that very moment I got the yellow pages and found my own attorney and asked him if I paid him I believe $7k dollars would he take my case and allow me to pay later as I had no money not even sure where that number came from because he was asking for much less but I didn’t even have that to give and I knew early on money talks , so anyway he took my case and I was able to buy my uncles out and keep my grandmothers house and I started my daycare out of the house so I could be there at the house when my daughter got off her school bus. I don’t know what possessed me to call that lawyers bluff but I’m glad I did.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thebawsesuites.com
• Instagram: Thebawsesuites
• Facebook: The Bawse Suites

Image Credits
The Bawse suites Tai’s Tots Daycare Enfashuated