We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Teajai Kimsey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Teajai below.

Hi Teajai, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I first started this company in 2011 I was a new “cheer mom.” My daughter had come home excitedly waving a flyer about the area Salvation Army pom pom squad. By 2013 we were officially a part of the all-star cheer sport and I, like many other cheer moms, was scrambling to find a way to pay for all the extras. One cheer season can easily top $10K.

Since my business was cheer related I started playing with that word and doing mashups with other words that would sound fun and exciting. So, you take “cheer” combined with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and you get Cheerdocious.

Fast forward a decade later and my daughter is no longer an all-star cheer competitor, she went off to college (made the college team) and is on her own path. So the pivot from all cheer stuff to other cheerdocious stuff worked.

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’ve always been an entrepreneur of sorts.

I have had my own small child care center, which enabled me to buy my first home as a single parent at 26. At that time, the late 80s & early 90s the regulations stated that a provider and all child care centers must have 2 substitutes available at a moment’s notice. That was a real problem because so many families were 2 income households and there just weren’t people sitting around available to fill in if a provider was sick. So I came up with a specialized temporary service specifically to fill this need. I hired people, helped them get their required certifications, marketed the service to the area child care centers, and got the approval of the state regulators. Just because it hasn’t been done before, doesn’t mean you can’t make things happen.

The service was such a raving success that I could not sustain the growth from a financial standpoint. Luckily, the area child care association has since picked up the concept, and child care centers now have an option when someone is out sick.

I then went on to start a digital marketing company in 1999. I met an angel investor in 2000 which allowed me to focus full-time on the endeavor. I survived the dot com bust and convinced many businesses that marketing online was the wave of the future, back when they were still counting on the telephone book. Seven years later I sold the business and went on to assist clients as a digital marketing consultant.

That is until my daughter became an all-star cheerleader.

It was good timing, I was getting a bit burned out with the digital marketing. Cheer moms were looking for ways to keep the ultra-white, ultra-light cheer shoe covers clean and in good shape for the mat. I stumbled on an idea for cheer shoe covers and, because I was taught to sew at a very young age, I crafted my own pattern and made a pair. Through trial and error, I came up with a pattern and process that worked. I’m still making cheer shoe covers today. Although, as stated previously, my daughter is no longer part of cheerleading so I’ve made a pivot in the business.

A common theme to my entrepreneurship is tenacity in the face of naysayers, the ability to stick with an idea and make it grow. I have a positive, enthusiastic attitude that draws people in. The combination of grit, persistence and positivity, to me, is key to being successful no matter what you attempt.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

I did sell my digital marketing company. The number one lesson I learned is don’t trust companies that list the business for sale. In my experience of both selling my business AND in investigating other businesses for sale, there is a lot of hype that just doesn’t hold water. You really need to do your own homework on anyone who is presented as a potential buyer.

In my case, I didn’t do that well. While I knew of both parties (a partnership) who were brought to the table, I didn’t investigate their financial background or business acumen. And, in the end, while I got a good price for the business, one of the parties defaulted so I didn’t get everything I was supposed to.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Whether referring to the child care business, temporary agency, digital marketing clients, or even current eCommerce customers it all comes down to being an effective marketer. But more than just the wide scale of advertising on social media or pay-per-click, it’s down to the micro level where you build a relationship with each and every potential customer you encounter. It’s been said, and I wholly agree, that people don’t buy from businesses, they buy from people. So when you take the time to get to know your customers. Stay in touch, learn about their birthdays and anniversaries, watch for their wins, and recognize those.

I have excellent follow-up and follow-through skills with everyone who contacts me. I respond quickly and make it a habit to say yes – even if it’s a yes for later. In the age of the internet, everyone expects “fast-food” service, quick and done. But really it’s the people who take the time to build the relationships who will benefit in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cheerdocious.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/cheerdocious
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/cheerdocious
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/teajai