We were lucky to catch up with Veronika Electronika recently and have shared our conversation below.

Veronika, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

While the world struggled with Covid-19 I struggled right along with it. Working a corporate retail job I did feel some immunity from joblessness because my company did keep us employed and paid. I was very grateful for this, but when we came back to the day to day life of working “for the man” I couldn’t help but feel that I wanted something more. I wanted to be my own boss. Could I risk everything and take the leap? I eventually came to the conclusion that yes, yes I could! Buying a legacy business of Nashville, Performance Studios, that Covid-19 itself took down I felt was a clear and pointed way to because a force in the small business world.
Thank God for risks!

Veronika, 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?

Growing up in NYC I think that you are almost instilled with business sense; after all we have to navigate through the biggest city in the world to get to school, and making smart business decisions sometimes comes in the form of whether to take the bus or subway!

Moving to Nashville for college I did learn that there are differences in culture depending on where you live, play and work.

My first real small business endeavor was becoming a drag performer, believe it or not! You have to control cash flow, book shows and manage your personal and business lives to work together.

Recently I purchased, with my husband, Performance Studios. Performance has been in operation for decades in Nashville. Servicing theatrical and common costume users alike, as well as cosmetics for many different occasions. When Covid-19 came to Nashville it decimated all industries that relied on stage performances, not to mention Halloween and costume parties. This forced the brick and mortar store to close and force the business to operate online.

The opportunity presented itself to us to buy the entire business at the right price, saving it from further liquidation. This also in turn saved a piece of Nashville theatrical history as well.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

When we started looking for an online platform we selected Shopify. This platform, which I was somewhat familiar with allowed us to create an inventory system as well as an easy way to sell all of our merchandise. I highly recommend it!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Having drag as a side hustle for almost 20 years taught me that there was a lot of money to be made in selling the things I was buying! Thousands of dollars spent of costumes, cosmetics, hair and heels! I wanted a piece of that pie! Performance Studios sold all of these things, and now I had the opportunity to own it, what a piece of luck!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.performancestudio.us
• Other: www.VEdrag.com