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

Zeriaya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

Don’t . Most of the time they may support or buy once or twice but you cannot focus on them. Honestly your better off asking your friends and family to just share your posts of course if they wanna buy or get a service from you let them but DO NOT DISCOUNT IT. Bartering is okay at first if they have another valuable service they can render you as well but most do the time that is not the case . I have a set 4/5 people in my family and friends who support and buy from me , then I have other who comment on my post and share my posts, and that’s okay. I have also had a very close family member tell me it wasn’t a real career or job. You cannot get hung up on the negative or the fact that people don’t buy from you or even share your stuff because truth be told , that will not push you to the next level. They themselves will not make you known or successful. Strangers will . My business runs off of strangers who found me and trusts my skill and products. So never rely or get hung up or discouraged about asking your friends and family for support. Focus on strangers, the ones who can help you elevate.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a 21 year old Silkpress specialist. I offer Silkpresses, and Luxury Extensions and I focus on hair health and growth . I have a product line coming out on Black Friday with shampoo and conditioner to start.

I got into doing hair at a very young age at about 8. I used to curl my moms short cuts. As I got into middle some some people used to make fun of me a little about my hair and at the time in 8th grade I decided to transition into natural hair . The sly comments and mean people made me push myself into cosmetology for high school and throughly that program I got my cosmetology license at 17. Throughout all of highschool I did so many peoples hair and started there . I did teachers hair , students got random clients a taught myself the techniques I wanted to learn. I took a break after I had my son but in 2021 hit the ground running completely rebranding and it’s been great ever since.

What sets me apart from other stylists in my industry is that all while offering trendy services that I enjoy doing I focus on the clients scalp and hair health first and foremost and I help them grow out their hair . When my clients come to me I educate them about their strands and come up with a regimen for them. My clients see a change in their hair health and length retention writhing the first 2-3 months of them consistently coming to me. They don’t just get a cute or trendy style they get the confidence to wear their natural hair. They get the option to get extensions wether then feeling like they HAVE to have them.

I would say my biggest accomplishment being a hairstylist would be the joy and hope I give to my clients about their hair . As well as doing exceptionally well in my industry my first year coming out the gate . Me being able to satisfy my clients propels my business forward so that I can break down industry limitations and standards and surpass my goals .

My third biggest accomplishment would be me being able to secure a space within my first 3 months of business. Taking on suite rent or retail space rent is a big milestone in business and the fact I was able to do it my first three months was insane to me. It made me realize that with discipline and consistency you can have anything you desire.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn was “money comes and money goes”. Okay while this may be true the way I was taught this lesson made it feel like no matter what I spend money will always come back in that same flow. While this may be true for people who work 9/5 because your pay schedule and salary is constant flow , as a business owner that is not the case. Revenue flows up and down and if you do not have the proper systems in place one bad month can make or break you entirely. I had one of my highest earning months ever , but because of my poor spending habits I never really got to see what I was making. I had the mentality of “I’ll make it back” but that’s one of the worst mentalities to have. Yes I may know how to generate revenue but at the time I was still trading my time for money doing services , and that in itself goes up and down when you don’t have other streams of income. Then when I did my numbers at the end of the month I had to have a serious talk with myself about where my money was going because yes it was amazing I had my highest grossing month but it meant nothing if I spent most of it . All I needed was one chargeback and that would’ve been it … and low and behold I got a $825 chargeback from a scammer who’s hair I did. At the time I though it was the end of the world and was so hurt and upset . I had to pull money from here and there to make up for it. But had I had better Money management chargeback money would have already been set aside. Then I wouldn’t have had to touch other saving and personal money from all over. From then on I decided to buckle down and fix my mentality around money so it will always be accessible, and so my business will always be set financially.

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

Building my social media platform has been a journey. There was one point in time I gained 10k+ followers in a month. I did this by usining reels on Instagram. In my field there are many women who sell hair and they like to repost who uses their hair. I did microlinks for a client and I told her to purchase hair from a well renowned hair brand on Instagram. I made a real because instagrams pushes reels more than anything else , and tagged the hair company. The hair company reposted my video. It started to go viral. But the work didn’t stop there. Before that I was consistent in posting reels 4+ times a week and I made sure after I posted that one reel I kept my consistency. So that one video that went viral turned into 8. And from there momentum kept building and the followers kept coming.

The advice I have for those just starting to building social media presence is post what you have. I started out posting three times a day on Instagram. Anything can be content. Behind the scenes , packing orders, doing a client service and many more. Use trending sounds on reels on tik tok and always relay back to your niche 95% of the time. People love focused but RELATABLE content , your audience wants to feel like they have a connection to you in some way . Also make sure every price of content you post has a purpose. Wether it be brand awareness, engagement, traffic to your site or more sales. Lastly be consistent! You will not see results pousting one or twice a week post everyday and look at your insights to see what’s the best time to post with your specific audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: nueessentialsco.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/nueessentials
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCmKtunrfnFg6Tziz9WZdqxg