Being a student is hard enough, but can you imagine running a business at the same time? That is exactly what senior Breasia Love has been doing for the past two years, and is currently studying business administration with a double concentration in marketing and management.
Bre Moné’s Beauty Collection was developed in order to help those individuals learn how to take care and embrace their natural curly hair. The idea began back in 2015 when she first started to take care of her natural hair.
Love said, “I never knew how to take care of my natural hair, so I went on YouTube, did some research, tried a few things but it didn’t really work out for me.” In 2019, she decided to take a leap of faith at creating her own hair care products since the products that she was using were not working.
In the process of creating the products, she knew that the mission statement behind this business was to be transparent. “The products I was using in the past, I didn’t know much about, until I did my research, and realized that some of the ingredients weren’t really safe for my hair, so my ultimate goal is to be transparent with my customers.”
The two oils currently available to purchase for Love’s customers are handmade and crafted with organic ingredients. The process was full of trial and errors but it was worth it at the end of the day.
“The first oil I have is the Chébé-infused strengthening oil and at first when I was formulating, the oil would freeze in cold temperature rooms or it would go rancid after a few months or few weeks of it just sitting in a room especially in the bathroom because of the moisture.” After doing more research, she decided to switch up the products and learn more about what ingredients could mix with each other to create the final product.
In order to obtain her products, Love has a wholesaler that sends her the ingredients but emphasizes that she does her own research.
As a college student, managing one’s own finances is no easy feat, so Love faced a big challenge when it came down to finding the funds to invest in her business.
“I spent and wasted a lot of money, but it came back. That was the biggest challenge, investing in it and using my own money to do so which was kind of risky,” said Love, “In 2019 I worked two jobs and all the money I was making in my full time job I saved right towards my business.”
Being an entrepreneur while in school is not an easy task, but Love has managed to find a routine to help keep her sales and grades up.
“This is the first semester I run my business while in school plus being a part-time employee.
When I made my schedule for this semester, I made sure I have Wednesdays off, so I can go to work, and have the rest of the day off so I can do content creation, and develop business ideas.”
As a business major, all her classes serve a purpose as the information she is learning in the classroom can be applied in real life.
“I took one a communication class where we learned how to build a website, and it gave me the fundamentals about how to create my own website. My managerial accounting class we had learned about inventory and scheduling,” Love said. “My finance class taught me about my income statement, the financials behind a business, and a balance sheet. I created a spreadsheet with all this information to help me when it came to running my business.”
John Buzza, Senior Specialist Professor at the Leon Hess Business School offered a wise perspective for those who may be afraid to venture into the business world. “Entrepreneurship is all about risk vs. reward…You do not need a boat full of money to start your own business. Bootstrapping is the operative word today among many upstart businesses.”
After just two years of running this business, there are three things Love has learned so far. One of them is the finances part, and she said it’s not easy to start if you don’t have the funds.
The next thing she learned is to leverage her marketing strategies. “Marketing is hard work, especially since a lot of people are selling the same thing so I have to separate myself from the rest,” Throughout this process she has learned that marketing is a key step in the business process because that’s the only way people can really get to know her products.
One last thing she has learned is to be authentic, although that has not been an easy thing to do as she considers herself as an introverted person. However, she is continuously working on that in order to show her customers her personality. “Ultimately, people are attracted to you before they are to your product,” she said.
As for those students who have an idea of their own they want to take to the next level, Love has some useful advice.
“Find what is lacking in the market and fix it,” she said. “Take calculated risks and be confident that whatever risk you’re taking it’s worth it because at the end of the day, it’s a lot.”
Now that she has gotten some experience about what it takes to run a business, Love has her eyes set towards the future. “In the long run, I’m going to look for somebody who can invest in my business,” she said. “If not, I can go to the bank and get some money. Right now I’m working on adding more to my collection including products and tools.”
