Miss Jessie's: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch---Naturally

by Miko Branch

  Ain’t no stoppin’ us now.

  —MCFADDEN & WHITEHEAD

  It was a rare night out, away from business, for me in May 2013. Black Enterprise magazine was holding an event at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in New York City—the Good Life Reception—to kick off their program for entrepreneurs. The party was full of media, entertainment, and industry folk mixing it up. Miss Jessie’s was sponsoring that night with gift bags, and Titi was out with friends. Instead of my usual sidekick, I brought along my legal counsel, whose company and witty banter I had come to enjoy.

  When we arrived, the place was packed. We found an empty bank of couches, took a seat, and observed the crowd. Almost instantly, that spot turned into a natural-hair-care hub, with bloggers, stylists, product owners, and even some of my natural-hair clients. The music was pumping, the conversation was flying, and all around us, people were air-kissing and hugging. A woman sat down on the one empty seat next to me. When I turned to my right to see who it was, she was facing me. “Hello, Miko,” she said in a manner that was plain and pleasant.

  At first I was taken aback by her beauty and did not recognize her. She had a deep, rich chocolate complexion, with pretty, big brown eyes, a gorgeous smile, and a wonderfully big Pony Puff. It was Karen Tappin-Saunderson, the owner of Karen’s Body Beautiful, a line of hair and beauty products.

  “I just wanted to thank you and your sister for what you have done in this industry for brands like mine,” she told me. “You know, I built my grassroots business in Brooklyn, too, and if it weren’t for you being the trailblazer, it may not have been possible for my company to be in Target.”

  Never tear down your competition. If you are confident in your product, you can afford to be magnanimous.

  I was at a loss for words, preoccupied with trying to hold back my tears. All these years of grinding in our brownstone, we’d thought we were alone on this journey. We had no idea that we were making a difference in the lives of so many other entrepreneurs who, in many ways, were just like Karen. It was nice to know that our hard work was not going unnoticed.

  That night Karen revealed to me that her business was now focused on hair. Many businesses both big and small had made some adjustments to their product lines, shifting to natural and curly hair after seeing what a profitable business it had become.

  KEEP IT COMING

  It was a timely reminder that Titi and I needed to push ahead and keep carving our own path. Maintaining success as an entrepreneur requires constant reinvention. The competition was great motivation for Titi and me to continue pioneering through product innovation and creative marketing strategies. This period was about managing our growth in the right way, evolving our strategy according to the current market realities, while never losing sight of who we were at our core. Miss Jessie’s was a brand with integrity, and we aimed to keep it that way.

  But maintaining our identity did not preclude change. We had to develop new products and business strategies, reconfigure our operations, find new partners, upgrade our salon services, and adjust our marketing and promotions to stay ahead of the game. Like Miss Jessie always told us, only a fool takes success for granted. We had no business being complacent.

  It was especially important to get out in front of everybody else in terms of product innovation. Sales of all the products in our range have been robust for all our retail partners, since we offer our customers an increasing array of options that responds directly to her needs.

  Keep it moving. No business can afford to rest on past success.

  We started out as a salon-focused product in 2004, when we first came out with Curly Pudding. We were a boutique brand. But although we will always take inspiration from our salon clients, our customer’s needs have changed. She’s done the Big Chop, and she’s more educated about her own naturally curly hair. She doesn’t necessarily need Curly Pudding to define and show every single curl on her head. We created that rich, decadent product for her because there was something to prove—that she had workable, natural-hair texture with a curl pattern. But now that she has a head of grown-out, gorgeous, healthy hair, the aesthetic has changed. She wants a wash-and-go option. She is more comfortable experimenting and may want something softer, with less hold. We’ve developed a number of new products to support this style—like Pillow Soft, Jelly Soft, Multicultural Curls, Transitioner’s Magic, or Leave In Condish.

  Be a work in progress. The most successful business owners know they must continually evolve.

  We’ve made a number of adjustments within the line, including some changes for the mass market. There is a more relaxed attitude to curl now, so we can cater to customers who don’t need the rich and decadent consistency of Curly Pudding. Some of these new products are the direct result of the dialogue we have with our customers. My dear friend Emma, for example, told me she wanted a wash-and-go look that was more like an Afro, with a little control and definition to the curl and without the firm hold. She’s come a long way from those early days when she didn’t want to chop off her straightened hair, as have so many of our clients and customers.

  A BIGGER WORLD

  Our newly launched Coily Custard—a wash-n-go styler to help transform tight and frizzy ’fros into moisturized curls—appeals to this customer. The product was one of three new items we rolled out on Valentine’s Day 2014. We’d never unveiled three new products simultaneously. Three is a lot for any brand, but we wanted to make a splash. Besides Coily Custard, we brought out Transitioner’s Magic, to help women grow out their processed hair and avoid the Big Chop, and Multicultural Curls.

  Broaden your customer base by doing the following:

  1. Pay close attention to your evolving customer demographics.

  2. Take note of who is selecting your product.

  3. Don’t be surprised if these shoppers are more diverse than you originally believed.

  4. Scrutinize the sales reports in each region.

  5. You can operate locally, but think globally, because there could be millions of potential new customers far beyond your original footprint.

  Multicultural Curls has been one of our most dramatic success stories since we first launched Curly Pudding, and it speaks directly to the changing times. It was partly a tribute to our own biracial heritage—a wink to our mom and dad. Although we started out by focusing on the tighter-coiled texture, we felt it was time to be more inclusive. As mixed-race women, we had experience with many different hair and curl types. Multicultural doesn’t necessarily mean biracial, and curl type doesn’t always depend on skin tone. It was simply a way of serving a broader customer base.

  We live in a global marketplace. Travel to any country and you will see that populations have become melting pots. Very few people are all Russian or all African. Europe is full of curly girls, and Latin and South American women have incredible curl and texture variations. Developing a multicultural product opens us up to the rest of the world. It was simply a smart decision to make in our changing global economy.

  It was also validation for the mass retailers, which recently renamed their “ethnic” aisles “multicultural.” This was a victory for all of us. For years, retailers used to try to relegate us to the ethnic section, but we were a professional brand that was not just for black women; ours was for all women with curly hair. Our resistance had an impact on how much we could expand. We eventually gave in, realizing that it was better to get our product on the shelf so our customer could have access. But the retailers came around to our way of thinking with the aisle makeover. Being able to partner with retailers as we catered to the broader segment is also why Multicultural Curls is now one of our best-selling products.

  MASTER MARKETERS

  Authenticity has always been the key to our marketing success. You can always hire someone to say anything, but if they really do not mean it, it tends to show. We are proud of the fact that we have included our actual salon clients as models to showcase our salon work and product. An important message behind the Miss J
essie’s brand is that natural hair and natural women are beautiful. There is no better way to make that statement than by showcasing real women, who are real clients and real users of the Miss Jessie’s products. Titi and I have also been the face of the brand for certain campaigns, in large part because we were the cheapest models that we knew—no modeling fees. We also wanted to have a relationship with the public in general and Miss Jessie’s fans in particular. It is odd, but some women use beauty products without ever knowing who makes the products. It is important to me that women understand and know that there are real people behind Miss Jessie’s, who actually use the products. We are the faces of the brand because we support and believe in the Miss Jessie’s products.

  Social media has gained momentum over the last decade and it is another wonderful way for us to connect with our customer. We’ve found authentic Miss Jessie’s lovers and fans via social media and we include them in our ads as well. This approach keeps the message clear that real people use Miss Jessie’s. We have even included bloggers in our campaigns, but only if the blogger was a fan of the product first. It is unfortunate, but within the past few years, certain brands have come under attack for paying bloggers for positive reviews or to host events without disclosing to the public that they’re being paid and are not a user of the promoted product. We have been lucky enough to have a host of gorgeous bloggers and Miss Jessie’s fans who are happy to show their support.

  We connected with a wholesome multicultural family in California via Instagram while we were about to launch Multicultural Curls. A mother, father, son, and daughter are captured during a family moment in a Miss Jessie’s ad. The father is combing his daughter’s hair with the mother and son on the scene. This ad is the most talked-about in the history of Miss Jessie’s, because it is relatable, capturing the genuine love of family.

  STYLING AHEAD

  While we never forget our core customer, many of these new products will have a more universal appeal, in terms of both performance and price—one of many things we are doing to target a wider demographic and stay ahead of the competition. In fact, we are finding that many customers who decided to experiment with the “me too” brands have come back to us. There’s been a kind of shakeout, with many of the imitators that were trying to grab our market share now disappearing from the shelves.

  Michelle Breyer, our friend and the woman at the helm of NaturallyCurly.com, says Miss Jessie’s stays on top of it because we “keep people excited” about what we are doing. Every time we come out with something new, our customer knows it’s not just to push our brand. We put something out when we see a need for it, and not before.

  “You know, with each new product launch, Miss Jessie’s keeps reminding people that you’ve been doing this for a long time,” Michelle recently told me. “That Miss Jessie’s expertise of yours just cuts through the noise.”

  UPGRADE

  Our salon remains a big part of who we are as a brand. As we’ve matured as a business, we’ve moved out of our brownstone and into a different, spacious location in the heart of Manhattan’s SoHo. We kept that old-world look of decorative moldings, crystal chandeliers, high ceilings, and wood floors, but freshened up in white, with a few accents in the colors of our Miss Jessie’s packaging. We call it “comfortable elegance.” We have a product store out front, as you enter, and, discreetly hidden in the back, a much larger salon space that runs with clocklike precision. Our grand opening was a big party, full of friends, family, loyal customers, and supporters in social and traditional media—a way of saying thank you for believing in us. Even A’Lelia Bundles, the great-great-granddaughter of Madam C. J. Walker—a major inspiration for our business model—honored us with her presence.

  Of course, we didn’t change what was working before the move. We have continued our tradition of making our salon clients feel at home with drinks and snacks, and gospel and soul music playing through the speakers. The Miss Jessie’s salon is still a destination, where our clients know us and each other. I still come in every Saturday morning and do the hair of our regulars. During the week, the salon remains open, staffed by stylists personally trained and supervised by me. Through that space, I will always be accessible to the naturally curly women who have, through their loyalty and honest feedback, helped us to build this brand. While the location of the salon has changed and may change again, I am confident that the quality of service will not.

  TABLE OF TRUTH

  Down the block on Broadway, where we located our corporate headquarters, the Miss Jessie’s team continues along this personal and professional growth track. We routinely talk out our decisions at what we call our “Table of Truth.” When one of us has an idea, we ask the others to punch as many holes in it as they can. There is no ego. Everyone carries the weight and takes full responsibility. We share all of our ideas and take ownership as a team, with no one blaming the others if it fails or taking all the credit if it succeeds.

  We’ve never bothered hiring “executives.” We don’t need a CEO or senior vice president to sit on a high chair and tell people what to do. Titles have no relevance to us. We need smart people who are willing to learn and get their hands dirty with the rest of us. When it comes to the work, we view ourselves as employees. We’re standing there alongside everyone else, filling up sample bags for an event, packing, unpacking, and lifting incoming product boxes—whatever it takes.

  Challenge your own beliefs every day. Inviting the honest opinion of your team members and putting your ideas through the fire will make them better.

  Our small team battles it out every day, throwing out ideas, challenging them, and making them better. The other team members’ perspectives help to keep us on the right path because, although they love the brand, they are not as emotionally attached to it as Titi and me. They weren’t in that brownstone all those years with us, and their emotional distance brings objectivity to the choices we now make.

  MANAGING GROWTH

  After securing the Target deal, we used the following couple of years as a testing phase. We wanted to understand the enterprise from top to bottom before we made our next move. During that time, we came to understand that there is a price to being in mass retail. Our overheads increased because we had larger orders to fill. We had to hire more staff. Our shipping costs also increased. There were costs that couldn’t be measured in dollars and cents, such as missing out on personal time with family, friends, and lovers. We asked ourselves if we had the capacity to make these sacrifices while establishing a plan that would help us manage the business growth and its accompanying personal challenges.

  Even though we were dealing with huge corporations, we had to continue to trust that our own instincts were right for our brand, whatever the industry norms.

  POISED FOR GROWTH

  Eventually, these big players came to realize that what worked for us brought success for them. It is necessary to be open and willing to learn. At the same time, be prepared to go in and fight your ground to establish key terms essential to survive in the mass retail landscape. The big retailers and distributors have plenty of other accounts to worry about, so they’re not going to sweat the details like a small business, where one wrong decision can have a devastating impact on the bottom line.

  With each new deal, the Miss Jessie’s team is growing in confidence, knowledge, and capacity. We are laying the foundation to sell our products internationally, having spent months educating ourselves on the stringent requirements for ingredients used in any product sold within the European Union. We already have customers all over the world, but an official presence would reach more multicultural women who desire hair solutions. The potential for Miss Jessie’s is limitless in a diverse world where standards of beauty are changing and women across cultures are freeing themselves from the old norms and embracing their God-given curls.

  Miss Jessie’s remains lean, nimble, hungry, and entrepreneurial in spirit. Our first foray into the international market is approaching: we are pl
anning a partnership with Boots in the United Kingdom. As negotiations with all kinds of new partners continue, from distributors to national chains, to partners in brand-new markets all over the world, we have never been in a better position to set our own terms as we keep proving the business model we’ve established with our initial large mass partner.

  The Benefits of Being Debt-Free and Liquid

  1. Having your own money–cash that does not come from an investor–forces you to budget within your means.

  2. Your decision-making is based on your true needs and not your debt.

  3. Cash is king and ensures that you will never be forced to liquidate assets or take out loans to pay vendors.

  4. Having your own ensures that you will not have to answer to anyone or compromise yourself in any way.

  5. You can say no anytime you want, and you don’t have to take another’s objectives into consideration.

  No matter how profitable a quarter you have, set a little aside and put it in the bank. It gives you peace of mind and allows you to enjoy the full benefit of a payoff when you do succeed.

  Financially, and in terms of our current infrastructure, we are poised for growth. For many small businesses, a sudden deal with a big-box retailer requires taking out loans or losing equity to an outside investor in exchange for a much-needed injection of cash. They lose the entrepreneurial spirit and effectively become employees of their new owners. But we choose to grow organically, investing in our staff through additional training, full benefits, and profit sharing as we continue to forge mutually beneficial relationships with select distributors and makers.