Ep 32: A PASSION FOR FASHION: Female Entrepreneurs Who Turned Their Dreams into Thriving Businesses
Some people dream of starting their own businesses, but Kimberly Camacho, the owner of the high-end Triage Consignment Boutique in Tampa, and Shonneka “Shay” Henderson, the owner of the SoLuvely product line turned their love of fashion and beauty into reality. These two successful entrepreneurs sit down with Sarina Fazan to talk about the motivation behind their businesses and to explain how they are safely and successfully running them during a pandemic.
Kimberly took an unconventional path from her background in financial services to the fashion industry. After losing her job in hedge funds and private equity due to the 2009 market collapse, Kimberly took a part job at a nearby Kate Spade outlet store as she looked for other work. “My part-time quickly became a big girl job, within two years I was up in New York running a flagship store,” she explains.
After moving to Tampa, Florida, to take care of her ailing grandparents, Kimberly returned to a position in financial services, but she was miserable. A friend suggested that she look into helping a local consignment shop and Tampa Bay institution, Triage, while she figured out what she wanted to do. And, just weeks after Kimberly started working there, the owners mentioned that they were thinking about selling. Kimberly took over as owner in 2018, moving the store to a new location and focusing on hand-picked, designer women’s apparel.
For Shay, the idea of making her own lip gloss came to her one night during the COVID-19 shutdown. After researching the process to make her own handmade products, she began testing lip glosses, trying new formulas, pigments, and colors. Now, her product line has expanded to include lip scrubs, body scrubs, and body butters, as well.
Shay says she never imagined her business taking off like this. “I knew that I wanted it to, but I just didn’t know that it would. I have to say I’ve had great family support,” she comments.
Shay also enjoys the challenge of entrepreneurship. “So, if you tell me I can’t, I can. No one told me I can’t, so automatically I was going to do it. So, for me, it just was, I don’t want to fail. And, nobody had expectations but me, I gave myself my own expectations,” she states.
Kimberly says, “For me, honestly, it was happiness. That's what it was. You know, you get to the point where it’s like you can have all the money in the world, you can have all the material things, but if you’re not happy every day then why? What’s the point, you know?”
During the stress of the coronavirus crisis, finding happiness in these unprecedented times is essential. And, providing a safe shopping environment and safe products is more important than ever.
SoLuvely products are made with 100 percent natural ingredients. Shay’s products do not use nut oils or include any glitter, which can be irritating to the skin. “I have tons of allergies. I can put on the wrong thing and I’m going to be broken out for days. So, for me, that was the biggest thing,” she explains.
While Shay’s business launched during quarantine, COVID-19 had the opposite impact on Kimberly’s store, closing it temporarily.
The doors are open again at Triage, and Kimberly is welcoming shoppers. She says, “I think that a big part of the appeal for us is the fact that, because we’re such a small environment compared to a store at the mall, we have so much more control over what happens. So, cleaning and sanitizing is, I don’t want to say a lot easier because it’s still a laborious process, but you don’t have to worry about people getting tired and cutting corners.”
Kimberly continues, “We’re a very service-based store to begin with and so just providing that extra mile is something that is intuitive to us already. It just makes sense.”
If you’d like to support these women-owned businesses, visit Triage Consignment Boutique at 4109 Henderson Boulevard in Tampa, or check them out online at www.TriageConsignment.com. Follow Triage on Facebook and Instagram @triageconsginment.
You can find SoLuvely online at Soluvely.myshopify.com, on Facebook at @SoLuvely, and on Instagram @so_luvely2020.
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