- 6 months ago
Kalilah Wright Gives Tips on Fashion Entrepreneurship at Essence Fashion House
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00:00Just to gain and be around creatives, that's a super tip that I could give to you guys today.
00:06Be in spaces where there's conversation happening, where your brain can really, you know, grow and where you can learn things.
00:13So I would volunteer a lot.
00:15So first thing, you need a vision.
00:17Then you need to have a story.
00:19So Freddie Gray was my story.
00:21Then you needed money.
00:23So funding.
00:24Here's some great ways that you can fund your dream.
00:28So after I left Under Armour, I volunteered, but I also started doing pitch competitions.
00:33So I was the winner of the Blogalicious Wells Fargo pitch competition.
00:38So I won that.
00:39And then there was also the Light City pitch competition as well.
00:43Black Enterprise pitch competition.
00:46And then there's also this thing called Working Capital, which a lot of people don't talk about.
00:50And it's untraditional ways of getting loans.
00:53So if you join, like, Shopify, which is a place that you can host your website, as well as PayPal, if they see you making transactions, they will begin to invest.
01:05And they'll say, hey, we have a $500 loan.
01:08And it's not a credit.
01:10It doesn't check your credit.
01:11But what it does is this will allow you to start to get funding.
01:15And as you sell, they take a small percentage.
01:18It's a really great way to build your business.
01:21So it's PayPal Working Capital, also Shopify Working Capital, and then also pitch competitions.
01:27So there's a lot of, like, free grants and ways for you to be able to really tell your story.
01:32And as you are, and don't be too humble to also do crowdfunding.
01:39So we've done, we've used a platform called iFundWomen.
01:42And we've also sourced money through crowdfunding as well.
01:46So you need funding because you need money.
01:49You don't need money to start a business, but you need money to grow your business.
01:54So we started with just $500.
01:56So I bought a heat press machine.
01:58I bought a vinyl cutter.
01:59And then I also purchased, like, T-shirts from Foreman Mills, which is like a discount store.
02:05So I started only with 10 T-shirts, five bottles, and my family members were going to buy them.
02:11I made sure that they did.
02:13You also need exposure.
02:15You have to go beyond your family.
02:18So what I did was any opportunity, I jumped.
02:21So I made sure that if there was going to be a cookout that I could wear a T-shirt that says something funny, I wore it.
02:29If there was going to be a conference or an event, I made sure that I wore a great message that someone would then ask me about.
02:37Conferences are key.
02:39I went to a lot of conferences.
02:40And if you stand outside that door, a lot of the people who are walking onto the stage, they have, like, two minutes.
02:46And that's the perfect place to get a picture, to say, hey, this is my company.
02:52Let me tell you what I do.
02:53And you have to have an elevator pitch.
02:55So my elevator pitch is, hi, my name is Kalila Wright, and I am the owner of Messing a Bottle.
03:01We are a T-shirt company.
03:03We put messages on T-shirts, and they actually come packaged in a reusable bottle.
03:08Under 30 seconds, really short, they say, think about if you got in an elevator with whoever your idol person is.
03:16Who is your business idol?
03:19Anyone?
03:21Jay-Z.
03:21Jay-Z.
03:22So imagine if you got in an elevator with Jay-Z, how can you put your business in less than 30?
03:27Because Jay-Z don't want to hear you.
03:28Jay-Z wants you to be quiet.
03:29He's trying to get his thoughts together.
03:31And so I thought about if I was in an elevator with Mark Cuban, what would I say?
03:35And then one year after I left Under Armour, I was given that opportunity to stand next to Mark Cuban.
03:41One of my friends sent me a message, and she said, hey, girl, there's a TV show called The Harry Show, and they are looking for new entrepreneurs.
03:50Again, I put my name in every single hat.
03:55And I was like, okay, I'll apply.
03:56I don't know.
03:57I didn't know who it was, what it was about, anything.
03:59Put my name in the hat.
04:00They called the next day.
04:02They said, hey, we like your personality.
04:03We think you'll be great.
04:04So we'll have you on the show.
04:06And it's going to be a top entrepreneur.
04:08Never said who it was.
04:09I walked in the room, and it was my idol, Mark Cuban.
04:13And that was one year.
04:15At the time, we only had glass bottles from Ikea.
04:18I had no way of sourcing bottles.
04:20And again, you have to make sure that you think about these things because I had times where the store that I used to get T-shirts from, they were sold out.
04:30I had times where I would drive to New Jersey for bottles because they would get sold out.
04:35So I started to think about ways that I could really build a business.
04:40Through that time, I was hustling.
04:42That's still a hustle.
04:43That's a side hustle.
04:45It's still not a main hustle.
04:46So my first year of business was hustling.
04:50So after we got some funding and we got exposure, so I had Mark Cuban, and I was on national television.
04:57And you know what I didn't think about was reruns.
04:59They replayed it.
05:00So I would see a surge in our orders, and I didn't know why.
05:05And then someone would message me and say, hey, we saw you on TV.
05:09So national television and radio, huge for exposure.
05:14Then I started having celebrities wear our product.
05:18A great DMs.
05:20Who said that?
05:21Yo, Gotti, I'm not young enough.
05:22But it does go down in the DMs.
05:24So sending and shooting a DM and saying, hi, my name is, and this is my company, and this is what we do.
05:34It does work.
05:35Some people don't answer, but you know they have sometimes in the line, our PR is.
05:40And this is the email address.
05:42So going that extra step and actually sending an email does help.
05:45So we had Lena Waithe, a great big producer.
05:52She, I went to a conference, and at the time, again, it was maybe a year and a half into the business, and I had like an ironed-on jacket.
05:59It said, this message, queen, don't be afraid to rule like a king.
06:03And I went to this conference, and I stood outside the door, and I didn't know who all the key people were.
06:08But I made sure I have a rolly suitcase that I brought with me to these events, and no one else in the audience had product.
06:15But I did.
06:17And you know what I did?
06:18I stood at the door, and I was like, ooh, she looks popping.
06:21She's the person I need to know, and she needs to know who I am.
06:24So I gave her a T-shirt, and it said, keep creating dope-ass shit until someone notices.
06:28And I created that shirt when it was at my lowest.
06:32I created that shirt when I felt like no one was noticing.
06:35I was like, damn, don't they see how popping I am?
06:39Why is no one wearing my stuff?
06:42And I made that message.
06:45And I was in Florida watching the BET Awards, and I was like, damn, I want to be there one day.
06:51I was like, but you have a T-shirt company.
06:52How are you going to be there?
06:54And Lena Waithe walks onto the red carpet with keep creating dope-ass shit until someone notices.
07:01I was like, yeah.
07:05Yes!
07:06And when that happened, she got all this press, and she tagged us, and she reposted it all day,
07:15and she was voted best dressed.
07:17Me!
07:18My T-shirt!
07:20I just couldn't believe it.
07:22And that moment, again, a surge.
07:25Another step.
07:27Then, of course, she's friends with Bazoma St. John.
07:31She's friends with Lena Waithe.
07:34Well, Serena Williams.
07:35So, we receive an order from Beverly Hills, and again, great customer service, no matter who it is.
07:43I had no idea who the order is.
07:45And we received an order, and the person ordered, again, this message.
07:51Queen, don't be afraid to rule like a king.
07:53And it was about five jackets.
07:55And I was like, who is this?
07:56Who knows about this jacket this much?
07:59And I called the number, and I said, hello.
08:02It's a Saturday.
08:04I saw your express order, but they won't ship today.
08:07They'll ship in about two days.
08:09And the person said, oh, no problem.
08:11Thank you for calling.
08:13Great customer service.
08:15And she said, do you know who these jackets are for?
08:17And I said, no.
08:18I have no idea.
08:19I just, you know, thought you were a regular customer, and I just wanted to say thank you.
08:22And she said, these are for Serena Williams.
08:26Serena Williams.
08:27And I couldn't believe it.
08:29Again, these things that push you one step and going over and beyond.
08:33And when Serena Williams, her publicist, it was her publicist calling, and she said,
08:38Serena Williams wore that jacket all over women, you know, in France, all over.
08:44And we have the Harper's Bazaar article, and it says, Serena Williams walks into the room
08:50with a queen, don't be afraid, to rule like a king jacket.
08:53That was probably one of the biggest moments of my life, to know that I created a message
09:00and that women felt so empowered.
09:04So you need exposure.
09:06And this is not only big names.
09:10Having your friends, your family, and standing outside doors, you may not be able to get in them.
09:16You may not be on the stage.
09:18But making sure that your product is visible is exposure.
09:22So going to the convention center, and, you know, if you have a fashion line,
09:27and you're wearing a glamorous big dress or whatever, who are they going to take pictures of?
09:32You.
09:33You.
09:34You have to be your own PR, your own marketing.
09:38You have to be.
09:44So then you need to know that you need to work with what you've got.
09:48So I started this company with less than $500, and I made sure that I bought the key things.
09:53That was the vinyl cutter, the heat press, and I started from home.
09:57One of the bigger things that I think that entrepreneurs think that they need to have
10:02is they think they need to have the L.A. office space.
10:05That's Starbucks.
10:06You could go there.
10:08You could go to a breather space and have a beautiful meeting.
10:12Don't feel like you have to start big.
10:14I started with only $500.
10:17So I took that $500, I bought my bottles, I bought my T-shirts, and I used my iPhone.
10:23That is how I began to really market and push my products.
10:28And then you need a team because after you're receiving orders and you have a Serena Williams moment,
10:34you need a team.
10:35Guess who my team is?
10:37My mom.
10:37Starting out, you need to make sure that, you know, you don't have the funds.
10:43You don't have the capital.
10:44So start small.
10:46I started in my son's bedroom, and when T-shirts began to be on top of his bed,
10:51I was like, okay, I think it's time.
10:53I think it's time for us to move the business out of our home.
10:56But it had to get to that for me to then realize that we need to move it outside of the home.
11:01So don't feel like that you need to start big.
11:05Start small.
11:06Grow small.
11:08Scaling big too fast, you can crash, and the business can fail.
11:14So have a team.
11:16Have friends and family.
11:17Look, all my friends who work at doctor's offices, who are getting paid really big money,
11:21they're sitting at their desk doing reception work, I'm like, hey, girl, can you check my emails on the side?
11:26I'll give you $100.
11:27That is how you do it.
11:29You have to make sure that you maximize your resources.
11:32Then you need to make sure that you think outside the box.
11:39So having mess in a bottle is my way of thinking outside the box.
11:42Last year at Essence Fest, we launched our t-shirt vending machine.
11:47So I'm not just a t-shirt company.
11:49I'm much bigger than a t-shirt company.
11:52So we have classes.
11:54And also the thing that I asked Mark Cuban, because they said, what's one question that you can ask this, you know, mogul?
12:00And my question to Mark Cuban was, if I wanted to go into beveragesing, do you think it's too soon?
12:07And Mark Cuban said, yes.
12:09What you need to do is in the next five years, let everyone know what mess in a bottle is as a t-shirt brand.
12:15Then you could go into other sectors.
12:18And that's exactly what I've been doing.
12:20As well as I trademarked beverage use for mess in a bottle.
12:26So make sure you're smart about your business.
12:28And we did that through incubators as well as making sure that you could get free legal services through some colleges as well.
12:38All right?
12:39So you need to think outside the box.
12:41So think about your branding.
12:42What is different about your company?
12:43What's different about your t-shirt company?
12:45So one of the things we did with creating mess in a bottle is, you know, I keep the message on brand all the time.
12:53It's all I cater to young black women entrepreneurs.
12:59You know, that's who, when you search that in Pinterest and Google, that's who you see.
13:03That's who, you know, that is who I am representing.
13:05So my target audience remains the same.
13:09And I want to also tell you guys that you need to learn how to work smarter and not harder.
13:15So have maybe two to five designs.
13:18If you are thinking about coming out with your t-shirt company, don't think that you need thousands of different designs.
13:24You can have one good design.
13:27So, for example, we have a t-shirt that says, she from Brooklyn.
13:30So imagine if I did, she from Brooklyn, she from New Orleans, she from, I'm actually launching at the end of this, shefrom.com.
13:37Because so, that's one of our top selling t-shirts and we have so many people who just want that particular shirt.
13:45So think about selling one thing that you can multiply thousands of times.
13:52Okay.
13:55Then lastly, I want to tell you guys about obstacles.
13:59Of course, there's going to be various things that's going to stop you in your tracks.
14:04So in 2017, in Baltimore, after moving out of my home, we moved into a small shop in Baltimore.
14:16Two young men decided to come into my store and it was an armed robbery.
14:23And I was there by myself.
14:25And it was traumatic.
14:26It was traumatic because it really crippled me as a designer.
14:33It stopped me and felt, it made me feel like my dreams stopped.
14:39And it shattered me.
14:41So it took me a couple months to really recover.
14:45And I only share this because after healing, therapy, and everything else,
14:51I realized my armed robbery could have been a stroke for someone else.
14:57You know, someone's mom or someone's family member or, you know, a spouse died while you are launching a business.
15:05So do know that there's going to be things that are going to stop you, but it's how you react to it.
15:12So I reacted by creating shirts that says, like, on my way to therapy, be right back.
15:17So I did things that kind of kept me going.
15:21But you have to heal through the process, no matter what the traumatic event might have been.
15:27So, again, there's going to be obstacles, but you need to figure out how you could let your business, you know, aid you in getting better.
15:35Not sinking yourself in work now, but making sure it's allowing you to move forward if that's what you choose to do.
15:41So using these elements, I'm hoping that you guys will go ahead and start your own T-shirt company.
15:48So, again, some key tips.
15:51We get T-shirts.
15:52Now we order.
15:53We've become, by working smarter and not harder, we now have these reusable bottles.
16:02And so these reusable bottles we order in bulk internationally.
16:06And so our T-shirts we also order in bulk.
16:09And then we print in-house on demand as well.
16:13So you have to think about how to begin to make this a business and not just a side hustle.
16:20Thank you, guys.
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