Sistahbiz Spotlight on Jeneba Barrie

My one piece of advice is to be confident and know why you started the business in the first place. Once you have the confidence and remember the “why”, you will be able to overcome hardships.

In the morning, I get my sons (23 months old and 2 months old) ready for the day. I get ready for the day and begin replying to emails, calls and settle down to do more work on my business.

My pumps are still in the pre-order phase. But we did 4 rounds of prototyping. We will be doing another round for lower heel lengths because that is the biggest request from potential customers.

My husband and I raised the money to begin prototyping. We then launched a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter to raise capital for our first production run.

The area of business that I had the least experience in was finding manufacturers and tanneries in Italy (where the shoes are made). But I researched and was able to find a middle man that connected us to these factories.

Of course! My product, in its DNA, is targeted at women of all skin tones and race. My advice is to be your authentic self and show how your product can make their lives better.

My first big deal was raising our first production funding through Kickstarter. I achieved this by preparing (over 8 months). I collected email addresses, told everyone on my social media channels, and asked people for commitments before actually launching the campaign. Preparing this way allowed me to raise well over $5,000 more than my original goal.

A great disappointment that I learned is that people will let you down. They will fail to keep their promises. Learning this has taught me to have less of an emotional and more pragmatic approach to running my business, and that is a big deal and helps alleviate stress.