Marketing Minority-Owned Businesses (with Sweet Rose Waxing Co.)

Vivian:
Back by popular demand, we have Bré from Sweet Rose Waxing Company. If you guys remember the last time we had her on our podcast, we were actually talking about rebranding. She has a spa here locally in Summerville, South Carolina, and she was going through the transition of rebranding her business. Instead today we are talking about marketing and promoting your business as a minority owned business. I think this is probably one of those things where perhaps you have a small business that can be promoted in this way and maybe you're just not doing it. Hint ladies, if you are a female owned business, you are in that category of minority owned small business.

So we don't want you to miss out on resources that you potentially have available to you just because you're not thinking of yourself in this particular category.

Chelsea:
Let's open this conversation by saying question for you, Bré. As a woman of color who owns a small business, how do you feel it has impacted the way you promote yourself? How would you say it's changed the way that you go about marketing your business?

Vivian:
Or has it at all?

Bré:
Honestly, it hasn't really impacted so much. I do get a lot of people asking, is this a small-owned business? Is this a minority-owned business? Who owns this business, and I take it from there. However it comes to me is how I market myself, how I network myself, my business. I just base it off how it comes to me and not so much pushing out.

Chelsea:
So if people are asking, "is this a black owned business", "is this a woman owned business", then yes, of course - but you're not going to start that conversation with that information.

Bré:
Right, I typically don't. Not because I'm ashamed or anything. It's because everyone has certain things that they're looking for and I'm willing to give them what they're looking for from me. If I can give you that information, I will give you that information. Mainly it's whoever comes to me about whatever they're looking for in that moment. That's the information I'll give.

Vivian:
I do love that there's a give and take to this, right? It's not like you have a canned verbiage that you approach somebody new with. It's almost like you let their questions dictate where you start that conversation, and then you lean into that. I do think that's where, as small business owners, maybe you feel the pull to lead with being a minority owned business. For those of you that are listening that don't know, Chelsea and I are actually Hispanic. I know shocking because I'm so pale, but we do come in this shade. The one thing that's interesting is we don't really go out there and put on our website we're minority owned. Now, I will say after doing some of the research, I was on some of these small business administration websites, and there are lot of resources out there. I do think that we're gonna get certified and then be able to put that on the website and let people know we do fall into this category. But on top of you guys just being able to promote yourself as a minority owned business, they do have special loans that you could get. Or if you have certification, I know that the government is required to do a percentage of their contracts with small or minority-owned businesses. There are other advantages to that.

Chelsea:
Vivian, I feel like you're skipping ahead for this conversation because we actually are going to go through a list of resources.

Vivian:
I'm sorry. Please go ahead. I didn't mean to skip ahead.

Chelsea:
Bré - have you seen customers come in to Sweet Rose specifically looking to support minority owned businesses, is that a common occurrence?

Bré:
Yeah, absolutely it happens every day. I do have it on my Google account that I am a black-owned business, a woman-owned business. So whenever they come in they'll say, "I see that this is a black-owned business." Yes, ma'am. It is, I'm the owner. Then the conversation goes from there.

For instance, today I went to go get some coffee and one of the girls that I see almost every day, she goes, "I didn't know that you owned the business." I don't say it often enough, but yeah, I do own the business. That's why I work so much. So I know personally, I don't go out and say, "hey, I own a business", but my face is out there. I talk about it all the time, if they come to me and ask me about it, I'll tell them.

Chelsea:
I love that.

If you haven't watched the episode where we talk about rebranding with Bré, go watch that episode. I'm going to mention it because in that conversation, we talked about Bré's new branding and how her focus for Sweet Rose is personalization and giving her customers what they want. I think what you said earlier, "I will give them what they want from me". That is a great example of your branding being such a core part of your business. As a brand, Sweet Rose is about giving people, giving her customers what they want. So you're here to say, you're looking for a minority-owned business, you're looking for a black-owned business, you're looking for a woman-owned business. That's who I am. After you've stated that that's what you're looking for. So that's a great example of branding being on point.

Vivian:
I also love that she mentioned the Google business profile and being able to update that. So if you guys have not recently gone in there and looked at what your options are to update your profile, please do so. I think they've added quite a few categories. I believe veteran owned is one of them...

Chelsea:
LGBTQ+. When we were discussing this conversation, Vivian had said, "but what about veteran owned? You're saying minority, but veterans aren't minorities." You're thinking too much about this. When it comes to minority owned businesses - it's going to be a business owned by a group of people or a person from a group that is represented 49 % of the time. So in this scenario, a veteran is a minority owned business. Veteran is considered a minority, just like people of color, women, LGBTQ+, that's going to be considered a minority.

Vivian:
I am glad that you brought up what they base their stipulations on because I do think that it's a common misconception for an old lady like me, in her 40s. We do think minority owned, and often think Hispanic owned, Black women owned or something like that, very rarely we think veteran, right? I'm glad that you clarified and you're informing all of us.

Chelsea:
Yeah. I just want to make sure small business owners, if you think you're not a minority because you're not a person of color, but you are a veteran, then you are considered minority. So you can get these resources. You can label yourself as a minority owned business. I don't want you guys missing out on ways to differentiate yourselves.

So Bré, you updated your Google profile so that it says your minority-owned business. I also want to mention at Sweet Rose, all of your employees are people of color as well. So I think, obviously, I don't think you did that on purpose, but I think subconsciously, it is really important to you.

Bré:
I would say it is. I love the people that I have working for me. I've had an assortment of people, different ethnicities, working for me. It's just this group of girls have been with me now for a year, two years. I am actually looking to hire or to train more people, anybody. But this is the group that I have, and they're great. Everyone loves them. They're very open. They see and talk to anybody.

Chelsea:
Which I think is super important for a esthetician, a waxer. I need to feel comfortable with you. Yes. I love that.

Bré:
Yeah, we're well versed with everyone.

Vivian:
I love where we're at now in small businesses where diversity is very important to everybody. Everyone has equal opportunity to run businesses and to manage and do all that. Coming from a corporate background, I've been doing that for a long time and it still is not as prevalent in the corporate world. I think that's what draws me into the small business side of things, there are people out there that are doing some kick ass stuff because they don't have to fit in boxes. You have a business idea, you open it, you can hire people that are the best qualified for what they're doing. I love seeing that side of it as opposed to the other side, which I think takes a little longer to catch up sometimes on corporate side of it.

Chelsea:
Small business owners, you may be feeling a little iffy about waving your flag out there and saying, I'm a minority owned business. Again, Bré only brings that up when people are looking for that information. You can do it like that. You can be very vocal and very open about who you are as well. I think it's important to consider that there are more opportunities to create and build a community and build a connection with audience members when you do focus on those minority groups. You guys are experiencing things in the same way. I'm not saying everyone's experience is the same but I'm saying you guys have something that connects you in a way that they're more willing to be open to you and willing to take that chance with you as a small business.

Vivian:
An example of that is when Chelsea sends me these reels on Instagram where it's a Hispanic guy that's explaining, you know, things all Hispanic people understand from their childhood, right? And then he rattles of cultural things that people would experience growing up. It's familiar.

The one that kind of sticks out to me is if you're a veteran owned business, obviously that's a very different experience, right? Having served in the armed forces in some type of way, it's a very different experience than living that civilian lifestyle. So you already have that connection where - you're deemed a veteran owned business, they happen to be a veteran too. They feel like "we have a similar background or experience and therefore maybe they understand my needs a little better".

Bré:
I agree with what you said Vivian. Having that background and connecting with a lot of people, with my clients. I have a lot of business owners and we connect in a lot of different ways, not just being a minority. We just talk about what, as a business owners, we go through on a daily basis. It could be anything, finance, could be clientele, and it could just really be anything in how things work in the business world. So I agree to that. Having my clients know that I'm the business owner and them being business owners as well, we connect that way. We talk about it all the time.

It's something that's one of our key points. Whenever they come in, "how's business?" "Great." "What happened this month?" "This is what's going on." Connection in that way and networking, the best networking as well.

Chelsea:
If you're not crazy about networking, I get it, but guess what? That's the easiest way to get your name out there.

Vivian:
I'm just going to plug as a reminder, we do have our SOB, Small Owned Business community. It helps to be able to talk about that stuff with other people that are going through it, because they understand all of the important things that come with these decisions. It's nice when you have someone on the other end that says, hey, me too. So we do have our SOB community. If you're looking for a group of other small owned businesses to talk to about mostly marketing, conversations centered around that, but you can make some great connections there.

Chelsea:
I also want to say - you can create a community for minorities without excluding people. I want to make that very clear. So in case you're thinking, my God, I don't want to say I'm a woman owned business because I don't want men to not come to my business. That's not going to happen.

Okay, maybe it would happen a little bit, but do you really want...let me not even go there. I'm sorry. My point is you can create a community without excluding others. It does not have to be like an exclusive club.

Vivian:
I'm glad you did bring that up. I think it could be a very touchy subject just because like you said, they want to be sure that there's diversity on all ends and that they're not excluding people. There is a way. Just like we always talk about niching down, right? So you can be broad in your business, or you can niche down and say, this is the type of person that I want to serve. In the same way you can do that with approaching this minority owned type of label to it. What I mean is, for example, I know there are Facebook groups for people that want to support whether that be LGBTQ+ or whether that be Hispanic owned.

On the other end, if you're Hispanic and you own a small business and you're a woman, then there are Facebook groups that are tailored to that as well. So I think it's not so much that you're leading with it, but if it's something that somebody wants to say, I have a budget and I would prefer to spend my dollars with a small business owner that aligns with what I'm looking for, then whether that be veteran owned or whatever it is, if that's you, then you want your name to be in the hat for that. So you're just saying, hey, if you happen to be looking to support a small business owner that's also a minority owned business, then I fit that category too.

Chelsea:
There are three ways you can take your marketing. You could say my brand is for and about my community. So I'm all about LGBTQ+, I'm all about people of color. You could go that way. You could do what Bré is doing and say, you know, my brand isn't focused on my minority community, but I do include that information. I do bring it up with the community if they're looking for that information. Or you could say, I'm not bringing up the fact that my brand is minority owned at all. No one needs to know. You could do that. That is an option. There are no rules. You can do whatever you want with your small business. I do think it is great for you to use all of the selling points you have. So I would shy away from not having that information available at all, just because that is a unique selling point.

So let's talk about resources for small business owners that are minority owned. Bré, do you have any resources that you have found for minority owned businesses that you want to share or just really any resources at all that you use?

Bré:
I've just been doing a lot of networking, going to small businesses around Summerville, talking to them and just shopping with small businesses and exchanging services and stuff like that.

Vivian:
Do you utilize Facebook groups to get your name out there? Are any of them specific to minority owned?

Bré:
No, not right now. I haven't gone in a deep dive into the Facebook groups yet. But I should. That's a good point. I should do that. I'll look for some.

Chelsea:
I think we should remember that Bré just went through a big rebrand. She went from being a franchise owner to owning her own small business. So she's starting from scratch. She is starting over.

Which I love that honesty because you know Vivian and I are on here every week, and we're telling you guys things that you can do to umph up your marketing. You're probably sitting here like my god Vivian, Chelsea, I don't have time to do this. We understand. Prioritize. We just want to help you guys so whenever you are ready, you can sit down and say, Vivian and Chelsea said I should try this. So let me try that.

Resources for small business owners who are minorities. Vivian, do you have any you want to start this conversation off with?

Vivian:
Okay, so resources for small businesses. The Small Business Administration, the SBA.gov is a really big one, y'all. I think that's the first place I would go to if I were thinking about whether you're looking to certify or you're just looking to see if it's worth your time to certify. I do think that we're going to go ahead and get certified as a minority owned business. There is an application and all of that. There are two routes for you to go about doing that. There is a small fee to it, but once you look to see if the resources benefit you, I think then you're able to make that judgment if it's worth your time to go through all of that. For us, there's a women small business or a women business chamber. I think that's really great. You can join that annually, and it helps to just stay up to date with things that are going on in women-owned businesses. You do get a discount off of that membership or off of your certification if you join that first. There are lots of resources out there. On top of it, I think being able to look at grants, grants really make a difference.

Chelsea:
Yeah, some examples of grants would be the Minority Development Business Agency. They have grants out there. AT&T has a supplier diversity program. There are a lot of big brands that are looking to help small business owners and have grants available.

The information that I found said there were three ways to get a certification. You could go to the National Minority Supplier Development Council and get a certificate there. You could also get a certificate from your federal government or state and local government. Most chamber of commerce websites have that listed. So you can find that information.

A lot of these social media platforms have the capabilities and have special labels, so you can label your business as part of a specific group. A great example for us would be on YouTube. We are labeled as minority creators.

Vivian:
I didn't even know that was a thing on YouTube.

Chelsea:
Well, it's a good thing I'm the one who set up our channel for the podcast. We are labeled as a minority creator on YouTube for the podcast. Maybe you should do that for The Seasoned Marketer.

Vivian:
Yeah, interesting. I love that. You know, it makes me think too that if these platforms are allowing you to categorize your business as one of these, then obviously on the back end, they're having to think about rolling out something like a resource attached to it.

So that's a great insight and I think just a future indicator of what we may see down the road from YouTube because that's a fairly new one for me.

Chelsea:
So those are some resources. Guys, if you have other resources that we didn't list, go ahead and leave them in comment section, send us a DM, all that stuff. Let's share that information so we can help other minority-owned businesses get out there.

It is so important as a small business to stand out. So any edge that you can find that's going to help you get in front of your target audience, go for it. It's just really important to remember who your target audience is.

Those are the people you want to talk to. Bré, her branding means that she cares about personalization. She knows her target audience and knows when to say, yeah, I am a black owned business. yeah, I am a woman owned business. It's not something that she always needs to bring up. Great example of using your differentiation, your unique selling point, using that edge to go the extra mile when it comes to your customers and your target audience.

Vivian:
If you do take the time to get certified as any one of those, I would put that on ads. You've already gone through it to be deemed as an organization that fits their criteria. It's up to you guys whenever you're using this, but I would definitely lean in if you've taken the time to go through that process to utilize it to your advantage on, whether that be print ads or billboards or anything like that.

Chelsea:
I want to ask you a closing question to wrap up this conversation for minority owned businesses navigating their marketing. What's going to be your number one tip?

Rozabre (32:38.701)
For navigating marketing for minority-owned businesses, I would say...Just be open about any type of marketing. Be out there.

Chelsea:
Bré, kudos to you because when we first started marketing together and stuff like that, you were really hesitant about being the face of a business. Now you make it very clear who owns Sweet Rose Wax Co. You are not hiding behind the shadows. You show up on social media. You're doing the videos. Because you still actually do all of your services, when people come in and they're with you, you're open about, I am the owner. You're being very transparent.

Bré:
Yeah, I want to be out there. I want people to see my face. I want people to know it's me and that I am the owner. I'm not saying just jump in their face like, I'm the owner of this company. But if they ask, yes, I am the owner.

Vivian:
I think that helps too, that you're approachable to people. It gives an opportunity for open communication. If there was a little mishap or something in communication, but then they feel like instead of writing a review about, or instead of going somewhere else and telling someone, they have direct access to you to say, hey, by the way, during check-in this happened or whatever. I think that's where small business owners, sometimes we miss the mark where, if we separate ourselves too much from it, then you don't have a good handle on that open communication line. Just saying, bring me the great feedback. Also bring me anything that wasn't so great so that I can fix it immediately, right?

Bré:
Right. That's a big thing I let all my clients know. I can't fix what I don't know. So if you come to me and talk to me about it, I'll be able to fix it. I can help you with it. But if I don't know, then I can't fix it. With clients checking out, I'm always at the desk. How was your service? That's the first question I ask after each service. How was your service? Not just me, but my girls as well. How was your service? Even if we were the one that just waxed you. I'm going to ask you anyway, and I really would appreciate an honest answer.

I love the positive feedback, but I also love the bad too. I want to fix it, what can I fix? I even ask my employees the same thing. What can we fix? What can I do different? What do you think about this? I keep an open communication with not just the employees, but the clients as well.

Vivian:
Constructive feedback is always very important. It's funny because I always feel like the businesses that could use the constructive feedback, they're like, no, we're doing everything perfect. I guarantee you, you're not. Always room for improvement, but yeah.

Chelsea:
Well, I think that was our conversation today. Thank you, Bré, so much for coming on here again and giving us your time. I know you're busy with the spa. So y'all, Bré is the owner of Sweet Rose Waxing Company in downtown Summerville.

Bré:
Thank you ladies again for having me. I really appreciate y'all. My business is Sweet Rose Waxing Company at 437 North Main Street. Stop in, give me a call (843) 285-5981 or look us up Sweet Rose Wax Co on all platforms.