288: How Monique Little Grew Her Natural Hair Accessory Brand into a Multimillion Dollar Company

Side Hustle Pro

Nicaila Matthews Okome | Side Hustle Pro Media

Nicailamatthewsokome, Blackwomenentrepreneurs, Sidehustle, Blackpodcast, Sidehustlepro, Marketing, Sidehustles, Business, Smallbusinesspodcast, Sidehustleshow, Blackownedbusiness, Blackwomenownedbusiness, Blackwomen, Blackentrepreneurs, Smallbusinessshow, Businesspodcast, Entrepreneurship, Smallbusinessowners

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week I chat with Monique Little, CEO & Founder of You Go Natural, one of the nation’s fastest growing natural hair accessory brands. Little founded the company to address the need for easy styling options for women who opt to wear their hair in its natural state. Having started with just a sewing machine, some remnant fabric from her mother’s stash and an idea, in just five years Little has successfully grown a multimillion dollar brand.

In this episode you will learn:

How wanting more freedom in her schedule led to the start of You Go Natural
How she got her product to grow in the first six months to a point where she was making more than her full time job’s salary
How she went from working with contractors to opening up a facility and hiring full time employee
When she decided to raise capital and how she had to explain the black women’s beauty experience to people who didn’t understand the need for her product
Her marketing strategy for scaling the business, when she knew it was time to bring in an external team, & how being in your own target market helps with knowing what to say to your audience + much more!

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You Go Natural: @YouGoNatural

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Side Hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your
0:07.1	side hustle from passion project to profitable business, and I'm your host, Nikaela Matthews
0:12.7	Accomay.
0:13.7	So let's get started.
0:15.9	Hey guys, hey, welcome, welcome back to the podcast.
0:21.5	It's Nikaela here and today in the guest chair, I have Monique Little, who is the founder
0:26.5	and CEO of the Hugo Natural brand.
0:30.2	Now I first heard about this brand from my friend, Shantel, shout out to Shantel, who taught
0:35.2	me about these awesome t-shirt buns that Hugo Natural has where it looks like a pre-tied
0:41.2	bun that you did yourself and you're able to just rock it.
0:44.7	And this came in clutch for me, especially in my post-partum days.
0:49.6	So I have been rocking them through workouts, through running to the store, anything I can
0:54.9	think of just lounging around the house, deep conditioning my hair, whatever you can think
0:59.0	of.
1:00.0	I have been so grateful for this brand and I'm so glad that I can finally have her in the
1:03.3	guest chair.
1:04.3	So a little bit about Monique, she got her fashion, she got her start in fashion retail
1:08.2	as a teenager.
1:09.6	She founded the company to address the need for easy styling options for women who opt
1:14.3	to wear their hair in its natural state.
1:16.8	And she started with a sewing machine just using some leftover fabric that her mom has.
1:21.7	And now in going on six years, she has grown it into a multi-million dollar brand and
	...

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