Your Name: Tyrika Williams
Name of your business: mainelement: love
How long have you been in business?: Five years
Type of Business: aromatherapy based hair care products
Your Website: MaineLement:Love
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1. Tell me a bit about the person(s) behind the brand. A little about me: My name is Tyrika Williams and I’ve been natural over five years now. I’m wife to an amazingly supportive husband and mother to three highly energetic young boys. In addition to supporting women on their healthy hair care journey, I’m also a licensed massage therapist and aromatherapist. I’m quite passionate about women caring for themselves from head to toe, from the inside out.
2. What influenced your decision to start your business/brand? mainelement: love started when I was at a point in my life where I was forced to make some changes. My skin was in terrible shape and I’d just made the decision to big chop. With all those changes, I’d started learning how to make my personal care products, both for my body and my hair. The company actually started out as a bath and body line, and due to an overwhelming interest by people I would encounter in how I was caring for my own natural hair, the hair care line was born. I eventually discontinued the bath and body line to focus on the hair care entirely after realizing all my passion and energy was being spent on that part of the business.
3. What obstacle(s) did you face when you first decided to launch your own business/brand ? Deciding to launch a business is easy. Maintaining the drive and dedication to see it through is the hard part. My biggest obstacle was learning how to make my passion my business and not just a hobby. Even when you love what you do, there are aspects of running a business that aren’t glamorous, yet require just as much attention as the ‘fun’ parts.
4. What keeps you motivated? My family has always been my ultimate motivation. On days where there seems to be more work than exciting, engaging moments, I remember that I’m able to be with and provide for my family because of my business. In addition to that, my customers keep me motivated. Every time I’m able to help someone with a piece of advice, a word of encouragement, or one of my products, I’m encouraged to keep going.
- What is the most important lesson you’ve learned as a woman in business? I find the most important thing to keep front of mind as a woman in business is to maintain your ethics and integrity in everything you do. As a woman in business, women buy not only because they like what you have to offer but because they like and can relate to you. If you present yourself as one person, yet your true persona is something very different, people will lose trust in you and in turn in your offering.
7. What does success mean to you? Success is different for everyone; everyone’s motivation is different. For me, success is being able to live a purposeful life. To live comfortably and be able to serve others in some fashion, that’s the level of success I’m always striving for.
8. What makes your brand unique? mainelement: love’s products are created with elements of aromatherapy, allowing women take a holistic approach to caring for their hair. I created mainelement: love because I want women to understand the importance of loving themselves enough to care about what they put in and on their body from head to toe. We tend to take great care of everyone around us, yet put ourselves last. mainelement: love is a way for women to care for themselves with products that they have to use everyday. It’s a way to love their self every day.
