BDO: What would you say has been the most rewarding aspect so far and the most stressful aspect so far?
CD: I think the rewarding part is just seeing my employees grow as people and how working for me is empowering them. I’m a perfectionist. I’m like a psycho control freak [laughs] and I expect a lot and I think for them, they are forced to push themselves to their limit and just realize, “Hey, I’m good at something. Not only am I good at something, I’m great at it.” Whether it’s putting labels on a product or making the actual products, it’s like you can’t be here if you’re not amazing at it. A lot of times, I see things in them that they may not see in themselves, and I think for them the experience is like not only are you good and amazing at something, but you’re amazing at something that’s sold in Target, you know what I’m saying? Like, I couldn’t do this without you all. So, when I’m riding them about how the boxes have to be perfect and there can’t be any shave marks, they will walk into a Target and be like, “I did that.” Even though I’m in charge of more of the higher-level things, it’s rewarding for me to see people of all levels feel that they’ve have contributed to this and that they’re good or great at what they do.
I think the most stressful part at this point is I can’t keep up with my emails like I used to. And now it’s either my email versus getting stuff done. I have to keep a mental list of what I’m working on and focus on more tasks versus responding to emails. It’s not the most efficient thing, but it’s the way I work right now.
BDO: What would you say to naturalistas who have tried nearly every product and every brand out there and they don’t see results? What makes TGIN different?
CD: It works [laughs]. I think what makes it different is again, that level of detail, that level of it has to be right. I bring that to the table, my employees bring that to the table. We’re like Apple in the sense that you may try one of our products and you really love it, but we’re always behind the scenes trying to make it better. So, you may be on Butter Cream 2.0, but we’re behind the scenes working on Butter Cream 5.0. Like I said, we’re like Apple in the sense that it could always be better. Like the iPhone could always run faster, always have a better camera, we’re constantly thinking about our products in that sense. I want it to always be better like you may love this, but I don’t want it to be good. I want it to be great and then when it’s great, I want it to be amazing. That is our philosophy. We’re always reading customer feedback and then we try to incorporate it into our products.
On a more practical sense, our products do what they say they’re going to do. I don’t promise it’s going to grow your hair down to your bra strap – that’s not what this line does. What we do is make your hair softer, more moisturized and more manageable. And when you use our products, you will say, “Oh my God, this shampoo makes my hair so soft and so easy to detangle and so fluffy.” And I don’t think a lot of products on the market give the softness that we are helping women to achieve. So that softness, that moisture, that manageability combined with wanting to be the best and constantly improve our products is what separates us from the pack.
BDO: What are some of the daily challenges that you face with being an entrepreneur?
CD: It’s hard for me to get my stuff done. When you’re running a company, a lot of what you’re doing is delegating and that means throughout your day, you’re delegating and things are coming back to you so you’re hearing what other people are doing and helping them get their work done, but a lot of the things that really fall on me I can’t get done until the weekend and so that’s one of the things that kind of frustrates me [laughs]. Another thing is I want things to be right and so it can be frustrating sometimes where you’re like, “There is a reason why I’m asking you to do something, there’s reason why it has to be this way.” You have to get people to a point where they see the importance of excellence, especially as a Black-owned company in a national retailer. The responsibility that comes with that is huge so we cannot slack on any little detail.
BDO: What advice would you give to other Black female entrepreneurs who are just starting out?
CD: There are three things I like to tell people. The first thing is to make sure your personal finances are in order. The first step you need to take care of is like Chris-Tia Inc. or Chris-Tia LLC., meaning like your credit needs to be cleaned up because all of the stuff will come back to bite you so make sure your personal finances are in order. The second thing is have a business plan. A lot of people just want to jump in and that’s great, but just have a little document. It doesn’t need to be anything over the top or super impressive. Just have a business plan that basically gives your guiding principles on what you as a company are trying to achieve or work toward. And then the third thing is get a grip early on what’s coming in and what’s going out as far as numbers go. Those would be my three pieces of advice.
BDO: What are ways Black women can combat negative stereotypes, like the recent comments that were made by Giuliana Rancic regarding Zendaya’s dreadlocks, that really tear at the self-esteem of Black women and girls?
CD: That level of ignorance doesn’t even merit a response in my opinion and to be honest, in most situations – you know, I’ve been in this game for a long time and in most situations, it’s not just white people making those comments – it’s other Black women making those comments. So, it’s not like, “What can we do for the Giuliana Rancics of the world?” It’s more like, “What can do we do for the people of the world that hold these types of beliefs?” And at the end of the day, you’ve got to know deep down inside that you’re beautiful. You cannot wait for someone to validate you.
Thank God It’s Natural Founder Chris-Tia Donaldson Talks Empowering Black Women, Brand Building & New Target Partnership was originally published on blackdoctor.org
