For a 30-year-old, Alexandra Cristin has done astoundingly well for herself. She is an entrepreneur, model, and reality TV star. On the entrepreneurship front, the model founded her Glam Seamless company back in 2012 and has made a name for herself selling hair extensions.
Cristin got the inspiration to start her own business from YouTube after seeing others do well for themselves doing business online. The hair extensions idea came naturally, especially since she has been rocking them from her early teenage years.
Extremely Passionate
While starting out, the business was nothing more than a side hustle; a means to earn a little extra income. Fortunately for Cristin, that she was extremely passionate about hair extensions set her a step above her competitors, and she was on course to dominate a market she had just ventured into.
Also, the strategy she set out with had all the hallmarks of success before she had even made her first sale. As she recalls, she did thorough research on all hair extensions that were available online, then decided to sell those that were yet to join the e-commerce bandwagon.
As you may very well know, monopolizing a product works extremely well for the business in question, and this is exactly how it went down with Glam Seamless. Seven years down the line and Alexandra Cristin is running an eight-figure organization offering over 100 types of hair extensions, all of which can be set to fit at least twelve different hairstyles.
From the very beginning, the 30-year-old has known how powerful a tool social media can be in the running of a successful business and has made sure that she exploits this avenue to the maximum. Currently, Glam Seamless has a following of more than 200,000, and you best believe that this number grows daily.
But in as much as this may look like the perfect success story, things weren’t always as smooth as they seem for Alexandra. She remembers how she used to work for as many as 100 hours per week just to get to where she wanted, and the model admits that it wasn’t easy at all.
Experience, the Best Teacher
The best thing about such difficulties is that although they teach you some tough lessons, you can then use your experience to advise those intending to follow a path similar to yours. Cristina has a few words of advice herself, and she starts with finding the right team to work with.
As she puts it, hiring your first employees is a tedious process but you have to keep at it if you want to take steps in the right direction. And once you get them, train them and set standards while still being patient with them.
For most entrepreneurs, there comes a time when they are faced with the dilemma of maintaining 100% equity or bringing investors on board. When this time comes, Cristina advises that you should think long and hard about whether you like being bossed around and following other people’s directives. If yes, go the investor route. If not, find another way. For her, the other way was to take out loans to keep her business afloat.
And would it be entrepreneurial advice from Alexandra Cristin without mentioning the use of social media? The lady insists on creating a powerful online presence that resonates with your target market.
