Name: Rashann Boyd
Business Name: A Hustler’s Vibe
Year Business was started in New Haven: My business legally was started in early 2019
Why did you start your own business?
I started my own business because I have always had the hustler’s mentality since a youth. Starting in high school selling candy in the school hallways. I made pretty good money doing it so I figured if I switched the product, I could make a living off of it.
Why did you choose to start your business in New Haven?
Because this is where I was born and raised so in the beginning stages I figured the love and support from my friends and family would support my business and dreams and help it flourish.
What challenges did you have to overcome in starting your business?
Starting out business wasn’t the easiest due to me not having that much knowledge on the clothing industry itself or any business loans or grants or any type of investors to get the brand up and running. I started with 12 T-shirts out the trunk of my car. I would YouTube videos on how to operate a clothing brand, also took courses to learn about the different printing methods and fabrics to print on. Having to travel city to city to make sales and meet up with customers. Traveling state to state for pop-up shops & spending most of my profits on more products, marketing and knowledge with hope of my brand growing in the process. So, I the beginning I didn’t really profit much so I had to trust the process and continue to grow my inventory. Not to mention the clothing industry is a big industry filled with millions of brands so not only did I have to be creative, I had to master the art of being consistent to keep the brand in the customers faces at the same time, which got me from out of the trunk of my car to a store front location.
