Meet Brittany McIntyre | Creator of Shade911 & Small Business Mentor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brittany McIntyre and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittany, what do you attribute your success to?
I believe the most important factor behind my success is being authentic and being interactive with my customers. I also believe that if you show your audience authenticity, that they will gravitate towards you. Being a new business owner and not really knowing much about marketing I had to figure out a way to gain brand awareness, so I decided to start doing pop up shop events around the city of Atlanta. Within the last 3 years I have both attended and/or hosted over 50 plus pop up shops in North Carolina and Georgia. Pop up shops are a way for me to show people the face behind the brand, interact with new customers and network with other business owners. I also wrote an eBook named “How to Pop Up at a Pop Up Shop”. The eBook highlights how to prepare for a pop up shop, how to display your table, networking tips, and how to gain new customers. With these strategies, alone with great customer service my business has been successful.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I have an e-commerce eye-wear brand that focuses on providing affordable everyday eye-wear accessories to on-trend women. My brand is to encourage women to feel comfortable with enhancing their daily looks, by making a statement with their eye-wear.

Social media had me thinking that being an entrepreneur was the dream life but a lot of small business owners never highlight the behind the scenes struggles that they face, only the glamorous parts. I feel like if you display to your customers both the ups and downs in business, connections will form and essentially that will then build trust. You definitely have to be willing to put in the work before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Some challenges that I have faced was knowing my target marketing and understanding their needs as a customer. I also had to learn that you will have your good days and you will have your bad days, but it is solely up to you to keep going. You have to be self-motivated and know that if you are putting in work everyday, that there is no way that your business will fell. I know that my business will be worth millions one day because I am willing to build trustworthy relationships with my customers and to continuously re-invest back into my brand.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am really a homebody at heart, so if we were to go out it would be to eat at a black owned restaurant in the city and maybe a hookah lounge afterwards. A few of the restaurants that we would visit are Nana’s Chicken & Waffle, Rock South Cuisine, and definitely a Mexican restaurant because I love Mexican food. And if they are a little more on the adventurous side we would go take a hike up Stone Mountain.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to my friends and family because they have always supported me 100%.

Website: www.shade911.com

Instagram: @Shade911

Facebook: @Shade911

Image Credits
Brittany McIntyre