We had the good fortune of connecting with Courtney & Morgan Kalosis and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Courtney & Morgan, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important factor behind our success/the success of MKay Style is that you do not need to be perfect or know everything before starting a business. We are a mom and daughter team with a full life outside of MKay Style and we have organically let things fall into place. We feel that if we can start a small business, then anyone has the opportunity to start a small business. We also believe that you can gain life skills from starting a business young and we are here today to show that young entrepreneurship is possible.
Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have worked in the professional outside sales corporate environment for 18 years and still do. MKay Style is a small business that we do on the side of my day job. We work on MKay Style early in the mornings and in the evenings. I credit my years in the corporate selling environment for my drive to keep going even when things are slow or we have a small business challenge. My corporate job has also given us flexibility to take a little risk on inventory and small marketing investments. Also, everything related to e-commerce, social media marketing, and technology had had to be learned, my exposure to the business environment has given me a strong foundation as to what we need to do as a small business to move forward with MKay Style.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A week around Atlanta would include:
✨ A day in the city! The Coca-Cola Museum, the Aquarium, the Ferris wheel, & Piedmont Park. Spend this woukd be a great day to visit Virginia-Highlands and grab dinner.
✨ Bike the belt line and stop along the way to enjoy the character and city charm it has to offer. Also, don’t forget to visit Ponce City Market and eat throughout the day!
✨ Climb Stone Mountain and watch the laser show. It is a traditional Atlanta place to go and a cool thing to see.
✨ Go see a Braves game! Enjoy The Battery and enjoy the overall experience.
✨ Drive to Blue Ridge and find a hike. The North GA Mountains are beautiful!
✨ Check out Serenbe and see where the stars and movie goes like to be!
✨ Take a suburban drive to the Alpharetta/Milton area. It is a beautiful community and has new development with a lot of amenities and free entertainment.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
From Morgan— My Mom, because when I went to her at age eight, and said I wanted to start my own high end fashion business, like Sara Blakley, she said “Ok, let’s do it.” We are not a high-end fashion business but we do have preppy and trendy products for girls, tweens, teens, young women, and women.
From Courtney-
My Daughter, Morgan, because she gave me the motivation and drive to move forward in the commitment to start a business. I always wanted to have a meaningful business but could never figure out what my business idea was going to be. I did not want to let her down or say we would do something and not do it. Morgan also regularly followed up with me on MKay Style to be sure it wasn’t dropped when life got busy during a transitional time. I also want to give credit to the Friends Of Choa Milton Chapter for proactively reaching out to us to be a part of a fundraising event. It was our first exposure into the community, our first fundraising event, and a pinnacle moment when I realized we were an actual small business with products people liked.
Website: https://mkaystyle.com/
Instagram: @mkaystyle
Other: TikTok- mkaystyleontiktok Etsy- MKayStyle
Image Credits
All images are home grown other than the main image who was done by Pamela Lennard