Page 68 of Ony If It's You
“No, I know, I just want to grow.”
“And you will, Lani, a little hickey won’t stop that.”
That was why I loved my best friend. She kept me grounded. It didn’t matter what I was doing or where I was doing it, she was always going to be there with me.
“Fine.” I breathed in and out a few times so that I could calm down. “Okay, I’m good.”
We had arrived downtown at The Metropolitan where the event was being held. I was a ball of nerves. It was a little intimidating knowing that I was about to be surrounded by a lot of women that were way more successful than I was, but it was also very motivating. I wanted to expand and grow my business so bad that I could taste it.
“You look fine, let’s go,” Celeste said, closing the visor and killing the engine on the car.
Take one last deep breath, I put the strap to my purse over my head and climbed out of the car. Celeste and I grabbed hands and walked inside together. It was small things like this that mattered to me with her. She knew I was still a nervous wreck although I told her I was good.
The event was being held in the boardroom, so the receptionist pointed us in the right direction. I was a little confused about it being in the boardroom because it was a convention. I expected it to be a large crowd, but it was only few people there.
“Kehlani?” Samiya was seated in the front of the room at the head of the table. I was fangirling a little bit, so I didn’t say anything until Celeste elbowed me.
“Oh, uh, yeah, um I’m Kehlani a-and this is my best friend, Celeste.”
“Hey, Celeste.” She smiled at my best friend. “I was just waiting on you guys to get here. You can have those seats.”
We went where she was pointing and took a seat.
“Okay, so all four of you looked the same exact way when you walked in here.” She laughed. There were only four of us other than her in here. “I like to do these things in small numbers so that I can make it more personal. It’s hard to answer everyone’s questions when it’s a large number so I prefer the small, intimate ones. Now I selected all of you ladies because you all have small businesses that I want to help you expand.”
We all nodded as we looked at each other.
“Okay so what I think is most important in owning and operating a successful business is doing what you love. I say that because you can’t convince me that something is good for me or anyone else if you don’t think it’s the best. Okay, let’s go around the room and introduce our passions to each other.”
Samiya dropped some jewels on us at the convention. I was a lot more confident in my career after speaking to her. It was super motivating to learn that her business had started out as just a dream much like ours and she built her business and herself up in under five years.
The main thing that I took away was that I needed to incorporate myself. It was important that I protected myself and my business and an LLC would do that for me. I also needed to work on a way to mass produce JoSi. I couldn’t make as much product as I would need in my kitchen and room at work. She also gave each of us a card for her husband if we were looking into getting an actual website. All in all, I just couldn’t wait to put all of the information and resources that she had given us to use.
“Girl, I give it a year tops, you’re going to be a fucking boss!” Celeste exclaimed when we were back in the car.
“Weare, bitch,” I corrected. “I’m taking you with me. I need nail techs.”
“I’m still new, bestie.” She downplayed herself and pissed me off. Celeste was still new in her craft, but she was dedicated as fuck and bomb. She’d only been doing nails for a little under a year and already had multiple designs go viral.
“New and fire. Don’t play with me.”
“I know.” She grinned. “I am kinda fire.”
“Period.” I ran my hand across the front of my neck like I was a City Girl.
“Brunch?”
It was still pretty early in the day and we hadn’t eaten, so brunch didn’t sound too bad, but I knew better than to think she just wanted food. This bitch wasn’t slick.
“Where are you thinking about going?”
“DayLux,” she replied without looking at me.
I laughed and shook my head because she was intentionally trying not to look my way.
“For food or your man?”
“He is not my man, hoe,” she quickly replied and rolled her eyes.
