Entrepreneurs, Owners Mogue, Inc. Add Shawty Wig To Their Line Up
Originally from Detroit, MI, Karmen Johnson was working as a bank manager at Fifth Third Bank when a client of hers, who happened to be an older White woman, told her that she was going to get into the hair business. To Karmen's surprise, the client asked her for her help with the accounting and book handling for the company.
"She started the business and had some business partners that her husband knew from China who worked with him in aero space technology," she said. "They actually are board members over in China for hair distributors. They had a lot of pull. They knew the vendors and needed a U.S. business partner. They had recently hired Karmen's events planning company, Marvelous Events to plan the grand opening, so they reached back out to her and asked if she would be interested in working with them and managing the Shawty Wig store."
Fast forwarding, Karmen's client decided not to do the business after all and decided to sell her shares of the company.
"I told the partners from China that I did not want to work for them and that I wanted to be an owner of the business as well, because I have a masters in marketing."
Karmen invested money and became an owner on March 1st and was also named the company's Vice-President.
Shawty Wig is just one brand under the umbrella of the couple's company, Mogue Michigan LLC.
"My husband Aaron and I are very serious entrepreneurs. We are also wealth coaches, helping people with business and personal finances," she said. In August, I want people to reach out to me who are owners of small businesses looking for a pop - up shop. Being a Black woman and having that platform where I could be the person who gives others the opportunity to franchise is very rare. It is a great place to be and it all happened because I was in the right place at the right time."
She also says that being in the credit - building business and helping people to build platforms has been her and her husband's main focus. "This presents even more an opportunity to give people what they are looking for, especially if they have a desire to enter the beauty industry," said Johnson.
What can customers and clients expect from at Shawty Wig?
"Because we want to attract everyone, we are multicultural and we want to have that trend that each person is looking for," she said.
So how will the couple manage to keep their finger on the trends? Karmen says, "Right now we are doing a lot of market research, so when people come to us and we ask them what they are looking for, we have created a wish list. With our brand we are actually going to trend things out so we can move on to the next popular style."
"I can also do customized orders and people can look forward to making this a one - stop shop. The cost of our wigs are higher than wigs at local beauty supply stores, but it is pretty competitive on prices in regard that people drive by the our store and get intimidated, because we look very high scale, but when they actually come in and see the prices they see that some of our prices are high, but they are not off the wall high in price.
Because we want to keep our quality by keeping the cost, so we only offer a ten percent discount to our licensed beauticians and we offer it to our partners, but if we maintain that quality and thought process by not altering the cost, people will get use to it. So instead of offering discounts, we offer free installations. If you buy the hair from us, we will do your sew - in for free. That way we balance the cost without having to give discounts all the time.
If you bring bundles of hair or a wig from somewhere else, there will be a charge, but it is all apart of that one stop shop mentality that we are projecting."
In the meantime, the couple is looking for another licensed stylist who has experience with wigs.
"I want to see at least one to two years of wig installation on their resume. I am just trying to create more opportunities for everyone, especially those who represent the Black community."
Tagged in: