Words by Rosalind Thacker
The truth is, for far too long, young creatives and entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds have had it much tougher than their peers, working twice as hard to showcase their excellence – or to get the opportunities they deserve. That, in addition to our tagline of amplifying the emerging voices of business, style and culture, spurred us on to launch our new content series: In the Spotlight. Using our platform, we’ll try our best to tell these stories – giving our audience a chance to engage with a variety of…well… really cool people.
And to launch the series, I sat down with Jamelia Donaldson, the founder of the hair subscription service, TreasureTress. Starting a business is no easy task. Becoming Europe’s largest monthly product discover box for women with naturally kinky hair is even harder.
It’s often said that businesses that perform well solve problems. For Jamelia, that problem was overpriced and archaic hair products – a problem for Black women, in particular. And like all good entrepreneurs, Jamelia made a product she hoped existed. If she wanted it, so did others: her curated haircare subscription boxes have become a household name in a billion-pound industry. Standing out in a sea of competitive brands is difficult – but by focusing on building a community, TreasureTress has carved out its uniqueness.
TreasureTress is more than just hair care
Jamelia’s was intent was building a community: “TreasureTrees is more than a subscription box”, she says, “It’s about community, sisterhood, and educating that sisterhood.” The company’s success is down to that community, she says, noting the importance of putting customers at the heart of everything they do.
And, like all good businesses, growth and diversification are high on the agenda. If Mark Zuckerberg’s busy building a digital universe – Jamelia is hard at work building an ecosystem to support and uplift others. As a by-product of the business, she launched the Teen Experience – a series of personal development workshops for Black and mixed-race teens from the ages of 12-19. At its core, the Teen Experience provides creative, unique learning opportunities – from creative marketing campaigns for brands to conducting key market research. Most notably, they’ve released their first edition of the White Paper, the first iteration of what will be a trend report, exploring the untapped opportunity in the UK afro hair market.
The story behind the business
With her mission to solve the issue of accessed equality products in mind, Jamelia is building a business with a USP of effective positive change. “I was mindful that growing up I didn’t really ever see any examples of women that looked like me in mainstream media”, Jamelia said. For her, it was important to build a brand that only solved the issues – but provided that visibility and representation that she – and so many other Black women – needed.
Building a business of this size is impressive. Even more impressive, though, is that Jamelia never planned to be an entrepreneur. Greatness, as they say, is thrust on some. In fact, given her impressive, but diverse career history, it’s fair to say Jamelia never planned to be anything specific. Career-focused from a young age. Jamelia bounced around various roles and industries. As a child, dance, she said, was her first medium of expression – signalling her destiny in some sort of creative career. But like most creatives, a stint in academia is usually inevitable. Stemming from a family of educators, Jamelia questioned what the most academic and high-earning path would be? “My mum always joked I was good at arguing.” The law, then, she said, seemed the perfect fit.
When everything seemed like it was set in stone, her future as a lawyer in grasp, all that was left was getting the grades. However, Jamelia fell two, small but painful points away from her dream career. As anyone who has been in a situation like this will know, Jamelia felt like her life was over – her career as a lawyer crumbled in front of her.
Yet, Jamelia wasted no time. She chose not to take a year out to re-sit or reconsider her options, she was determined to succeed on a different path. It is clear to me just how career-oriented and strong-willed Jamelia is. How she takes a problem and turns it into a solution. She told me, “I love travelling, so I chose to study Business and International relations”. The degree involved a year in industry, so Jamelia travelled to Bejing for one month and New York for eight months. Here, is where it all began. Jamelia discovered the subscription box model, the future model that would become TreasureTress.
“I like telling that story because it shows that sometimes when you think things aren’t working out for your good, they are actually working in your favour. When I didn’t get the result, I thought my life was over. But it set me up for something so much bigger, and so much better.”
There are so many negative connotations attached to failure. When in fact, we should never take failure at face value; instead, it is all about perspective. There is always something to learn. Something to take away. Whilst it may seem like the end of the world at the time, something much better could be waiting around the corner.
Life in the Big Apple
Whilst in New York, Jamelia interned in Entertainment and Fashion PR (yes, I thought sounded pretty cool too). However, it didn’t take long for reality to set. Jamelia came to the realisation she had been working in the industry for free, for a whole year, and she knew it was time for her to get a job that would pay.
With the abundance of experience that she now had under her belt, she applied for a paid, one-month internship at a financial services company and – unsurprisingly – she was successful. Quickly the one-month role turned into a three-month role, which turned into a four-month role, until they finally employed her as a full-time graduate. Finally, Jamelia felt she was able to start building her life.
Although she was so grateful to be working in a paid, full-time role, Jamelia also felt she was “losing the spark”. The same spark Jamelia had in her as a child, expressing herself through dance and dreaming of doing something creative. The excitement remained strong, but by year three, Jamelia told me how she “got the itch.” She expressed, “I wanted to be doing something creative. The role was too corporate.”
The beginning of TreasureTress
In the city where dreams are made of, Jamelia was determined to seize every opportunity that came her way. She began attending a ton of events, immersing herself in the natural hair community. Before she knew it, the seed of inspiration had been planted within Jamelia.
And so it began, Jamelia saw a gaping hole in the natural hair care market. She became familiar with the subscription box model, and the idea for TreasureTress began to take shape. I asked Jamelia how it all began, what the first major step she took was in order to make the idea a reality. She told me, “I began by starting up TreasureTress as an Instagram page whilst still working in the financial services role, to see how much engagement the brand got.”
Of course, it didn’t take long for interest to flood in from all directions, TreasureTress became a name on people’s lips. Once Jamelia was satisfied with the engagement she was getting on Instagram, she created the landing page. “This was initially just a survey to collect data and test the waters, I wanted to see who would be willing to pay to receive a box of products each month.”
The rest was history. Jamelia began building the subscription boxes, all whilst still working in her full-time job. When asked how she decides what products go into the subscription boxes, Jamelia told me, “It is based on a few different factors. It could be products we try ourselves and love, a range yet to hit the market, or an old school favourite that has maybe lost momentum, or one that we just can’t get enough of”.
To anyone wanting to start their own business…
As with many business ventures, it is never easy. It’s never just one, good idea that magically turns into a business – it’s a huge amount of work to build the foundations for that one good idea which then has to grow, and grow, and grow some more. It is extremely rare, in fact, impossible, that anyone is able to fall on their feet and land effortlessly. Many entrepreneurs, Jamelia included, have had to push through the hard times to get to where they are today.
Jamelia had no money to start TreasureTress. No savings, no parents able to cover expenses if needed, she was working off her own back. Unfortunately, this is a harsh reality for so many people starting out in business, that it is a slow process, and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight. Jamelia advised to “work for as long as you can whilst you’re starting your company. That way, you can save money, learn key skills, and you have that safety net.” She continued, “I always said, when I leave that role, I’m going to make sure I leave on good terms in case I ever need to return.”
The prominent disadvantage Jamelia faced, one that unfortunately could not be solved overnight – is being a young, Black woman in business. Jamelia expressed, “I was having a lot of conversations with senior men, and I noticed immediately the comments were condescending.” She continued,
“Imagine the usual challenges for a woman in business, layered on top of that, race, and layered on top of that the realities of class. Effectively, I had to do everything from the strength of my own back”.
A last word of advice…
“It can become toxic, especially as a black professional knowing you have to be twice as good as anyone to get any opportunity. It has taught me resilience. I have to be so, so good to be able to have the conversations and accomplish what I have.”
Jamelia continued, “I would advise anyone looking to start their own business to be a learner at all times, you’re not the expert, you are on a continuous path of learning. Mentorship is the great hack I think everyone should know about.”
And, finally, I asked Jamelia for the best piece of advice she was ever given, to guide anyone who is in the same boat she was as an intern in New York, eager to be noticed. She told me,
“Be so good that they can’t ignore you”.
TreasureTress is more than just a subscription box. If you want to be part of the TreasureTress community too, Jamelia will be hosting the 6TH Brand anniversary pop-up shop from the 24th to 28th November at London Bridge.
Details can be found here.