This past year, my two sisters and I decided to do something completely out of our comfort zones and launch our own business, T O N E S. To provide a little background information, T O N E S is a creative brand that entails all visual projects to represent a variety of skin tones, races, ethnicities, cultures, etc. on a social media platform. Basically, we create projects that reflect our individual style/aesthetics and choose to embrace all individuals for our platform. We label these projects as a visual movement. Recently, we launched our T-shirt collection, T O N A L S, this past August. The inspiration behind this project was to start out with a color palette that represented light and darker complexions that all individuals, no matter their skin tone, can wear. We’re here to embrace the human race.
Now, back to how all of this came about: My sisters and I have always wanted to pursue something creatively on social media together for years but never actually took the initiative to do it. Until one day, my sister Rylie and I decided to go Downtown and take some pictures for Instagram. We ended up taking pictures near this tonal/nude wall. Instantly, I thought to myself “Oh my gosh! Let’s start a business and let’s name is T O N E S!” And that truly was the beginning of it all. In a matter of two hours, Rylie and I called up our other sister, Raven, to get her on board with our idea. Now, we’ve always been into fashion/design and we have very similar styles so we knew working together would be easy because we practically think just alike. And also who wouldn’t want to be business partners with your sisters?
The entire process moved so quickly that by the end of the day, we’d already set up an Instagram business account to promote ourselves on. We truly had no idea as to what we were getting ourselves into. We knew only two things, 1) we had this creative name, and 2) a unique concept. Besides that, we knew absolutely nothing about running a business, especially as three full time college students.
I’m sure you’re all wondering how three full time college students even have the time to run a business with school, work, extra-curricular activities, and a social life in the way. Often times, we asked ourselves the same exact question, but the truth of the matter is that if you want something, and I mean really want something than you’ll do what it takes to put the work in. The three of us have learned to adopt this mentality because we know and envision that our business will be successful one day. However, the process gets tough and can really make or break you. This past summer was trial and error for us, there were days we wanted to keep going and there were also days we wanted to just give up. It’s an even harder process considering the three of us aren’t always together in one place, instead we’re left with dedicating time each week to Facetime calls where we can discuss things collectively. There are still so many things for us to learn about being business owners especially in our early 20s, however we take each experience as a learning lesson and that’s all we can really do.
Now onto the more exciting stuff, as I mentioned previously we launched our business and T-shirt collection this past summer. Initially, we wanted to launch before the end of summer which called for a lot of planning. We spent all of June, traveling to different fabric shops and wholesalers to find the perfect T-shirt colors to match our vibe. In July, we began planning for our collection photoshoot and picking models to represent our brand. In August, we had our first photoshoot with a very talented photographer by the name of Eli Harris or known as @Elisnapped on Instagram (shameless plug). Huge shoutout to him for working with us and executing the vision we had for our brand! We also dropped T O N A L S two weeks later, and since then we’ve received a great amount of support!
As of now, we are currently in the works of coming up with a new creative and unique project to represent our brand next. Our mission is to inspire individuals and create a space where everyone can express themselves creatively.
So here’s the question I would like to conclude with: Should YOU start your own brand/business?
My answer is YES! Go for it, take a leap of faith and do what your passion about. I can’t guarantee that the process will be easy but it will certainly be worth it in the end. Speaking from experience, pursuing entrepreneurship was the best thing I’ve ever done. Personally, I don’t see myself working a corporate job all my life, and I knew in order to venture off that route I would need a backup plan. Now, T O N E S is my backup plan. In about 10 years, I envision myself working as a CEO of T O N E S full time. This is something I’m passionate about and what better way to work WHILE doing something you love??? So yes, start that business! Don’t limit yourself to one path, go discover your passion and make a career out of it!
Also, if you’d like to stay in the loop with what we’re creating next for T O N E S feel free to follow us on our Instagram account as well as personal accounts below.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
INSTAGRAM: @tonesxthree
PERSONAL INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS:
Raven: @ravenhatten
Ryane: @ryane.hatten
Rylie: @rylie_hatten