P.A.C.E- A guide for Decision Making
#FacesofEntrepreneurship with Roshell Rinkins, Founder, Liquid Courage Cosmetics
Roshell Rinkins, Founder of Liquid Courage Cosmetics, is this week’s feature in the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center’s weekly #FacesofEntrepreneurship social media franchise. Below is a full interview with Roshell on her founder journey, entrepreneurship, and team building.
What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you?
“As a child of two Haitian immigrant parents, entrepreneurship became a way of survival for my family. Without a formal education and command for the English language, my parents quickly leveraged entrepreneurship to help supplement their minimum wage jobs picking oranges and cutting sugar cane in Belle Glade, Florida. Understanding the needs of the people in their villages, my parents started an export business and started shipping goods from Florida to Haiti.
As a result, I was exposed to entrepreneurship at a very young age.
At the core, entrepreneurship to me has always been defined as solving a problem(s) and charging a fee for the solution with the goal of making a profit.
Entrepreneurs spend every waking hour figuring out how to curate solutions for both known and unknown problems.”
What advice/credo do you live by as you grow the business? What is your professional and personal mission statement?
“Done is better than perfect. Perfection can be an enemy of progress. When I first started Liquid Courage, I would agonize about the smallest details that had no material impact on the business or brand. I lost money, customers, and opportunities because I was trying to perfect things that didn’t move the needle for my customers or business. The key to moving ahead is follow through and solid execution.
My personal mission statement is “No is a complete sentence.” My entrepreneurship journey has forced me to be more disciplined with my time. When you are clear on your priorities, saying no becomes easier and comes with less guilt.”
How did you business come to be?
“Unlike my peers, I was super late to the “beauty party.” In fact, I’m embarrassed by this now, but I purchased my first traditional lipstick at 23. It was serendipitous that I would start my career at Proctor and Gamble (P&G) home of the Cover Girl brand, which was later sold to Coty. During my time at P&G, I came across a study where women shared how bold, fearless, and courages they felt when wearing lipstick.
The name Liquid Courage stuck ad represented what I believed embodied what women were looking for in a beauty brand. When I left P&G, I knew it was my opportunity to start my own empowerment beauty brand and curate a virtual beauty destination of women.
Liquid Courage is for the time-deprived woman on the go conquering career, life, family and everything in between.”
What’s it like to work alone/with your partners? What advice do you have for fellow entrepreneurs about building and leading teams?
“Being a solopreneur comes with it’s share of pros and cons. The success and failure of the company lies in your hands; it’s a huge, but rewarding responsibility. While I do not have any full time employees at this time, I’ve learned a great deal about building and leading teams due to my experience with hiring freelancers and/or virtual assistants to manage certain tasks in my business.
- Be clear on roles/role descriptions, goals, and deliverables with the team
- Use PACE as a guide for decision making. Identify the:
P=Project owner | A=Approver | Be clear on the C=Contributor(s) | Who will get the work done or the E=Executor(s)
3. Feedback is a gift. Create an environment where feedback is encouraged and becomes part of the company culture.”
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