Wilson Student Opens Small Business

By Christina G.

Locally founded in El Sereno, WHS student Dana Herrera launches her online clothing business.

Image Credited to: Christina G.

What started out as a recommendation to sell old clothes led 11th-grade Wilson High School student and new business-owner Dana Herrera to launch her online clothing business known as “Clothingxdana” on Instagram on August 1st, 2020. Founded locally in El Sereno, she has had about 80 orders through shipping and delivery and is now branching out into other states. She describes her business as sustainable shopping for pre-owned and pre-loved clothing products without the overpriced values.

She revealed that her inspiration for starting her business was “trying to get rid of my old clothes and... one of my closest friends …recommended it to me that I should sell my clothes online, and the next day I made the account… took pictures that same day… and it progressed into going to the thrift store and buying clothes.” She has worked hard to promote her business through social media such as Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Her family has also contributed to promoting her business by posting about it on their Facebook accounts.

When asked about her goals for her business, she expressed that, “Some of my goals [are] to grow my account.. get more than a thousand followers, [and] ship out to all 50 states. So far, I've shipped out to a few but not all. Another one ...is to keep this going long term in college as another way to get income.” While these are her current goals, she's accomplished other milestones such shipping to as far away as Texas as well as having 10 orders at one time. She now has her own office to do her packaging and her own rack to keep her products clean and well kept. Of course, COVID has affected everybody in one way or another, and it has had its impact on her business, as well. She professed that, “COVID has affected my business a lot in terms of people being interested in my clothes... they don't want to have contact with people ...also wanting to do events like pop up shops- I’m not able to do those things because of COVID.” Although COVID has made an effect, she still takes that extra step to stay safe while delivering and shipping by sanitizing all of her clothes before delivering, which consists of washing them, wiping them down with disinfecting wipes, as well as disinfecting her poly-mailers to keep everything as clean as possible. Gladly, she also requires herself and the customer to wear a mask during deliveries.

On top of balancing her business and COVID, she's maintained the ability to practice time management to balance school. She affirmed that, “It is... really time consuming also because I'm a Junior in [Wilson] high school... I need to manage my time of doing [school] work and... being active on my business, delivering, and knowing what times I can and can't [deliver]. Time-wise, I have to be on that.”

Through all of these obstacles, she continues to do her best. When asked what her biggest obstacle has been, she answered. “My biggest challenge has to be dealing with people who don't value my time as much as theirs, ...and dealing with that feedback I don't take well... accepting that not all people are going to support me.” It is important to understand that her time is just as important as anybody else's, especially when considering that this is her business. Evidently, she has noted that she is understanding and her items that are up for sale are reasonably priced and open for negotiations. She proclaimed as well that, “Big businesses affect my business a lot in terms of people buying from me... There was this one time I had people cancel orders on me… to find out that they bought from big businesses… Big multi-millionaire businesses don't value your order or money as much as us small businesses owners do. I take a lot of time prepare[ing] my orders so they are perfect for each and every one of my customers.” Small business owners like Dana Herrera really put in their own time to make safe, reliable, and quality sales. Buying from her would surely be appreciated rather than buying from big businesses.

Starting her own business has been a journey through time management, school, COVID, competition, and being new in the industry. Nonetheless, she's accomplished a lot and has learned a lot through this experience.

If you would like to find out more about her items or support this young entrepreneur, you could go to her Instagram at @Clothingxdana.