Exploring Life & Business with Sharaina Jones of BEAUTY OF PEARL

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sharaina Jones.  

Hi Sharaina, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Whew! Where do I start? Let’s see, I’ll start with my why, why am I so motivated? Why am I so steadfast? Why am I so tenacious? Why am I so devoted? The first reason is my children. The second reason is my passion. 

I’m currently a single mother of 2 girls and 2 boys, ages 2 to 6. I could write a book, but I’ll just sum things up the best I know how. My journey hasn’t been all peaches and cream. I was born and raised in Benton Harbor, MI. In what I’ll call a normal 2 parent household, I’m the middle child of 2 other siblings. 

As I sit here at 10:09 pm on a Tuesday night the only thing that has been keeping me up is the passion I have to succeed and give myself but more so my children a true chance to navigate life in full contentment, being content spiritually, mentally, and financially. And the only way to achieve that is through the work I do for myself spiritually, mentally, and financially so that in turn it all can be passed down to my children, and to put things into fruition, I must first have the passion behind it all. Right? After all, passion doesn’t sleep, die or give up. Every move I make is for them. And I make sure every move is made with intention. 

After going through domestic violence, homelessness, and having children, I needed an outlet, and I needed it quick, so, in January 2019, I started planning an online women’s boutique with the intention of it being something that I would never give up on no matter how many times I had to hit pause. That intention kept me focused. By keeping that focus, I was able to separate myself from people and things that didn’t serve me. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
No, as mentioned before, I experienced domestic violence and homelessness. Went through a phase of being discouraged and started questioning my purpose as I’m sure we’ve all done. Anxiety kicked in heavy, causing me to overthink and second guess my decisions, so I took a short break from my business, and I enrolled to become a certified cosmetic teeth technician which I completed and received my certification for. The goal now was to travel to clients as I knew I wasn’t going to service them in my home, but unfortunately, I ran into car problems and had to stop driving. 

So next up was becoming a CNA, after inquiring for 2 years straight I was finally invited to complete the course offered through Michigan Rehabilitation Services, now this was something I was excited about as it would give me a push into a nursing career. And I was finally back on the road again. But the day before I started the course discouragement showed itself once again, my family and I were hit head-on by a drunk driver and totaled my car not even 6 months into having it. 

At this point, I’m fed up with it all. But luckily the program was able to offer transportation for me to attend my classes and for my children to get dropped off at daycare. From there, I was able to successfully complete the course and become certified. After receiving certification, I wasn’t able to go right into the field due to the fact that childcare wasn’t able to match up with the required hours of the medical field. 

From there, I took another break from it all. And was met with enrolling in the Women’s Entrepreneurship course from Cornell University partnered with Bank of America. I completed the course in November 2021. By taking this course, I knew I would have more contentment and confirmation as to why I started my boutique in 2019, I knew it would help further my entrepreneurial skills and that holding myself accountable for finishing the course would put me in a better mindset to finish what I first started because literally, everything else I had an interest in wasn’t aligning. 

One thing I learned was the many ways to fund your business, and I choose to bootstrap; I tried my best to kill 2 birds with 1 stone by getting a job to fund my business that would be under my CNA license. But I never found childcare that fit the hours of the medical field, so I ended up taking a homecare position, but my title at the company didn’t count as active CNA work towards my CNA license. I’m feeling defeated once again, but decided to keep the position anyway. Because I enjoyed the work of helping others. Doing so, I was able to afford to get my business incorporated, insured, and add on even more inventory than I did in 2019. 

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably thinking, girl that’s a lot to go through, and to that, I’ll say I was just in the phase of trying any and everything to make things work, in a phase of building a strategy, building a master plan. 

To this day I am so thankful I pushed myself to complete the entrepreneurship course, my contentment is on 1000, and I’m grateful I took the leap in launching my online boutique on June 4th of 2022 which was also my 31st birthday, which I call my year of divinity. Launching Beauty of Pearl was the best gift ever and most of all it was from to me. 

Going through such things, I slowly but surely began to put my foot down on myself and realized that I had to stop waiting on others to change and work on changing myself; I leaned more into what I deserved out of life and the knowledge of holding myself accountable on the work I must put in. I began to set boundaries, manifest more, and take a step back to view the full picture of the life I really desired for my children as well as the life I wanted for myself outside of motherhood. 

Looking back on it all, I realized it was me getting in my own way. I was in a spiral of corruption, situations I literally had to pray my way out of. My story is filled with broken pieces, bad decisions, and some ugly truths. But it’s also filled with a major comeback, peace in my soul, and grace that saved my life. And I now have the discernment to steer me clear of not repeating any of those things that tried to break me. 

As you know, we’re big fans of BEAUTY OF PEARL. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Beauty of Pearl is an online women’s boutique catering to the introverted yet femininely fashionable woman offering styles of grace, styles that speak, and most important styles to exude confidence. 

I created this brand with women ages 25-35 in mind who like myself, tend to be in their shells and mostly preserved. We don’t too much care to be in the limelight, but when we decide to be we show up to show out. Were introverted but not afraid to let our divine femininity shine through. Were calm yet fierce and pure of heart. We move with stride and uphold faith and integrity, were healers among others and we possess wisdom beyond our years. 

The power of a woman is impeccable, and I want Beauty of Pearl to also reach those women who desire to but haven’t just yet tapped into their true femininity or have the confidence they desire. Since launching my brand and using it as an outlet, I have learned to love myself more and embrace my femininity, and it all radiates from the inside out once I put on a dress. Before children, I spent the whole summer in dresses. And now Beauty of Pearl in a sense, gives me the freedom to pick up where I left off. 

This is also why Beauty of Pearl featured products are our dresses. I like to think that the clothing we choose to wear affects how we reflect ourselves as well as how we want others to perceive us. Us introverts may not speak much, but we can speak as loud as we want through fashion. It’s just the psychological aspect of it all. Feeling down today? Let’s play dress up sis! 

Beauty of Pearl is here to let women know they are rare and unique, just like a Pearl. 

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I have always been the introverted homebody that observes and overthinks everything. But I still somehow possessed leadership qualities, which I noticed throughout high school I was the student who didn’t talk much; I loved working alone but didn’t mind working in a group; when it came to projects and public speaking, I was the one to step up and execute. 

My favorite subjects were business management, literature, art, and music. Entrepreneurship has always intrigued me, one reason being that I could be my own boss. I enjoyed literature because it allows one to take a step back in time and learn from the ones before us. After all, you won’t know where you’re going unless you know where you come from. 

The love of art and music is very dear to me because I was blessed with the natural talent to sing and draw any picture just from looking at it. I get my voice from my mother and my artistic skills from my father. Growing up, I sang in numerous choirs and stage plays and entered art contests. I kind of wished I pursued both more actively when I was younger, but hey, it is what it is. For now, I’ll continue to use both as personal stimulants as they give me the ability to be creative as I want; I can elevate any mood I’m in by painting a picture or turning up my playlist 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beautyofpearl.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopbeautyofpearl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beautyofpearl
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/beautyofpearl_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPFhTO1L5GcsO-_lZl8GjA
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/sharaina.jones

Image Credits
Sharaina Jones