It’s not every day you meet a full-time college student who owns not one, but two small businesses.
Ivori Smith is a fourth-year general health science major, from Atlanta. Smith is also an entrepreneur who has two businesses, IvoriAmillion Brand Design and IvoriAmillion Photography.
Both of Smith’s parents are entrepreneurs, so Smith was familiar with the process of creating and running a successful business.
When a friend approached Smith with a potential business idea, she decided to help him get started. The business was named Navineeds Marketing, a business that would help entrepreneurs brand and start their companies. Smith created the Navineeds logo, picked its brand colors and created its mission statement.
During the process of creating Navineeds and helping other businesses get started, Smith “fell in love” with branding, watching businesses develop and become profitable.
As Smith continued to work and expand Navineeds, she decided to start her own business venture with IvoriAmillion Brand Design.
“I wanted to help businesses have clear visions when starting up,” Smith said. “Businesses need to identify clear pillars of purpose and I love seeing people’s visions come to life.”
As IvoriAmillion Brand Design grew and continued to help build the foundations for start-up businesses, Smith realized she had to outsource photographers to fulfill her clients’ visual marketing needs.
After running into different issues with outsourcing for photographers, Smith decided to pick up the camera herself. From here, IvoriAmillion Photography was born. Smith bought a camera and opened her second business.
“I learned about lighting and other aspects of photography,” Smith said. “It came pretty naturally.”
Smith transitioned to operating both IvoriAmillion Photography and IvoriAmilion Brand Design full time, targeting small businesses and other clients looking for photographers.
Rachel Walker is one of Smith’s clients, who used IvoriAmillion Brand Design and Photography to brand her business, My Melanated Mental.
My Melanated Mental is a brand that brings awareness to college students about dealing with mental health and tips on how to manage stress. Smith helped Walker build a personal brand and how to become more personable with her followers.
“I wanted my brand to be authentic and relatable,” Walker said. “Ivori helped me connect more with the masses which made my social media engagement go up and more students started to recognize my brand.”
Kayla Stanton is a small business owner and has taken an interest in working with Smith to market her business. Stanton braids hair and wants to take her business to the next level, but wants help attracting more clientele.
“I think IvoriAmillion Brand Design will help me market my business and create a better social media presence,” Stanton said. “I am excited to work with her in the future and see how my business flourishes.”
Smith is graduating from Florida A&M University in December and will be moving back to Atlanta. She wants to gain more clients in the Atlanta area and target business owners for photography. Smith wants to attract clients with bigger budgets who understand the importance of marketing and branding.
Smith also aspires to create a not-for-profit organization that helps youth tap into their creativity, brand themselves, and eventually make a career out of their talents.
Through photography and brand design, Smith has rooted herself in creativity and found love in helping others bring their visions to life.