Shop Duwap: Lessons in Entrepreneurship with Chyna Beale

Chyna Beale is a junior sociology major from Prince Georges County Maryland and the founder of Duwap Thrifted, a second hand resell small business. Duwap Thrifted or Duwap began as an idea over the summer of Beale's freshman year and was officially launched on Instagram and at market Friday last year.

“I have always loved fashion. I went to uniformed Catholic schools and couldn't explore it until coming to Spelman,” she said “At Spelman, I didn't have lots of money freshman year so I turned to thrifting and fell in love with it.”

Duwap’s creation was about more than just earning a little bit of extra money on the side, but also the outward manifestation of Beale’s creativity and career inspirations.

“I see it [Duwap] expanding because I want to go to other markets and other audiences outside of the AUC to become more well known. I also want to sell online, but it is hard to build that vitality and social media presence needed to sell and juggle school at the same time” Beale said.

As Beale has built her business, the AUC has always been her primary audience. Beale not only sources most of her clothes from AUC students but also sells at markets at Spelman and Morehouse. Although Beale is the sole founder of Duwap she also has her friend, Jaden Davis help with set up and modeling.

“It can be difficult to run the business but it's easier when you have friends who share the same vision. I can trust them with my vision and we respect each other. It's also great to have mutual respect to hear different ideas and perspectives,” Beale said.

In addition to a robust online presence, Duwap is also highly trafficked at Spelman College’s Market Fridays. At the first Market Friday of this year Duwap sold out.

“I was happy and surprised because I was more selective with my pieces and still hit my profit goal,” she said. “It felt really nice to have people recognize my business from instagram and other markets.”

While many different responsibilities go into running Duwap, one of the most important ones is sourcing new clothing to sell. Unlike a conventional thrift reseller, Duwap sources most of their products from current students and stores in the area.

“Learning what to buy and how much to sell it for was a skill I had to learn. My friend who was an econ major helped me decide to buy for 2-3x less than I will sell it for to make sure I make a profit. Considering this, I try to buy and sell things that are affordable, think about the sale price when I am buying and also do regular deals to encourage customers to buy more,” Beale said.

Even though Duwap has been successful in the AUC, Beale has faced her share of personal setbacks.

“I am probably my biggest barrier,” Beale said. “In the beginning of the business I was very hard on myself. I wanted to be the first one out there and had very fixed income goals. Eventually a switch turned on to see the positive that I was still making money, and an impact. I started to not stress over the little things that others won't even recognize.”

As the year concludes, Beale intends to continue growing her business over the summer through online expansions, social media and creative marketing photos. Beale is proving one sale at a time that anyone can that passion in entrepreneurship is always a valuable commodity.