BY JEFF LEESEMAN | STAFF WRITER
DECEMBER 15, 2022
For Asia Dillon, becoming a CEO at the age of 11 was only a small part of her journey. She became increasingly aware of the risks involved in managing a business while attending school full time, yet was determined to secure a better future for herself and family. Despite concerns some consumers would disregard her products due to age and inexperience, Dillon launched SassyA Lip Gloss in 2018 offering a variety of all natural lip glosses to consumers before changing her company’s name to SassyA Cosmetics. The change represented a major milestone and opportunity to grow an expansive vision for her products featuring lipstick, lip cream, and lip scrub. At just 15 years old, Dillon balances day-to-day business operations, attends Riverdale High School, is the football team manager, and is a member of the track and field team.
From its inception, SassyA Cosmetics momentum and growth has always been attributed to designing all natural products that cater to the needs of consumers. There’s also a simple desire in Asia to help as many people as she can. Dillon launched SassyA Cosmetics as a way to help her younger sister overcome an issue with licking her lips so much that the perimeter of her lips would turn red. “I decided to come up with a formula to help it.” Dillon started. “But not only to come up with something she didn’t know she was wearing, but make it pretty so she could wear it by adding glitter and pigment to it. So not only am I helping her, but I am helping others by expanding my ingredients especially natural ingredients in my products.” Although she prefers to keep the full recipe a secret, Dillon’s products feature various ingredients like Aloe Vera, Vitamin E, and Jovial Oil. These natural ingredients will not cause any damage or break outs to the skin.
Dillon’s care for what goes into her products are just as important as the many experiences she has learned. During her four years as an entrepreneur, her message has always been the same: “Stay consistent.” In fact, part of this learned consistency is the result of Dillon’s mother stressing the importance of prioritizing business growth during her (Asia) down time away from school. Dillon’s mother, who is a single parent, purposefully provides real life experiences for Asia as a business owner herself. Asia’s most recent event during Bayou Classic weekend did not go as expected, but the event itself has not deterred the young entrepreneur from continuing the pursuit of her dreams. “I don’t hide anything from her. I let her see the good, bad, and the ugly.” Dillon’s mom told blkpreneurship.com. “We just went to Bayou Classic. It was a $1000 dollars and we didn’t make 15 percent of our money back. And plus it rained and our tent was destroyed. I let her see all of this so she can learn from those things.”
Despite the small road bump, her products are available in multiple retail outlets and continue to produce sales she is proud of. Some of the retail outlets Dillon’s products are featured in include NOLA Kids, 1850 Museum, and Glitterbox. Although she considers her presence at pop up shops as important from a relational perspective, she aspires to focus more attention on sales from her website sassyalipgloss.com. Dillon hopes to inspire many other young entrepreneurs with the message that success doesn’t have an age, all you need is a drive to succeed. “(I want) to show that you don’t have to be older to start.” Dillon stated. “You can start at any age. Just do what you feel like doing and make that dream come true.”
For all of Dillon’s hard work, her dreams of accomplishing her future goals are becoming a reality. To date, the SassyA Cosmetics Founder and C.E.O. has teamed up with a manufacturing company to facilitate the transition of her products into high end retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. She is also working with popular boutique Fleurty Girl to be featured as part of their product lineup. No matter the outcome, Dillon’s faith is unwavering in accomplishing every goal that she has set out to do. It has been that way since she was 11 years old. “Hopefully we get into Fleurty Girl. That’s what’s next. We’re going to claim it.”
SassyA Cosmetics can be found on Instagram here.
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