Dressed for Success: Sheyla Difo Voye’s Story of Resilience and Entrepreneurship
What does the process of owning a clothing store look like? For Sheyla Difo Voye, the owner of Sheyla Vie Collections, it starts with inspiration from a young age and moves to overcoming financial obstacles. Then, she overcomes additional challenges such as a lack of education through passion for individuality, resulting in ownership of a vibrant, colorful and unique adult clothing store. Voye looks back at her 22 years working in retail, and shares stories and advice for future female small business owners based on her own journey. As a female entrepreneur in fashion, Sheyla Difo Voye faced many challenges and learned many lessons that she hopes to pass on to girls who aspire to own a business of their own.
Voye has had a love for fashion since childhood. In an interview taking place in her store in DC in May of this year, Voye stated: "I've always liked dressing up, wearing things fabulous, because to me I like to call attention [to myself]. I don't like to wear the same thing as everybody else.” Voye’s love for dressing up eventually turned into a desire for her own store. At the age of 23, she moved to America and opened her first store where she sold children's clothing. Voye’s kids inspired her because she could dress them up in the ways she wanted to. After some time she closed her children’s store, she took the inspiration from her kids to open a new store, Sheyla Vie Collections, a women's and men’s clothing store.
Voye’s store has a welcoming atmosphere with a mix of formal gowns, dresses and casual pieces for everyday use. Her collection includes a variety of styles, helping everyone find something for themselves. As written on Voye’s website “[Voye and her team] travel[s] to New York City, Milan, LA, and London to source styles and designs you cannot get anywhere else in the DMV - and then bring them to our exclusive store in Northwest DC for you to discover, wear, and love.” Voye’s pieces contain vibrant colors and unique designs to add to the distinctiveness of her brand. The store is a reflection of Voye’s personal story and the ideas that inspired her business.
Opening a business came with a significant amount of bliss but also many challenges. One of these challenges was not being properly educated about business. After deciding not to go to college, Voye regretted her choice after realizing the education she missed out on. Consequently, Voye had no choice but to learn about retail while she developed her brand. Additionally, Voye faced the obstacle of her lack of financial assets. She needed funding to manage her large store and establish partnerships with designers. Because of the scale of her brand, she also employs a large staff for assistance. With Voye’s fortitude she was able to overcome these challenges and grow her company exponentially.
Voye’s primary pieces of advice for young girls who would like to work in business include having passion for work and obtaining individuality. Voye said, “passion is [my] number one [piece of] advice…you need to love it, even when you are not making any money.” Voye does not run her business for money, rather she has it because she loves it and she is passionate about it. Sheyla’s enthusiasm for working with her customers and making them feel beautiful no matter their age shines through in her store. Sheyla also believes that the key to success is individuality. Sheyla passes her love of unique clothing onto the clothes she sells. She believes that young entrepreneurs should be unique with what they sell because they will face less competition, and because trends die but distinctiveness does not.
Overall, although Sheyla Difo Voye has faced all the challenges included in starting a business in fashion, she overcame them with resilience and passion and continues to work hard at building out her brand. Sheyla aims to share her stories with aspiring women in fashion, in order to educate them on business and inspire them to strive for success. Voye’s story holds importance because of the uniqueness of her story, and how it can impact young girls in situations similar to hers.
