Simone & Tuesday: Having a team is critical

Entrepreneur Simone McKelvey is always on the go. Between having a full-time job in higher education, owning her small business Simone & Tuesday, and recently becoming a home-based travel agent, she found herself needing a few extra pairs of helping hands—hands she found in interns.

In early spring of this year, McKelvey hired her first intern, a high school student who helped with social media, communications, and photography for her personal business Simone & Tuesday, an operation dedicated to making natural body care products for all. The opportunity to help McKelvey was the intern’s first job ever, and she was an enormous help for the business. Unfortunately, the position did not qualify for matching funds from the Virginia Talent and Opportunity Partnership, and she and McKelvey were only able to work together for about five weeks before funding dried up.

For her second intern, McKelvey did qualify for matching funds, which allowed her to hire a student from Mary Baldwin University to help with communications, marketing, and pre-planning social media posts before leaving town for the summer. “She absolutely alleviated pressure,” McKelvey says, speaking about both of her interns. Having interns is not just a valuable experience for the student, McKelvey told us. “I like mentoring…although your person may not be going into entrepreneurship themselves, there’s a lot that you can teach them just about the world they serve. They get to see the inner workings and the behind-the-scenes. They get to see a lot of different components.”

McKelvey’s goal is to have her current and future interns help with in-person event management as well as her business’s online presence so that she can be in two places at once. She is also considering hiring interns for other aspects of her business, like increasing her web sales. “If I had two interns…I could be focused on fulfilling the orders and also the research I do,” McKelvey mused, discussing her process for creating a new product. “As a business owner, you can’t do it all.”

In addition to having interns, McKelvey is currently participating in a mentorship program called the Capacitor, where she is learning about building her business from a more experienced entrepreneur. Earlier this year, she also participated in an eight-week long business boot camp with the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund. “There are things that need to shift in my business and I'm making those shifts now,” McKelvey revealed, talking about putting Simone & Tuesday’s soaps and other natural products into hotels, inns, bed-and-breakfasts, and other shops. She currently has connections with several businesses, including Great Full Goods in Harrisonburg and Queen City Games and Gifts in Staunton. She also sells her products at the Staunton Farmers Market twice a month. “You don’t ever want your business to be stagnant.”

McKelvey and her team would be thrilled to provide natural personal care to you. For any needs, visit simoneandtuesdayllc.com, @simoneandtuesdayllc on Instagram, or Simone & Tuesday on Facebook.