It wasn’t that long ago that I was telling you about Nene’s involvement with a multilevel marketing situation that had her going all the way to Haiti to find stooges people to participate in her, um, new business. Because Nene no longer has her primary source of income, RHOA, she seems to be grasping at every business opportunity that comes her way in order to sort things out with Uncle Sam. I’ve said it before she reminds me of Sonja Morgan. People who are in financial crisis tend to jump on every opportunity that arises and hope something succeeds. This is sort of the opposite of how successful people operate. The prudent plan is to find the best option and then put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that venture.
I can’t discount Nene’s hustle. She’s a hard worker. But someone needs to get her one of those, “Work Smarter, Not Harder” signs for her home office.
Nene was recently interviewed about what is next for her by some entertainment site. She responded with a lot of business jargon about multiple income streams and misusing the term leveraging and making very little business sense. Bethenny Frankel, Heather Dubrow, and Kim Biermann seem to have a grasp on managing multiple income streams. While Bethenny is the gold standard for making the most of her opportunities, the others I mentioned also do a decent job branding themselves. Some of them show their hands by holding up packets of ridiculous tea concoctions on Instagram which just screams, “It’s come to this.” or at the very least, belittles their actual accomplishments, but they don’t have the tax man at their doors.
So I have this good friend on Twitter that I DM with frequently about topics for this site. Perhaps after the current Great Purge of 2016 he will even feel more comfortable participating here. 🙂 He began telling me about Nene’s latest “boutique” on November 18th. It’s called Swagg. His first question was WTF is it? Is it another garage sage pop up shop or an actual brick and mortar shop?
So we did some investigating. There is a store called Swagg on the west coast in beautiful downtown Compton, that describes itself as follows, ” We at Swagg Boutique take pride in making every single customer feel special. From staying open later to making special trips to the store to rescue our customers in fashion emergencies. Our customer are priority number uno! Our awesome selections are hand-picked and chosen to shake parties and break necks. We been in business since 2011 conveniently located at 13967 Van Ness Ave Gardena Ca. Catch up with us on all the popping social medias Instagram @swagg_boutique, Facebook swagg boutique and snapchat swaggboutique1. Let us get your swagg up today!”
So it seems like a THOTwear shop kind of like Junkman’s Daughter’s Brother in Atlanta. Except JDB is sort of a cross between a costume shop and a sex toy retailer. It’s an institution. There is, or used to be, a JDB in Athens GA, home of UGA, where we used to buy henna and funky T-shirts and Halloween costumes. Swagg seems to take itself a bit more seriously. We decided to look a bit deeper.
Next, we found this information online about Swagg, “Swagg Boutique is a small, fairly new organization in the women’s clothing stores industry located in Compton, CA. It opened its doors in 2012 and now has an estimated $110,000 in yearly revenue and approximately 2 employees.” For those of you who didn’t stay awake in finance class, revenue is not profit. Revenue is money coming in. In this case it’s their sales numbers. Revenue is the pool of money you have to pay your business expenses such as rent, salaries, electric bills, franchise bills, fixtures, phones, cash registers, remodeling, and whatever other expenses one has when setting up a business. Profit is anything you have left over after paying all of those things with your revenue. Use that very oversimplified finance lesson to draw whatever conclusions you wish. Again, this information is regarding the store in Compton, not the store “Nene” is opening in Atlanta. We are assuming they are associated because the name is incorporated.
As my Tweep and I further investigated, we found some Instagram posts that help give us a feel for the flavor of the new boutique. I highly recommend you check those out here. Some of the modeling ones are from the Compton location. The one with Lil Bow Wow, is at the new location. He was giving sneak peek at the shop just a couple of days before the grand opening on Black Friday.
Why is Lil Bow Wow involved you ask? Because his mother, Tereasa Caldwell, is Nene’s partner in this latest business venture. So after we discussed the absurdity of opening a retail store on Black Friday while sipping our respective drinks, my tweep pops out with, “I’ll bet you can buy a prepaid phone card, a Chico Stick, a Yoo-hoo and a lace front wig there!” He is hilarious and a lovely source of refuge in this crazy world of doom and gloom we live in. We lamented the fact that we could not think of a soul that we could get to go video the grand opening for us.
That turned out not be an issue because the Grand Opening was cancelled. Then it was rescheduled for last Wednesday. Then that was cancelled. And the last I heard, TODAY IS THE BIG DAY! I was going to try to wait for photos but I wanted y’all to be in on the excitement of waiting for the Instagram photos. Fingers crossed that the third time is the charm.
Here is the weirdest part of the whole thing. The store is on West Paces Ferry in Buckhead near my favorite Whole Foods. It’s a fancypants Whole Foods in a very nice area. I cannot imagine what the rent on this place must be. I’ve seen glimpses of the interior, and it’s a beautiful space.
It simply makes no sense. Why sell Nene’s t-shirts and generic THOTwear is such a nice setting? The St. Regis is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FOR FUCKSAKE! We are still not convinced that this isn’t just another pop-up shop. Except that Nene’s post today says,” We also have a pop up shop located in the back with slightly worn celebrity red carpet looks!” So apparently she is having another yard sale in addition to whatever this is.
Is this just someone needing a tax write-off for 2016? NOTHING about this says, “What a great business idea. I wish I had thought of that.” So now we wait. Doors open at 1 pm. Someone get yer ass down there and report back to us. By the way, I’m not sure Nene is even in town but you never know, you could spot a “housewife.” Email me!
Sounds like smoke and mirrors though I am looking forward to the pictures!
Haha!
Oh how sad I am to be living WAY out here on the west coast, I’m fresh out of Christmas Eve thot wear. I predict a surprise return of the HBIC next season with an equally ludicrous explanation of why she needed the year off. It never pays to bite the hand that feeds you NeNe.
I was thinking the same thing as I read this, it reminds me of Sonja Morgan’s “business” decisions, only with more desperate con artist (allegedly) and less delusional drinker (again, allegedly). I’d forgotten how hideous the sweaters were. Shudder.
Wow she has no business acumen whatsoever. I mean, SERIOUSLY wth?
I think my 8 year old prolly made more from selling homemade Christmas ornaments that Miss Nene is gonna make today. And she used it to buy gifts for poor kids! Nene will use the money to……buy a wig?
My question would be, who wants to go into any type of business with someone who owes IRS & multiple states tax money in the million dollar range & isn’t known for their business acumen? You have to know the IRS will now start going thru your returns with a fine tooth comb by being in business with them & possibility of assets being seized. Somehow I don’t see this ending up as a profitable venture though maybe it will work as write off.
I stop at that Whole Foods almost every day before work bc they have the the best salad/hot bar/breakfast bar! I can try to swing into that store after work tomorrow.
It’s probably a venture that Moma BowWow is bankrolling and Nene agreed to slap her name on it, for any money that may come her way (if it succeeds). Nene is the only person who is 30 pounds underweight one month, then big as a house the next, then skinny, then fat. It’s never in the middle. It’s either HUGE or FIT. This month it’s fit.
IG Filters.
IG filters can do that?!?! Which ones and how do I get them? I can’t believe what a cavalcade of phoney baloney hucksters Bravo padded these casts with. Just my opinion.
I also want these filters. But deep down there’s a little fear that if I ever did that, people would meet me in real life and think, “oh, you’re actually a bit shit…” to themselves.
Oh my God. It’s all computer software? lmao!!
Do you think neNe might be looking for an operating loss so she can file bankruptcy and discharge some of her tax debt?
Majority of tax issues cannot be resolved by filing bankruptcy. There has to be specific conditions to exist. Tax liens on properties are not affected at all until property is sold or paid off which if I recall correctly IRS has a lien on her home. Not sure if the taxes owed to states are liens also.
My Tweep has discovered another person involved in the shop that seems to be some sort of business person. My current theory is that this person is opening a franchise of the Swagg thing in Compton and is using Nene and Thereasa in the same sort of role that that Peter guy uses Sonja. They are probably both being paid for the publicity, like they are getting here. Sort of brand ambassadors for the THOTwear to attract the demographic but who have nothing to do with the store otherwise. THIS IS MY THEORY/OPINION currently. Even that doesn’t make for a rational situation as the merchandise does not fit the location. At all. In my opinion.
Nene IGed at 2:10 pm over an hour after the opening a short video of her lackadaisically wandering past some displays alone with no other folks in sight. Perhaps it was taken earlier, but there has been no indication of a stampede to get to the merch.
I don’t get it.
Is Nene on drugs? Even if she did get a % of net sales, or a flat promotional fee, like you said TT, that is not the store or the clothing to affiliate yourself with. It’s contrary to her brand “I am the Joneses”
I could understand if she put the storefront in a lower income location. It is always a plus to promote small business in those areas. But this location seems doomed. Who is going to go to Whole Foods and get their $5 Happy Trails fresh juice and organic ground turkey, then stop by Nene’s store and buy a pair of plastic flip flops and some gladiator thigh high sandals. Um. No.
Melissa you are soo on point with your description . Very funny, you got me laughing soo hard.
I feel sorry for Nene, she needs to sit down with a financial advisor and discuss on how to maximize her potentials not jumping into all these crazy ventures.
Someone probably convinced her that she could write off losses and bring down debt this way.
My question is regarding the double g. And particularly why snapchat is swagg1. Was there already another? Lol. I have theory of the double g I guess. Like snoop dogg. If you listen to nene speak, she generally is too lazy to pronounce the last letter in ANY word. So maybe the double gi is to make pronouncing it correctly possible for her.
While it would kind of make since that the extra g was Nene’s idea since she is married to Gregg and has a son named Brentt, the Swagg thing was already a thing before Nene got involved. It seems to just be one of those odd coincidences in consonant abuse.