Women on Fire: Niki Mahon of Nikita By Niki

Rosie On Fire caught up with Niki Mahon, a 25 year old entrepreneur from Kent in the UK. She is the founder of Nikita By Niki, an online store selling statement jewellery and homeware.

From starring in famous Bollywood music videos and becoming Instagram famous, to deleting her account and reinventing herself by becoming a successful business woman, we had a great time finding out more about this gorgeous lady.

What do you do?

My business, Nikita By Niki, is an ecommerce website centered around selling statement jewellery and statement pieces for your home - things that people will ask you about and get conversation going.  

Our customers are young women who are fashion conscious, care about their appearance and want to ‘glam-up’, and we also have a more minimal collection of jewellery you can wear daily.

When did you start your business?

I started my business at the end of 2014, and it really took off the January of 2015. I was working full time when I started it, and I gradually went part time before eventually quitting to focus on my business full time. It was really scary leaving that job security. I had to make sure I was in a position where I could afford to leave the job. I really thought about it - but I did take a leap of faith.

Did you go to college or university?

I went to Bournemouth University and studied computer animation art. It was very techy, but that’s why I’m good with design, and that’s how I was able to create my own logo and make my first website.

I realised that I’d picked the wrong degree towards the end of my first year. Computer animation art was something I knew I didn’t want to do when I left university. I like to be out there, the centre of attention, and that university degree was very much for an introverted person. I just finished the course because I knew I had to.

I did dance before that – and I was always used to being centre stage, talking to people, networking and putting myself out there. Whereas the people on my course kept themselves to themselves, they would work through the night in the animation lab… I was basically the opposite.

You’ve appeared in some well-known music videos - how did that happen?

When I was at university I was looking for an escape from my geeky course. A friend of my mums asked me if I wanted to act for a little part in this music video for a bit of money. I love dancing and I wanted the extra money, so I gave it a go!

The first video I did was for an Indian artist called DJ Sanj and it just blew up - it got millions of views. Everyone was asking who I was - it was bizarre. That’s when I started to get a social media following. It just surged. I got thousands of new Instagram followers, and I did a few more music videos off the back of that because people were asking for me.

But I didn’t really like it. It was a bit seedy and felt a bit silly. After university I was looking for jobs and I wanted to be taken seriously. But I thought, if they are going to see me prancing around in a music video, I'm not going to get that.

Is that how you gained so many followers on Instagram?

When I had around 10,000 followers I freaked out. It just had no purpose to it in my opinion. I actually deleted my Instagram account.

I went back to zero before I started the business - I started all over again from scratch. Now I have over 62k followers. A lot of people knew me from the music videos – but I like to think that a lot of the following I have now is from the business.

Have you experienced trolling? How did you deal with it?

Not so much now, but it first started when I did the music videos. There would just be some random people who would say horrible things online. So that’s when I had to learn to grow a thick skin. I still get it now and again.

Sometimes people send messages to me through the website and say things like ‘you’re an attention seeking girl on social media,’ and I’m like, ‘OK, cheers,’ delete it, move on. I reckon in every 100 comments there are probably two horrible ones, but that just doesn’t bother me any more.

Be careful what you put out there because people will respond to what you do. I’ve noticed a trend on social media, which is that anyone who is putting out really opinionated or negative stuff out there will tend to get negativity back.

I have learnt that lesson for myself. I saw a few girls had copied my work and I was insulted by it, so I put it out there! But because what I said was even remotely negative, I got a whole lot of negative responses back - as well as people defending me of course - but a lot of negativity. As soon as I realised that, I’ve just been putting out positive content and keeping everything happy - it’s helped a lot.

If people are just needlessly horrible then you need to learn to brush it off. It took me quite a long time to learn how to do this, I’m quite a sensitive person, but I very quickly learned to get over it.

What advice do you have for women who want to start their own business?

Be consistent and ambitious. Even when I was still working full time I gave my business everything, and I think that’s why I did manage to grow it quite quickly.

It’s good to escape from work. I’ve been trying to do that recently, just stick to a 9-5 and chill. I feel that some people who work for themselves, especially in the home environment, can spread themselves pretty thin working through the day and night. I’d rather not do that. I feel that the 9-5 is a lot more productive, then I can really enjoy downtime.

Everyone assumes that while I was starting my business and working full time I didn’t have a social life - but I did. You make time for everything - I made time for the gym, having a long term boyfriend, I made time for family… You just do it, you learn to manage your time better. Just be prepared to sleep a bit less!

Which kimonos are you wearing and why did you choose them?

Thea is my absolute favourite one. I feel like I need to wear more colour, and this kimono [Thea] to me is doing just that. It is absolutely gorgeous, I like the ombre vibe to it. Normally I’m into wearing greys, blacks, whites - and that’s why I’ve chosen the other two designs. I like the plain grey one [kimono] because it just looks really elegant and it’s very good quality. The patterned kimono [kimono] just looked really interesting.

www.nikitabyniki.com