Shaqueria Howard is an entrepreneur, balancing being a full-time businesswoman, mommy and fiancé. She’s the founder of 5 STAH MEDIA LLC, a remote boutique branding company. We caught up with Shaqueria to chat about what inspired her to start her business, some of the challenges she’s faced and how she finds the time to juggle all the different roles she plays!
1. What inspired you to start your business, 5 STAH MEDIA LLC?
My inspiration behind 5 STAH MEDIA LLC is to help business owners with my skills in PR and graphic design. I know from experience I have what it takes to survive in this industry. I have been in many internships where I’ve been praised for my work ethic and I knew it was time to grow my business and develop my personal dreams, not for other companies!
2. Talk about how you got your start in the public relations industry.
I got my foot in the public relations industry with internships around 2016! Throughout my college I began looking for internships through Instagram. I started out with Midori Star Media Group, and I just began to intern continuously after that with companies like JMPR, Slip N Slide Records, and PR Girls Do It Better. I have worked professionally with GoodGirlPR most recently in 2018.
3. What are some challenges you’ve encountered since the pandemic while running your business? How have you worked past those things?
Honestly, the pandemic was my encouragement to begin my business! One of the only issues I had was storage on my laptop lol I just purchased a hard drive.
4. How do you balance being a mommy and running a successful business?
One of the major complications of being a full-time worker, fiancé and mom is balancing it all! I have worked with this issue by building a schedule that doesn’t take me away from my family or strip me too much of my client obligations. I have enough mommy daughter time, fiancé time and me time before I go to bed. Some nights are restless though and I’m up pretty late! It’s worth it though.
5. Why are you so passionate about helping others reach and complete their goals?
It just fuels me to add more clients and help more companies build their names. This is my gift, and it’s so important to share this with others who believe in me and what I bring to this industry. I enjoy creating new unique designs, it’s a hard process but the end result is so beautiful. I genuinely enjoy sharing my ideas with my clients in hopes their visions are being executed.
6. What plans do you have for the future? (Any more big business endeavors?)
I plan to build 5 STAH MEDIA LLC into a large business and continue to open doors and job opportunities for the people in this industry who tend to be overlooked. I want to provide meaningful internships and build an intern program that projects students to higher positions or be able to begin businesses for themselves. From that, I will also provide full time and part time positions with my company and possibly offer insurance and other benefits. I want students in this industry to actually work in this industry and not feel subject to a job that doesn’t make them happy just to make ends meet.
