VUE Magazine: Women Who Dominate

Atlanta, Ga resident and serial entrepreneur Snoop, is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the business world. She enrolled in college at the age of 16, and graduated at 20 from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Economics. After a short lived corporate career working for American Express, she went full force into her entrepreneurial endeavors, and hasn’t looked back since. Snoop is the owner of multiple successful businesses including The Hookah Hideaway, and Escobar Tapas Lounge, both located in Downtown Atlanta, Ga. She is also working on her new dating app Girl Talk App, and working on opening a third location. We sat down to talk to the business mogul and find out what she is a women who dominates.

VM: Was entrepreneurship something you always wanted to do?
Snoop: I always knew I wanted to have my own business, even as a child. Growing up, I never really had a career path, but I knew that I wanted to be a business woman and have my own. Having my own businesses seemed like a dream at the time, but that is exactly what I am doing right now, so dreams come true I guess!

VM: What did you learn from opening up your first business, that carried over into your next ones? What did you learn along the way?
Snoop: When you open up your first business you really don’t know what you are doing. Everything is a 100%, or probably more so like a 150% risk. It’s always 100% risk when you open up a business, but when it’s your first one and you don’t know what you’re doing, its even more of a risk. I didn’t know anything when I opened up my first business. I didn’t have a business plan, I didn’t have a marketing plan, I didn’t have funds allocated to start a business. I just did it off of emotion. The things that I didn’t have in place for my business then, I have in place now.

VM: How did you balance and take everything you learned in your past in order to grow into the person you are today?
Snoop: That’s actually one of the things I will be talking about on my new website whoissnoop.com.   Every successful person has a story, or any person period. We all have things that we have been through, and situations that we were born into that we have no control over.  It’s the people that overcome those things that end up being the most successful in life. I think a lot of times we don’t learn as much from  failures as we can. It’s only when people win that they really look at what they did, or this is what got us this “w,” but you really can learn more from your failures. I have this wall in my office of all the businesses that I have ever opened and been apart of. There were ten of them that I have done in the past eleven years, and over 50% were not successful. So always remember that  you have to try. You have to put your best foot forward or nothing will ever happen. You won’t be successful or unsuccessful, you’ll be stagnant.

VM: Entrepreneurship is hard and definitely not for everyone. When you first started your business, was your family and friends supportive of your dreams?
Snoop: Not as supportive as I would have like them to be, but for the same reasons as most parents. My mom is very traditional and old fashioned.Graduating from a school like Vanderbilt, it was expected of me to  get a nice paying job with benefits and things of that nature. It’s so funny because I actually remember when she really started believing in my entrepreneurial spirit. She would just start giving me little bits of information, so now if I ever wanted to go work for someone, it would be unbelievable!

VM: What inspired you to start the Girl Talk App?
Snoop: I was inspired to create the “Girl Talk” app because I am a lesbian, and for most lesbian women its a little harder to find mates. I thought that it  was a great business opportunity, being that there is nothing out there like it.

VM: When making your transition from American Express to being a full  time entrepreneur, how did you find the faith to really believe in yourself, and know that you can do it?
Snoop: Well, I’m an Aries, so I’ve always had kind of a daredevil personality. In my younger days I was really impulsive, so I really didn’t have any fear. I just felt like if it didn’t work out I can always go get a job anyway, because I have a degree. I just always pretty much  believed in myself.

VM: How did your business partnership with rapper 2 Chainz come about?
Snoop: The full story will be on my website that’s coming out shortly after Labor Day, but we ended up meeting because I was looking for another location here in Atlanta. I had Hookah Hideaway for about two years at the time, and wanted to open up another spot. When I first moved to Atlanta, I lived in some lofts that was right around the corner from here, and I would always walk to Peters St, so I just thought it was a dope little area and wanted to own something over here. My realtor ended up hooking us up, and we ended up really clicking. Its a very interesting story of how we met and when I found out that we were opening up Escobar  together, but I want to save all that juice for the website whoissnoop.com

VM: What are some of the most important things you have learned over your ten year entrepreneurial journey, and what advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Snoop: I would say the most important thing that I’ve learned is how to handle stress. In the business world you go through really high stress situations. I learned how to not let a bad situation ruin my day. So that probably is one of the biggest things, being able to have peace and to have a life outside of business. My advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to NOT GIVE UP.

To learn more about Snoop follow her on Instagram and Snapchat @whoissnoop