This flavorful fashionista turned a passion for fashion into a thriving online boutique and now, her first store opening! Houston, you have no more shopping problems!

Side Hustle Spotlight: Black Women Turning Their Passion into Profit 

Toni Scott Grant, 36, still can't belive ANYONE is calling her boss lady - including her husband. These days with the new Scott Phree boutique opening in a matter of days, she still remembers being kicked out of the design program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York because of a poorly designed portfolio of cartoonish sketches and magazine tear sheets.

"I remember riding the number 2 train back to my apartment in Brooklyn as a crying mess." What awaited was a series of events that still seem a bit of a blur. First up, a voice mail from a clothing company in Manhattan saying that I had been hired as a PR/Showroom Assistant. Then flying from coast to coast promoting the line, gifting baskets for the Grammy's gift suites and taking Vogue's, Anna Wintour’s coat as she visited the showroom - a highlight of my life, although I could barely see her as she slammed the coat in my arms covering my head—one classic memory of many. I was also fortunate enough to find work as a fashion and prop stylist doing commercials and independent films. Boy, it's harder than it looks and a lot of hours of do-overs, short-takes and model/actress melt downs. Out of shear madness, I rose to the occasion and refused to give in to the snobbery of fashion. I made it fun and laid-back, as it should be in my opinion.

After a few years of hip-hop, high fashion and haute messes, I got my boots to clicking right back to my roots of Texas to care for my ailing mother. I lost her to throat cancer, after her putting up a good fight with breast cancer and being in remission for 3 years. In my heart I know she's so proud of her baby girl. She told me, "Don't you ever put your dreams on a shelf, behind every no is a yes, you just have to keep reaching." And here I am after major setbacks and heartaches, still standing and dressing mannequins in my very own window of the boutique I call my second home.

Read more about Toni Scott Grant and her journey building Scott Phree in The Mocha Manual to Turning Your Passion into Profit. Visit www.scottphree.com to view her online boutique.