Shirley Dorsainvil: Branding Powerhouse, Curating a Culture of Luxury Brand Status for Haitian Businesses to Flourish in this Era

Digital Marketing is taking over at a speedy pace, and our Haitian businesses could use some support on the latter. It is imperative for small businesses to include digital marketing into their strategic plan. Shirley Dorsainvil has been motivated to assist small businesses in understanding digital marketing, although her services are more centered around businesses in the Haitian community.

Shirley was raised by her grandparents -who ended up adopting her. Both grandparents had trouble conversing in English. Her grandparents would communicate with her in Haitian Creole.

At some point, she got tired of the language barrier. While she was attending a catechism class, she dived into the language since the course was presented in Creole anyway, which has helped her craft her Creole-speaking skills, discover more about her Haitian roots and culture. Shirley also enjoyed spending time with older folks, so she could familiarize herself with Haiti’s history, distinctive norms, and variations.

Shirley is currently a Marriage and Family Therapist -recently earned her master’s degree, and her bachelor is in Psychology. She has been using her scholastic techniques to help Haitian businesses gain ground within their specific line of service. “You learn specifics, just obtaining a master’s degree, which created a depth of knowledge in an individual’s knowledge sphere,” said Shirley.

Shirley is the Founder of Haitians Who Blog, a passion project. She started blogging about relationships as she was studying Marriage and Family Counseling. Her blogs were mostly focused on love within the Haitian community. Something that could seem like a taboo subject, unheard of. Haitians Who Blog started as an Instagram page -which was initially a hashtag #Haitianswhoblog.  People were responding. The creative platforms were lacking Haitian bloggers. Even so, there was a thin portion of Haitian lifestyle bloggers. “People did not want to speak concerning their lifestyles on social media, especially our people. It was not a sharing-forward time,” stated Shirley.

In 2019, Dorsainvil Creative Group was born due to an influx of a need for creative and branding services from experts who recognize the shortcomings in branding. Shirley has learned that she was doing influencer marketing, community branding while sharing tips through her social media means. “Branding is an essential piece for businesses,” said Shirley. One of the common trends she realizes that there was a lack of brand recognition in the Haitian business industry. “Haitian brands were putting themselves in the social spheres just because, but creativity did not exist behind their social pages.” From then, Shirley decided to use your expertise, her academic credentials, and turn that into a small business helping our Haitian businesses to reach luxury brand status.

There are people out there who are in dire need of the services Dorsainvil Creative Group is offering. Shirley and her team have given some businesses a voice. As a first-generation businesswoman, she never had anybody teaching her anything. She just knew there was an issue and decided to find a way to solve it.

As a business owner, hiring is the most significant aspect -of running a business- she struggles with. “In the hiring process, you don’t know who’s who. There is no template. Either the person tarnishes the image of your brand or boosts it up.” Managing a group of people could also be very challenging due to complexities in the decision-making process.

The biggest skill a business owner or CEO requires is customer service skills. “Customer service is your best marketing strategy. For every satisfied customer, you get five more clients.” It is essential that all customers are satisfied. There is a value in keeping your customers. It is vital to make sure of that. “Pay close attention to your customer service because that sets the tone for your entire company,” said Shirley.