JP Staff (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta ●
Fri, March 25, 2022
2022-03-25
11:13
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Lifestyle
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Started with a kitchen pot and beeswax sourced from native farms in Lampung, Bee Me now has a nationwide presence with its au naturel honey-based mostly mom and children skincare merchandise.
Nurfadila, a 31-yr-previous housewife in Banten, struggled with pimples throughout her being pregnant final yr.
“I had pimples throughout, not solely on my face but additionally on my again and my neck,” she stated. “One day, I noticed a put up by [Instagram influencer] Dwihanda reviewing a model for moms and infants named Bee Me. I attempted it, and it labored for me.”
Nurfadila is just one of Bee Me’s many customers. The model, recognized for its beeswax-based mostly moisturizer, was the brainchild of a mom of three, Sheyla Taradia Habib.
Often known as Shey, the 29-yr-previous entrepreneur has no pharmacy or dermatology background. Shey talked to The Jakarta Post about how Bee Me ultimately got here to be.
Leading lady: Shey, usually known as Mama Shey by her followers, has no pharmacy nor dermatology background. (Courtesy of Sheyla Taradia Habib) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Sheyla Taradia Habib)
Can you inform us the way you began the journey of Bee Me?
I used to be a contemporary graduate with a bachelor of humanities in English literature diploma from the University of Indonesia in 2014. It was my dream to turn into an entrepreneur like Sandiaga Uno and Bob Sadino. However, it takes a lot of effort to be one.
Anyway, I assumed that a business wanted capital, so I got a job. My first job was as a gross sales marketer at an oil firm in Jakarta. I solely labored for 2 months as a result of my mother and father needed me to return to Bandar Lampung.
So, you returned to your hometown and began your business there?
Yes. I ultimately went house and began pursuing my grasp’s diploma on the University of Bandar Lampung, majoring in administration. Meanwhile, I stayed true to my entrepreneurial ardour by promoting numerous issues.
I attempted to do a number of companies as a result of I assumed they’d potential, however I didn’t consider methods to develop them. I joined an entrepreneurship neighborhood known as Yukbisnis and gained a lot of latest business information. It’s additionally the place I discovered my soulmate, Iqbal, who’s now my husband.
Did you workforce up with Iqbal afterward?
No. Iqbal ran his personal cafe and restaurant. I centered on my clothes business. However, vogue companies come with deadstock issues. Eventually, Iqbal requested me to workforce up, so I joined his cafe’s advertising and marketing workforce. For the following three years, we centered on digital branding.
How did a cafe business and clothes business result in a skincare model?
The Bee Me business was born unintentionally. I could not assist on the cafe throughout my second being pregnant, however I could not sit nonetheless. I noticed movies on YouTube about learn how to make home made moisturizing masks. Initially, I made it for my very own use. It price me round Rp 180,000 [$12.51] to purchase the substances of a pure moisturizer. I shared my work on Instagram, and a lot of buddies requested me to promote it. I assumed it might be enjoyable to open a preorder system and promote my product for Rp 45,000 [$3.13] apiece. I unexpectedly had round 100 orders.
I began working with honey farmers within the Tanggamus space, Lampung. But again then, I did not perceive that skincare needed to have a license from the BPOM [Food and Drug Monitoring Agency] and this business could be banned. Amid the confusion, my then-business accomplice needed to cease working as a result of she was pregnant.
I bear in mind it clearly: It was June 2019. I felt so hopeless. Out of nowhere, my good friend, who’s a medical physician, known as and stated: “Shey, your skincare does not have a BPOM license, proper? Bring your formulation to a maklon [manufacturer], and they’ll assist you to with the registration, manufacturing and all.”
Future plans: With her firm’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) license and trademark registered, Shey is now extra assured and plans to proceed to broaden her product vary. (Courtesy of Sheyla Taradia Habib) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Sheyla Taradia Habib)
Did teaming up with a producer assist velocity up your business?
Initially, I nonetheless used the formulation from YouTube, however we did not have energetic substances, so the primary substances had been solely beeswax and pure oil. The consultants on the producer helped reformulate our product to make it softer and last more. We went on to create some samples till I used to be lastly glad with the consequence.
Our BPOM license was issued not lengthy after, so we might lastly broaden our distribution. We began utilizing the Bee Me model as a result of the product was derived from beeswax. We made cuter packaging, however we needed to improve our value to Rp 80,000.
We additionally made beeswax-based mostly cleaning soap and sunscreen. At first, we used paraben for our sunscreen, which is definitely innocent if combined in correctly with the correct quantity. However, moms normally keep away from paraben, so we stopped utilizing it in our merchandise.
Bee Me was initially a basic skincare model. What made you modify path to concentrate on moms and kids?
Because there may be already an abundance of manufacturers within the native skincare market. In the previous, I simply offered my product to anybody with none explicit goal. Then, we regarded on the knowledge. We discovered that the shoppers who made repeat orders had been moms who additionally purchased them for his or her kids, so we determined to refocus. In 2020, we began our moms and infants marketing campaign and managed to concentrate on that area of interest after a yr.
The model had a robust 2021. You received a number of competitions with Bee Me final yr. Can you inform us about these?
My good friend inspired me to register for the Youth and Sports Ministry’s excessive-attaining younger entrepreneur competitors, so we tried to submit our business proposal for the artistic business class. I did not assume I’d win first place.
What makes us stand out is that we now have a area of interest however sturdy market section and empower the section on the similar time. Almost 98 p.c of our workforce are housewives. We empower them with lessons and business mentoring.
As for the Industry Ministry, I signed up for a beauty begin-up competitors, so my opponents had been all cosmetics [brands]. I additionally had doubts as a result of everybody had such cool merchandise fabricated from really native and pure substances. However, I noticed that they paid little consideration to advertising and marketing and branding methods, so I highlighted mine.
I defined to the jury that my information hole allows me to soak up extra, so I see the hole as a chance. It means I will also be aggregators for others’ merchandise, so why do not we collaborate? Maybe that is the place the jury determined that Bee Me has an added worth, so we secured a runner-up place.
Acknowledgement: Shey thinks Bee Me’s advertising and marketing technique is one among its finest options. (Courtesy of Sheyla Taradia Habib) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Sheyla Taradia Habib)
In your opinion, what made Bee Me thrive regardless of the pandemic?
Maybe it is as a result of we stored increasing distribution and branding with commercials, endorsements and new social media approaches. Like, once we see alternatives to promote with TikTok, we instantly tailored and used TikTok for Bee Me advertising and marketing actions.
We’re additionally eager on endorsing influencers that match our section. We deploy particular formulation for explicit campaigns. For massive campaigns, as an example, we use nano, micro and mega-influencers. For common day-to-day advertising and marketing, we simply deploy nano and micro-influencers. For Bee Me, to this point, nano and micro-influencers present simpler gross sales conversions.
All this tough work does repay. Based on the info that we acquired from Google and our buyer database, most of our clients come from Greater Jakarta, with Lampung shifting into the second place after being first for a whereas earlier than the pandemic. We averagely promote 10,000 merchandise month-to-month to those two areas alone.
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https://www.thejakartapost.com/tradition/2022/03/25/mind-your-beeswax-how-a-small-skincare-business-got-moms-buzzing-with-excitement.html
