Today's episode of Start Scale Succeed  is a recording of an instagram with Louisa Tidy, the founder of Floragy, a natural skincare brand founded in 2019. Louisa started the company looking to rebalance her life after an exhausting retail career travelling and working too many hours. After a few years of testing and developing formulas, she launched Floragy with the ethos that ‘less is more’ keeping their ingredients to a minimum and using only key botanicals.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Louisa suffered from dry skin but as she got older she found she needed extra protection during the colder months. After some extensive research and experimenting, Louisa created recipes for skincare products which her skin reacted well to and she preferred over her usual products. 
• As a smaller brand you don’t have the buying power to source the products and work with suppliers that fit into your standards and ethics at a price you can afford. 
• Etsy charges a percentage of your total sales but one of the advantages to using it is that there are no contracts between you and the website so you’re free to sell elsewhere too. 
• The biggest challenge Louisa has faced is not knowing where to spend money. Does she spend more on the website or on photography, what is going to give her the best return for her investment. 
• Make sure you have confidence in what you’re doing, your product, and your service. Don’t be tempted to get lost in what your competitors are doing, if you’re getting good feedback then keep focused on your brand ideals. 

BEST MOMENTS
‘There’s always more we can do to work with local suppliers’
‘Putting your brand out there is like putting yourself out there personally’
‘I’m not as much of a risk taker as I’d like to think’ 

EPISODE RESOURCES
Floragy Skincare

ABOUT THE GUEST
"I was exhausted after a full on career travelling and working too many hours and wanted to take some time to rebalance my life. I’d always suffered from dry skin but as I’ve got older I’ve found I need extra protection during the colder months. After some extensive research and experimenting I created a few recipes for skincare products which my skin reacted well to, and I preferred over my usual products. I noticed how expensive natural skincare could be to buy and wanted to create a range of products which were accessible to everyone while maintaining a natural ingredient list which was easy to understand."

ABOUT THE HOST
Buying & retail expert Nicole Higgins spent the last 18 years sourcing & developing products from all over the world, building strategies for blue chip businesses, and increasing bottom line sales and profit, adding over £40 million in incremental business to the bottom line. She now uses that experience and works as a consultant and coach for entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them start and scale their product businesses.
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