Britney, Explore Enterprise
When Britney starts putting together a recipe, she uses only healthy, plant-based ingredients and the smell is delicious. But Britney’s inventive and original recipes aren’t for food, they’re for a range of natural soaps and cosmetic products.
After a period of product testing, Britney’s business, Thee Honest Skincare Company, is now up and running. The Explore Enterprise programme played a key role in supporting Britney, 23, to build the business and finance knowledge she needed to get her company off the ground.
Britney’s business idea initially focused on beard care, and first launched under the name Beard of Honour. ‘I love to see a man with a beard,’ she explains, ‘and in my country there aren’t many manufacturers who make beard products… That’s why I decided to start a beard business. I make beard shampoo, conditioner, oil and butter.’
After product testing, Britney diversified from beard care to offer a full cosmetic range of skincare products too. She makes all her body butters, creams, soaps and oils herself from scratch, using natural ingredients such as jasmine, eucalyptus, cedarwood, turmeric and charcoal.
A lockdown project
Britney lives in a rural community in Barbados. In an area with few job opportunities, she is keen to create her own. ’Entrepreneurship lets you be your own person,’ she says. Britney first came up with the idea for her business during the coronavirus lockdown. After over a year researching and developing her products, she then moved into the testing phase and started preparing for launch – registering her company and setting up her social media channels and online shop.
‘I spent that whole year researching and I made a blueprint for my business. I taught myself. I’m a teachable person,’ Britney explains. ‘Some people have been on courses. My teacher is Google.’
But to complement her self-study, Britney also signed up to the Explore Enterprise programme, run by the Barbados Youth Business Trust (BYBT) with support from Prince’s Trust International. She recalls that alongside business finance, which she found particularly useful, the programme also helped develop her understanding of marketing and customer demographics.
‘I did accounting at school but I didn’t pass that subject, so finance was definitely the biggest lesson I learned from BYBT. I know how to make budgets and track where my money goes…. Now I record every single purchase and every quotation that I ask for. I love to do a spreadsheet!’
Building trust
One of the things that Britney most enjoyed about the Explore Enterprise programme was the way the facilitators took the time to get to know participants, and their businesses, individually.
‘It really made me feel so safe, almost like I was in therapy. I really felt like I had someone to trust in.’ she recalls. ‘There wasn’t any butting heads or any misunderstandings or disagreements, it was just mature conversations about what the next step should be.’
The programme has helped Britney to develop some longer-term goals too. ‘They taught us to think about where we want to see ourselves in five years, and so I made a financial forecast of where I wanted to be,’ she explains.
Britney’s five-year plan is ambitious. Not only does she want to build on her online trade to eventually open a retail space, she also sees her products being sold through distribution channels that cross over with her target market, such as gyms.
With Britney’s passion for skincare, flair for product development and – since taking part in this programme – sound grasp of essential business concepts, her five-year plan has every chance of success.