Starting a new series today and every Thursday you’ll find a story of career girls who started their amazing business. The aim of this series is to inspire all of us and to read them as guides if you dream about creating you own business
I would like to start this series by sharing the story of Micaela Hoo the 22-year-old who created a plan, and raised more than $11,000 in a Kickstarter campaign to create her organic, gluten-free, vegan, and cruelty-free skincare line Drifter Organics.
She co-founded the company with her mom out of a personal need: she suffered of autoimmune diseases including celiac disease, eczema, and dysbiosis so that her entire body was sensitive to ingredient irritation.
It was extremely difficult for her to find all natural skincare options because she had to abstain from so many wholesome, nutritious foods that are commonly find in natural skincare. After seeing her frustrations with finding suitable skincare, her mom became a bit of an alchemist, tinkering away in the kitchen with essential oils, carrier oils, and butters to prepare for Micaela a body butter.
After a while, Micaela started helping her mum experiment with the scents and consistency. It was all trial and error at the beginning but after about nine months, they came up with a decent formula. It was when her dad said, “Hey, this stuff is pretty good,” that they considered selling our skincare.
They needed the necessary funds to produce the skincare on a grander scale, that’s why they decided to run a a Kickstarter campaign in April 2016. Micaela to TheEverygirl said “Crowdfunding is a great way for entrepreneurs to test the waters and see if their product/service is well-received before even launching a website. Planning and successfully running a Kickstarter campaign is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. There is so much work that goes on behind the scenes—video making, figuring out rewards, reward level pricing, copy editing, and promoting your campaign.”
They marketed their ideas on Micaela’s blog Oh My Drifter and on Instagram
Her advices about starting your own business
- You’re never truly ready to start a business. If you wait until you feel like you are ready, you’re never going to start!
- Something doesn’t have to be perfect for it to launch.
“There’s always a period of hustle in the beginning of an entrepreneur’s life. They may have to sacrifice weekends, nights, and vacations to get their business off the ground, but years down the road, when the business stabilizes, they can enjoy the many fruits they’ve reaped. I’m in the hustle stage right now.
When you run your own company, you never feel like you can truly relax. You’re always on guard, looking for opportunities to network, Instagram moments, etc., even when you’re supposed to be “off. I love what I do so much; I can literally work day and night and forget to take care of myself. Sometimes at night, when I’m designing or copy editing or planning my Instagram feed after dinner, I have to ask myself, “Does this really need to be done today? Can this be done tomorrow?” I have to give myself strict limits on when to put my work down and rest..”
What do you think about? I think that her story is such an inspiriation! Good job Micaela!