Created on Canva by me
Good day beautiful people and welcome to my contribution to this contest. To me, it's not just a contest but equally an avenue through which I could learn from what others are doing to make their year a success, as well as inpire someone through mine, in a bit to make the world a better👌 place for us all.
2024 started for me on a very optimistic note as always, hoping for the best through out the year. Being a Mind-Body Therapist, I had always planned to have my own skin care/cosmetic brand. One of my resolutions as the year began, was to save up enough money💷 to start pushing that dream💭 to realisation, which i did. It was'nt a beautiful walk in the garden at all, believe me. To speed up things, I took a loan and at around February ending, I initiated the process.
The first phase was to determine the brand name and slogan, where I had to do a lot of thinking and be thorough to make sure that the name reflects my philosophy of what I would like the brand to offer its clientèle through out it's life span. After going back and forth, I settled on THE COCOON as brand name and Awakening The Child In You as the slogan. Remember that in branding, the name has to reflect the brand philosophy. When this was settled, the next step was to outline the different product ranges under the brand.
THE COCOON Logo
For this to be easy, I first of all had to identify the existing skin and hair care problems to be solved by the solution the brand would offer. Here, I realised for this to be effective, I would have to propose solutions that respond not only to the skin and beauty needs, but equally closely tied to the different skin tones and age groups. That is how the following skin care /beauty and hair products ranges under THE COCOON brand were born:
SKIN/BEAUTY CARE PRODUCT RANGES
- Shimmer Body Polish, Scrub and Soap (for fair skin types)
- Skin Glow Body Polish, scrub and Soap (for dark and caramel skin tones)
- Rejuvenating Body Lotion, scrub and soap (for ageing and /or damaged skin, good for all skin tones)
- Stretch Marks Lotion and Peel
- Ghongha Skin Repair Soap
- Kaapi Skin Repair Scrub
FACIAL CARE
- Acne/Oily skin Blend
- Desinfectant Blend
- Age Defying Blend
MIND THERAPY
- Peace and Calming Blend
- Uplifting Blend
- Indulgence Blend
HEALTH
- Athlete's Foot/Fungi Blend
HAIR CARE
- Alopecia Blend (for speedy and healthy hair growth)
- Dermatitis Blend (for scalp infections and dandruff)
- Hair Shaft Rejuv (stops hair breakage, moisturises, nourishes and gives shine)
- Alo-Derma Blend (for both speedy hair growth and dandruff)
MASSAGE THERAPY
- TCN Holistic Massage Oil
- Pain and Stress Release Massage Oil
- Relaxation Massage oil
- Foot Massage oil
- Hand Massage Oil
- Face Massage Oil
- Lymphatic (cellulite) Drainage Massage Oil
After the above task, next I got in contact with a cosmetics laboratory⚗ with whom we developed the fomulae of the different products (32 in number), taking into consideration all skin intricacies and needs. This was another stressful patch to traverse together with choosing the packaging, but thank God we did. Below is a glimps of the results:
We were done in time enought for me to launch the brand on its social media platforms, on the 1st of May 2024 which happens to be my birthday. I was so happy😊 to have offered myself this as a birthday gift.
Screen shot of the Cocooon Facebook page, showing post on the 1st of May 2024
Marketting was done on the brands social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, WhatsApp. This link here leads you to the brand's complete and detailed product catalogue
Fast forward to 5 months now, I think my goal of creating and launching my brand has been achieved, though it hasn't been a smooth ride. Getting people to embrace a new beauty routine product/line hasn't been easy but with focus, patience, discipline, dedication, passion and God's grace, at this point a good number of the people in Douala, Yaounde, Buea, Bamenda, Santchou, Uganda and Canada are satisfied using THE COCOON brand.
The "...ber" months have already been engaged, with the month of September almost gone and even though I've not made the kind of money I hoped to have made by this time, I feel proud of myself. Why do i feel proud of myself? I feel so because:
- I set a goal and despite all the road blocks, i've stayed fervent to my objectives and kept pushing. Did I mention the difficulties in getting the adequate packaging bottles, the loss of designs at the graphic designers and we had to restart, the delay in arrival of the production etc,.?
- I was thorough and centered everything I did related to the brand on quality. I made sure the products went through quality control and testing to ensure that consumers won't have issues, thereby ensuring brand reliability and trust.
- I have tried to remain grounded despite creating a new and promising business. The tendency when most people start earning a little more than before is to increase their standards of living. This prevents compounding which actually is the basis for progressive increase in wealth.
Just like we all know, during the "...ber" months, there are a lot of festive🎉 and tempting activities which come with a lot of pressures, pushing most people to want to show up and meet up at all cost, despite the lack of possibilities. Most indebt themselves and even worst, most get into dilapidating their savings and even the capital of their businesses, squandering everything just to start off again in January with new New Year's resolutions. I intend to close my ears and eyes to anything that will only take away from me and not bring in anything substantial.
Given the festivities and euphoria during the "...ber" months, this makes it a very lucrative😋 period for focused minded people. One could during this period, catch up on business lossess incurred during the course of the year by taking advange of the excitement people have to purchase new things, travel, do weddings, parties and celebrations, just to name a few, by positioning oneself in a way to be a supplier in one way or the other of the goods and services needed. For example, one could decide to buy and resell Christmas home accessories, invest in renting out event chairs, tents and decorations, engage in doing pastries for events, why not even use your car (if you have one) for picks and drops. I think 🤔 this is exactly what I will engage into for extra income. Summarily, positioning oneself more in the supply chain than in the consumer chain is the best thing to do.
Remember its okay to feel stuck, we all do. I made a littel article on "Being Stuck", found here, 2 days back wich suggests a few practical solutions we can all practice to free ourselves and to keep moving ahead.
Dear Steemians, all I can wish us all is that God gives us the wisdom to make the right and productive decisions during this season so that at the end of these delicate "...ber" months, we would be anxiously looking forward to those of next year, having made the most out of the ones of this year, rather than dreading them.
GOOD LUCK TO Y'ALL