How Amazon bootcamps helped Natur'Alley gain traction online

Nameste Rummens is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of vegan skincare and beauty products brand Natur'Alley.

With a limited start-up budget, she used the Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme to pick up tips for getting her business off the ground.

Here, Nameste shares her story and how Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism business inspires her entrepreneurial adventures.

How did you come up with your business idea?

My co-founder and I found ourselves searching the market for a fully plant-based range of self-care items and we weren't satisfied with the options.

My co-founder has a history of working with natural products and we are both creative and innovative so we decided to try our hand at making our own skincare products. We knew using 100% natural, vegan-friendly, cruelty-free and organic ingredients would be the only way we would be happy to present our products to consumers.

After some trial and error, we launched our first range of skincare products. We gave out samples to friends, family, neighbours and some of our followers on social media. We also tested the products ourselves. The feedback we received was resoundingly positive.

What start-up challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?

With no real starting capital, we faced limitations in terms of paid advertising, for example. We pride ourselves on our problem solving skills and put pure time and effort into getting our brand name out there.

We used social media, wrote press releases, ran competitions and did lots more to get the word out. We have gained a strong following on social media and have had media coverage.

In addition, our website, logo and product design have come from our own hard work. I designed the website and our marketing material and we collaborated on the logo and company voice.

Which videos in the Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme inspired you the most?

We found the mastering social media videos particularly helpful. They gave us great insights into how to use social media platforms for our business.

No matter how tech savvy we thought we were, there were still things to be learnt about setting up social media accounts and using them effectively. For example, we picked up tips on how best to use a profile image to build recognition of our business among our customers.

The e-learning video covering content creation for your brand was also useful. This taught us the importance of understanding our customers in order to best market to them. It has great tips on understanding their 'pain' to identify customer needs and their 'desire' so you can provide a solution to those needs.

What are your top tips for business success?

If you have zero funding, hard work and dedication to your customers can always be used to build your brand. Hard work has a greater value than any amount of funding ever could.

We set this company up with limited funding. We didn't, and still don't, have a budget for big advertising campaigns, but it hasn't stopped us. We spent hours promoting our brand and its social media presence.

We have just under 6,000 followers on Instagram, which we attribute to our hard work posting and connecting with others. We built our own website from scratch using Shopify and did the search engine optimisation ourselves.

We studied online using the Amazon Small Business Accelerator and other training for many hours. Now we have gained skills and knowledge and have an effective website. If you don't have the funding to hire professionals, don't let that stop you! Become your own professional, learn and be your own expert.

Which other entrepreneurs inspire you and why?

Graham Fortgang, CEO of MatchaBar. He and his brother had an issue with the energy drinks that were available, being loaded with sugars and chemicals, so they decided to make a change.

They offer an alternative using high grade matcha, which they sourced from China. They inspire me because, like us, they saw an issue with the products on offer and decided to launch something better. They also have a strong vegan stance, just like us.

Another entrepreneur who inspires me is Sir Richard Branson. From humble beginnings with a student magazine and setting up a small mail-order business which led to his first shop opening on Oxford Street, to where he is today with his Virgin brand covering everything from telecommunication to space tourism.

He shows me and other young entrepreneurs that even the sky need not be the limit if you dream big and work hard.

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