Denise Viera’s interest in essential oils and natural skincare grew during her time working at pharmacies specialising in integrative medicine and compounding.
Scentcillo, Denise’s essential oil brand, started out by making natural face and body creams and essential oil blends. The popular tractions their essential oil blends received lead Denise to go deeper in her study of essential oils – the chemistry behind essential oils, the psychology relating to our sense of smell, the history behind particular scents and its effect on wellbeing as an element for mindful living.
Denise has since then ventured out to design and develop Scentcillo’s ambient scenting range to allow her customers to enjoy an enriched home and everyday life. As well as seeing ideas come to life, the relationships Denise has built with her customers is what makes the struggles of starting up a business all worthwhile.
Advice that Denise wishes she’d been given when she started her business:
- It’s not the case that if you “build a website, they will come.” You need a clear plan of how people are going to visit your website and how you will follow up with them.
- Define your end goal in business and begin working backwards. Map out each and every step along the way so you can identify potential problems before they occur, and you know exactly what needs to be done.
- Be psychologically prepared because building a business is very stressful and it can get lonely. Have a well defined plan of tackling this issue so that it doesn’t compromise your mental and physical health.
Denise’s advice for someone who’s thinking about starting his or her own business:
- It’s going to be a long and winding road. Prepare for the long haul mentally and physically, as well as by improving your business knowledge.
For Denise, these knowledge area and skills are essential for anyone starting in business:
- Know your numbers and ROI on all aspects of the business.
- For an online business, you must have a good handle on digital marketing. You must be able to produce good quality content and have sound copy writing skills. You should know the ins and outs of social media advertising, SEO, and email marketing strategies.
We asked Denise to identify the problems in her company that HerBusiness membership solves:
Primarily the isolation of starting up your own business. Through the Roundtable focus sessions and the Facebook group, HerBusiness provides a forum where you can ask questions or bounce off ideas with other women running their own business who have experienced similar issues.
