By The Green Parent
15th September 2020
Luckily we are able to run our business from home having converted some of our outbuildings into workspaces and storage. As a family, we like the simple life.
We are both graphic designers, so our route into what we do today wasn’t the conventional one. We had been recommended to a start-up company to create a logo, packaging and marketing for a small skincare range. Unlike some of the products that I design for, I really liked this, so put a heck of lot of my spare time into the early days of Betty. When the original owners of the company decided to go their separate ways, my partner and I decided to take a leap of faith and take the fledgling Betty Hula (bettyhula.co.uk) on ourselves. It has been a huge learning curve, a bit like being a parent, learning along the way. Betty is like our third child, and so far she seems to be heading in the right direction.
SELF-CARE SECRETS
I wouldn’t say that I do much in the self-care area. I feed my skin well, and by that I mean all of my skin. My arms and legs get as much oil and cream given to them as my face does. Time is the other one. Give yourself it. This is the hardest thing in a busy day to do, but it’s quite a motivator, knowing that if I get everything done, then I can do….. whatever I fancy for half an hour + (which is usually gardening)
BUSINESS PLANS
This year has thrown us off course a bit. We struggled to keep up with demand of our natural anti-bacterial hand cream this Spring, as sales rocketed (for obvious reasons). Our boys were drafted in to do some shifts in packing orders. We also won 2 awards last month for our Secret Wonder Oil in the Free From Skincare awards. This judges cosmetics ‘free from’ some of the many ingredients which consumers need or want to avoid, be it due to health issues, skin allergies, ethical concerns, or environmental issues. Together with getting placed in The Green Parent Natural Beauty Awards has boosted our ‘get up and go’!. We’re still bringing out as planned new natural, vegan friendly products to our range, and growing our 300+ indie stockists this year.
THREE WAYS TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE
Everyones daily lives throw up different challenges when it comes to the living it in a more natural and sustainable way. For me, I’d say the first thing to do is to stop and look around you. It’s so easy to just live in ’the-now’ and not actually think about how you’re living that day. Do you really need to go the Supermarket for those few bits you need? Do you need to buy that new top? Is it really that hard to make your own lunch for work? Looking and thinking are the two actions that will bring about the third…. Doing.
