The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
When I went vegan at the end of 2016, I had already been making my products with beeswax, because that was the usual wax to use in balm recipes. I noticed that nearly all other massage therapy balms sold in NZ were beeswax based. As I personally looked more into the reasons why beeswax isn’t vegan, and some of the ways that bees are treated in commercial settings, I changed my formula to contain 100% natural, pure soy wax instead.
I was thrilled with this because not only did it work well as a vegan alternative, but it was so creamy and luscious. It was a really nice feeling to know that my products were totally plant based / vegan to align with my beliefs and to stand out in the market. Now I am proud to say that we are 100% cruelty free, vegan, handmade and as low waste as possible.
Once I moved back and settled in Auckland for a while working as a designer, I started thinking about my products on a business level again. I thought, what if I could rebrand to be more luxe and high quality, visually? What if my brand could be zero waste? My family and I use my products every single day; surely other people would love them like we do!
I held onto those ideas for about a year more before finally implementing them in the middle of 2020’s NZ COVID lockdown. I have been so excited to create this full rebrand of my products – this time fully eco-conscious, low waste and vegan.
Early on, I had one lady approach me and say that my Heartbeats Relaxation balm had totally fixed her child’s eczema, and I thought that was really special and it encouraged me to continue what I do.
I’ve now refined a specific healing balm called “Velixir” specifically for rashes with a potent amount of Roman Chamomile and it’s a real staple in the family home.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
I try to have a lot of self control and stick with working only on weekdays and during 9-5. I still do a lot of design work through my studio so it’s definitely a struggle to stick to this when deadlines are involved. The biggest thing is social media – with it being on my phone and iPad, it’s easy to want to check my messages and notifications during the weekend.
Since I’m still in the start-up phase, I’ve planned and expected to work some longer hours to get things going, but at the same time, there definitely needs to be regulation and balance within that and a line needs to be drawn sometimes.
I think it’s really important to check in with yourself each day even just for a few minutes and ask yourself how you are feeling mentally, physically and emotionally. If anything is lacking, it ends up more efficient and you sort of save more time in the end by addressing tiredness and overwhelm early on and daily, rather than pushing through it and getting full on burn-out and needing to take weeks off.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
There are a lot of big and small challenges when starting a small business in general, let alone when expenses are high and we are amid a global pandemic.
I think that it can also be hard starting a business nearing the end of the year, like I did in September, and then you get a false sense of security when everyone’s excited and buying gifts etc. Then things go dead when everyone is on holiday over Christmas and not wanting to spend much. It was very very quiet for a couple of months and I had a bit of anxiety about it to push through, but now that things are starting to pick back up again, I feel like I got through that point and stuck with it.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
Pros are definitely the common dream of freedom and flexibility. I love that if a family member has a birthday or needs me for anything, I can take a chunk of the day off to be there for them and make up the time at another point.
I also love that as the owner and creative director of Ecobuni, I can do all of the design and marketing myself, which is my biggest passion and what I’m heavily trained in. I can sort of pick and choose what parts of the business to do myself, either to save money or because I love doing anything creative commercially.
The biggest con is definitely that you can’t predict when you get paid, or when there might be a down period in sales for whatever reason. Everything is on your shoulders financially. If business expenses come up like needing to buy stock or pay for websites, marketing, ads etc. and you’ve had a quiet week or month – that gets taken directly from your own accounts.
It’s not a fun part of things and it’s something I have simply accepted as part of the early days of founding Ecobuni and I’m thriving and working hard towards the day where I actually can have solid personal earnings to rely on for myself and my family. I believe that eventually the pros will well and truly outweigh the cons and being a stubborn optimist helps this part along.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
Oh, I have so many! I would love to have a physical store one day, possibly in collaboration with natural therapists to tie it all together.
I also definitely want a huge focus of what I do personally to be on the design side of things because I absolutely love all things marketing and design.
I’m also really hoping to get to the point where I can financially help families and offer lots of great initiatives through my business like charity work and hiring employees who are really struggling to make ends meet and paying them above the living wage.
Find out more at www.ecobuni.co.nz. You can also join their online communities on Facebook and Instagram.
