Believe it or not, Korean Vegan Beauty has been alive, now, for EIGHT months. WOW!!!
I honestly can't believe that we are now coming up on a full year of existence, because it feels like just yesterday that Anthony and I were freaking out at my mom's dining table in Chicago over business permits, coupon codes, and the best photos to use for our website. 😅 It was also during that time that I seriously considered bribing every single one of my family members, including my very taciturn uncle, to leave reviews for our products because I was worried no one else would!!! LOL. (We now have SO many reviews and that also feels TOTALLY surreal!!!)
Anyhoot, for today's Beauty Journal, I thought I'd list out four random things I've learned as a baby entrepreneur (I mean, 8 months is still an infant!). These are truly random and not terribly thought out, but I want to encourage anyone reading this to feel like they, too, can take a leap of faith because if I can do it, anyone really can!
Sometimes you have to do things even if you'd rather eat sludge.
One thing I've learned is that no one is going to tell you what to do when you own your own business. You have to be your own boss and that sounds great, at first, but it becomes really hard to stay motivated. For example, I'm not gonna lie--sometimes, I don't want to write another Beauty Journal entry. Sure, I could have AI do it, but I absolutely and utterly REFUSE to sell my soul to that particular devil, so here we are. I have to think of what to write and then write it and then add pictures every single week. Today, things got rocky in the US with birthright citizenship on the line and I was very distracted. So, I was tempted to just say, "Hey, you've had a rough morning. Maybe skip this week's blog post?"
And there'd be NO ONE to tell me otherwise.
Except for me! Community doesn't happen overnight. And community can't gel around inconsistency. This is my one chance, every week, to touch base with you and that is a privilege--one I should never take for granted. Hence, the Joanne who is grateful for you reminds the Joanne who is a little distracted: write about something you care about, even if it's not polished. And that is why I'm writing about this!
Working with your life partner has its ups and downs.
The major "up" is that I get a lot of free labor!! 🤣 My husband is an incredibly talented website developer and as a result, I get a free BEAUTIFUL website. Anytime I need to make so much as a tweak to it, he's right there, on the second floor of our house! I can literally holler, "BABE CAN YOU FIX THE THING ON THE THING PLEASE?" And it gets done in like 15 minutes.
But that's the other thing... It's easy to take your life partner for granted when the separation between personal and professional grows inevitably blurred. I have to constantly remind myself that I need to treat him with the same respect I would've treated one of my colleagues at the law firm. Otherwise... fireworks (of the not fun variety) typically ensue. This is way easier said than done--trust me. But it's a lesson worth learning.
Your Community is the lifeblood of your business--no matter what you're selling.
You can have the BEST product in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD (and KV Beauty truly does), but it won't mean diddly squat if you treat your community poorly. I've seen this time and time again--a brand neglects or even disrespects its community and they will pay dearly for it. We've seen the opposite (thank God)--KVBeauties are loyal, joyous, and fiercely devoted to compassion. I like to think that the KV Beauty family mirrors the values I personally hold, which is why, again, I'm here in your inbox, relaying a small snippet from my everyday life.
I want you to know that I'm not just grateful for you, but that I am very much like you. I'm an ordinary gal who wanted to start a business because she saw a gap in the market: a K-beauty brand owned and run by a woman who grew up using Korean beauty products, who also believes that animal suffering isn't necessary to achieve optimal skin and hair health. I had very little idea about what I was doing (hence the literal 11th hour fire drill on how to obtain a business license in California ...), but I did it anyway.
You can't do everything on your own. And that's ok.
The idea here is that if I can do it, then maybe you should ask yourself, what do you want to do that's maybe a little off the beaten path? And what's stopping you? I'll bet if you take a good look at all the things in your way, you'll figure out a way to get around a lot of them.
And for those things that seem impassable, try and identify someone who might be able to help with those. That's what I did--I didn't know the first thing about manufacturing beauty products, so I found someone who could help. The last time I tried writing "code" for my website, I ended up nearly breaking it. Thank God Anthony is here to help with that. And I'm not good at comedy videos, but those seem to do really well for our IG account. Luckily, our creative director goes viral 7 times a day for his comedy videos!
Anyhow, I hope this little journal entry was illuminating and even inspiring. Till next week, make sure to put a little of the skin cream on your neck!! <3
