Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Corine Short. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Corine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Some highlights along my journey: 1. Pray about what your steps should be
2. When coming up with a business, find a need that can resonate with you.
3. Never discount ideas, even if it doesn’t appear that you have a need for it. Write it down as you may never know when you will need it.
4. Believe in what you are creating. Keep the mindset, that even if no one buys your product you will because you created something that you love and works.
5. Find people that can help your passion grow. Not just anyone though, people that have their own passion in the space.

Corine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

First, a quick highlight on how SKEN Essentials came to be. In 2018, I was laid off from my corporate job and I decided to use my severance package to launch a business. I started with a fitness supplement line that later lead to a smoothie company. That Stuff Nutrition. However, during the beginning stages of launching the supplement line I was coming up with products and names for the business. I would always ask God for downloads on where I should go next or what concepts I should come out with next. One morning around 3am I was woken up with an idea in my mind and a concept. I went to my laptop, and on powerpoint, put the Sken logo together. At the time I did not know what it was I just did it and went back to sleep. One thing I always did and do, is when I have a download I will write it down or do something about it when it comes. After I woke again, I looked at the logo and wasn’t sure how that fit in line with my fitness line so I just left the image in my saved files. Over the course of a few weeks my daughter (at the time 10) was experiencing some skin issues so I started my journey to finding her skin care and a regimen she could use to help her maturing skin. We tried many items and the one that we settled on, that worked, was great but a bit costly for how much she had to use. Since I was already in the industry of formulating products, the idea to find a company that I can create my own line was not a far off idea. I then began working with a manufacturing company and viola a line was born. From there I started thinking about what I should name it and I remembered the image I crafted a few months back. This was the birth of SKEN Essentials. To this day it is the only skin care my daughter and I use. Considering I am not a skin care expert, I knew I needed someone that had a passion and zest for this. At the time, one of my athlete ambassadors for my fitness company was dating a young lady. Nycole. Who I had asked if she would try out some of the products and give me her personally review. She tried it and loved the line and started to help me grow and expand the line into retail stores and online markets. She has been a true value add to the brand.

Aside from “it works” the product was created for anyone that wants a quality product that can last a while. The main benefit is a little goes a long way with our line. I have had many customers say they bought a face wash/moisturizer/serum from us and, because they only need a dime size to treat their whole face and neck, the bottle lasted them about 6 months.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I will tell anyone and everyone, starting your own business is not an easy one and not a cheap one either. Especially, if you want to provide a quality product/experience with your brand. I was blessed to have saved well while in corporate America and also have a company that, upon exiting, provided me a nice severance package. I encourage anyone to plan properly and to pay attention to your spending, your money coming in and not to live outside of your means. I always tested a product out and before diving into a lot of money on branding I would sell it in its infancy to help build up the seed money to produce more and launch. So many people want to wait to launch a product until it is fully ready and if it does not work out they are at a loss because they invested a lot of money into it. I believe, if your product is good and you let people know it is in its creation stage, people will still purchase. Their purchase helps the full launch of your design.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What helped me was getting into the market with pop ups and speaking on the product. Being an example of the line and having a team of qualified people to help push the vision to the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SkenEssentials.com
• Instagram: SkenEssentials

Image Credits
Shoutout to Nycole Hutchins @melynatedmuse