I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning but I learnt that I need to check manufacturers’ certificates because there are a lot of people claiming to make organic products and they’re actually not organic.
The legislation in Australia is so lax – we can call anything organic.
Even for me in the beginning, I wasn’t aware that products had to be 95% certified. Initially, there’s so much to learn, and the cost for certified organic is so much higher. That’s why not everyone is certified.
I didn’t finish my naturopathy course – I did third year and then decided I wanted to do business.
So I did business and communications at Swinburne University, and they have this entrepreneur competition. I entered the business in that and they loved it. They said, ‘Don’t hold off on it – take it to market’.
So I did. I got a lot of publicity just from winning the competition. The Age and the Herald Sun reviewed it.
So then I had stores calling me saying, ‘We’d like to stock your little brand’ and it snowballed from there.
With the [Swinburne] Venture Cup, I won $10,000 so that really helped. The rest of it really was supported by my partner at the time, who’s my husband now.
We had that seed funding and then, by just selling the product – selling it at markets and stuff – we were getting little bits back.
In the last two years, the business has grown by about 600%. We’ve got two full-time staff and a part-timer.
Being certified was one of our competitive advantages but now there are more and more companies who are certified.
There’s also a new certifying body in Australia who allow chemicals, so that makes it really confusing for customers. It puts a real distrust among consumers when they find out that there’s a body out there that allows you to claim something is certified when it has chemicals.
For us, as much as we focus on the certified organic aspect, we’re selling our story. We’re selling the fact that our products are made in smaller batches. Our commitment is to source the highest quality ingredients; premium grade.
There are a lot of organic brands out there and the name Lily Loves Pearl stands out – people remember it.
I think “the body this”, “the body that” kind of gets a bit loss. So for us it’s about conjuring up that story so it sticks in people’s minds.
Also, bringing to market a product that is effective. People have this association that organic products aren’t going to be as good as the ones with chemicals.
We’re constantly looking at our formulas, trying to keep ahead of the market, looking at how to make it look good.
We are now shipping to Singapore, the UK and Taiwan, but we’re in the midst of finding exclusivity to one country.
I had initially thought that exporting was this really easy thing. It’s just not like that. Especially with the Asian market – they want to meet you and it takes a couple of years to establish trust.
