by Charlene Oh is one of the co-founders of Mooi Beauty™, which is a beauty and lifestyle brand in Singapore. She is also a canine hydrotherapist & qualified with US training in canine massage. Recently, we had the opportunity to interview her on her entrepreneurial journey and the story behind founding Mooi Beauty™. In this interview, she also shared with us some of the challenges she faced while launching Mooi Beauty™, together with advice to others who are looking to be entrepreneurs. We are sure that this interview will inspire you with her success story!
1. Hello Charlene! Please tell us about yourself.
My first e-commerce was a preorder site selling inspired branded clothes. I got sales from internet people and was really surprised.
“Who are these people buying stuff from my website?”
Later on, I stopped doing it because I felt uncomfortable selling products that took months to reach the customers. That store was operating similar to a dropshipping model, just that it was mostly manual back then.
Mooi Beauty™ is my 4th eCommerce business.
2. What inspired you to launch Mooi Beauty™?
It started as a fun project with my good friend. We both were into nice, white teeth so we thought why not develop something that is user friendly, actually whitens yet does not causes pain and sensitivity? (what was offered on the market always comes with pain or sensitivity) It took us almost a year to develop the right formula and packaging. Currently, the business is running in the third year and we have launched more teeth whitening products since!
3. Please tell us more about Mooi Beauty™ and its services.
Mooi Beauty™ is an oral beauty brand that believes in giving people that extra confidence boost in the crazy busy world of balancing work, life and adulting, when taking time out for self-care can be a big ask. Our line of oral beauty products can help you achieve that confident smile you deserve in just minutes.
4. You are also a trained Canine Hydrotherapist. What makes you want to become an entrepreneur? Please share more about your journey.
I love animals, and I have 6 pets, 3 dogs and 3 cats now. I take care of them. I actually took on multiple animal studies around rehabilitation and physiotherapy because, at a later point, I want to care for more animals, even if they are not my pets. I became an entrepreneur because I have always loved thinking out of the box and doing things my way. I love looking at the world with solutions to make it a better place. I also tend to think a lot. So, by doing my own business, it is a good way to put my thoughts into something concrete and make the best out of it.
5. What are the challenges that you faced in your journey as a co-founder of Mooi Beauty™? How did you overcome these challenges?
Scaling the business is really challenging. When we launched the business, we had no problem getting people to try our product, and many loved it. I think scaling is difficult because it’s ultimately a numbers game. We are still understanding the sweet spot to scale it efficiently while still sticking to our core values.
Another challenge is creativity. Nowadays, most people have a shorter attention span. Which means we need to be extra creative and innovative with our marketing and content creation to relay the message we want our audience to understand. We spend a lot of time and brain juice to create content, even though the content may only last less than 1 minute on social media. But the prep work is hours to days, sometimes even weeks.
6. As a female entrepreneur, would you like to share some advice for others who want to become entrepreneurs?
Be prepared to take calculated risks, and be very good at solving problems every day.
I think social media make it looks like running a business is really easy, and the business will print money automatically. But that is not the truth. The truth is there is a lot of work behind, so be prepared to work more than a regular salaried job. Enjoy the journey and it will be worth it!
Thanks, Charlene for this interview.
You can read more about Charlene Oh, Co-Founder of Mooi Beauty™, Canine Hydrotherapist & US trained in Canine Massage by visiting her website: www.mooiteeth.com
Ig: https://www.instagram.com/charleneeeoh_/
Fb: https://www.facebook.com/mooibeautyofficial
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleneoh77/
