“It was complete ignorance on my behalf.”
In a few short years, Jennifer Rock has become one of the most recognisable figures in the Irish skincare industry. Under her Skin Nerd brand, she’s gone from sharing tips on social media to launching bestselling products.
But the former beauty therapist has revealed that her first business venture was a flop that cost her her life’s savings.
Jennifer’s Cleanse Off Mitt is now a skincare staple for thousands of Irish beauty lovers but she didn’t know anything about business when she first came up with the concept six years ago, she said on this week’s episode of All In.
“I had the idea, I knew the product, I had done a little bit of market research,” she told host Yvonne Redmond.
“Skincare was my game. I felt really confident, perhaps slightly cocky. I decided I would just put it on shelves and it would just vamoose and they’d sell millions and millions because people should know that wipes are not great for your skin but it was complete… ignorance and an absolute oversight on my behalf.”
Listen to the full interview here.
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She had put the couple’s savings for a mortgage into the business and was working from her boyfriend’s bedroom.
“I didn’t have a business plan, didn’t have mentors. It was just no execution, no strategy and it didn’t do well and it completely flopped,” Jennifer continued.
“That was a learning curve. I’d foolishly thought I knew [everything] and what that really taught me was first of all, you really have to research, you have to have a business plan, you need to know who your distributor’s going to be, if any. Do you want to go direct? Do you not want to go direct? What’s your margin? It just gives you the time to stop, to breathe, to understand. It’s a bigger piece and the pull-through is the hardest.”
Jennifer features on this week’s episode of All In, JOE’s brand new business show.
All In, backed by AIB, is available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Wednesday
