#FEMALE FOUNDERS
Farah Naz
As we celebrate International Women’s day this March, our #FemaleFounders campaign kicks off with Farah Naz, biochemist and founder of EX1 Cosmetics.
Originally created for women with Olive Skin tones, EX1 quickly garnered a fan base of major A list celebrities and is seen on everyone from Adele, Britney Spears to Reese Witherspoon and Emma Stone. Farah’s cosmetic brand was the 4th most talked about beauty brand in the UK last year and in 2018 was nominated as “Best New Brand” by British Vogue as well as being named on NBCs Today Show as one of the world’s top 5 most exciting beauty brands.
EX1 Cosmetics is currently the fastest selling new brand in Superdrug and the winner of the Superdrug “Best New Brand” Award in 2019. Farah is a guest presenter on shopping channel QVC where the brand launched with a complete sell out in minutes. Farah was also the Winner of London Asian Businesswoman of the Year in 2019. We have asked Farah for her key advice to new founders.
“Apply more energy to less goals. The law of diminishing returns will always kick in and this can bleed cash and waste time. Focus on one or two well thought out objectives and then pinpoint exactly where you want to go”, Farah Naz.
Stay tuned for more incredible stories and exclusive founder tips, as we shine a light on our inspirational #FemaleFounders throughout March.
Our #FemaleFounders campaign continues with Mickey Wilson, Branding Architect and Founder of Firestarter.
Starting her first creative agency at just 21, Mickey grew the business to a team of 12 and worked on branding projects and campaigns for clients such as Tesco, CIMA, Samsung and Ocado.
In 2015 Mickey launched Firestarter to create authentic, stand-out brand identities for driven entrepreneurs with real ambitions to scale. “My big aim for Firestarter is to level the playing field for smaller businesses. I love working with business owners who have exciting goals for growth. We’ve developed a 360º brand transformation programme which enables us to identify all of their unique value and then communicate it in a way that makes them irresistible. Not just to new clients but to team members, partners and investors. This full-circle approach leads to faster yet more sustainable scalability.”
Mickey helps her clients from the ground up – from name generation, strategy, value proposition and messaging right through to concepts, design and brand launch.
Beyond branding, Mickey loves to help business owners overcome their sales problems. “When all you have is a challenge and a big blank canvas… we find new ways of doing things and better ways of saying things. We form exciting, unparalleled ideas and then we focus on turning these into one heck of a powerful sales and marketing advantage.”
Mickey is dedicated to helping her clients build their businesses through the power of brand and creativity. Firestarter offers a complimentary Brand Strategy Illuminator for business owners who want to harness the full potential of their brand to help them grow.
Asked about her key advice for new founders, Mickey replied: “Take the time to fully understand and appreciate your own unique value. For most of us this isn’t something we do naturally… it’s not something we think about enough, we’re too busy juggling everything else. But when you finally join the dots on what makes you uniquely valuable and how you solve people’s problems in a way that others can’t… then you’ll walk taller, speak with more conviction and command higher prices than ever before!”
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