A woman has revealed how she turned a £530 loan from my nana into a £10,000 an hour business with an idea people laughed at.
"I was a make-up artist at the time, and it seemed an easy thing to start with. That ticked along for around two years until I started going on TikTok. At the time, she was still doing her own business alongside weekend work as a make-up artist, and a 'regular' job cleaning hot tubs for £10 an hour. "We went through so many samples of different sponges and materials, and I always remember I got to this one material that I was obsessed with, but the factory said it was really hard to make that one. But I really, really wanted that one! The softness was unmatched and my skin looked incredible using it, so we had to find a way to make it work and ultimately the factory had a mess around and we did it.
Chloe laughs as she recalls how her local post office 'hated her' when she'd come in with 20 sacks or more of products that she'd be shipping out in those early days. Now, she has two warehouses to cope with the demand. Choosing the new name was also tricky as she had first thought to change it to 'Clo' which is her nickname - but she discovered that was also trademarked. So she came up with 'Clomaná' stitching together her nickname with maná, a word that means 'positive energy'.
"It was also the fifth birthday of the brand so everyone thought they were coming for that but I asked everyone to be dressed in black. Go PR did the event and it was amazing, I had to walk down the aisle and I did a little speech, it was fun, it was a way to try and announce the news that we were having to change.
"I started it when it was still seen as cringe. Businesses will have hype products, but with the marshmallow sponge I thought it would be a hype and forgotten about - but the hype is still there, we’re still selling out really quick, our new duo products we sold out in ten minutes, it’s wild. But the success of the business has meant Chloe can begin to enjoy some of the rewards. That includes being able to buy her first ever house last August.