Ashley Blain; CEO & Founder of ZenLuxCo

What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I took the leap into entrepreneurship after being laid off of my corporate job due to the pandemic in 2020, and haven’t looked back since. I turned my passion of wellness and selfcare into a full fledged business and haven’t looked back since. I came up with the idea by choosing products that everyone in the selfcare/skincare/beauty industry would like and use.

Describe the process of launching the business.

After coming up with my business name and idea, I decided on the products I wanted to sell. After-which, I started reaching out to suppliers and decided which factories to go with. I then began to create our online store and set up our social media platforms since we are a strictly e-commerce site. After months and months of building our audience on our socials, and had all of our inventory we launched out website with our products.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

What has worked to attract and retain customers is our email marketing campaigns, and our influencer outreach strategy. Most people check their social media accounts just as much as they check their emails. Making sure we invest in our email marketing content has helped to onboard new customers. Influencer outreach has also helped us to attract customers. Being that we are in the personal care and wellness industry, our niche is very direct. Collaborating with influencers in these industries has helped create more awareness for our brand through that influencers’ audience.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

We are launching a new product in the next coming weeks and it’s very exciting! We see ZenLuxCo being in spas and retailers in the next 3-5 years.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Yes! I have learned that it is important to create content that not only helps you make a sale, but is also to create content that is helpful to your audience. Content that is both relatable and useful, helps your brand stand out from the crowd.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

ZenLuxCo is on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. Some tools we use to help us with our content is Canva and Hashtag Expert. Canva is a great tool for entrepreneurs because it allows you to explore your creative artsy side, and in turn, helps make you create great content to post for your brand. Hashtag Expert is very useful because using hashtags on each post on your social accounts helps your niche audience to find you and learn more about your brand through your posts.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

One of my favorite books I distinctly remember reading is ‘The Law of Divine Compensation: On Work, Money, and Miracles’ by Marianne Williamson. Throughout the book, the author points out how important manifestation is. If you believe something good will happen, it will happen. If you expect something bad to happen, it will happen. We all have the power to create exactly what we want to happen in our lives. Your mindset is everything, and that is the starting point of how most things will carry out. It in a way, helped pave the way for my life years down the line.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Any entrepreneurs who are just getting out I would say to focus on progress over perfection. When you want every single aspect to be perfect, you truly begin to lose sight of the progress you’ve made along the way. Focusing on progress instead of perfection, is my motto when it comes to me being an entrepreneur. When you focus on progress instead of perfection, it helps you to realize your goals are indeed attainable, and it also provides some motivation to keep going as you see yourself complete these goals and tasks.

Where can we go to learn more?

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/ashley-blain-of-zenluxco-strive-for-progress-not-perfection/