De Montfort graduate lands loan to start up skincare business

A De Montfort University criminology graduate has secured a £4,800 start-up loan from First Enterprise – Enterprise Loans to turn her passion for organic skincare into a business.

Stella Verdoes had been making organic lip balms and selling them to friends at university but wanted to turn her hobby into a business.

After researching business finance, she applied for a start-up loan to help set up Smyra – an organic skincare brand seeking to add value to peoples’ lives by offering a healthy alternative to crude oil-based lip balms whilst also providing an income to Ghanaian women who produce the shea butter that goes into their products.

Thanks to the start-up loan, Verdoes now sells her organic lip care worldwide on Amazon, eBay and her own e-commerce website: “The business loan from First Enterprise – Enterprise Loans kickstarted my business, allowing me to gain the necessary Cosmetic Product Safety Report (CPSR) required to be able to legally sell my products. It also allowed me to purchase stock to fulfil orders and trademark my brand.

“Without the loan, I wouldn’t have been able to invest in my business venture and turn it into what it is today.”