Belinda Asta says that her decision to launch her latest venture, Selfie Nails, was taken out of “necessity”. “I found myself in a situation where I had a newborn baby, single parent with no income having sold my last cafe two weeks before my son was born,” Belinda explains. “I no longer had the time to run a cafe with a small baby, nor did I want to miss out on any precious time with him, so I knew I needed to sell a product online and that’s how it all started back in 2021.”
As a new mum, Belinda struggled to find time for self-care. Traditional polish didn’t last, and salon visits were a luxury she couldn’t afford. Her solution was Selfie Nails – a simple, affordable way for busy people to treat themselves to at-home manicures.
Belinda is a serial entrepreneur having previously set up, run and sold three cafes. Having graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design Belinda incorporates those skills in all her businesses – designing everything from logos, her brand identity, her websites and the interior décor of all her cafes herself, an achievement that she says has saved her a lot of money along the way.
As a result, starting the brand Selfie Nails came easily to her. It was the e-commerce store that was all new, and completely different to running a cafe.
“I honestly had no idea what I was doing regarding an online store,” Belinda admits. “I knew how to start a brand but had no idea about ads, or how to get my products into stores. I had launched in 2020 but realised I needed a better website, better photos and so on so I tweaked a few things and re-launched in 2021. I also did a lot of research reading other business owners’ stories and learning about ads and influencers, and things started to get going.”
Belinda found packing small individual orders very time-consuming and so she decided she wanted to get bigger orders and try and get into retail. “This meant I needed to barcode everything, streamline my whole range by packing colours into bundles and repackaging them so they were a fit for the retail market,” she says.” I remember looking at department store beauty product packaging to get a feel for where I wanted to go. Once I had done that, I did my first Trade Show and have been fortunate to have been picked up by several independent retail stores and also a few big ones.”
Every time a business – big or small – decides to stock her products is a thrill for Belinda, and a vindication of all her hard work. “I am so grateful that they believe in our brand and are happy to have our products as part of their store,” she enthuses adding that the positive response to her products from retailers has enabled to her achieve a growth rate of 70 per cent since launching.
Despite the differences between running cafes and an e-commerce venture, there is one core value Belinda sees as essential to all successful businesses. “I try to focus on making the customers experience with our products as positive as possible,” she avers.
The biggest lesson Belinda has taken from her various ventures is the need to be patient. “I think that when you launch a new brand, building trust with customers takes time and a lot of work. So, only go into this if you are in it for the long term,” she advises. “Big things won’t happen overnight – or, at least, they didn’t for me – and there will be ups and downs and so many times you will want to quit, but just keep going, you’ll never stop learning and always remember why you’re doing this. For me it’s to give my son a better life. So, when times get tough remind yourself why you’re doing it!”
