Following INTI International University & Colleges’ 2021’s International Women’s Day series, the institution lauds its second female entrepreneur student, Shakila Samarasam. Shakila, who currently owns and runs Brown Babe Beauty shares how she is running her business amidst a pandemic, including the successes she has accomplished as a female entrepreneur.
Shakila Samarasam currently owns and runs Brown Babe Beauty.
When Shakila first entered her gap year after completing her Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Accounting and Finance, in collaboration with University of Hertfordshire, UK, she decided it was time she started her first online business.
“I always had a passion for business,” shared the current Master of Business Administration in Global Financial Services, in collaboration with Coventry University, UK, student.
“Prior to building my own business, I was involved with my father’s company working as a staff. From all my time spent with him, I naturally took on a keen interest in what he did from when I was really young.
“Although the nature of his business is far from mine, the thought of kick-starting my own company excited me!” expressed the 26-year-old.
Shakila shared that it was how Brown Babe Beauty – her first beauty, self-care and essentials line – was created.
Shakila is currently pursuing her MBA in Global Financial Services, in collaboration with Coventry University, UK
Fast forward to 2021, Shakila has ran her own beauty line for over 3 years now and she admits that her journey has been filled with numerous challenges.
“The ever-changing algorithms on social media is the bane of my business at the moment, particularly when I want to get things moving!” she exclaimed.
“When I first started out in my business, I also had to do everything on my own ranging from customer service to marketing. It was difficult at first since it took up a lot of my time,” continued Shakila.
Yet, despite her challenges, Shakila shares that the last three years has also brought in several successes for herself as a business owner.
“I’ve managed to launch an online website to improve on my customer’s shopping experience and in the two months since the website launch, we’ve garnered close to 5,000 page views from 2,000 visitors!
“I love that my brand also helps build and empower a generation of women through my products as well and it is one of the things that keeps me going every day,” said Shakila.
Aspiring to have Brown Babe Beauty be the one-stop-shop for everything beauty related within the next three years, Shakila is determined to keep powering on until her dreams are achieved.