[00:00:00] Geraldine: In this week’s episode of Cork Creative, we’re chatting to Colin Murphy from the West Cork Beard Company. Colin, welcome to the podcast. Let’s start at the beginning. What sparked the initial idea for the West Cork Beard Company? Was there any specific moment or need you identified that led you down this path?

[00:00:24] Colin: Well, to answer that question, I have to go back to me living in Spain. I moved to Spain in 2011 all the way up until 2016 and I was English teaching and a couple of years in English teaching, I realised that it wasn’t going to be paying my bills all the way, you know, to my 50s and 60s. So halfway through, I realised I’m going to have to possibly move back home and get a different job.

So in 2016, just before I moved back to Ireland, I started kind of developing an idea of online body weight training that I would put out 12 minute videos on YouTube and people would just work along with me. It would all be body weight, no equipment and just kind of help people get fit. Continued for a couple of months in my last couple of months in Spain and then I brought that home to Ireland.

And I started kind of doing fitness classes and I increased the videos I was putting out on YouTube. I also had broken up with a girlfriend and for some reason I started growing out my beard almost in a way just to kind of go into my man cave and try to figure things out. I was a bit upset over it so I needed some time and I just let my beard grow a little bit and then I began to like it.

I started doing the videos, the fitness videos, the bodyweight videos with a beard. People started recognising me for the beard and that got me thinking, then, I must get some beard oil, I need to look after it, because when you have a beard, you know, the skin can get quite dry, it can get a little bit irritating, so I need to look after, and It was very difficult to get a product that I wanted.

I bought a local beard oil and I’ve just found there was too many ingredients. The ingredients weren’t great. It was too expensive. I was struggling financially at the time. So I was thinking of all sorts of ideas. You know, I was trying to get this fitness business off the ground, but I was open to creating other businesses as well.

So that’s when I started looking up on YouTube, how to make a beard oil and then it just starts from there. I had to choose what ingredients I wanted. And I just made my first beard oil back in 2016. From there I went from one oil to two oils. And I remember back then I was actually living in Limerick at the time with my brother and his son, just kind of transitioning back home.

And I remember getting emails from people that were on the website and they were emailing me saying, I think your website is broken. I can only see two products. I had to email back saying, that’s all I have at the moment. I’m trying to develop them one by one.

[00:02:48] Geraldine: Yeah.

[00:02:49] Colin: Unfortunately I can’t just push them all out there.

It has to go very slowly. So that’s how it came about basically a need for myself to look after. My own beard.

[00:02:56] Geraldine: Okay. And was it always something that you wanted to do to kind of go into business for yourself?

[00:03:02] Colin: I knew from my time in Spain, being an English teacher, and as you get older your patience gets less and less, especially for bosses.

And I found in my role as an English teacher and I coordinated around me. I found that I was becoming a very bad employee. I was excellent at my work, but I questioned everything. You know, I thought I knew a better way of doing things. I was constantly looking at to see were they doing that correctly.

And I realised I need to work for myself. So I kind of knew that going back to Ireland. I would really have to love the person or really respect the person and continue to respect them to work for someone. I’m not saying it mightn’t happen down the line again, but I’m definitely better as my own boss for sure.

[00:03:43] Geraldine: Okay. And West Cork is such a beautiful and distinct region. How has the landscape and culture of West Cork influenced the products you create and the brand you’ve built?

I think the people of West Cork are very encouraging. You know, you go down to the market on a Friday and you see all these People, you know, making their own products and that’s very encouraging.

[00:04:02] Colin: You almost feel like that they’re willing you or giving you the push to try. They’re down there in the freezing cold, in the rain, still just enjoying the social aspect of it, enjoying the fact that, you know, you can pick up a natural shampoo bar or natural soap or whatever. So I didn’t feel like I was going to get judged if I did come out and say, I’m developing some beard products.

And also West Cork is a beautiful place, you know, I wanted to develop a product that was, you know, linked to something clean and, you know, we have some beautiful beaches, we have some beautiful forests around the place. I love walking on the beaches and in the forest, not seeing any litter around. So I certainly didn’t want to add to a problem of more plastic and stuff like that.

West Cork is great because you never feel like people are judging you for giving it a go.

[00:04:47] Geraldine: Yep. Very good. And looking back, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early days of starting the company and how did you overcome them?

[00:04:56] Colin: I realised in the last only couple of years that I was a terrible business operator.

I was very good at envisioning the product I wanted, envisioning what label I wanted, really detailed stuff. I could see the product in my mind. I knew exactly what ingredients I wanted, but the running of the business took me probably three, four years to actually get right. For example, I would see that my stock of boxes or bottles was running low and I’d do nothing about it until it was too late.

And then I would have to go out of stock. Nowadays, I see this going low and I order it immediately. Things like this. Over the next couple of years, I got better at just having enough ingredients. Thinking about the next product that I’m going to release. Another thing that I forgot to mention before that was the whole financial side of things.

You know, I tried to run my business debt free. I don’t have any debts bar my house. And I try to keep it that way. And when you are running a business at the start. You know, if you order 5, 000 boxes, you’ll get it for much cheaper than if you order thousands. So I had to take the hit on the financial side of things by ordering lower.

And obviously you get under pressure when you don’t have that money to spend on the things you need straight away. And sometimes you do have to go out of stock because the money isn’t there to buy it. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would take to actually get my flow in the business and be a better operator.

[00:06:22] Geraldine: Yeah, so the business side of things, I suppose, took a bit longer than maybe the whole entrepreneurial side of things.

[00:06:28] Colin:  Definitely, my vision, I have a very clear vision. Yeah. No one teaches you how to run a business.

[00:06:34] Geraldine: I know-the practicalities of it.

[00:06:36] Colin: Absolutely, I talk to my accountant, you know, every couple of months and I say to her, you have to treat me as if I’ve never run a business before, because I haven’t.

[00:06:44] Geraldine: You have a real passion for crafting high quality beard products. Can you talk about your product development process? And how do you decide what ingredients to use and how do you formulate your products?

[00:06:56] Colin: So, I was talking about my vision and my vision with West Cork Beard Company was say for example, your husband or wife or your girlfriend or boyfriend are in your house.

And they come in and see a bottle of beard oil, a bottle of West Cork beard company beard oil on the shelf. I want you to be proud that they’re seeing that you’re not trying to hide it. You know, the label is neat. It looks well, there’s not skulls and crosses and Vikings on the label. I wanted it to be kind of something that a man in their thirties, forties would use. So that was the initial vision. Then when it comes to scents I have to make sure that the scents firstly sound right together and obviously they have to go together first day. First of all, what scents go together so you can get a list of the scents that you think will go well. And then you kind of, you can obviously smell them and then how are they written?

For example, peppermint and tea tree, do I say peppermint and tea tree or do I say tea tree and peppermint? Yeah. This kind of thing. There’s small things.

[00:07:54] Geraldine: Yeah.

[00:07:55] Colin: Then you go with the color of the label. I went for colors in my labels because I love colors and visually they can catch people’s eye.

And, you know, I need to see something to learn it. I match colors with different things. So for example, peppermint with the green and things like that, you know, cinnamon, bark, and black pepper. Obviously we went for the black label on that. After that, then it’s about the best ingredients. You know, what is the, one of the best oils out there?

It’s argan oil. And I started this business six years ago when argan oil was probably half the price as it is now. And another business would have pivoted and changed that formula to not have argan oil in it. The product worked so well, I couldn’t change it. I had to keep the same ingredients. And like I said, as inflation gets bigger and as, you know, these products get more difficult to source, it may be a problem, but I really want to stick to the ingredients. Very few ingredients, for example, in the beard oil, there’s only four. I’m sticking with only four because one of my main things that I didn’t like about the beard oil I tried first day was it had a list of about 15 ingredients and I didn’t know what half of them were.

So yeah it’s quite the process. I’m in the middle of developing another product now. And it’s the same thing over and over again, you know, color of the label, do the scents link together, do they smell good? And you know, that’s before you ever go into the kitchen and start making it and making sure it feels right and the scent isn’t too strong, the scent isn’t too weak.

So it’s quite the process.

[00:09:22] Geraldine: Okay. Is there something that you’re going to continuously try and develop additional products and add to the existing range or how do you envisage it kind of growing?

[00:09:32] Colin: Yes, there are a few scents that I don’t have. For example, I don’t have any citrusy scents, so I definitely need to look at that.

With regards to the type of product, for example, beard oil, beard bam, beard butter, mustache wax. I’m not sure yet where I can take it from there. Possibly a beard mask is something I’ve thought about, but again, this can be difficult. You know, I want to be able to make all the products myself.

So for me to make a beard mask on my own, I have to make sure that I can do that. And it’s going to last in a package for six months, for example. So I have to make sure the ingredients are right. My beard soap, you know, I pivoted from the oil to the balm, to the butter onto the beard soap. I’d never made soap in my life.

But again, you have to go through the process. And I found that. You need to really invest hours and hours at the start to get it right. And then once you have it right. You’re on autopilot, then all you’re really thinking about is the scents. What different scents am I going to have in the soap, oil, butter, balm, but yeah, I would prefer to build up my range first before adding another category of product.

And I started with one product now, I think. Last time I checked, it’s 24, 25 products. So it’s a lot of making every day. And as I build up, I am putting a bit more pressure on myself to keep everything in stock. But, you know…

[00:10:50] Geraldine: The way you say they’re about keeping it to kind of a minimal amount of ingredients.

When I’m looking at foods and stuff, I’m trying to see, you know, what are the ingredients? And you’re looking at less ingredients is obviously better. And the same applies. So in terms of. the products that you produce?

[00:11:05] Colin: Just because I tried them on my own beard and they didn’t feel good at all. But the labelling process in Europe is very difficult for cosmetics because they all have to be in Latin.

[00:11:14] Geraldine: Okay.

[00:11:14] Colin: So, it’s like, INCI, it’s called. They all have to be in Latin and that’s another thing I learned in the process.

[00:11:20] Geraldine: Why?

[00:11:21] Colin: I don’t know why. Well, I actually do know why because if everyone is doing the same thing, you get to know that this is argan oil, this is jojoba oil. So, for example, like I go off to Italy, I’m not reading Italian, I’m reading these, you know, Latin ingredients.

So it makes it quite difficult for people to understand what is in the products, which is why I always put the English version after the INCI version.

[00:11:45] Geraldine: And is it important for you to feature locally sourced and natural ingredients and how do you ensure its sustainability?

[00:11:52] Colin: At the start, you just try to run your business and try to, you know, not have costs too high.

I’ve started over the last couple of years to kind of really try to source…. we get the beeswax from Dingle, for example. I get my beard brushes engraved in Wexford. I get a lot of my products from Wicklow actually. Yeah, look. I understand what running an Irish business is like. So I tried to help out other Irish businesses.

It’s better as well financially, because especially with Brexit, it’s much more expensive now to bring things over from the UK or from China or even the US. It’s very important to be sustainable. Like I said before, regards keeping the beaches clean, keeping the forest clean. I had plastic in the packaging of my products when I was starting off because I just didn’t know any better.

There’s so many options now with regard, recyclable boxes and boxes that are, you know, come from sustained forests and things like that. It’s fantastic.

[00:12:44] Geraldine: Yeah. Yeah. You’re kind of trying to bring that all in more in your business so I suppose, yeah.

[00:12:49] Colin: Yeah. And it can be tough because sometimes these things aren’t very cheap, you know, the cheapest way of doing it would be probably be the most unsustainable way of doing it.

So the customer wants a good price on their product and they also want sustainability and that’s the juggling act for businesses. You know, it can be very expensive to get a really high quality sustainable product to a customer.

But it’s going ok, it’s going ok. I’m learning all the time and I’m learning what the customers want as well and that’s been a huge help. They even messaged me and saying there’s too much packaging, you know, arriving. For example, the beard oil is in a small cardboard box. I’m looking at kind of getting rid of the boxes on all my products because the beard balm and beer butter is in a tin and then a box goes over that.

It looks really well, but I’m not sure my customers want that because they’re literally looking at the box for two seconds and then it goes in the recycling, you know? So I’m looking at that for this year. And. I think it’s a good thing because it’ll bring down my costs and keep customers happy.

[00:13:46] Geraldine: You’ve built a strong online presence across multiple platforms, from your website, YouTube. Which platforms do you find the most effective for connecting with your audience?

[00:13:56] Colin: I think they’re all very different. Instagram is the warmest, I feel. Over the years, I think the algorithm has given me an audience that is very encouraging, very supportive.

TikTok is completely different. You know, it’s very difficult to get a video that does very well on TikTok. I’ve had a few. I put one out two days ago about trimming your beard. And it’s up to about 50, 000 views, which isn’t much. I feel like once you go over around 10, 000 views, that’s when the crazy start coming into the comments.

And it can be quite jarring if you’re not ready for it, because it’s just, they comment about everything and it’s rootless. So TikTok for me is quite rootless. I don’t know, will they, or can they get rid of bad comments, but you have to have a tough skin. You absolutely have to have tough skin in all social media, but especially on TikTok at the moment, I find.

YouTube then, I’m doing YouTube Shorts, and that’s kind of more for my US audience. A lot of my sales from the US come from YouTube Shorts. And then I feel Facebook is a very friendly, a little bit older platform that people kind of use it as their only source of social media, maybe over 45s, over 50s, 60s, 70s.

They dip into Facebook maybe once every couple of days where I feel like Instagram and TikTok, it’s something that people are using and watching every single day. So all very different. I still feel TikTok. Instagram, I’ve got my rhythm, but on any given day. You could have a video that has 10 views and another video that has a million views.

Yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know how it works.

[00:15:31] Geraldine: You’re obviously doing quite well though.

[00:15:32] Colin: But the important thing is to keep going and keep putting out the content because it’s great brand awareness. It’s free, which is amazing. You know, only 20 years ago or I don’t know what it was. You’ll be paying for ads on a newspaper or whatever.

So we’re very lucky in that sense that you get great brand awareness all over Europe, Ireland, the States, wherever you want it.

[00:15:51] Geraldine: Yeah, that level of exposure really is fantastic, isn’t it? For a small business. It’s fantastic.

[00:15:55] Colin: But like I said, with the comments, there can be negatives to it as well.

[00:15:58] Geraldine: Yeah.

Okay. And you obviously love a bit of craic and your personality really shines through in your Instagram posts. Is there a lost calling in acting? And can you tell us a little about Guarda Barry and the motivation behind your social media strategy?

[00:16:11] Colin: People talk to me about the acting but I think I’m a terrible actor.

[00:16:14] Geraldine: Aghhhhhhh no. What?? It’s hillarious

[00:16:17] Colin: I feel that kind of acting in inverted commas or whatever comes from me and my sister having banter years ago. And I’m just kind of continuing on with that. She used to be very good at facial expressions and things like that so. I feel like I’m just copying her.

Why am I doing these characters?

I’m doing these characters because I got bored of doing beer tips on social media. I started off doing beard tips for maybe a year or two and I was running out of them. I was getting bored myself. I was either going to stop doing social media or change it up and do something that I enjoyed. So I started bringing in different characters and Guarda Barry is one of, one of the characters and Guarda Barry came about because the Irish Garda Síochána were able to grow their beards for the first time, I think maybe about 18 months ago in the summer.

So I wanted to link and kind of almost celebrate that, that the Guards can grow their beards. So Guarda Barry with the no pants on came about from him growing his so long that he couldn’t wear pants and have the beard because he was just too warm. So that’s where the underpants comes in. There’s been lots of Guarda Barry videos.

And if what’s happening now is people are stumbling across the Guarda Barry videos and not knowing the story behind it, just thinking I’m a lunatic running around in my underpants. But there is that story behind it that people should know. But it’s given me great exposure. It’s great craic. I enjoy doing it, but like all characters have a shelf life and you know, I may go once or twice more and then we’ll be switching on to a different character and there’s always new characters being developed and I’ll keep doing that.

As long as it makes me happy and as long as I have fun.

[00:17:49] Geraldine: Very good. It must be great craic around town. Like, people watching you doing this, they must like….

[00:17:54] Colin: I don’t do many around town. It’s, you know, the one, the Christmas special was with the Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce. So that’s the only reason we did it in public.

But I was quite nervous taking off my pants for the first time in the middle of town. But once you have your pants off for 30 seconds, you’re away. It is good craic but it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work and I have to concentrate because I have all the scenes planned out. Sometimes takes a few takes to do a certain scene.

I get in my head sometimes and then you can be at the same scene for a couple of minutes. There’s definitely a lot of preparation and at the end of a shoot like that you can be exhausted.

[00:18:26] Geraldine: Yeah, I can imagine like the amount of work that goes into it. It just seems like it’s so seamless but all the work that goes in it can be quite astonishing.

I can imagine how exhausting it would be.

[00:18:36] Colin: Well, I have my video guy, Rob Murphy, as well with me, and on that day when we were doing the Guarda Barry there was two more people as well, so you have to coordinate everything. We had to coordinate everything with the shops that we were going into. So, yeah, it’s about a full day or two’s work to get a video out.

People will be asking me, Oh, why don’t you do a video here? Why don’t you do a video here? I have to pay the video guy. It isn’t cheap and it’s also, you have to make sure there’s not too many people around if you’re on the beach or if you’re on the forest, because people are naturally inquisitive and they’ll shout a question at you at the wrong time and you’ll have to do the whole scene again.

[00:19:09] Geraldine: The joys of live acting, huh?

On your YouTube channel, you feature content beyond just product demonstrations. What is your philosophy behind creating diverse content and how do you see it benefiting your brand?

[00:19:22] Colin: I try to show people a product the way I would like to be shown a product. Everyone goes on social media and once someone starts selling, you say, buy this product, you switch off.

So why on earth would I try to sell my product to someone like that? When I absolutely hate that when I’m looking through my social media. So for me, I went about the whole kind of process a little bit differently in the fact that I try not to push my products. I try not to sell my products on all the funny videos.

It’s rare that you’ll hear me saying, buy this beard oil, buy this beard balm. I’ll focus more on problems guys are having with their beards. I did a video recently, which people loved actually. It was about Jesus and the Romans. And, you know, I thought people would give me a lot more grief over it, but they didn’t.

I threw in the beard comb in the video and Jesus was brushing out his beard just before he got crucified and, you know, it was making him happy. And that’s what a beard comb does for a guy that has a very big beard. And look, it’s all a bit of fun. I do get the odd strange comment, but I don’t mind.

You have to do what makes you happy and keep things going. But yeah, rarely try to sell online because it just doesn’t work. I have to go down the route of maybe showing what the product does, or for example, why your beard is itchy, you’re using shampoo instead of beard soap or wash, things like that. You know, it’s very subtle, but I don’t want people to feel like, you know, is he selling to me or is he not?

I want it to be clear that the fact that I’m not selling. to you, if you like what I’m saying and the beard tips I’m giving you, then you have the choice to go a step further and look into the products and look at the website. And I think that’s worked fantastically for me over the last couple of years, because like I said, no one likes to be sold to.

[00:20:58] Geraldine: Exactly. A non pushy approach.

[00:21:01] Colin: Absolutely. And I’m very patient. I am not trying to make hundreds of thousands of euros in a certain amount of time and then head off to Spain for the rest of my life. I’m looking to build a brand over the next decade, 15 years, I’m in no rush. And the people that get in trouble are the people that are in a rush to build this business super fast and then get out of it.

And that never worked. I remember when I was starting this business first, I had very few sales in the first six months. And the feeling I got was people almost, they follow you to see if you’re going to hang around and if you’re going to hang around, then they’ll do business with you, they’ll test you.

Are you going to stay around for six months or more? Okay, now we’re going to do business with you. Very few people will do business with you at the start because they want to trust you. If they can’t trust you to stay around, they’re not going to do business.

[00:21:45] Geraldine: It’s really about almost building a relationship with them, building a bit of trust and then, you know, then let the sales come on afterwards.

[00:21:53] Colin: For sure.

[00:21:53] Geraldine: Yeah. Okay.

And what’s been the most rewarding aspect of building this business for you personally?

[00:21:59] Colin: Just helping men look after an area of their face and life in general that they didn’t have permission to look after. You know, when I was growing up, beards were looked at as dirty and my father used to tell me to shave all the time.

That was just coming from his grandfather who probably hated beards as well, because beards in the past were guys that were down on their luck, guys that, you know, were sleeping rough, maybe that weren’t looking after themselves, whereas now my great joy is to be able to give a man advice on, you know, how to trim his moustache how to look after his beard, how to make his beard feel better, you know, give him permission to grow his beard, even though his partner doesn’t want him to grow the beard, he has to make himself happy.

So I really enjoy that. I enjoy the fact that I’ve grown a business and made products that people want to buy, I find that absolutely amazing. You know, West Cork Beard Company didn’t exist eight years ago. Now it does. And I think I brought good awareness to men, but also I think I’m helping out the men’s partners as well, because they’re the ones that were suffering.

If you’re not looking after your beard, it can get disgusting quite fast. And it’s just like everything, if you don’t look after your hair, it’s going to look and smell bad. So I get great joy answering questions from guys. I get a lot of questions every day and I try my best to answer them. And the sales are great, but it’s all about helping people.

As much as a cliche that is, that’s where the joy comes from.

[00:23:23] Geraldine: And it’s a bit of a beard revolution, isn’t it? Compared to like, what I say, like 15 years ago, you know, like really beards have really come on a long way, haven’t they?

[00:23:32] Colin: It have, but I think that’s also because now guys know that there is a way to look after them and they’re not being put under as much pressure by their partners to get rid of them because they’re actually looking after them.

I’m pretty good on the trends that are happening now. Yes, the beards are flying it, but the moustaches have never been bigger and I don’t know what’s happening, but every second guy in their 20s has a moustache. And it’s great to see people are not afraid to experiment. You know, I would have been terrified. in my 20s to go around Clonakilty with a moustache. It’s great to see this and you know, their children down, down the line will look at them and be okay with experimenting, not only with facial hair, but with everything else because, you know, no one’s going to be judging them because everyone will have seen it all before.

[00:24:16] Geraldine: It’ll be a new normal as such like, isn’t it?

[00:24:19] Colin: Yeah, and why not grow a beard? Like, men can grow all sorts of beard styles. So like, why should being clean shaven be the norm?

[00:24:26] Geraldine: Yeah, exactly. You know,

[00:24:27] Colin: Why not have stubble be the norm? And then when you see a guy that’s clean shaven, you’re like, Oh wow, he’s clean shaven.

So I think it’s going to go that way because it’s my own personal opinion, but I feel being clean shaven is a tough look to pull off. You have to be super handsome. So I find that if you’re not clean shaven, just a little bit of stubble does wonders for a guy, especially, you know, I’m bald. So if I was clean shaven and a clean shaven head, I don’t think it’s a good look.

Personally, for me,

You’d look

[00:24:55] Geraldine: like an egg.

[00:24:56] Colin: Exactly. I wasn’t going to say it. You said it. Absolutely. I feel like an egg. So that’s why, especially guys that are bald, a little bit of stubble or even a moustache, something on your face is good. Guys ask me for tips on a patchy beard. How can I grow out my patchy beard?

And sometimes I have to say to them, get rid of it and just focus on a nice mustache.

[00:25:14] Geraldine: Yeah.

[00:25:14] Colin: You know, we all have our strengths.

[00:25:18] Geraldine: And if you could go back to the very beginning, what’s one thing you wish you’d known when you started the West Cork Beard Company?

[00:25:25] Colin: That it’s going to be really hard work, like really hard work.

And it comes down to what we talked about with operating a business. I did not have a clue how difficult it is to operate a business, how consumed you get by it. You know, you can’t switch off. You know, I like to travel to Spain every now and then since I was living there. I like to go back and you know, it gives me a chance to switch off because everything in West Cork, everything in Clonakilty reminds me of my business. So like, it’s all consuming. If I had known how hard it would be, I would have thought twice about even starting.

[00:25:59] Geraldine: Yeah.

[00:25:59] Colin: Because as things get bigger, it seems things can get a little bit more difficult. You have to keep your eye on things a lot more like the financials, like stock, as we said, for example.

I’m making a decision now to kind of pull out of a lot of stockists that I’m stocked in because I just don’t have the time to, to deal with stockists as well as all the online orders. So I’ve said no to lots of new stockists this year and last year, and I’m happy with that decision because I only have so much brain power and so much energy to give this business.

[00:26:28] Geraldine: Okay. And what advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to start a small business, particularly in the craft or grooming industry?

[00:26:36] Colin: The craft of grooming industry or any business, they have to be 100 percent in love with your product because if they’re not the first couple of bumps, they’ll be like, I’m out of here.

And they have to realise that as we spoke about earlier, you have to be in it for the long haul. You know, I’ve been in this business now, eight years, I have seen, numerous beard companies start, stay for a year or two, and then they’re gone.

And it’s happened numerous times. And I’m looking at these beard businesses and thinking if they just held on for another couple of years, they would have been away.

So the new entrepreneur needs to be 100 % in love with the product, which means they have to do the research before they launch. If they launch something too early, it’s an absolute disaster and they end up shutting shop and then going again. And I don’t think it’s a great look. I understand you have to try new businesses and you have to try and see what fits you, but I don’t think it’s a good look if you’re the entrepreneur that has had five or six businesses in the last two years.

You know, if I was an investor, for example, down the line, I’d be very wary of investing in someone like that. So love your product, do the research, make sure it’s a product that you use, especially in the craft and grooming industry. I use my products every day. I will not use any other product because my products are better.

[00:27:50] Geraldine: Yeah.

[00:27:50] Colin: And I love my products and you have to be that way. And like someone asked me on the street, what’s the best product for this? What’s the best product for this? You know, I’m happy to say my products, 100%. I don’t have a little voice in the back of my head thinking are you sure you should say that now? Because that product isn’t so great.

I’m a hundred percent behind my products and that’s what you have to be as a young entrepreneur. And the point I said about trying new things, yes. Try new things kind of under the radar and see what you like. And then once you have it, go for it, give it at least two years and then you can always change.

No one’s going to be mad at you for changing two years down the line.

[00:28:27] Geraldine: Yep. Okay. And where do you see the West Cork Beard Company in the next five years? What’s your ambitions for the brand’s growth and evolution?

[00:28:35] Colin: That’s a tough one. At the moment, I’m trying to keep everything calm because it’s so busy.

You know, I would like to go into a kind of a bigger facility. I would like to maybe get one or two staff members. But I want also want to keep it small, you know, as these businesses grow, that’s more pressure on me. That’s more stress on me. That’s more responsibility, which I want to manage because I’m only one person.

And I also want the life outside of work as well. I’ve seen it over the last eight years, as I’ve gotten into my forties, I am tweaking the business. To be more for an older audience and I can see that continuing into my 50s and 60s, I will probably change the labeling from the colors to maybe something a bit more sophisticated down the line.

The content online is going to evolve with me. I won’t be jumping like around like a madman.

[00:29:20] Geraldine: I don’t know about that now.

[00:29:22] Colin: I’m tempted. But as my personality continues to evolve, so will the brand. As my tastes evolve, so will the brand. Maybe I’ll do a bit more traveling and get some inspiration from somewhere like that.

So I’m not a huge fan of business plans. Five years down the line, I haven’t a clue, but I would probably like to be a little bit less on the making side for myself. Yes, I will be making the products through my staff, but I will be more directing the business and, you know, coming up with new content, coming up with new products.

Whereas the kind of hard labor will be done by someone else behind the scenes. Obviously with me overlooking everything and wouldn’t that be a great life?

[00:30:02] Geraldine: I know. I’m telling you, it’ll evolve with you and that sounds fairly good to me, . Very good. Well, thank you Colin for joining us on the Cork Creative Podcast.

If you’d like to find more about Colin and the West Cork Beard Company, you can find links to his website and socials on corkcreative.ie .