From Kitchen Table To Harrods; The Power Of MicroBusiness

“There is nothing more powerful and more rewarding than running a business that makes a difference to lives” explains activist and entrepreneur Shalom Lloyd.

More women than ever are running their own small business, according to figures from Simply Business, though research from Tide Business highlights that manufacturing is one of the less likely sectors for female led start-ups.

As the world reflects on another International Womens Day (March 8) for which the theme was to ‘Break The Bias’ here is an exampled of an entrepreuner that is breaking boundaries and empowering women across the globe.

Ms Lloyd is the founder of Naturally Tribal Skincare, a natural, sustainable and synthetic chemical-free skincare company.

The business is founded on the promise to build a healthy, ethical, and sustainable collection of products whilst ensuring it empowers those African women who work with the brand. Last year, the organisation was selected as a Harrods Beauty supplier in the Born & Bred collection, one which introduces new brands to its famous beauty halls. For Lloyd this marks a turning point for Naturally Tribal Skincare, achieving the micro-business dream of national recognition.

Endorsements for the brand don’t stop there. Lloyd was also selected by the Department of International Trade to form part of a collective of small UK businesses to head to the UAE.

Naturally Tribal featured as a brand offered a platform to present at The Retail Summit in Atlantis, Dubai. The event was attended by C-Suite executives and provided important speed-introductions between the small brands and big retail buyers.

The original concept for Naturally Tribal skincare was created in 2014, and as is the case for many entrepreneurial start-ups, the idea came from a personal need. Lloyd, who is a British-Nigerian pharmacist, was frustrated in her search for a natural remedy to manage her young twin son’s severe and significantly painful eczema. She wanted to find effective treatment but was keen to avoid using chemical emollients and steroids on her young child.

“Every journey starts with a first step and when you add to that an entrepreneurial spirit and innovation, a winning formula emerges” adds Lloyd.

Looking to her African heritage for inspiration, Lloyd started to experiment in her kitchen trying to recreate traditional recipes for soothing treatments. Using high quality shea butter as a main base, she found a formula that helped her son’s eczema to clear in three days.

Remortgaging her house to fund the business development, Lloyd went on to create partnerships in Esan in southern Nigeria to source the key ingredient needed for her collection – shea butter. The business focuses on the efficacy of its product whilst striving for greater female empowerment through sustainable sourcing.

She explains: “Traditionally, the shea industry has women at its core with over 16 million rural African women collecting and processing shea kernels as a main source of income. Through our employment of rural women we are bringing economic benefits directly and indirectly to at least one hundred thousand rural women in the Esan region.”

At the end of 2019, Naturally Tribal invested and built its own processing facility in Esan to ultimately employ up to 70 rural women in the area. The plant has a creche and worship rooms with a capacity of processing up to 20 metric tonnes of shea a month.

A second shea processing facility was created in Abuja, Nigeria with a production capacity of 400 metric tons per month and employment of over 50 women. The Abuja facility has a completely female management team which Lloyd describes as “culturally – a big deal in Nigeria.”

“It is simply about just doing the right thing, building a commercial business that solves a problem, impacts lives across the value chain and hugs our planet in the process”, says Lloyd.

“Building a business and genuinely making a difference is a long, hard and difficult road, it is all about baby steps and I am proud to be a leader in a company that is founded by women, made by women, and led by women but impacts everyone!”

Naturally Tribal are focussed on ensuring all colleagues are developed and supported with skills and opportunities of advancement and Lloyd is a present leader in all areas of the business.

The global change we need for greater diversity and inclusion will help to modernise business and evolve organisations for the better. The need for an International Womens Day still seems greater than ever; the World Economic Forum reminds us that not of many of our children’s generation see gender parity in our lifetimes.

Micro-business leaders may be small but they are mighty – and with entrepreneurs like Lloyd committing to making change as well as profit we see another example of why small really can be beautiful.