We caught up with Catherine Hughes-Hobbs, founder of dermal-filler services and training company, Lipology, on her advice for start-ups – seven years after starting up the company.
“I started Lipology as there were too many organisations making short cuts to safe dermal-filler qualifications and delivering unsafe training – as a medical professional, I wanted to access training that I trusted and to raise the standards of the industry.
Now, we are not only providing our services nationwide, we’re looking to go global as the UK’s exclusive distributor for one of our dermal filler products – we were chosen because of the professional image we portray with our branding.
We have experienced year-on-year but there is no way I could have done it without expert support for our marketing and branding.
A lot of small businesses and start-ups think “I can’t afford to pay a professional team to create my brand” – I would argue that, if you are serious about growing your business, you can’t afford not to.
If you pick the right, genuine marketing partner that has your best interests at heart, it will reap rewards. If not, it will take twice as much to fix it!
When I first started out, I knew I needed to protect the idea from competitors and wanted to make it the best it can be – there was no point me trying to shout about the service without a proper logo and brand backing me up.
Without investing in my digital presence and the design of my brand, I wouldn’t have the same exposure for the business. People see Lipology and they recognise our brand – from our practitioners’ uniforms to our packaging and the website. It makes a lasting impact.
We have trademarked all our designs and made sure there is continuity between the various services and products throughout the group to help with this. As an entrepreneur, you’re always developing new ideas so it is important to make sure they all tie together as one brand.
I feel like ATTAIN are a part of our team – whenever I need marketing support they are always available and easy to work with – they’re as passionate about getting it right for me as I am. It’s like having a marketing division in the business!
Lockdown is a difficult time for all businesses- not just start-ups – but, if you can, use this time to focus on improving. Lockdown has given us the time to review our digital presence – we’ve just revamped our online presence with ATTAIN and it is looking amazing.
For more information about Lipology, visit: https://www.lipology.uk.com/
