Welcome to the very first edition of Biz Buzz, where I talk to CHS students about their small businesses and feature their products! Today I sat down with junior and co-founder of 2Calme, Julia Henn, to talk about her small business selling all-natural pain relief gels, spritzers, and more for dancers. Even though 2Calme launched a little less than a year ago, its Instagram account currently has over 2,000 followers and multiple ambassadors. Henn’s business is really impressive and as both a dancer and small business owner myself, I can assure you that their products are all incredibly professional and beautiful. – Chloe

If you are interested in the products 2Calme offers, visit their website here. Enjoy!

What is 2Calme?

So 2Calme is a business that my friend and I launched on December 1st, 2019. She’s a dancer like me and we both have muscle pain all the time, and she wanted to come up with a solution to make our muscles more relaxed and calm. And so she decided to create her own gel formulation, spritzers and (many other) different types of products to help relieve muscle pain. Then she asked me to be a brand ambassador for her company and just help her with it. 

How did you come up with the name 2Calme? 

The two and Calme was (representative) of me and my friend because there’s two people, and I came up with the “calme” (because our products) help calm your body. I’m not really sure about the significance of the e, but I think it’s pretty cool. 

How did you get the word out about 2Calme?

When we first started out, it was pretty slow with customers since we were really new. (However,) a lot of people really liked our products and were interested in getting them, (so) in January or February, we had an ambassador search. (Once) we had ambassadors to help promote the brand, it grew so much more. 

You have ambassadors, well-thought-out packaging, apparel, lots of different products with cool names, etc. How do you come up with that? Do you have other people helping you with that?

My friend has her mom and her grandma helping with the company. Her grandma (made) a website for us and her mom actually makes all the products and has recipes for them. My friend and I both run the social media page, so 2Calme is all run by (a lot of different) people. It’s really awesome. 

What does the design process look like for making new products? How do you come up with them?

We did a lot of research on what kinds of oils help relieve muscle pain and just help with your muscles overall. My friend has really, really bad muscle pain so she has tried many brands and she’s had a hard time finding out what works for her. A lot of the brands didn’t really work so that’s why she wanted to make her own gel. We just did a (lot) of research, tried some things that have been in other previous gels she’s used in the past, and put together our own homemade recipe from scratch. The (products) have lots of oils (like) arnica and other ingredients that help with your muscles. 

Can you describe what the process is for coming out with new products? 

For new products, we’re actually going to be launching some fall, scented (products soon). We come up with lots of products with our ambassadors as well, because we (held) this contest over the summer where we had our ambassadors come up with their own roller with essential oils in it. That’s how we have some of our unique products because they’re putting together their own ideas that we don’t even think of. 

What would you say was the hardest part of starting 2Calme?

I think the hardest part was getting our company’s name out there because obviously (people are) not going to know what (2Calme) is unless we start a social media page or (build) some sort of platform. So it was hard building up a social media page and getting the word out there. Once we did that and got it under control and it was running for a few months, that was when we reached the peak of people seeing it and it was advertised more. 

What was your reaction to 2Calme’s rapid growth?

It was kind of crazy. I remember there were lots of people asking us questions and messaging us and I thought that was really cool that people were so interested in our brand. It was just amazing how quickly people were finding out about 2Calme. I thought it would take at least a few years for it to grow; it’s so cool that it grew so much faster than I thought it would.

Do you think you’ll keep running 2Calme after high school? Where do you see the business going?

Yeah, I think I’ll definitely keep running it with my friend after high school because it’s something that I’m really passionate about. As a dancer, I definitely think it’s super important to take care of your muscles the proper way. I definitely want to keep running it because I love coming up with things for their website and new products and helping out with the brand. It’s really fun. 

If you had a piece of advice for students that want to start their own businesses, what would it be?

I would say just go for it because life is too short to wait and if you want to do something, go do it. Don’t let something stop you from it because you’ll never know what it’s going to be until you try it. 

Interested in checking out 2Calme’s products? Find their online shop here.

If you would like to be interviewed and have your small business promoted, please email [email protected].