It’s Pick N Dazzle’s 5th birthday!
It all started on 15 October 2014.
5 years later, we have over 5,000 happy customers, 20,000 product ratings on the site, and over 5 million data points from our registered users helping the algorithm recommend products you'll love.
In the coming weeks, we will take you behind the scenes and tell you how the magic happens: the company’s history, the people running it, and what inspires us each day.
It’s a bit like touring Santa’s workshop. You’re welcome :)
Today, Pavlina, Pick N Dazzle’s founder, tells us how she came up with the idea for the company and how she built it. As someone who has worked in the beauty industry for over two decades, she has valuable stories to share.
Pavlina had been working for 18 years at an international beauty company when she decided to start her own business.
Like any successful idea, the one for Pick N Dazzle came from unexpected sources and she gradually put it together like a “puzzle.”
While working abroad, Pavlina came across a company that was creating individual food plans based on its customers’ preferences.
Pavlina realized how valuable the service was for her: she had neither the expertise, nor the time to choose recipes herself, shop for groceries, prepare meals, and calculate nutritional data.
Pavlina began to wonder whether such a business model could work in beauty – another area where many of us can use some guidance.
“Like any other woman, I’ve had to take care of myself and my beauty, but I haven’t had someone to advise me. If there had been such a service – like the best friend who always tells you what’s good for you – that would have been amazing,” Pavlina says.
“There are so many women who are professionals and mothers – the contemporary woman is very active and busy. “I thought, surely there are women for whom beauty is something they desire and need,” yet they don’t have time to research brands, look for great offers, and learn beauty regimes.
“If there is a specialist who can help you and save you time, that would be wonderful.”
And, with this thought, Pick N Dazzle was born.
Was it an easy decision to start out as an entrepreneur? Yes and no. For 18 years, Pavlina had been part of a multinational beauty company’s growth and development.
“I had the chance to see how a small-to-medium company becomes a leading global brand.
"That was fascinating to me.
“I’ve had a very successful career with many happy moments, and I’ve worked with great dedication and drive. But, like everything in life, a career at a given company has its lifecycle… at some point it is completely normal to seek new challenges and opportunities.”
Over the years, Pavlina had worked in all of the company’s divisions and functions – as well as in many countries on almost all continents. No position at a different company could give her enough room to apply all her knowledge and experience. She felt she had to do it on her own, “because there was no greater challenge than that.”
Starting Pick N Dazzle was “extremely difficult” in the beginning. “The process was quite long, as the platform is very complex” – both due to the technological algorithms and the website’s rich functionality.
“We did and we continue to do everything without compromise and according to the highest standards, which is why it took us an extremely long time. We’ve worked with care at each step.” Even choosing the company’s name took 4 months and a focus group of experts.
To build her community and start conversations with women, Pavlina first launched the site as a content-only platform sharing articles and beauty advice. That community was at the heart of Pick N Dazzle from the start.
So, when the announcement came 5 years ago that Pick N Dazzle was open for business, orders started coming in within the first hour.
What kept Pavlina going in those first difficult months, when she’d left her prestigious job and started from zero? “The feedback from satisfied customers, which we had from the very beginning.”
Today, this is what Pick N Dazzle is known for. A beauty brand CEO recently told Pavlina that he’d heard all about the bloggers, the videos, and the rave reviews.
Constant communication and feedback from customers are part of what makes us stand out.
So, ladies, keep sharing the love!
In the coming weeks, we will publish interviews with the amazing women making Pick N Dazzle happen and bringing the website to your screens and the boxes to your doors.
We will wrap it all up with one more interview with Pavlina, in which she tells the rest of the Pick N Dazzle story – how we got from zero to a growing international company. Pavlina will also share her views on beauty which, for her, is all about “women feeling calm and confident.”
Stay tuned!
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