Meet Jessica. 22, who founded her own makeup brand, Jecca Blac. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Jessica:
I'm Jessica, I'm 22 years old, and I'm the founder of a makeup brand.
It's been an interesting journey founding my company. I was always a very strong art student, so when I decided to take A-levels, I chose Art, Sociology, and Business. In college, I did a course for makeup and hair in the creative industry.
I decided to apply for Ealing Film Studios Academy, where I would learn how to do makeup and hair for film, TV, and fashion. I would assist makeup artists on fashion shoots and student films so, when I finished, I had a portfolio that was good enough for me to start working in the film industry.
I created a website and within 20 minutes of it going live, I had a request to do makeup lessons for someone that was transgender. A transgender person is someone that identifies as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth.
I decided to visit transgender groups and promote my services there. I set up a studio in my home and people would come and visit for makeup lessons, and I realised that most of my clients had similar requests.
The beauty industry tends to overlook this clientele and I decided I wanted to fill this gap and create a brand that was gender-free. Using my clients as a focus group, we decided to create the correct and conceal palette, and that's when Jecca Blac was born.
We got attention from major brands, and now have seven products. No two days are the same – one day I'll be office-based, the next day I'll be on a photoshoot overlooking visuals, and once a week I travel to Paris to visit one of our big partners.
The company's vision is to celebrate individuality and my mission is for everyone to feel comfortable in their unique selves.
My company's vision is to celebrate individuality.
- Jessica loved arts subjects at school and studied Art, Sociology and Business at A-level
- She went on to learn how to do makeup and hair for film, TV, and fashion at university
- When she graduated, Jessica realised that there was a lack of makeup products available for the transgender community. Being transgender means identifying as a gender other than the one you were assigned at birth
- Jessica set out to create her own, inclusive makeup products and spent time working with the transgender community to ensure she could cater to her clients' needs.
What to expect if you want to be a business owner
The salary and working hours when you own a business can vary enormously but what's most important is that you work hard and love what you do.
Working for yourself looks different for each person and each business, but in general it means you:
- run your own business and are responsible for its success
- can decide how, when and where you do your work
- charge an agreed, fixed price for your work
- sell goods or services to make a profit
- can hire people at your own expense to help you or to do the work for you.
You can be both employed and self-employed at the same time. You can work for your employer during the day, for example, and run your own business in the evenings and at weekends. It’s important to contact HMRC for advice if you’re not sure if you’re self-employed.
You can get help with setting up or developing your business, through the government’s business support services, for example, for advice about tax or about how to find funding to start your business.
This information is a guide (source: GOV.UK).
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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