Interview with Erim Kaur, founder of ByErim
Created by Erim Kaur the largest Sikh influencer in the UK, ByErim is an award winning, luxury haircare brand based and manufactured in the UK.
The best-selling product globally is the Luxury Hair & Beard Oil which contains eight pure oils – it’s 100% natural, vegan, cruelty-free, and sustainably designed. To date 70,000 bottles have been sold worldwide! Erim’s journey, like most entrepreneurs, has not been simple or straight forward. It has been a lot of hard work and continues to be so.
What made you want to start your own business?
People were always asking about my hair and what products I was using, so I saw a super high demand! I realised that not everyone was using hair oil, or they struggled to know how to use them.
I wanted to make something that was user friendly for those who may not have access to all the ingredients at home. I also wanted to use the highest quality ingredients and include an easy-to-use pump so it could facilitate intergenerational bonding.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
After losing my mother at eight, I made it a lifelong goal to honour her long, beautiful hair (sadly lost during chemo).
My father became the sole parent and carer to me and my brother, so I would get my haircut at their barbers. They didn’t know how to cut little girl’s hair, so it would get sawn off into a bob. I would cry my eyes out!
As I grew into my early teens, I started to become more aware of self-care and fell in love with hair treatments. Every weekend I’d be with my grandma, and we would come up with these weird and wacky concoctions to try and grow my hair.
At around the age 14 we stumbled upon what is now the formula inside every bottle of ByErim. The idea for the brand then just naturally came to me, I’d say ByErim made itself. I often joke I don’t have blood running through my veins I have ByErim hair oil!
What’s your USP?
I think our USP is the quality of our ingredients and how that perfect recipe balances to give people the healthy, shiny hair they’re seeking. Not only is ByErim a luxury hair and beard oil, but we also offer a really strong community that I don’t think people are aware of from the outset.
The community of customers and followers is like an extended support family; they offer advice, share their amazing before and after results and it’s something I think is hugely important and unique to ByErim.
Myself and my team are also big on supporting our ByErim community too – we share daily app affirmations (appfirmations) for free, offer free wallpapers, post regular blogs on the site, and we’re open to all questions from customers no matter how big or small.
What’s been the hardest part of the journey so far?
Adjusting to becoming someone who is okay with risk, as this doesn’t come naturally to me. In addition, it was understanding that as its my business, it always falls back on me. So, whenever there is a mistake (whether I made it myself personally or not) it’s always my responsibility to fix it.
If there is a gap in terms of staffing in the team, it’s me who must fill that gap. I’d love to get to a place where I make more of the high-level decisions in the business without overseeing the day to day.
What sacrifices have you had to make to get to where you are right now?
I’d say the biggest sacrifice I have had to make is with my time (but this is something I have willingly done) For example, to celebrate my birthday with my customer and followers I set up and exclusive sale and spent the whole day on my laptop, ensuring everything run smoothly! I credit everything I do to my community and followers. I wouldn’t be here without them believing in me.
What are you most proud of?
I’m proud of the awards we have won. When I first started ByErim, I didn’t plan to win any, but its so rewarding to have that recognition not only for the brand but for me as a CEO. We won Best Hair Oil in the Hair awards in 2022! And while i know our ByErim Luxury Hair 7 Beard Oil is an amazing formula, it just reinforces this.
What are your three top pieces of advice for someone wanting to do something similar?
- Be the one that went for it. There are 8 million people in the world with ideas but be the one who did it first and did it best.
- Don’t look at starting a business as one big job or lump-sum cost. Separate it out into smaller, more manageable tasks.
- Listen and grow from your audience! We use our community to tell us what they would like to see from us/ what they want next.
Find out more about ByErim.
