'I started my business with just £100 in my kitchen  - now I'm making £11m'

In just one year, Amo-Agyei made £1m from her natural hair growth products.

The 27-year-old founded Plantmade - a hair and skincare business - after being fired from her recruitment job just before the country went into lockdown in 2020.

After dealing with the stress of recruitment, she found she was losing her hair and was looking for a solution as all her regular haircare products were not helping.

She told GB News: "I did some research and found all the essential oils and remedies necessary for hair growth.

"So I went halves with my brother. We spent £100 to buy some ingredients. He wanted to grow his beard, I wanted to grow my hair and that's what started it all. We both put £50 in."

Whilst using the oil, Amo-Agyeiwas documenting her journey on Instagram where her followers were amazed at the results.

She continued: "People were noticing the difference in my hair in a short amount of time.

"So many people asked me to create bottles so they could buy my formula so I did - 100 people messaged me for pre-orders.

"I sold 100 bottles in 10 days and made like £1,000. I sold the first 50 bottles for £9.99 and the remaining 50 for £15.

"Plantmade wasn't even my original business idea - I always loved business I just didn't know when to take the plunge, but lockdown was the perfect time since the world was essentially closed.

"I planned to go into men's skin care as I was looking at trends and the wellness and beauty sector was popular during lockdown as people wanted to take care of themselves. But after seeing the demand for hair growth products, I said I'll go where the money is."

Amo-Agyei explained that she didn't touch a penny of any profits at this stage and kept all the finances separate.

When she first started Plantmade, there was no branding, or aesthetic. She just sold the bottles. However over time she has been able to rebrand and rename the business into what she wanted as she had the funds to do so.

When asked for a breakdown in her revenue over the years, she said: "We did £1m in 12 months which was insane and really big.

"Our year runs from June - June so in 2020 we made £300,000. In 2021 we made £1.3m, and in 2022 we made £3m. For 2023 we made £5.3m and now we're on track for £11m in revenue."

Plantmade has always been social forward, and the team have been able to use this to grow their sales.

They have used social media - mainly Instagram - to document their journey. Eventually they became more sophisticated with paid ads, and Meta/Google analytics.

"But we've always been good at organic content and building a community," Amo-Agyei added.

Plantmade features on the Sunday Times list for one of the UK's fastest growing companies with annual sales growth over three years at 135.88 per cent.

Amo-Agyei gave her three tips for aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to start a business. She said:

1. Just start. With what you have, do what you can. Work towards what you want. You can reinvent your business as time goes on and you get the funds. Even now there's room for improvement with Plantmade but I know there's stages. Grow into what you can be is the main thing.
2. Social media is powerful so it should be taken seriously. Even if your product is great, if no one knows about it because they're not aware of it, that is your biggest concern. Document building the business and what it is like to be a founder. Educate the customer about why you're brand is different or better than the rest - communicate that to the audience.
3. Resilience. There will be many things uncalled for that can ruin your day but you need to get up every time. I don't have anything to fall back on so I needed resilience to push me. It's easier to have this if you're actually doing what you like and you if you believe in your mission. This helps you to persevere. A bad day is not a bad life.