Jennifer and Fiona Lees

WHAT GOT YOU STARTED?

by Burke Campbell

Published in the Financial Post

 December 24, 2007

Identical twins Jennifer and Fiona Lees, founded Balmshell ( www.balmshell.com ), a Toronto-based cosmetics firm, that manufactures a specialized and distinctly packaged lip gloss. Jennifer and Fiona tell Burke Campbell what motivated them to become entrepreneurs.

HIGH CONCEPT: “Our partnership started early, right from conception.”

IT BEGINS: “After university, we had separate jobs. One day we started talking about what we really wanted out of life. We were most passionate about our collaborative projects. We both loved cosmetics, the idea that a woman can use makeup to enhance and communicate her confidence. That’s when we started to think about creating our own business.”

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: “We came across a neat packaging idea, one that would be great for lip gloss. We started by Googling for information on the web and this opened the door to our knowledge of the whole cosmetics industry. The more we learned, the more assured we became.”

THE DOORS OPEN: “We didn’t depend on our enthusiasm alone. So we came up with sturdy business plans and powerful presentations. We started to land big clients, like Holt-Renfrew.”

MOMENT OF TRUTH: “There were times when we nearly gave up, but then, if you don’t try, you’ll never know what could have happened. It is just too painful not to know. For us, not taking the risk would be the real failure.”

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