Specializing in all natural bath and body products! Sozo Body Care is focused on formulating and developing products that not only look great, but function great, and are healthy for our bodies! Starting in 2017 with a line of beard care products, the company quickly grew and the product line grew as well! Now offering products the whole family can enjoy! Sozo Body Care is committed to quality and exceptional customer service!
First off, thanks for stopping by! My name is Justin Mikkelson, founder of Sozo Body Care. This has definitely been a journey, one that started years ago and didn't just happen overnight. So many things I've went through, God has used to prepare me for this. I'll Jump in at 2012 when I started my first business called Footbag Central selling hacky sacks. I was right out of high school working part time doing cement/carpentry work. Before that, I had done lawn care in high school working for a man that had started his own business and held a management position at Sears Roebuck and Co. So when I decided to start up Footbag Central, I went to him right away. He walked me through the process of starting up a business, doing the paper work that needed to be done, things to consider, and things to look out for. From there, I continued working part time mowing his grass/maintaining his gardens and often times after work he would give me business advice. He shared what to do, what not to do, how to handle certain situations, etc... He loved talking about business and taught me so much. Thanks Bill! I ran Footbag Central for a few years, developed my own brand, sold about 5 other brands through my website and other online sales channels, also sold wholesale to a couple of clients. Through it all I learned how to run a business in a low risk environment, pay taxes, jump through hoops, web design, graphics design, accounting, marketing, budgeting, eCommerce, social media, negotiating deals, working with an overseas manufacture, setting up a wholesale program, etc... Moving onto the year 2017... My friend was giving me some pointers for trimming my beard and showed me a wooden comb that he made. He told me "some of these beard combs go for like $40 bucks" to which I responded with a smirk something like "have you looked on ebay"? (knowing you can get good deals on ebay). I thought "wow, that is way to much for a beard comb!" So sparking my interest I went on ebay to see what these go for and I stumbled upon a listing for like 325 wooden combs (from china) with a starting bid of $0.99. That was way way way more than I needed but I like a good deal! Long story short, I ended up buying like 800 combs for cheap cheap. I thought "this is way to good to pass up and I'll just turn around and sell em." And Wa-Bam! Sozo Beard Co. is born! I can barely grow a beard at this point but that's not stopping me! Now I got all these combs, a name for the business, and decided to add beard oil and beard balm to the product line. I take them out on ebay before Christmas, and Boom it takes off. I had about 250 sales in a 4 month period. (that's the quick version, there was a lot of planning, formulating, label design, packaging, etc. that went into it to pull that off.) At this point Footbag Central is slowing down and on the back burner. Because you can only go so far with the small niche market of hacky sacks, I started putting my focus on this new company. It was growing fast, making sales, and over all, things were going great! But while I was informing myself in this new cosmetic world, I came across some "Regulations" that I was not aware of. Come to find out the FDA overseas Cosmetics and they have various regulations as well as labeling requirements that I was unaware of. So I did some research and read up on the regulations and labeling requirements and found out that not only I, but most of my competitors were not in compliance. Earlier I said about learning to jump through hoops. This was one of them. Now my labels looked okay, but did not meet their regulatory standards. Long story short they said- you can either remove your products or we can come and seize them. Gulp... So I had a choice to make. The easy way or the hard way, take a chance or play by the rules. I probably could have got away with it, but that's not who I am and that's not how I want to run my business. I've seen businesses that cut corners and don't play by the rules, and in the end it shows. So I pulled the products, threw away most my labels, and most of my packaged products which was $100's worth. But... It gave me a chance to get it right, redesign my labels and reformulate the products, giving them a more professional look in appearance and quality. It was a mistake that could have been avoided. I needed to apply more diligence to the beginning stages. I'm learning that as fast as we may want to move a project along, in the end it really pays to be thorough and to take the time to double check and research things out. It may take longer up front, but it will pay off in the end. Going through all that helped equip me for the future products I would design. Which takes me to more recent days. I saw the need to offer a women's line of products, not just products for men. I geared my attention towards the developing women's products. And, Wa-Bam!! Sozo is born! I didn't have to think too long about the need to change the company name. A jar of ladies face cream with the brand name "Sozo Beard Co" at the top might not go over so well. So I dropped the Beard Co. and went with just "Sozo". If you're curious about the name, it's the Greek word for Salvation, meaning - (to save, keep safe and sound, to heal, to rescue from danger or destruction). I'm very pleased with how far this has come and I'm excited for the future! God is so Good! Justin M. A Christian - A Patriot
