And the winner is….Elitemii

2020 was a challenge for just about everyone, but out of adversity comes opportunity and that for quite a number of people includes the dream of starting their own business.

So we decided at the end of 2020 to run a competition for an exciting local start-up to win office space at MyWorkspot, Maidenhead for a year. The prize also included start up guidance from a variety of our in-house members and experts in various fields from PR to finance, design to professional business coaching.

Despite the pandemic, entrepreneur spirit is clearly alive and well in Berkshire as we were inundated with entries from various backgrounds but our overall winners were husband and wife, Guv and Sonika, who started a CBD brand business called Elitemii during the height of the pandemic.

MyWorkSpot Co-founders Dave and Will were “impressed with their business model, their brand and their drive to help improve peoples lives”.

To give you more of a flavour into Elitemii we decided to interview founders Guv and Sonika:

Tell us about Elitemii and where the idea for the business came about?

We have always wanted a business where we could help people and make a positive difference to their physical/mental wellness. For years we struggled to find the right product until the solution was presented in front of us. Some of our family members suffer from certain ailments and heard about CBD and its many benefits to health. They turned to High Street CBD brands that were overpriced and of low quality, which meant they were not getting the benefits that CBD has to offer.  This frustrated us and gave us the idea to create a high-quality CBD product that would give the user the full benefits of CBD without the hefty price tag. After over a year of research into the perfect product, building a brand and website, we launched elitemii in May 2020. We are now proud to say we have a premium CBD product line and aim to become the most trusted CBD brand in the UK.

Can you explain in a nutshell the benefits of CBD products and how you aim to make your own products stand out in a fast-growing market? 

Studies have shown that CBD has many health benefits to the user. Some of the main uses of CBD has been used to help treat anxiety and depression, chronic pain and even insomnia. Many people are now turning to CBD as it is a natural and effective alternative to using pharmaceutical drugs. It contains all the efficacy of the hemp plant without the “high” effect.

We are a small family run business without a huge marketing budget, but we believe that our product and branding stands out because we are doing this with the purest intention to help people and give them an amazing product at an affordable price. We are not here to make a quick buck and leave; we want to establish ourselves as a trustworthy and reputable brand. We aim to do this by providing the highest quality CBD an affordable price, the best customer service and useful information and knowledge on CBD. Many of our competitors over charge their customers for a product that does not even match the quality and strength of ours.

9 months on from starting Elitemii what have been the key challenges so far and any lessons learned as first time entrepreneurs?

It is always difficult starting a new business venture (especially with two little kids at home) The UK CBD market is at a fairly new stage and so there is still a lot of taboo and restrictions around CBD. We got rejected from banks and merchants who wouldn’t help fund us, we aren’t allowed to promote on social media by paid advertising so everything has to be done organically, and on top off all this it was lockdown so we couldn’t even network. It seemed like we were being thrown every obstacle there was but learnt to persevere through sheer belief that what we were doing is the right thing. Some key advice we would give is, don’t give up. If you believe in something and have a good heart, then go for it. Do something every day towards your business even if it is just posting one image on social media, keep learning and above all be consistent. All these actions will end up leading to the next step, which means it doesn’t matter if you failed at first, it just means next time you won’t make the same mistake and will succeed. Trust the process.

Why are you most excited about joining the MyWorkSpot community and are there any areas you would like support on, or to collaborate with others?

We believe that joining MyWorkSpot will help elevate our business through networking with others. It will give us an opportunity to think ‘outside-the-box’ and level up our business by working alongside like-minded individuals who want to be successful. One of our immediate aims is to increase our online presence and strengthen our branding and using our own experiences, we hope that we can also support others within the MyWorkSpot family. We definitely would love to work with people who have experience of e-commerce and retail to help us break through to the next level.

Finally and most importantly, tell us a little bit about yourselves away from work!
We are Guv & Sonika a husband-and-wife team, with two small children. We are two down-to-earth individuals that enjoy life and get along with people from all walks of life. We are family orientated and love socialising! Thus we look forward to meeting you soon!

Feel free to give us a follow on Instagram @elitemii too!