Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Brown.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I really didn’t start JAK’s because I wanted to be a business owner. That honestly wasn’t even the plan. I started because I was a mom trying to figure out what to do for my kids. My children dealt with eczema and hypersensitive skin, and I was constantly buying things, trying things, reading labels and trying to understand why something that said it was gentle or made for sensitive skin would still cause a reaction. After a while, I got tired of feeling like I was guessing. I wanted to understand what was actually in these products and why certain ingredients worked for some people and not for others. So I started researching and making things myself. I had about $50, two products, and that was really the beginning. Even the name JAK’s came from my children—Jalen, Ashod and Kay’Leigh—because they were the reason behind all of it. I wasn’t sitting there thinking I was about to build some big skincare company. I was just trying to find something that worked for my children, and then other people started asking me about what I was making. They wanted to try it, they had skin concerns of their own, and little by little it turned into JAK’s Essentials. That was in 2016, and I learned pretty quickly that making a product and running a business are two completely different things. I had to learn everything as I went—pricing, packaging, ingredients, shipping, inventory, customer service, marketing, all of it. I definitely made mistakes. I bought things that didn’t make sense, tried packaging that looked good but didn’t work, created products that I loved that customers didn’t necessarily care about, and had plenty of moments where I had to go back and rethink what I was doing. But I kept learning. The more I learned about ingredients and formulation, the more interested I became in what happens behind the scenes before a product ever gets to the customer. I started paying more attention to formulations, preservation, testing, manufacturing, packaging compatibility, regulations and all the things most customers never see when they pick up a bottle. That eventually opened the door to JAK’s Private Label because people started asking me if I could create products for their brands. At first, it was really just another need that showed up in front of me. Someone would have an idea for a product but not know how to actually make it happen, and I realized that I loved helping with that part. Private Label has probably stretched me more than anything because now I’m not just responsible for something with my name on it. I’m helping someone else build something with their name on it, and I don’t take that lightly. Some clients come to us knowing exactly what they want. Some have a formula or an ingredient list. Some basically come in and say, “I have this idea, but I don’t know what to do with it.” We help them work through that. That has pushed me to learn more about formulation, scaling, manufacturing, GMP, MoCRA, testing, documentation, equipment and production. And I’m still learning. I don’t pretend to know everything, and I think that is one reason I’ve been able to keep growing. If I don’t know something, I research it, I ask questions, I figure it out. Even now, we are working on expanding our manufacturing capabilities, and some days that looks very glamorous and some days it looks like me measuring a doorway trying to figure out if a mixing tank can fit inside the building. That is the part people don’t always see. They see the finished products and the pretty pictures, but they don’t see all the figuring it out that happens behind the scenes. As all of that was happening, my thinking started changing too. I realized that I had spent years learning how to build my own brand, and then I was helping other people build theirs, but I was also having more conversations with business owners about everything else that comes with trying to build a life and a business at the same time. Branding, marketing, health coverage, life insurance, finances, debt, planning for the future, what happens to the business if something happens to you—those are real conversations business owners and families have, even if we don’t always talk about them publicly. That is where Infinity Growth Partners started to make sense for me. It is different from skincare and manufacturing, but to me it still fits because it is about helping people build something stronger around themselves, their families and their businesses. When I look at everything now, JAK’s Essentials, JAK’s Private Label and Infinity Growth Partners may look like three completely different things from the outside, but for me they all came from the same place. JAK’s Essentials started because I was trying to solve a problem for my own children. Private Label grew because I realized I could use what I had learned to help other people create something of their own. Infinity Growth Partners grew because I started looking at the bigger picture of what people need when they’re trying to build a business, take care of a family and think about the future at the same time. None of this was mapped out in the beginning. I wish I could say I had some ten-year plan and everything happened exactly the way I wrote it down, but that would not be true at all. A lot of this has been me learning, changing direction, making mistakes, fixing them and figuring out the next move. I’ve had moments where I knew exactly what I wanted to do and other moments where I was completely figuring it out as I went. That’s probably one of the things I’m most proud of, though. I didn’t have to have every answer before I started. I just kept moving. My definition of success has changed a lot too. In the beginning, success was simply making something that worked for my kids. Then it was getting a customer. Then it was growing JAK’s Essentials. Then it became helping another business owner launch a product. Now I’m thinking about building something that has structure, longevity and real value beyond me. I want my children to be able to look at all of this and understand that their names weren’t just used to create a cute company name. They are literally the reason the company exists. Jalen, Ashod and Kay’Leigh are part of the foundation of this story. I started with $50 and two products because my children needed something better, and somehow that grew into a skincare brand, a private label manufacturing company and now a larger vision focused on helping individuals, families and business owners grow. I’m proud of what we’ve built, but I also know we have a long way to go. I still have things I want to learn, equipment I want to bring in, brands I want us to manufacture for, stores I want to see JAK’s Essentials in and people I want Infinity Growth Partners to help. I don’t feel like I’ve arrived. I feel like I finally understand what we’re capable of becoming. And when I think about the fact that all of this started with me simply trying to help my children’s skin, that part still means the most to me.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Absolutely not. It has been a very rough road at times, mainly because I came into business not knowing anything about business. I knew why I started and I knew what I wanted to create, but I didn’t know where to go for guidance, who to trust, what resources were available, or even what questions I should be asking. A lot of what I learned, I learned by making mistakes first. Some of those mistakes were small, and some were expensive enough that I am still recovering from them today. There were times when I spent money in the wrong places, trusted people who were not the right fit, moved too quickly, or made decisions before I fully understood the long-term impact on the business. I also had to learn that just because someone calls themselves an expert does not mean they understand your vision or have your best interest in mind. For a long time, I was trying to figure out everything at once—pricing, inventory, manufacturing, contracts, taxes, marketing, compliance, staffing, equipment, and how to actually make the business profitable. That can be overwhelming when you don’t have a roadmap. There were also times when I tried to do too much myself because I didn’t know who could truly help, and that comes with its own set of problems. One of the hardest lessons has been understanding that growth can expose every weakness in your business. What works when you are small may completely fall apart when orders increase, expenses rise, or you start taking on larger opportunities. I have had to go back and correct systems, rethink decisions, tighten up finances, and become much more intentional about how we grow. I used to think being a good business owner meant always knowing what to do. Now I know it is more about being willing to admit when something is not working and having enough sense to change it. I ask a lot more questions now. I slow down before making certain decisions. I pay closer attention to the numbers, contracts, and long-term impact instead of just looking at the opportunity in front of me. I am still learning, and I am not embarrassed to say that. Some lessons took longer than others, and some cost me more than I would have liked, but they also made me much stronger and much more aware of how I want to run my companies moving forward. The road has definitely not been smooth, but it has made me a much better business owner than I would have been if everything had come easy.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
JAK’s Infinity Group is the umbrella for everything we are building today, and what makes it exciting to me is that we are not just one type of company. We are building across skincare, manufacturing, entrepreneurship, wellness, financial education and, soon, education through JAK’s University.
JAK’s Essentials is where it all started. It is our skincare, body care and wellness brand, and it is still rooted in the belief that skincare is not one-size-fits-all. We care about ingredients, performance, education and helping people understand what they are actually using on their skin instead of just buying into whatever sounds good on the front of a label.
JAK’s Private Label has grown into a major part of who we are. We are not simply putting labels on premade products. We are developing, scaling and manufacturing skincare, body care, hair care and personal-care products for other brands. Some clients come to us with a complete concept, some with a formula, and some with nothing more than an idea. We help take that idea through the development process and into actual production. We are continuing to expand our manufacturing capabilities, equipment, systems, documentation and production capacity so that we can support both emerging brands and companies that need larger-volume manufacturing. That part of JAK’s is something I am extremely proud of because we are literally helping other people turn an idea into a tangible product that can carry their name, represent their brand and reach their customers.
Infinity Growth Partners is another extension of that same bigger vision. It allows us to work with individuals, families and business owners beyond the product itself through branding and marketing, health and life solutions, financial wellness, debt awareness and future planning. I have learned through my own journey that building a business is only one piece of the picture. You also have to think about the person behind the business, their family, their finances and what all of that hard work is ultimately building toward.
And then there is JAK’s University, which is coming soon. That piece is very personal to me because I remember how difficult it was trying to learn business when I did not know where to go or who to ask. We have learned so much through experience, research, mistakes and actually doing the work, and I want JAK’s University to become a place where we can turn some of those lessons into education and resources for the next person who is trying to build.
What sets JAK’s Infinity Group apart is that we are building from real experience. We are developing our own products, manufacturing for other brands, growing businesses, working with families and entrepreneurs, and continuing to expand into education. We are not trying to fit into one box, because the people we serve do not live in one box either.
What I am most proud of is the fact that JAK’s has grown from a skincare brand into something that can actually create opportunity. We can make a product for our own customer, manufacture a product for another entrepreneur, help a business owner think about their brand and future, and soon teach someone else some of the lessons we had to learn the hard way.
That is what I want people to understand about JAK’s Infinity Group. We are not just building products. We are building brands, manufacturing possibilities, creating resources and helping people move ideas from where they are now to where they want them to go. And we are still growing.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
If you do not love it, do not do it. I mean that seriously. Starting and building a business is going to require hard choices, sacrifices, long days, late nights, missed opportunities, money you could have spent somewhere else, and moments when you are going to question whether any of it is worth it. The only thing that keeps you going through those moments is truly loving what you are building and believing in it. Passion alone is not going to run the business, but it is what keeps you in the fight long enough to learn how to run it. There will be times when things are not moving as fast as you want, when people do not understand your vision, when you make a bad decision, or when you have to choose the business over something you really wanted for yourself. Those choices hit differently when you are building something you genuinely believe in.
I would also tell people not to compare their beginning to someone else’s middle. Social media can make entrepreneurship look very easy and very pretty, but you are usually seeing the finished product, not everything it took to get there. Give yourself room to learn, make mistakes, change your mind, and grow into the person your business needs you to become. And be honest with yourself about why you are doing it. If it is only about money, there are going to be days when the money is not enough motivation. You need a reason that means something to you. For me, JAK’s has always been personal, and I think that is a big part of why I have been able to keep going through the difficult seasons.
So if I could tell someone just starting out one thing, it would be this: make sure you love it. Make sure you believe in it enough to make sacrifices for it, learn for it, fight for it, and keep choosing it even when it gets hard. Because it will get hard. But when you truly love what you are building, the hard parts have a purpose.
Pricing:
- JAK’s Essentials offers skincare, body care and wellness products at a range of price points, with pricing available directly through our website.
- JAK’s Private Label pricing is customized based on the product, formula complexity, ingredients, order quantity, testing requirements, packaging and manufacturing needs. We work with both emerging brands and businesses preparing for larger-volume production.
- Private Label clients can contact us for a consultation and custom manufacturing quote based on their specific project.
- Infinity Growth Partners offers services based on the individual, family or business need, so pricing may vary depending on the type and level of service provided.
- Because our services are highly customized, we prefer to discuss pricing directly with each client rather than use a one-size-fits-all pricing structure.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jaksinfinitygroup.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575698770509
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaksinfinitygroup
