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Name: Renjie Chang
Business: NeuEve
Location: Palatine, Illinois, U.S.
Industry: Healthcare, Wellness & Fitness
Reason for starting? About 10 years ago, there was a big wave of divorces among my friends, neighbors and colleagues. So many happily married couples all suddenly got divorced. I simply didn’t understand why. Of course, there are lots of reasons. Marriage is hard work and healthy marriages require love, trust and respect. I’m a medical doctor, not a “love doctor.” But there was one thought that kept coming to me. What if lack of sex was the reason? What can I do to help? The simple fact is that men and women both may suffer “performance” dysfunction. However, men have Viagra. But what do women have? The fact that no one was addressing this very necessary problem inspired me to step up and take my best shot. There’s no shortcut. I spent many late hours studying different combinations of ingredients. I tested on myself, and my close friends. I failed many times, but each time the product performed better than the last. After many trials and errors, I developed a superior product I am confident in.
Related: Read about another Healthcare, Wellness & Fitness entrepreneur here.
How do you define success? As a doctor, success to me has always meant achieving results in the best manner possible. Our success comes 100% from our focus on the quality of our product and our focus on a very personal touch with our customers. Bedside manner is my way of life. When I first started, I hand-wrote messages to all of my customers. I still spend hours of my own time listening to my customers’ stories and giving them medical advice as a doctor. In turn, my customers show their appreciation by spreading NeuEve by word of mouth. The heartwarming loyalty and positive messages from my customers is what makes it all worth it.
Biggest success: NeuEve has helped many older ladies to regain youth. To date, the oldest lady who benefitted from NeuEve is 81 years old. Her 55-year-old daughter had been a NeuEve customer. When the mother got a new boyfriend who is 72 years old, the daughter introduced NeuEve to her. Once she was on NeuEve Silk plus NeuEve Cream, she regained her sexuality and felt young again. She told me she felt like she was 35 again.
What is your top challenge and how you have addressed it? Scaling up is the biggest challenge facing NeuEve. The book “Scaling Up” by Varne Harnish was recommended to me. I have been reading it and I would highly recommend it to all of my fellow entrepreneurs.
I was raised in China during the Cultural Revolution. For those not familiar with the history, it was a time of political witch-hunting, book-burnings, starvation, and violence. My family was considered part of the “intellectual” bourgeois, so I witnessed the crowds forcing my own father to parade in the streets wearing a humiliating dunce cap and sign around his neck. For me personally, it meant the closure of all schools across the nation for 10 years, from when I was 12 until I was 22. I was forced to work in a sweatshop as a teenager. I have always loved science and medicine. My passion for medicine is what kept me going through the darkness.
As a businesswoman there have been two effects: 1. These experiences have made me very contrarian in business. How can I trust the crowd, when it was the crowd that carried my family away? 2. I value education very highly. I never was able to go to high school. American children today don’t understand how lucky they are.
Related: Being an Immigrant and a Woman: Double Advantage or Double Disadvantage?
Who is your most important role model? My biggest role model is my childhood friend, Yang. Throughout my life, there have been ups and downs. When times are tough, I ask myself to imagine what she would say to me. I really like to help others, sometimes too much, and that can be my downfall. People often think of me as “too nice.” Yang always helped keep me balanced and grounded. I really look up to her discipline, work ethic and grit. She’s always been my backbone and my support. I owe my successes to her friendship.
[box_light]Website www.
Twitter @NeuEveSupp
Facebook facebook.com/neuevesuppositories[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange