The INSIDER PODCAST: SEASON 9 – EPISODE 1

Susie Ma - How to Scale a Business: The Tropic Skincare Success Story

With Susie Ma

In this episode, I had a fascinating conversation with Susie Ma about how she scaled the Tropic Skincare brand to a nine-figure business from scratch. Susie was born in Shanghai, China in 1988. From an early age she was strongly encouraged to use only natural ingredients by her grandmother, who for over 60 years studied homeopathic remedies alongside her career as a medicinal chemist. In their house, natural was always better, and it was this upbringing that inspired Susie’s belief in natural ingredients and eventually Tropic Skincare’s ethos.
Susie Ma

Susie Ma

Susie moved to Australia aged 6, where she got her first taste of business selling alongside her parents while in Sydney. She then moved to the city of Cairns in Tropical North Queensland where lush, tropical plants were abundant and would be used to make natural skincare recipes.

Moving to London at age 13, Susie founded Tropic when she was just 15 years of age – pouring homemade body scrubs into jars to sell at markets across London. After studying at university and appearing on BBC’s The Apprentice in 2011, Lord Sugar was so impressed by Susie’s products and business idea that he invested. Today, Tropic Skincare’s multi-award-winning product range extends across skincare, body care, hair care, sun care and makeup. With 20,000 active brand Ambassadors, Tropic has been the UK’s fastest-growing skincare brand for five years in a row.

Since September 2019, every Tropic order has also funded education for children living in Cambodia, Nepal, and Myanmar as part of the brand’s partnership with charity United World Schools.

What You Will Learn By Listening:

  • Susie’s incredible journey from living in a shed in Shanghai to leading one of the UK’s fastest growing companies.
  • The importance of your Why and uncovering your infinite purpose.
  • Susie’s learnings from Lord Alan Sugar, star of the UK’s Apprentice and previous investor in Tropic Skincare.
  • The importance of focusing on your numbers, and not just turnover, while scaling.
  • How to be more creative by not having a safety net.
  • Managing distraction and keeping focus on what you do best.
  • How creating a Vision for the future keeps you young minded.

See all ScaleX Insider episodes here!

Contact Susie:

Website: Meet Susie Ma – Tropic Skincare

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