Small Business Spotlight: Beard Octane

COLCHESTER, CT (WFSB) - Small Business Spotlight introduces us to Beard Octane in Colchester.

Beard Octane is a family owned and operated business based right in Colchester.

If you guessed they make beard-care products -- you’d be right!

“The stuff I was buying at the store was making my skin really dry so a little research, trial and error and talking to my sister, we came up with our own recipes if you will, so what started in a spare bedroom in the house went to a garage and now we’re in our full facility here,” said Joe Miller.

Miller started the business on July 4, 2018, and it’s grown in a huge way ever since, even adding Beef Octane two years ago.

“It’s crazy, I mean we started with 10 flavors we are up to 26 flavors. We have beef, chicken, turkey, bacon, and we actually do one for dogs as well,” Miller said.

They have flavors like carne asada, mango habenero, street meet, and a mixed bag they call freedom. things they sell online, in store wholesale, or out of their truck.

“All of our beef jerky is brisket cut, so it’s super tender like a soft steak, we even put little toothpicks in every bag as well, and then we went up and beyond because we’re extra, we actually bought an ice cream truck, took the ice cream cone down, wrapped it, and now we do mobile events all over the state,” Miller said.

The bread and butter of the business is still beard care: beard oil, balm, butter, soap, shampoo and conditioner.

“Our products are handmade. We make it here, right here in America. It uses all natural ingredients. It’s handcrafted. It’s cruelty free and it’s vegan friendly so everything we use is of the highest quality and we test it on ourselves make sure it’s good to go,” said Miller.

They say it’s good for any and all skin types, and they’ve got reviews to back it up.

“When we first started making products, we gave it to friends and family and they absolutely loved it and raved and said hey you should put this out there, so what we did was we sent our products out to some YouTube beard product reviewers if you will, from there they absolutely raved and it was coming out as number one on their list, their top 10 list and from there we kind of blew up if you will,” Miller said.

Now you can find beard octane on its own YouTube channel where Joe and his son do funny videos along with other employees.

They’re always looking for new and fun things to do with the company, like subscription boxes, which also make great gifts.

“We have beard starter kits which has sample sizes of our products, a compact, comes with a beard brush...we gear towards, we want to capture those first-time customers, people that don’t know a lot about the product and educate them about proper beard care,” said Miller.

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