Have you ever wondered how to start a skincare business? How easy or hard it can be?  Maybe you might have the idea to start, but you have no idea what it might entail.

Or perhaps, you desire to know how to make money selling makeup online. You might not realize this, but the beauty and cosmetics industry is a thriving industry. With the organic skincare sector growing to become a force to be reckoned with in the beauty industry, there are a lot of opportunities for anyone looking to start a skincare business or looking to make money selling makeup. 

 Over the years, the art of buying and selling online (E-commerce) has continued to define consumer shopping experience and also how people do business. The internet has given almost everyone an opportunity to start a business. This article is going to be focusing on two topics simultaneously, as we look into how to start a skincare business and how to make money selling makeup online.

How to start a skincare business

When it comes to starting a skincare business, there are different ways to approach it. It depends on the level of involvement you want to have.  You can either start a skincare business by selling skincare products or producing them. When it comes to production, you can either produce by yourself, on your own or have a company manufacture them for you. It also depends on the area of skincare you are looking into.

A lot of persons are moving into the organic skincare business because there is now a serious awareness of the benefits of organics over chemical skincare products.

The first thing to do is identify your niche: organic or chemical or a mix of both, complete skincare or focused skincare (face or body), skin and hair or just skin, self-produced or outsource.

These decisions will inform how you approach the business; for example, you might decide to self-produced to either retain authenticity or because of funds. On the other hand, you might decide to outsource the production to a manufacturing company to minimize your overhead cost.

Whatever your decision is, they will form the basis of your business.

Let’s break this process into steps:

Identify areas of opportunities.

The key purpose of business is to provide solutions to problems, by either devising an original solution or improving an already existing one. When you decide to go into skincare, you have to identify the areas of opportunities.

The easiest way to do this is to ask the question: “ what is the customer’s pain point”. What this means is basically, what problems still exist in the skincare business that is not effectively tackled, how can you solve that problem.

For example, one of the ways to make money selling makeup is to stock makeup in not so common shades, like extreme end shades. Rihanna’s Fenty makeup line has tapped into this area of opportunity, so if you choose to make money selling makeup, Fenty is one way to solve consumer’s pain point.

The same thing applies to skincare products, whether you chose to sell or produce,  finding the consumer’s pain point is key. It will help you decide on a focus market and inform the other business decisions you will make.

Decision

Your next step is decision making, some of which has been stated earlier. Do you have prior experience in skincare business? Do you want to produce skincare products and sell, or you just want to sell skincare products.

Producing

Producing means you will either have a background in skincare production or get trained in it. Skincare products are sensitive, so expert knowledge is needed. Even if you do not want to self-produce, it is advisable to have basic knowledge of how products interact and mix. You can also hire a team of experts to work for you to develop your unique formula if you chose to go that route. Alternatively, for small and medium scale businesses, the best option for anyone who wants to produce but does not have expert knowledge, you can go into partnership with a verified skincare production company. There you can have skincare products manufactured and branded for your company.

Selling

You might, however, decide to go with selling. Selling skincare products is another way to start the skincare business, and if you have a knack for skincare, it might grow into production.

When it comes to selling skincare products, you can also sell makeup alongside your skincare products.

Demographics

Another decision for you will be what target audience you want to cater to. You can decide to cater to a particular group or everyone. You can also decide to focus on a particular income class or everyone. It is up to you, but you have to decide as this will influence the next step

Research

The second step is to research. Research is vital. What are the statistics? How to start a skincare business in your region. This article is one of such research.

The global skin care products market is projected to reach US$183.03 billion by 2025. This is a reasonable and sustainable growth.

Based on the decisions you have taken,  you have to carry out in-depth research.

Producing

Your research should cover sourcing if you are self-producing. Location, experts in the field if you need to hire a team, especially if you are no expert. You have to also look into possible skincare manufacturing brands who can mass-produce for you if you choose to go that route.

You also have to research into packaging and branding.  Also, ensure you carry out proper research into the requirements by the regulatory bodies to avoid having issues by the time you are up and running.

Buying

If you decide to sell skincare and makeup products only, then sourcing is very important. At the research stage, you should be looking at the best places to purchase skincare products.

Do you want to represent a particular brand of skincare products? Do you want to carry popular drug store brands? Where can you get them at the best prices?

It is also possible to have a niche in selling skincare products. This should have been defined at the decision stage.

Selling

Thanks to the internet, you can sell to anyone, anywhere in the world.  One of the quickest ways to make money selling make is to use the E-commerce route. Your research should look into marketing strategies. Whether you are a predominantly online store/brand, or you want to have a physical presence. You have to research your target group, their buying habits. Where do they shop? Which social media app do they use the most? This will help you plan your marketing strategies.

Produce/Purchase.

Like with every other step, the details of this step are based on your decisions.

Production

If you are going into skincare production, then at this point, you should be kick-starting production. It is important to work with someone who has an understanding of the process as you will need help with Formula design, regulatory approval, design, packaging and distribution. Try not to do it all on your own. Ask questions, even if you are self-producing and starting small.

Purchasing

When you decide on niche and source, you can start buying products. There are two ways to do this

Dropshipping

With dropshipping, you do not necessarily need capital, and it is a strictly online business. Dropshipping is a good way to make money selling makeup and skincare products. It is actually one of the best ways to start a skincare business.

You do not need to stock the items. You simply put up the items on your online store (social media pages, website, stores on E-commerce websites), market the items, and when customers order for them, the brand or manufacturer ships the items to the customers.

Stocking

You can, however, choose to stock the items, especially if you have an online store. Then you will have to keep up with consumer’s needs and requests.

You also have to decide price points. This is very important because you are in the business to make profits. Your price point will be a derivative of your economic cost and your profit. Your economic cost is your cost of production or cost price plus all the other expenses that go into your business. Rent, transportation, consumables, online adverts, etc. you decide on the min profit margin you want. This will form your product price.

You can also offer tips on how to use skincare products and makeup to customers. This is one way to engage your customers as customer engagement is key when it comes to marketing and selling.

5 unusual ways to sell makeup online.

Selling is a huge part of business, and if after you are unable to sell your products, there is a problem. Here some unusual way to sell your products.

1.         Dropshipping

Like I described earlier, the dropshipping method is perfect for new businesses with little or no capital. All you need is a platform with great traffic and amazing products pictures, and you are good to go.

2.         Affiliate marketing

With affiliate marketing, you pay owners of blogs or website to link in your products in their post to pull in sales. It is quite effective as a sales channel

3.            Social media influencers

This option is perfect if you own a makeup brand or represent one or you have a big store. You can pay an influencer to do a review of your product or store. This will garner interest that can be converted to sales.

4.         Sample sales

Sample sales are regular sale. You can have an online sales party where people win something or get samples of their favourite brand if thy purchase up to a particular amount. It helps to boost sales, and it is a great way to market test a new product it boosts customer engagement.

5.         Niche marketing

Niche marketing is simply marketing to a particular group of persons. It is focused marketing. When you know your target audience and focus your marketing strategies on them; that is niche marketing.

Now that you have seen the basic steps on how to start a skincare business and make money selling makeup, go and make some money.

Some key things to always remember :

Change is constant, be open to change.

Learn, improve and grow. The world is dynamic and ever-changing.

Good luck!

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