Interested in taking a slice of the pie when it comes to the beauty market? The skincare industry can be very lucrative with the current Australian market being worth over $7.7 billion. But when it comes to getting started with your own business, things get complicated and confusing. That’s why we’ve come up with a guide to help you in starting a skincare business from home that goes over all the details you’ll need and more.
Starting a Skincare Business From Home – Creating Your Product
Product Research
Take notes on what you want to include in your products
The first step in starting a skincare business from home is to understand what certain ingredients can do for skin. This will give you an idea of what would work to achieve the effects you envision your products having for your customers. Check out Formula Botanica for online courses and information about skincare formulation.
Your next step is to know what kind of raw materials are available and safe to use for your skincare line. There are legal requirements to be met for you to sell your stuff on the market, so make sure you know the ingredients you want will pass them. Government authorities have set up regulations that you can check online for what can and can’t be used.
Market Research
Choosing organic and natural ingredients will appeal to a large number of people
Find out what kind of products are trending and what kind of products have been around for a long time. Recently, there has been a shift towards organic skincare and natural beauty products in the cosmetics industry. This follows the rise of environmental conscientiousness of modern society across the globe. This form of natural skincare focuses on natural ingredients that are ethically sourced and exclude those that people think are artificial or synthetic.
Competitor Research
The final part of your research will be to understand your competition and what they are doing. This includes who their products are targeting, how they are presented, what sales channels they use and what pricing and promotion strategies they use.
Your competitor research will be the main factor in pricing your products. You will want to compete at a similar level unless you can justify having a premium price. We recommend that you stay away from taking part in price wars, where small businesses can’t sustain lower profitability levels.
Manufacturing
How you manufacture your products is a big key to the success of your business
When starting a skincare business from home, many people choose to also make all their products at home too. The big problems that come with that are the limited manufacturing scale possible and the fact that you will be taking up a lot of personal home space. Private label skincare companies are an alternative that make it easy to start a business in the skincare industry.
A private label skincare company can handle the entire product creation process, including the packaging and distribution. They are able to work with you to get the exact product you want and also advise you with information about all aspects of the product and the market they could have success in.
Start Writing Up a Business Plan
A good business plan will help you get financing from banks and investors
Having a detailed business plan formally written up instead of just having some basic ideas in your head will be very useful long term. Business plans are a priceless tool that will help you to manage and grow your business both in the beginning and after you find your feet. In fact, most small businesses that fail do not have business plans.
Business plans put to paper the key details of your business, such as what your business goals are, your unique selling points, and how you operate. This is another place where you can write down what you’ve learnt from all your initial research. From it, you will have a better idea of what to do next with your business or how you can change and improve things. You can find some great resources and templates online that will help you to write your business plan up.
A business plan will not only help you understand your business, but also help you get financing and attract investors. Banks and investors will use your business plan as a way to see if giving you business loans or investment is a good idea. Every small business will go through hard times, and your plan could be the key to help steer the ship or get the finance you need to keep going.
Starting a Skincare Business From Home – How to Sell Your Products
Getting your products into cosmetics stores will be hard
If you want to sell your product in a cosmetics store, shelf space is generally very expensive. Pitching your product at boutique stores will also be difficult, with not many willing to take risks with selling new and unestablished brands. For those reasons, your best bet is to sell your products in a direct-to-consumer model with an online store.
Setting Up An Online ECommerce Store
Staying true to starting a skincare business from home is selling products through an online store. We recommend using e-commerce platforms like Shopify, made popular because of their easy setup and good reliability. Pay special attention to your website’s aesthetic and theme, as these need to echo the brand image you want to give off. Your copywriting also needs to emphasise your unique selling point that will make customers want to buy from you specifically.
Selling At a Market Stall
Another option to sell products from your skincare brand is at a local market. This will let people see your physical product in hand before they decide to buy it. You can also let people try out the products on their skin so they can see and feel its effects on their skin. After people try and buy a product from your stall, you can also get them to buy your products from an e-store which lets them buy at any time.
Marketing Strategy
Influencer Marketing
Use select influencers to promote your product and gain rapid exposure to your target market
Reaching your target market will need more than just your friends and family promoting it. Although still helpful, a better way to make your target customers know about your product and convince them to buy it is with influencer marketing. This powerful marketing strategy is used by many beauty brands because it gets instant traction through peoples trust in the influencers promoting them.
Choosing the right influencers will be the key to getting through to your target market and achieving good sales numbers. The influencers you choose will also need to reflect your brand image. You can use an affiliate program as a way to attract influencers who can promote your products.
Get Started!
Follow these steps when starting a skincare business from home and you’re sure to increase the chances of success. With your business thoroughly thought and planned out, you’ll have an easier time putting everything together and getting it off the ground. If handling the manufacturing process is too much for you, look no further than HH Australia to take the stress away and private label your skincare products. Contact us today and kick off your skincare business journey.
