Helen R. on How to Start Your Own Business in the Beauty Industry from Scratch

Julia Minnie

6 years ago

They say beauty is power. Isn’t that a reason why millions of women keep coming to beauty salons for all kinds of services repeatedly? And while some are spending their money, others get are making a profit.

Helen R.’s company is a wholesaler of beauty products which are used in many high-end beauty salons all over the United States. At the meantime, she cooperates with many beauty centers, spa and fitness clubs.

Want to know what exactly contributed to her success in the beauty business? At TemplateMonster, find out what Helen thinks of building a solid clientele and overcoming competitors based on her real experience.

Helen’s Success Story
Why Beauty Industry is a Profitable Niche
7 Must-Know Things about Beauty Business
About Beauty Business Marketing
Top 5 Beauty Business Website Templates

Helen’s Success Story

TemplateMonster: What does your company do?

Helen: Our company is a wholesaler of beauty products often located in the reception area of numerous beauty salons. Those are scented candles and oils, natural drinks and juice cleansing programs.

TemplateMonster: How did you end up in this business? What was your occupation before launching your own company?

Helen: More than ten years ago I used to work in the entertainment industry as a recruiting specialist and art-manager in one of the New York nightclubs. After getting married, I made a gap in my career until my actual divorce back in 2010. I understood how difficult it would be to get somewhere without experience, so I decided to try my luck in business. I eventually chose the beauty industry, because, you know, it’s almost every woman’s dream to work with girls’ stuff.

So, after I sold my apartment to come up with my own starting capital, I teamed up with a friend of mine, and we started our research. We ended up with a fully-operating beauty salon in NYC that was on the verge of bankruptcy. De facto, we owned a ready-made salon, the signboard and the right to rent the room.

TemplateMonster: Was it profitable? Why then you ended up in wholesale sales?

Helen: Throughout the first six months, our net profit raised from $1k to almost $10k per month. As I’ve been working in this niche, I realized that any salon can earn not only from services but also by selling related healthcare and beauty products.

No doubts that a high-quality service, proficient artists and friendly stuff make the foundation for a profitable beauty business. But there exists another profitable direction that brings every salon additional income. By this, I mean Beauty Boutique, so-called shop windows with an opportunity to buy all kinds of different personal care products recommended by our specialists for home care.

And you know what - this business idea enthralled me even more than managing my own salon. I researched the best European and American SPA and beauty salons to look what they have. So the first thing I did in my salon was to expand our beauty products with scented candles.

TemplateMonster: But candles are not considered as a personal care product. Were they hard to sell?

Helen: To begin with, I wanted to choose a product with no limited expiration dates so that I would not go into the red in case it did not sell out in the first several months. I was also searching for something that will never go out of fashion, so scented candles seemed like a perfect option. Aromatics, to my mind, was a good thing to start from. I took the test drive in the salon and made all the stuff fall in love with the product.

But most importantly, we got lucky because our clients liked it. Those candles were of an eco-friendly segment. Moreover, these were the only candles with their own patented wax ingredients. Seriously, those candles are only made of organic soy wax (used for massage candles and hand creams) and coconut oil. That’s it. Coconut oil gives the candle a softer filling and enhanced the aromas.

To be honest, we came up with one more trick how to sell more ones in the beginning. It turned out that these candles can be used for massage due to their oiliness. I recommended women to use the already melted candle as a hand cream and voila - worked out perfectly!

Why Beauty Industry is a Profitable Niche

TemplateMonster: What do you think of the beauty industry regarding its perceptiveness?

Helen: Beauty industry itself is very profitable. Just look around how many beauty salons have been working for years and how many are about to be opened. The explanation is super simple. Every woman dreams of being beautiful, and this desire used to be and will continue to exist in our minds forever. Thus, there will always be a demand for hair styling services, manicure and pedicure, makeup and much more.

But nothing in business is as easy as it sounds. Before investing money in the beauty industry, cautious entrepreneurs would examine the market to the tiniest detail. They’d read specialized literature, relevant websites and even attend special thematic courses. The preparation process might take you about a year. And, of course, you’ll need a substantial starting capital or else, the preparation stage is likely to be prolonged.

7 Must-Know Things about Beauty Business

The human factor is super important. Even if I know my products perfectly, at the end of the day, I am not the one to sell them - another person does. My task is to provide this person with all the possible information about it to make him/her fall in love with the product so that one conveys this "love" to potential buyers.
Seasonal business. Women want to look beautiful all year round, but there are times when it just gets super busy. I am talking about Christmas & New Year holidays, St. Valentine’s Day, proms and graduation, etc. These days, more women attend a beauty salon and are likely try your product if you offer one.
This market is not easy. You need to be 100% confident in what you sell. Fail with one product - be ready to lose the reputation you’ve been gaining for years.
Tastes are changing. You have to stay trendy. I mean, trendy in everything - from recent beauty industry novelties to current fashion trends.
Staying close with related institutions. This means, keeping in touch with thousands of eco stores, cosmetic brands, fitness studious, spa and beauty centers in your locality.
Continually expanding the range of products. Each of the new products needs to be promoted separately.
Working 24/7, often over time. Beauty salons do work on weekends, sometimes until ten pm or early in the morning to get girls ready for weddings or other important events. The same thing in my niche. Some customers might want to call the customer support at 4 am to ask for the details, and they won’t care.

About Beauty Business Marketing

TemplateMonster: Which promotion methods do you use?

Helen: We take care of how our products are sold in the salons. We train administrators and teach them how they should sell, let it be, our candles. People that are going to sell our products must know them from A to Z so that they can stay confident once a customer gets to ask them questions.

I am into promotion myself. I usually call and make arrangements with the owners of the beauty salons to offer my products. If they already heard about my company or we used to work before, things are even easier - they already trust me. If not, then it’s a matter of my reputation on the market.

TemplateMonster: How do you find clients now?

Helen: I’ve been in this business long enough to build an extensive network of friends, pals, former colleagues and even random connections I was lucky to meet at the public events. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be owners of beauty salons or anything close.

Once, I made friends with a representative of an “elite” fitness club chain. I just brought him candles, told about the necessity of coconut water for people to stay healthier and offered to sell one in their fitness studio. We have been business partners for three years already. There is another example that totally wouldn’t see it coming. I met guys who were doing this luxury car rental service in a company of my friends. We were having that casual conversation about cars, and I accidentally mentioned about my luxury car perfumes. Guys got interested, so what we did was to insert a little version of my scents in cars and wait until someone gets interested in purchasing one.

I mean, for a start, you don’t need a vast circle of connections - one comes with your experience in this beauty industry business. If you are a beginner, opt for elementary promotion strategies. The power of ads and traditional online marketing instruments can help you build a solid brand from scratch without significant investments.

TemplateMonster: So which online marketing tools work the best?

Helen: One cannot tell for sure. It’s just so individual for each niche of the beauty industry. In general, promoting your business today is way easier than ever thanks to the World Wide Web. At the same time, you are dealing with much higher competition and a “fancier” audience. Hopefully, there exists plenty of innovative marketing tools and platforms used to establish and lead businesses successfully. Some are gaining their momentum; some are losing their importance. But classics existed, exist and will exist for long.

Let me tell you about one.

TemplateMonster: So, a website or a landing page?

Helen: As hackneyed as it sounds but your website or a landing page is where it all starts. This is an optimal advertising tool because you are going to kill several birds with one stone. First, this is an online business card, a sort of a storyteller of your brand. But most importantly, it’s a tool to increase your sales.

I am totally for ordering a website from a team of professional web developers instead of finding a cheap freelance Indian coder or trying to create one using free website builders. Both options are so common, but none of them do work.

I chose a budget-friendly option - purchasing a website template created by proficient coders with all its supplemental elements. I wasn’t keen on the idea to spend thousands of dollars on web design studio services, especially at the start, when my budget was super limited.

I discovered TemplateMonster, which was, gosh, exactly seven years ago already. Since then it was the only website developer I’ve been working with so far. I changed several website designs, and currently, I am using Cosmetics Store Responsive MotoCMS E-commerce Template:

Demo | Download | Hosting

Here are more examples of cosmetics shops and beauty salons that I am totally in love with:

Top 5 Beauty Business Website Templates

To my mind, websites make the base for all other forms of Internet marketing aimed to keep promoting the site itself. To those I would refer:

Internet ads
SEO-promotion
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Blogging
Viral Ads
Customers’ testimonials
Promotion via YouTube
Online Live Chats
Callback service
Newsletters
Give your final advice to new entrepreneurs in the beauty business.

Spread the word about your cosmetics/beauty products/salon and let people know why they need you. It’s a woman’s business, so you don’t have to think of something extraordinary. Make a direct offer, tell the benefits, and succeed!

Another important thing is to remember that we are not here to only get high profits from our business but to make our clients beautiful and happy.