Before you decide to start your own beauty brand business, it’s imperative to understand the 5 stages of growth that every beauty brand business goes through and experiences.
As a beauty brand, especially in 2021, there will be trials and challenges as well as successes and triumphs when dipping into niche target markets within the beauty industry. To take your dream and turn it into reality involves understanding business strategies, consumer trends, and taking your product to market in a tactical manner.
The product development process is more than just having an idea and making sure that your customer base enjoys it. The digital transformation that happens from online to physical products usually has sales strategy and a marketing campaign with a pricing strategy that follows the customer experience.
But before even thinking of all the steps that have to happen to get your beauty products to market, beauty companies have to lay a solid foundation in order to be competitive in the global beauty cosmetics business.
Whether you intend to start a color cosmetics makeup line or clean beauty skincare brand, you need to understand the process of what needs to be done in all stages of your businesses growth so you can deal and be prepared with any expected or unexpected occurrences.
To build a brand of integrity and quality, make sure to fully comprehend the stages that you need to go through, so you too can have a successful beauty brand that can live up to what you have dreamed of.
And remember, throughout this process, it’s important to have your feet firmly grounded in reality, so that as you shoot for the moon, you can keep yourself planted to grow strong and stable throughout this journey to build the beauty business you’ve always wanted in 2021 and beyond.
Stage 1: Idea Development and Research
So, you have a sticky idea in mind for creating products for the beauty industry. But it’s not just sticky once in a while. It’s sticky all the time.
You can’t stop thinking about it because it won’t leave your mind. You’re seeing how this can be a dream turned reality.
In this stage, you’re playing with the idea of going forward with starting your own business, which is an exciting, yet scary idea in itself.
But, before you decide on anything going forward, you have to do your research. You have to understand the beauty market forwards and backwards. Taking the time to educate yourself in what a beauty brand consists of needs to be a part of the first step because consumer trends in the beauty industry evolve and change constantly.
In looking at beauty industry growth, Toptal states, “The beauty industry includes both services as well as products such as cosmetics and skincare. According to a study, the industry was worth $532.43 billion in 2017, and is expected to reach a market value of $805.61 billion by 2023.”
Here’s the main question to ask yourself: does your sticky product idea have the potential to be competitive in the current industry landscape against traditional beauty brands to experience financial rewards in?
It’s more than just about having a sticky idea and passion for being an entrepreneur to do your own thing. The beauty business is not for everybody, especially since the cosmetics business is a very saturated market.
But after doing all your research and the sticky idea has started to develop a stickiness that can’t be scrubbed off with any doubts that arise from this research, then you will be ready to tap into the market share for a customer base that is always looking for a personal care or other beauty care product to meet their growing needs.
Many things during this stage can be confusing and overwhelming, especially if you are unaware of how to proceed forward when it comes to the product development process. But, it’s important to not get ahead of yourself even if you want to get your hands on creating the product and brand that has been stirring in your mind for some time.
Take a step back and take your time to do it right, especially if you want to keep doing this for the long term. To build a beauty brand take guts, and it is only going to get more involved as you go through all the stages. So, make sure that this is truly what you want to do.
It’s not going to be easy. But it’s sure as lipstick going to be awesome.
Stage 2: Start-Up and Planning
In this stage, this is where you start to get serious about going forward with your beauty business plan. Therefore, you need to be realistic about how much money you’ll need to get started. These start-up costs may include inventory, office space, equipment, tax costs, cost per product, and average cost for creating, designing, packaging, shipping, and distributing the product.
It’s also necessary to think about the costs for marketing campaigns and displaying your brand on social channels. Have a budget with these things in mind even if you are not starting this part of the process yet.
More than anything, the key is staying grounded from the idea and research stage.
So, as you are putting all these start-up costs together, this is also the stage to put in a business plan. From securing a loan or securing investment capital in order to grow your business, it is essential to have a plan that outlines the direction you are wanting to go. A plan also helps you keep accountable to yourself and any business partners you may have.
Looking into how to finance your business has to be established before going forward as well. Any financial endeavor involves risk, so you have to have a solid business plan to increase your chances for approval.
As inc.com states, “For many entrepreneurs, developing a business plan is the first step in the process of deciding whether to actually start a business. Determining if an idea fails on paper can help a prospective founder avoid wasting time and money on a business with no realistic hope of success.”
As you are in this start-up and planning stage, this is the time to really make sure that your ideas have merit and has a place in the beauty market with credible consumer demand.
Figure out what you need and, in your business plan, include a product development trajectory that allows for the customer to really experience the high quality that your product will offer in future shopping experiences.
This stage is a very involved process that can get complicated and challenging very quickly. Remind yourself constantly at this stage that you do the hard leg work now so that the rest of the process can go smoothly. Build on the front end thoroughly so the back end can result in a complete business with sellable products that continues to have a growth rate that thrives in the industry.
Stage 3: Production and Growth
If you get to Stage 3 without figuring out what you need to do and the plan to do it in the first two stages, the rest of the stages will be a headache. Repeat Stages 2 and 3 as many times as necessary until you’ve established what you need to do for your beauty business and products you intend to launch.
The cosmetic product development process is after you’ve worked out the kinks and other issues during the idea, research, and startup planning stage. That’s why the first two stages must be thoroughly completed without any shortcuts.
This stage is the time to transition to really preparing for creating your “sticky idea” into an actual item that can be held by potential customers. This is also the stage where you get to see things start to manifest into reality. So even as you start out as a small business, you can starting thinking at what needs to be happening in order to grow farther.
As you start to project more inventory and reel in more cash flow from this growth stage, it’s important to keep balanced in what are opportunities and what are pitfalls. That way you can steer your business into maintaining its financial health.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What is profitable in the current market conditions?
- What is your business really good at?
- What is your current loyal customers responding to?
- What concerns are they having?
- What do they want to see more of?
In the end, make sure to stay on top of what customers want from your beauty business because they are the ones driving the revenue up or down.
As you and your team (since you may have a team at this point) assess what is best for the business going forward, make sure to come up with the necessary strategies to balance this growth stage carefully and delicately, so you can start to expand your product lines without crashing and burning.
Stage 4: Establishment and Expansion
This stage is the stage where you get to establish your business and “test the boundaries of what is possible.” After getting each and every marketing campaign handled, this is the time to find ways to increase your business outwards.
Of course, when you are ready to expand, make sure to update your marketing plan and research if this is something your business can do now or tackle later. As this U.S. Small Business Administration article states, “Once you are ready to expand, update the marketing plan and confirm that your business is financially prepared. Then, make sure to comply with all laws, rules, and regulations in the new business locations.”
Now, if you are doing your beauty brand business online (which in the earlier stages has to be established with the appropriate websites, such as Shopify for product development, and setting up what is necessary for your online beauty business), make sure to also check up on the rules and regulations if you choose to expand.
Continue to be a market researcher in your chosen niche during this stage, so that you aren’t blinded by the growth rate of your business and misinterpret this as the time to expand instead of buckling down and reinventing your branding strategy (see Stage 5).
Stage 5: Maturity and Reinvention
The maturity stage is a wonderful stage to seeing things through from all your hard work that all started with a “sticky idea” that wouldn’t leave you. With the appropriate business planning and start-up, you have now reached the success that many entrepreneurs may not see if they did not see their idea through.
Of course, with this maturity calls for reinvention. It doesn’t mean to totally upheave what you’ve created. Keep what made your business established with your loyal customers, but see this as another stage of growth to keep things fun, interesting, and innovative. If you just had the same 2-3 products without taking the time to offer something new, it can get repetitive, stagnant, and—unfortunately—forgetful.
As long as you stick with the core and values of what you started your beauty business with, as you continue to reinvent and make waves in the beauty space, you not only keep things exciting for your returning customer base, but you invite new consumers that may have never found you if not for your courage to keep things fresh and interesting.
Dealing with change whether positive or negative can also be a part of this stage. The negative changes, such as declining sales, debilitating market conditions, or different trends may also call for a new state of maturity and reinvention. Nothing stays the same in business, so having contingency plans involves being willing to start again to keep competitive without necessarily comparing yourself in a detrimental way.
5 Stages of Growth for Your Beauty Brand Business in 2021
The beauty and personal care market has only grown exponentially. This year, in 2021, the market share and growth is estimated $511 billion worldwide. By 2025, this could reach $784.6 billion. This involves cosmetics, skin care, personal care, and even fragrances.
The demand for beauty content in consumer-driven marketing cannot be understated. The potential to really soar in your company with a consistent growth rate doesn’t stop with these 5 stages.
In fact, your business can only keep being successful because you keep going through these 5 stages of growth.
So, if this starting a beauty brand business is really what you are passionate about and you can’t feel fulfilled until you do so, make sure to educate yourself and become aware that this is a continual development and growth process whether you are first starting or you are already established. There’s a lot of experience out there, so consider taking a business course to make sure that as you go through these 5 stages, you have the support to keep going when these stages get tough to carry on.
If you decide to take this entrepreneurial path in life, know that you are not alone. Many aspiring entrepreneurs have also been in your shoes and there will continue to be people who traverse this similar path you are. So, know that once you make this decision that you can get the support you need as you grow as a beauty brand business.