Black Women Ceos On How To Launch A Beauty Or Hair Business | Essence Now

You'Re watching essence: now I'm your host Mullins oval and I have a question for you: have you ever dreamed of being a hair or a beauty entrepreneur, but have no idea how to take it to the next level or even how to get started? Well, our guests. Today have carved a lane for themselves to create beauty and hair empires and they're here to answer all your questions about how you can do the same, please welcome CEO and creator of Coco teak, dana hill, CEO of lashed and hooked Tiffany, Gatlin and CEO and founder Of the main choice, Courtney Idol, a yay, welcome everyone know for those that are unfamiliar with your brand's. Please tell us a little bit about your companies, Courtney. We can start with you. We are a healthy hair growth company. Basically, we specialize in products and fixing any hair issue that the woman may have from hydration to moisture loss by fusing all of our products with vitamins and nutrients lovely okay. So I am the CEO of lashes hook. Beauty and lasting hooks is a black woman owned and operated brand that prevents women from hot water burns, while protective hair styling and we have our hair - is chemical, free, it's synthetic and it's so easy to use. So, yes, very beautiful and Dana. I am the founder and CEO of Coco teak and we are a beauty bot subscription company for women of color and each month we ship six to eight products of haircare, skincare makeup fragrance all geared towards women of color. We find the best in beauty for our subscribers. Mmm sounds exciting. Okay. Now we have questions from my viewers who want to know all about how to get their beauty and pie started. Now. Here'S the first one from Facebook, Jeanette little-ass, hmm, this is going. How do I even begin? Whoo, okay, take it over to you to Courtney. How do you even start in this business? I would definitely say, like anything else you just have to dive in. I think sometimes we over planned things and that can kind of cause a delay or setback, but I would definitely say dive in you know, get your name started. Get your website up, get your business cards once you do. That becomes real to you and you will put more work in so I would definitely stay just get started and dive in. Do your research know your consumer, it always makes things much easier and just get started. Alright, so Dana you have one of the few black beauty box companies. How did you go from your dream to the initial idea? How did that go down for you a lot of research? I think when you're starting a business, you have to know your market. You have to be prepared, especially with a beauty box, subscription, there's so much behind it in terms of the technology behind it. You have to find the right fulfillment partner and also building relationships with beauty brands to get the products in the box. So I maybe about a year and a year and a half went into the actual planning before I actually began to build the website, and then it was another eight months before the asite actually launched and also prior to that prior to the launch. I started social media just to start building the buzz and I think, that's a great way to kind of sort of build a foundation and that helped us to get the attention of some big beauty companies even before the brand launched. So I definitely say: invest in that time in building that foundation, hmm, okay, we have another viewer question and J Lee asked on Facebook. Where can I find a good cosmetic chemist to work with Tiffany I'll? Take it over to you, so I would start with platforms. There are there's a platform called unbox comm and you can go on and you can find different freelancers that can actually help you depending on what it is that you're looking for, and they also give you wreaths. So if you're, looking for a virtual assistant and in this viewers case she's looking for a chemist, she can find a whole lot of professionals who are ready for hire. So a quick google search. That'S a quick! Google can really help you to uncover finding a professional mmm Courtney. Did you have any? Do you have any advice for a viewer who's looking to find a good chemist in there? I would definitely say in the beauty industry. There is a network, it's caught the Cosmoprof and they handle basically anything beauty. So you have unlimited resources for anything that you're looking for in the beauty industry. So definitely you can find that online. You can see you know when it's coming to your country, because there are different international ones and they have a wealth of information there. So research, Google, is your friend right. Good luck with that now. The next question is from Danielle Pierre and she says: save on money on overhead. Could kiosk or vending machines be an option? Tiffany we'll start with you. Do you think that would be a good option for someone who wants to get started? I think that for someone who was looking to do a kiosk in a vending machine option could be relatively expensive. You definitely want to know if your product fits that type of device. What I would suggest, however, is may be looking into drop shipping, because, if you're concerned about overhead, then you don't actually have to keep the product in-house yeah, you can actually drop ship from a manufacturer or you can drop ship for maybe individual who makes goods like Small goods in-house so drop shipping essentially is just getting the product directly from the fulfillment center. It'S our consumer, exactly yeah, so that's an option as well. Okay, so Dana for someone who might want to do a beauty box like business. Do you think a kiosk would be a good idea? Well, if it, if it wasn't a subscription business, and maybe it could be in an airport when you're looking you're traveling and you may have forgotten certain travel size products, you know, maybe you might have a collection of products that would work well for people traveling or You know - maybe you know in a nightclub - and you you know, need to refresh your makeup and you forgotten your makeup. Maybe something like that like a little sachet in a club, but for my particular business is which is a subscription business. It wouldn't be the right business model, so we're giving away good tip. So I'm just hype a bit: yes, okay, so creamy. If we're talking about you know a kiosk versus the storefront, do you have a storefront and you're? But in the case of your business I don't and my advice you'll definitely be to invest in your dot-com platform. So start with that. Oh, yes - and I think you know even with us, we're in over 20,000 stores, but I still put just as much effort in my website as I did day one. I think that's the area where you can win a hundred percent, but I don't, I think sometimes people take it for granted and don't invest as much as they should in the platform, because nothing should supersede your website mmm. So website is key. Those key all right. So the next question is from Shante Smith and she says how can I get good product, packaging, jars and labels? Courtney, any tips for this once again the Cosmo front, so it's actually a place where they come to Las Vegas here and it's like four or five football fields or like two or three or something like that. But they have products to packaging, to people and just any service that you need. So I found it like a couple years into you know my business but they're definitely a good resource. It'S an investment to go, but it's well worth it yeah Dana. Do you have tips for good jars and labels that you can find? I agree. Yeah there's also I'm a couple of other beauty Expos as well, similar to Cosmo Prof, there's some here in New York. I can't think of the name but they're at Jack, Jacob Javits and the same thing. You can find resources for bottles and all types of packaging for beauty products yeah. I love how honest you know we're being. Let'S talk about some of the challenges right, like the general challenges that you had starting out in your business or even where you are and how you overcame them. I mean I'll start with you to me sure. What can you share with this? I think, like any business owner cash is important everything around, and so you know, I think we tend to focus on the profit. But for me it's more the cash flow and making sure that that I have the cash flow to purchase new inventory, to discover new products into presenting products to the consumer to be able to pay my employees or contractors that I work with. And if you don't have a healthy cash flow going through your business, it's gon na be nearly impossible to continue to keep your business running Ryan, keep it fluid, so being a newer business. I'M like the to the ladies. Yes um. You know. That is what I am most focusing on, is just keeping my business financially healthy, yeah and making sure that you know that I have a healthy cash flow and it could be difficult. It can be, especially when you're beginning in the growing stages - that's great. So when you're first starting out, though you want to make sure that the cash flow is flowing through, but what about like at the very beginning stages - and you need money to set aside, how much would you recommend - and I can throw it over to you - Cortney - How many carnies I mean, I got an example say that because the main choice started out as a hobby, so I really didn't know, and that was kind of one of my responses to the question when you say one of the challenges. So sometimes you have to start things with the end in mind, and so for me it was a hobby that I'm like okay I'll turn this into a company. So I had no idea it was gon na grow as fast as it did so then I had to go back and rebuild my infrastructure, because at that point my main concern was okay. I have to order it. Let me get this to this consumer. So anything else was like secondary, so putting a system in place and all those good things like I actually had to go back and rebuild. So you just never know you just have to stay ready. So in me you think is a. This is a hobby. This is something I'm just trying out, but you know you have to start it with the end in mind because it couldn't just take off you know even but for a casting. You can still find yourself in a predicament where your business just takes off much faster than you anticipate. Yes, so we're okay today yeah, so we've been going about like 300 percent every year. So in his heart you know just jumping in - and you know just keeping up with that, but you know definitely kind of think about the end when you get started as right. So Dana as person who has a beauty box subscription business relationships are everything? Oh yes, how do you build those relationships with those different vendors that you work with, because it's different every single month right every month you have one can find them and two? How do you build those relationships with them? We'Re going to Beauty trade shows such as Cosmoprof. I also go to a show called EC RM and I reach out our cold call brands and I just love, I'm a beauty, product fanatic and I'm also always researching new brands. So it's just about networking and getting out there and you know just doing the work. Yeah so again, I think trade shows with in terms of finding brands finding packaging. That'S the place. That'S the beauty, Mecca. I'D get all at my beauty Mecca here, three black women in the beauty business. Do you find that there are a lot of african-american women in the business that you work with, or is it a very small kind of industry that you're in it's really it's really small? It looks big from the outside, but it's really small. You know you can even go to offer me free talking from a retail standpoint. You can go to like a retail store, look on the shelf and maybe count for five max or sometimes success really depends on when you are black female owned products. That'S there. So just I think, just even overall, you know when you look at the average, I will still say is super small cuz. Even when you walk into those Beauty, Supply stores, you don't see a lot of us in there again, they're, mostly owned by oh, no different, races and ethnicities and that's still a problem. That'S still a hindrance in our industry right in the beauty and absolutely - and I think that's one of the reasons why I created my brand is because I didn't feel when I walked into the beauty supply stores that they were educated about the products that I needed. They didn't staff employees that could help me with the questions that I needed and a lot of the products weren't geared towards my specific problem areas, and so luckily we do have a great you know, even though it might be small. We do have a great representation of black women and black men that we have right who have created products for us. How do you find mentors, though, right because it's important to find people to look up to that? Can kind of guide you through the process yeah? How did you do it Tiffany you know so mentorship is very for me. Is it's it's very sensitive because it's a two-way street and you have to make sure that when you are seeking a mentor that there's something to be gained from both sides, my mentor at the moment is Lisa price. A little company called care and when I started Weston Hook, she was one of the first people that I actually contacted and she spoke to me in great length about starting the business, because this was my second beauty business that I was starting and just how to Be able to you know, be positive in the industry how to really find out what the. Why was as far as why I was starting the company so that I can make sure that I had a story for my consumer and that I would that there was a purpose for my brand, and so obviously you know Lisa price may not be everybody's. You know reach at level of reach, but just finding someone who already has kind of a foot in the particular area that you're trying that you know that special niche that you're trying to make appearance - and you can offer this and make sure that it's make sure That you can offer them something because their time, it's very valuable, very yeah, the term. Can I pick your brain you're like wait. I have things to do all right, so we're gon na end with, like just final words, if invitees Cortney I'll start with you, what words of advice you have, I would definitely say you know, take a step back, sometimes do your research and give it the best That you have sometimes, if you don't execute right the first time it can hinder you. So if you have to take a step back and say hey, I really need to get this right. It needs to be presentable, don't rush it, because sometimes you only get that one shot and you know for us again just creating one product, but I put my all into it. I make sure that the packaging was right. I made sure that it looked professional. I got a call from essence and said: I wanted to feature your product and when I did not have the resources to run an ad, but if I was not ready, I would not have obtained the opportunity so just stay ready. They roll your homework. Do all your research day, 70, I'm gon na, go back to the whole wide thing if you're a rising entrepreneur, I would go back to why you're creating that product. From my experience, I don't feel that consumers purchase what you offer they purchase. Why you offering it so go back to the heart of why you're starting that product, because there may be a lot of other brands that are offering the same thing and the difference could be between why you actually started that product and how it's actually going to Help the consumer, that's such a great point, the why all right, Dana I'll, let you have the last word on and, I would say, be resilient you're going to have your good days and you're going to have your bad days and you have to have the strength To get through that, those humps putting God first first and having faith, is what keeps me going and just if just maintaining that and having that resilience will take you far yeah. That doesn't happen overnight, because y'all look glamorous in great companies. Yes, I was up until 3 o'clock last night because I had an issue going on technical issue and I had to address it and and that's another thing I think people think you know having your own business, that it's so easy, but it's 24 hours. It'S not like you're 9 to 5, or you can just leave it at night and go home when I'm on bake on vacation. When I can get one I'm working on the weekends I'm working and it's non stop non that I love yeah.