Ever wanted to become an Organic Skincare Entrepreneur? In this presentation, we walk you through the 23 steps you need to consider when starting your own natural and organic skincare business. This presentation was given by the Director of Formula Botanica to a sold-out audience at the Professional Beauty Show in London in February 2015. You can also access the videos for each of these 23 steps on our YouTube channel at: http://bit.ly/SkinpreneurTV

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and Organic Skincare Business
Formula Botanica
Organic Cosmetic Science School
www.formulabotanica.com

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Formula Botanica
www.formulabotanica.com
• World’s largest Organic Cosmetic Science School
• 1,000+ students in over 70 countries worldwide
• Our self-study courses are 100% online

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Formula Botanica

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1. Create your skincare
Choose the best option for you:
• Make it yourself – set up a skincare lab at
home / comply with Good Manufacturing
Practice (GMP)
• Outsource production to a lab – they will
set Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs)
• Buy ready-made / white
label skincare – brand it
with your own logo and
designs

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2. Make it AWESOME
• Your skincare products need to STAND OUT
• Set yourself apart by considering:
 A signature ingredient
 A signature formulating technique
 A signature applicator
 A signature packaging design
 A signature name
 A signature brand concept
 Your personal story behind the brand

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3. Upsell & Cross-Sell
Design your skincare range by considering:
• The Upsell – what is your ‘hero’ product?
Which product will you ultimately want
everyone to buy?
• The Cross-Sell – how can you encourage
customers to buy more than one product at
once? Create a cohesive range that will
encourage multiple buys.

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4. Comply with the Law
• If you sell internationally, you must comply
with the laws of the country where you sell.
• We recommend by default complying with the
EU Cosmetics Regulations.
• The basics include:
 Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
 Have your water-based products sent for a
microbial challenge test
 Keep batch records
 INCI labelling

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5. Determine your overall
business goal
What are you trying to achieve in your
business?
• Hobby business? ($)
• Quit your job? Support your family? ($$)
• World domination? ($$$)
Set yourself a realistic
financial target and create
your business to meet that.

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6. Know your Niche
• If you want to stand out, you must target a
niche.
• You cannot be everything to everyone.
• Think of all the different skincare niches, e.g.:
 Male grooming
 Gluten-free
 Halal skincare
 Low carbon footprint
 Mother & Babycare
• Try to be original

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• Figure out exactly who you are selling to
• Know their demographics – age, location,
marital status, family circumstances,
spending habits, etc.
• Know their psychographics – personality,
lifestyle, interests, hobbies, likes, dislikes.
• Which other brands do they like?
• Try to hone down your customer profile to an
exact person so you know who you are
talking to.
7. Know your Customer

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8. Create your Brand
• A brand is more than just packaging and
labelling! A brand is a set of associations and
perceptions that people have about you and
your business.
• What makes your brand unique?
• What is your brand promise and personality?
• What is your brand story?
• What are your brand associations? E.g. font
face, logo, colours, imagery.

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9. Packaging & Labeling
• Your packaging is the first thing your
customer will see.
• How does your packaging / labeling fit with
your brand and your target customer?
• When choosing the packaging, consider:
 Your preservation system – air-tight?
 How you want your customer to use your
skincare product
 Recycling – glass vs. plastic
 Weight – will you be shipping products?

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10. Money!
• You will need upfront investment to start
your own skincare business.
• Consider the following sources:
 Your own savings
 Family and friends
 External investors such as banks,
investment angels, crowd-funding
• Budget properly and make
sure you are prepared for
contingencies

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11. Manufacturing
• Depending on your business goal, you may
wish to outsource manufacturing.
• Consider what you love doing most in your
business – if it’s formulating, then you may
wish to keep this in-house.
• Consider Minimum Order
Quantities (MOQs) with
external labs as these
will be high.

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12. Your Retail Strategy
• Where will you be selling? Where does your
target customer hang out?
• Think about where your brand fits best and
think about the business you’re creating.
Online vs. Offline
Retail vs. Wholesale
Market stall vs. Department store
Health food store vs. Luxury boutique

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13. Pricing
• You’ve got three prices you need to set:
 Your retail price – how much will your
customer pay?
 Your cost price – how much does it cost
you to make each product? (including
materials, labour, packaging, labeling)
 Your wholesale price – how much would
another shop pay you for your product?
(typically this is 50% retail price)

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14. Your Website
• Make your website beautiful and easily
accessible
• Most people navigate away from a site within
a matter of seconds – hold their attention
• Consider the following points:
 How easy is it to find your shop?
 Show your customer who YOU are
 Make sure your website follows your brand
 Have a newsletter subscription box in
prominent places on the site

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15. Generate Web Traffic
• With so many websites in Google, you need
to generate traffic to keep people coming to
your site
• Have a blog and be consistent in how often
you publish on it
• Use your blog posts to provide information
that your target customer wants to read
• Share your blog posts widely to generate
interest and relevant traffic

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16. Social Media
• Great place to have two-way conversation
with your customer
• Choose two social media channels where
your target customer is likely to hang out
• Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to have a
presence on every social media channel
• Be consistent in your updates and speak to
your target customer there
• Use social media to drive more traffic to your
website

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17. Marketing
• Marketing is not selling
• Marketing is about creating the value around
the sale and tapping into your customer’s
‘pain points’ and ‘pleasure points’
• You have an advantage over the
big corporate players because
you can have a conversation
with your customers
• You need a mailing list – regular
email marketing is key

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18. Advertising
• Big corporate cosmetics brands still mainly
advertise in glossy magazines
• As a small player, you can target social
media which is also cost-effective (Facebook
advertising can cost as little as $1/day!)
• Shop around to get discount vouchers
• By using social media, you can target your
customer with their exact demographics and
spending habits.

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19. Media & Bloggers
• It isn’t easy to get picked up by the media, so
need to be clever if you have no PR budget
• Forge relationships with beauty bloggers –
get to know them, talk to them, read their blog
• Follow journalists on social media channels
such as Twitter
• Follow hashtags such as #journorequest
• Sign up for free trials on beauty media
websites where you can connect with
journalists and bloggers

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20. Certification
• If organic certification is right for you, then
choose the right scheme for your brand
• Read their requirements carefully – they will
impact your ingredients, your manufacturing
processes, your packaging, your preservation
strategy and more.
• Will likely be expensive!
• Different types of certification:
organic, natural, vegan, etc.

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21. Your BIG LAUNCH
• Most skincare entrepreneurs make their
biggest mistake by not launching their brand
• Need to make LOTS OF NOISE and TELL
THE WORLD that you’re here. You cannot
expect your customers to find you otherwise.
• Set up a campaign on social media, your
newsletter, your website and your blog.
• Offer some kind of bonus, offer or freebie to
draw people in for the launch and get them
engaging with you and your brand.

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22. Your Career
• You don’t have to limit your career to making
skincare only.
• Think of other ways to supplement your
income, particularly when you are first
starting out:
 Host skincare making workshops in your
community (position yourself as an expert),
 Formulate for others,
 Offer consultancy work, etc.

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23. Be Realistic
• 1 in 2 startup businesses fail in first 3 years
• Most failed entrepreneurs agree that their
single biggest mistake was not finding out
whether there was a demand for their product
• Create a demand before you create a supply
• Don’t make a product for your skin only and
expect everyone else to love it
• Do market research – set up a small testing
group to test your samples
• Do your homework and plan properly

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Find out more about
Formula Botanica, the Organic
Cosmetic Science School
www.formulabotanica.com

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Skincare Entrepreneurs
CLICK HERE
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