Starting a cosmetics brand [EXECUTION]

[alexkuzmov]

I`ve been thinking about creating this thread for awhile now, but just couldnt get around to doing it.
Long story short I`ve had a hobby making cosmetics since 2018. Lip balm, face oils, lotions, creams, stuff like that.
Initially it started because my spouse couldnt find a proper lip balm so I decided to research how to make them and what ingredients to use to make them really high quality.
Fast forward to october 2022 and I might have the beginigns of a business on my hands.

In the following posts I`ll extract information from another execution thread in the INSIDERS forum. Said thread was about my e-commerce SaaS business and trying to sell subscriptions for it. One of the ways I tried selling subscriptions was going to bazar events in my country to meet people and offer them my e-commerce services.
On the bazaar events I was selling the cosmetics products I was making.
So sort of like two birds with one stone thing.

Time to set some goals.

1. Find a contract a producer of cosmetics.
I`ve already found some, but still no one I can do work with.
Initially I thought I can rent a small space, cover the law requirments and start making it myself, but since I`m in eastern Europe, the upfront cost for rent, certificates, labor, ingridients and so on is so HIGH that I cant justify the cost of making it myself at this point.
Infact in my country Bulgaria, the laws are so hostile to small businesses most cosmetics production is done by 3rd party companies, who make stuff for dozens of brands.

2. Improve my inbound and other marketing strategies.
With a mix of FB groups for homemade products, SEO articles and posts on forums I plan to spread the word for these new products at no cost.
Another way (which I`ve had some success with already) is for my spouse to go around different hairdress and nail salons and just talk to the stylists, who are typically the owners, and leave my products in there for them to sell. ATM we got 2 salons on board selling lip balms.

3. Improve my online presence.
While I`ve been somewhat active, doing posts here and there on my FB group and instagram I see a lot of potential that I can tap into.
I need a plan, what posts to make (seems like having a girl/woman in the photo makes a huge difference) and then set a schdeule for X amount of posts on Y amount of topics/products per month.

4. Do at least 1 bazar event per month.
The next is this december 2022, but I want to do at least one per month, since sales on events are easy, lucrative and fun.
You get to meet new people, network, get random gifts from other people and so on.
Its a great way to get exposure and get direct feedback on what you are doing.

5. Improve the quality of the product info and photos.
This is easy enough. My website and FB page just needs an upgrade for which I can contract a photographer.

6. Ads, Instagram and other social selling channels
I was on a conference earlier this month and I met a company which have an awesome service.
They track down and contract social influencers which then get added to their platform.
As an advertiser of products you have a list of influencers which will make posts about your product if you send it to them for free.
Its easy to use, you create campaigns, send your product, they make a post and thats it, easy ads which reach tens of thousands of people.
This however is reserved for when I have production figured out.

-------------------------------------------
Since I already have a positive response from the market, my goal is to have fully fledged business by the end of january 2023.
Meaning that I must be at point 6 around that time and point 4 has to be figured out.

Now in the next posts I`ll details the journey so far starting from october 2021.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

Oct 2021

I bought some home decor stuff and toghether with my spouse we created really fun pictures to upload:

I asked some of the people who had bought from me before to share a story or something.
Not sure if this will lead me somewhere, but I wouldnt mind producing homemade comsetics for a living.
I`m a bit worried to show pictures and sell lip balm since the product is not legal yet, but the first fine is from 100-1000USD, I can risk that.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Oct 2021

Got in contact with a designer for the homemade cosmetics and ordered more stickers and a brochure.

So I'm starting to prepare for a wider marketing attempt.
I already got the Instagram and am working on a small website with a landing page.
This will be the online setup for now.

Got in contact with the local town administration for the upcoming December bazaars.

So each year in Plovdiv we have a few weeks of street bazaars prior to Christmas.
I want to rent a booth for a couple of days and see if I can validate the cosmetics idea further.
This is where the brochures and the stickers come in.
I plan to do giveaways in exchange for a social media picture share.
Interested people will share a picture of themselves holding the lip balm and the brochure on their own social media (FB or instagram or whichever) with a link and maybe some text.
In exchange, they get a free lip balm of their choice.
I think this will give me a massive social media exposure for very little money and time.
Bonus: I avoid any problems with selling the lip balm, because I'll be giving it away.
Think of it as a natural trade, social share for lip balm, no money exchanged.

Got in contact with a manufacturer of cosmetics in Karlovo.

So after 2 meetings with 2 separate lawyers, I managed to obtain contacts of a company which makes cosmetics to order.
I have a meeting with them literally tomorrow, I hope it goes well.
We talked on the phone, and they offer everything I want for now.
I need to pay a few grand to legalize the recipe, then I just give them the recipe and they`ll produce the lip balm in bulk, ready for selling.
It's too expensive to set up my own facility still, but not that expensive.
I'll look into making my own production in the future if this idea takes off any further.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Nov 2021

Had the meeting with the manufacturer of cosmetics

The meeting went really well, they have really good conditions for production and I`ll be able to keep my margin by lowering the cost of production.
They also gave me a few pointers and knowhow about lip balm production.
To get an offer I sent them the recipe for 2kg of raw product.
The minimum order is 2kg per aroma, which comes out to 8kg or around 2k individual lip balms.
The good news is that I can file all the paperwork, lab tests, EU registry stuff and more, prior to production.
They can have all the documentation (recipe) on stand by and I`ll be able to make orders on demand.
I think its time to step up marketing here, and do something prior to the christmas bazaars.
Unlike last failed attempts, I plan to sell some product before I have it produced, so I that I can know if I have a market for it or not.
But what to do exactly?
I`m not sure how to go about it.
Maybe just go around town and offer people on the street to try for free in exchange of a social media share?
Or setup some landing page alongside the instagram, and try and get some traffic to it?
I need to come up with and do something.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

Nov 2021

Marketing my cosmetics products

I got all of the brochure and sticker designs ready.
Tomorrow I`m going to a print shop to get a quote and explain what sizes I need.
I still dont have an offer from the manufacturer, but that doesnt bother me for now.
I asked friends for a few social media shares, and sold a few more lip balms.
Again the response was good which I`m happy about, hopefully I`m still under the radar. I dont want to get noticed by the local IRS.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Dec 2021

This has been very exciting and I`m really enjoying my time creating a sort of business.
I`ve created the social media stuff like Instagram, FB page and a website catalog.
On the 22-23 we`ll be on a street bazar with our own booth, giving out free samples of lip balm in exchange for social media post shares.
The idea is to get another echo from the market.
I got a good feeling about this.
With my latest recipies the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, the design of the products and the brochures is really nice.
I wish I could make better photos, but I`m still not good at that
If someone is interested [link to the website - removed since I`m not sure I can share it here]
Its in Bulgarian I know, but just wanted to share

 

[alexkuzmov]

Dec 2021

Christmas Bazaar event

I particapated in a winter bazar organized in my city. It was a very strange and fun experience.
We were together with my spouse selling lip balm for 2 days
We actually managed to, get this, sell over 80 sticks and give away around ~120 for social media shares and follows, which was my original plan for the event.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

Feb 2022

St. Valentines day bazar

So quick update on things.
I`m currently in the middle of the second bazar event, on which I`m selling my cosmetics to customers of the bazar and my SaaS to other sellers

Its a pretty fun experience so far:



I`m "stealing" knowledge from other sellers as well, just observing their technique, their mannerisms, their gestures, the words they use etc.
And yes, if you`ve wondered, most of them are in charecter, and when we talk when there are no clients around, they switch to their real personalty.
Its almost like a carnival

 

[alexkuzmov]

Jun 2021

Easter bazar event

Now by this point I hadnt really put anything in writting about what the progress was from Feb to Jun, so I`ll do it from memory.
I`ve been in contact with 3 more producers since the first one didnt really workout.
A mix of communication difficulty, delays in samples and low quality is what made me move on from them.
Sadly the story was pretty much the same with 2 of the others.

The third one showed promise, had good quality and easy communication, but in order to work with them, the were alcking 2 crucial ingridients in their storage.
Ingridients for which I had to find manufacturers for, which I did. However, the essentials oils I use are very expensive and they didnt want to make one of the products without me buying essential oils in bulk. Buying essentials oils in bulk is VERY expensive. Something like 1 liter of jasmin can go up to 10k USD and 1 liter Bulgarian rose oil can go up to 35-40k USD. Its not justified for me to spend this much at this stage.
Basically I`m still trying to find a producer which I can work with.

On the events side things went really well.
A friend of mine makes soaps, so I asked her if she wanted to sell her soaps along side my cosmetics and she agreed and made some for me, which resulted in a really well looking booth:



Before this event I really made an effort to upgrade my booth.
I had a nice cover made, wooden logo, upgraded the decoer.
Also I added new products, sort of creams for the hands and face, I made another 2 aromas, new stickers and design.
And the back is covered with a fake plants so it looks nice.
I was really proud of the booth and it made a big difference in interest.

I made a lot of contacts during this event, met with people who make products stands from wood and other cool decor stuff. I go contacts for product photographers.

Finally, prior to the event, I upgraded the website, instagram and social media, added more products, new logo, better photos for the products and posted articles for the ingredients I use.

Some more photos

 

[alexkuzmov]

Jul 2021

So this was a random event, but I really enjoyed it.
It was part of a larger series of events which are organized on cities across Bulgaria called "Hello Health"



We were literally in the woods
The crowd was a bit different, a lot of young people and "alternative" people.
Overall it was very nice, and there were stages all around me for perfromers.
From yoga to to boxing to singers and laugh therapy(laugh "therapy" is hella creepy)

I got a lot of work done while selling cosmetics



Here is a video to get an idea

View attachment 20220604_180044.mp4

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Stargazer]

Because you wrote how much Bulgarian Rose oil costs, and the fact I would not associate Bulgaria with roses, I just googled Roses in Bulgaria and find that you are one of the top countries in the world for rose oil.

In fact there is a region called The Rose Valley.

Which is a great name for a company and has an inbuilt story that is great too.

Just a thought for you if you plan on selling to UK and US. I know UK women like this sort of story.

Dan

 

[alexkuzmov]

Oct 2022

Direct selling and bazaar events

Without much effort, and a LOT of fun, I keep selling cosmetic products on bazaar events, I`ve met so many people from so many different branches of business, its incredible.
None(ish) show interest in the SaaS business, but plenty showed interest in the cosmetics AND I got an actual offer to sell my stuff in a store, however I still dont have the proper documentation for the products.

This was the last event I did, with furhter upgrades to the booth, now with a proper wooden stand, more aromas and somewhat the same decor.
This was the best even so far in terms of profits AND networking.

 

[alexkuzmov]

Because you wrote how much Bulgarian Rose oil costs, and the fact I would not associate Bulgaria with roses, I just googled Roses in Bulgaria and find that you are one of the top countries in the world for rose oil.

In fact there is a region called The Rose Valley.

Which is a great name for a company and has an inbuilt story that is great too.

Just a thought for you if you plan on selling to UK and US. I know UK women like this sort of story.

Dan

Roses are everywhere here, you can find them along the roads, in gardens, as decoration, hanging from a balcony, they really like the climate here I supose.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Stargazer]

I always associated them with Turkey (as in originating from that region which makes sense that Bulgaria would have them too) and England (although obviously they never originated here but since Tudor times it's Englands national flower) We love roses in our gardens.

If you want to sell, a good backstory helps and your country has one that I bet almost everyone in the West doesn't know.

That's what I was thinking when I just found out Rose Valley is a region in Bulgaria. Selling Bulgarian cosmetics to a UK audience would be hard but not when there is a name and logical reason that happens to be romantic behind the brand. If you see what I mean.

Dan

 

[TinyOldLady]

@alexkuzmov your product is very pretty. Congratulation on making sales. Do you make many sales from your website or is it only offline events? And did you make a contract with the shop owner, who wanted to sell your product?

(I have made lip balm for personal use for years and will never go back to drug store products. I still experiment sometimes with ingredients. At the beginning I used jojoba oil as one of the oily ingredients, but recently found out, you should not ingest jojoba oil (???). I also tried shea butter, but the texture is horrible.)

 

[alexkuzmov]

@alexkuzmov your product is very pretty. Congratulation on making sales.

Thank you!

Do you make many sales from your website or is it only offline events?

I dont sell them from the website yet, its just a catalogue for now (not legal in my country to do so yet).
I sell on offline events, in the hairdress/nail salons and a few people, who have bought from bazar events, write me an email now and then since they like the lip balm and want me to send them another one.

And did you make a contract with the shop owner, who wanted to sell your product?

I did, they want to buy in bulk and it turns out they have a few stores where they can sell it in.

(I have made lip balm for personal use for years and will never go back to drug store products. I still experiment sometimes with ingredients. At the beginning I used jojoba oil as one of the oily ingredients, but recently found out, you should not ingest jojoba oil (???). I also tried shea butter, but the texture is horrible.)

Swtich from jojoba to Argan oil, and the texture of shea butter is pretty bad indeed, but there are a few ways to overcome it if you are going to be using it.
You can either use refined shea butter, which snow white in color and very smooth OR you can heat the shea butter for over an hour on a water bath to break the crystals.
However after pouring into the molds you need to cool it down very quickly, like in a freezer or a very cold fridge.
That will preserve the new crystal structure for longer and keep the butter smooth and with a nice texture.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TinyOldLady]

Thank you!

I dont sell them from the website yet, its just a catalogue for now (not legal in my country to do so yet).
I sell on offline events, in the hairdress/nail salons and a few people, who have bought from bazar events, write me an email now and then since they like the lip balm and want me to send them another one.

I did, they want to buy in bulk and it turns out they have a few stores where they can sell it in.


Swtich from jojoba to Argan oil, and the texture of shea butter is pretty bad indeed, but there are a few ways to overcome it if you are going to be using it.
You can either use refined shea butter, which snow white in color and very smooth OR you can heat the shea butter for over an hour on a water bath to break the crystals.
However after pouring into the molds you need to cool it down very quickly, like in a freezer or a very cold fridge.
That will preserve the new crystal structure for longer and keep the butter smooth and with a nice texture.

Thank you for your reply. It sounds good, that your customers return for more.

Yes, thank you for the suggestion. I‘ll try argan oil. I use cocoa butter and coconut oil. I tried this rapid cooling of shea butter, so the balm is actually smooth, but it feels kind of plasticky. I gave up on using shea butter.

Do you also offer unscented balms? You can save the expensive oil and brand the balm as „sensitive“ . Some people do indeed react sensitively to scents.

 

[alexkuzmov]

A little update on things:

1. Finding a contract a producer of cosmetics.
3 producers contacted, no results still
One ghosted me, another offered too high of a price and the 3rd one I`m still talking.

I got an offer, dont get me wrong but the cost per unit is just too high, and that has been the theme with producers mostly, those who I get an offer from anyway.

I sell the lip balm for 5 BGN in Bulgaria (which is 2.5 USD I think) and the offer is 4.5 BGN without the balm container.
So even for wholesale its more than the price I sell for.
I can probably sell it for a higher price in the west, but how??

2. Bazaar events, 1 per motnh.

Well I already got 2 lined up for december and february next year, so thats good.

 

[alexkuzmov]

So I got some progress on things, wanted to share and get advice (if anyone is reading this lol)

1. Finding a contract a producer of cosmetics.

So I`m still in contact with the only producer that gave me an offer and we negotiated a few things.
The offer for 4.5 BGN per unit lip balm still stands, but that will be for their minimum count of 1000 units per recipy.
If I move onto the next tier 5000 units per recipy, they said that I can get a 20-30% discount from the price.
And the price includes everything, production, pouring and batch control, quality control, branding, shipping to me etc.

Lets say that I get the min discount 20%, that`ll make the unit cost go down to 3,6 BGN (without the balm container).
If I add in the balm container, about 0.7 BGN I get a final production price of 4,3 BGN per unit, which gives me 0,7 BGN profit margin per unit. Or, 14% profit margin. I dont know if thats good or not, but its fine for a start.

Another thing is that they can register the products, make them lawful, without production, so they can be on standby basically, until I have enough funds.
As it stands, the leap of zeros here will be A LOT, which I cannot afford right now.

As an alternative, they offer their own products (oils, creams and stuff like that) which they can rebrand.
This is good since I can have a larger product range, without having to think of recipies.
The good news here is that I can order much lower quantities, like 300-500 units of their recipiec with my brand.

So what I`m thinking is, pay for design for labels, order some of their products (which I have to pay for registering in my brands` name) and start selling those from my online store and my currently small audience in Facebook, Instagram and maybe through influencers.
Get the ball rolling sort of speak.
The goal would be pull enough money from the bazzar events and selling their products so I can do an order for mine.

This may not be the best plan, but its the one I got right now.

5. Improve the quality of the product info and photos.

I had two options here, so I explored both.
I could`ve either paid for product photos, or learn how to do it myself and buy some equipment.

Decided on the second option and I`m starting a photographer course on the 3rd of december.
I think that this will pay dividends in the future, even though the upfront cost is higher and it`ll cost time.
But you know what, I`d rather add one more skill to my arsenal right now than pay for someone else to do it.
The obstacle is the way, anyone?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

PS. I can probably sell it for a higher price in the west, but how??
Anyone know?

 

[alexkuzmov]

1. Finding a contract a producer of cosmetics.

Well, monday is here, I`ve ordered cosmetic samples from the producer and I`ve sent them some of my own ingredients along with recipies to see what is their production quality. Figners crossed!

5. Improve the quality of the product info and photos.

First day of the course down saturday.
It was about 4 hours and it was almost all theory but very interesting.
I finnaly understood what a mirrorless camera is.
The teacher also showed us how the cameras have evolved to what we have today (he has a very extensive collection) while explaining each part of the camera, when aproximently it came into being and what benefit it brought.
Anyway, I got homewrok to do

 

[alexkuzmov]

Soo christmas event has started!


I`ll share more and much better pictures.
With my increase in skills with cameras from the photographer course and with this bad boy coming on wednesday: Sony A6100 Review | Camera Decision I`ll be having lots of fun

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

P.S. Samples from the producer are coming tomorrow!!

 

[Hanabi]

So I got some progress on things, wanted to share and get advice (if anyone is reading this lol)

1. Finding a contract a producer of cosmetics.

So I`m still in contact with the only producer that gave me an offer and we negotiated a few things.
The offer for 4.5 BGN per unit lip balm still stands, but that will be for their minimum count of 1000 units per recipy.
If I move onto the next tier 5000 units per recipy, they said that I can get a 20-30% discount from the price.
And the price includes everything, production, pouring and batch control, quality control, branding, shipping to me etc.

Lets say that I get the min discount 20%, that`ll make the unit cost go down to 3,6 BGN (without the balm container).
If I add in the balm container, about 0.7 BGN I get a final production price of 4,3 BGN per unit, which gives me 0,7 BGN profit margin per unit. Or, 14% profit margin. I dont know if thats good or not, but its fine for a start.

Another thing is that they can register the products, make them lawful, without production, so they can be on standby basically, until I have enough funds.
As it stands, the leap of zeros here will be A LOT, which I cannot afford right now.

As an alternative, they offer their own products (oils, creams and stuff like that) which they can rebrand.
This is good since I can have a larger product range, without having to think of recipies.
The good news here is that I can order much lower quantities, like 300-500 units of their recipiec with my brand.

So what I`m thinking is, pay for design for labels, order some of their products (which I have to pay for registering in my brands` name) and start selling those from my online store and my currently small audience in Facebook, Instagram and maybe through influencers.
Get the ball rolling sort of speak.
The goal would be pull enough money from the bazzar events and selling their products so I can do an order for mine.

This may not be the best plan, but its the one I got right now.

5. Improve the quality of the product info and photos.

I had two options here, so I explored both.
I could`ve either paid for product photos, or learn how to do it myself and buy some equipment.

Decided on the second option and I`m starting a photographer course on the 3rd of december.
I think that this will pay dividends in the future, even though the upfront cost is higher and it`ll cost time.
But you know what, I`d rather add one more skill to my arsenal right now than pay for someone else to do it.
The obstacle is the way, anyone?

I don't think your profit margin is good. The cosmetics industry on average has a 60% profit margin and goes even upwards. For lip balms, the gross profit margins are around 40%. I would personally aim higher.

PS. I can probably sell it for a higher price in the west, but how??
Anyone know?

Where in the west? America? Before focusing on selling in the west, I would focus on fixing the profit margins and also meeting EU regulations for safety testing and everything related to meeting EU regulations. Many small cosmetic brands mess up with meeting regulation requirements. It'll be a headache to receive fines, so I think you should focus on doing things the right way the first time to save you from getting in trouble. The EU is much more strict for regulating cosmetics than the American FDA. If you get everything squared away regarding regulations in the EU, you'll have an easier time expanding globally.

 

[alexkuzmov]

I don't think your profit margin is good. The cosmetics industry on average has a 60% profit margin and goes even upwards. For lip balms, the gross profit margins are around 40%. I would personally aim higher.

I should have said that the price and margin I've stated are for Bulgarian Rose aroma, which is my best seller, but the most expensive to make.
The other aromas have much higher margins, around 30%, but I always use the worst case scenario to plan.
I can probably get away with increasing the price on the BG rose aroma, people tend to pay premium for it anyway.

Where in the west? America? Before focusing on selling in the west, I would focus on fixing the profit margins and also meeting EU regulations for safety testing and everything related to meeting EU regulations. Many small cosmetic brands mess up with meeting regulation requirements. It'll be a headache to receive fines, so I think you should focus on doing things the right way the first time to save you from getting in trouble. The EU is much more strict for regulating cosmetics than the American FDA. If you get everything squared away regarding regulations in the EU, you'll have an easier time expanding globally.

West as in west Europe, US and Canada.

However I dont agree that the focus should be on regulations and requirements.
The focus should always be on selling the product, getting feedback from clients and adjusting.
The fines are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
I've made the mistake before of starting a business from the regulations side and making it lawful. You know what happens? You invest a large sum and a lot of time to later find out that the business is shit and the market doesnt want it.
Always start with selling and the client need. Selling fixes every problem, even fines.

That being said, the law side of things is why I've only considered working with producers who can handle the product documentation and regulations for me, its not a concern, just a nuisance.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[alexkuzmov]

Dec 2022

Another bazar event in history.
I hope the images give you a good feel of the atmosphere!

 

[alexkuzmov]

And the rest of them:

 

[alexkuzmov]

All and all it was a great success.
Not just the event, but the sales as well.
This has been the most profitable event I`ve had so far.

So how is the business side looking?

1. Finding a contract a producer of cosmetics.

I got my samples, they were a bit softer than I expected, so I had to tweak the formula, but otherswise its exactly what I`m looking for.
I`ve decided to move ahead with the producer that sent me the samples so I`ve sent them all my recipies with the tweaks.
I`ve got a company prepared and everything and they are busy with making the product documentation.
Each recipy costs about 460 USD for the documentation.
I`ve decided to do a mix, my best sellers + some of their products rebranded for me.
Which means that I`ll have some work to do with a designer to prepare labels while the producer is preparing the documentation.

2. Improve my inbound and other marketing strategies.

I`ve started my own PBN, after a long proccess of thinking what is the best approach.
I`m doing a mix of 3 sites which break down what I currently now about: aromas, oils and handmade stuff.
I plan to monetize the sites at some point to, just revenue from everywhere.

Long story short I`m using social media sites and their algorithms to find my audience and what they are interested in, what question are they asking + AI to speed my copywritting.
The AI thing so far is proving cumbersome rather than helpful, I might drop it, but we`ll see.
The issue is that when you write something you need to fact check. Having real experience now with aromas and mixing essentials oils, I can tell you that a lot of whats written online is pure speculation from people that have never touched and/or mixed essential oils in the lives.
Does the AI know this? Nope.

4. Do at least 1 bazar event per month.

This is a lot more difficult than I thought.
Although I got an event for February, January I cant fill.
All of the events want documents which I dont have yet, but will soon.

5. Improve the quality of the product info and photos.

I`ve progressed very rapidly here with the course and having my own camera.
Say hello to the ultra budget photo studio Kuzmov


About 600 watts of lighting, and a sheet for difusion.
I got some pretty good results, but come the weekend I`ll be doing a full photo shoot with decor and everything.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[xxx22]

I`ve been thinking about creating this thread for awhile now, but just couldnt get around to doing it.
Long story short I`ve had a hobby making cosmetics since 2018. Lip balm, face oils, lotions, creams, stuff like that.
Initially it started because my spouse couldnt find a proper lip balm so I decided to research how to make them and what ingredients to use to make them really high quality.
Fast forward to october 2022 and I might have the beginigns of a business on my hands.

In the following posts I`ll extract information from another execution thread in the INSIDERS forum. Said thread was about my e-commerce SaaS business and trying to sell subscriptions for it. One of the ways I tried selling subscriptions was going to bazar events in my country to meet people and offer them my e-commerce services.
On the bazaar events I was selling the cosmetics products I was making.
So sort of like two birds with one stone thing.

Time to set some goals.

1. Find a contract a producer of cosmetics.
I`ve already found some, but still no one I can do work with.
Initially I thought I can rent a small space, cover the law requirments and start making it myself, but since I`m in eastern Europe, the upfront cost for rent, certificates, labor, ingridients and so on is so HIGH that I cant justify the cost of making it myself at this point.
Infact in my country Bulgaria, the laws are so hostile to small businesses most cosmetics production is done by 3rd party companies, who make stuff for dozens of brands.

2. Improve my inbound and other marketing strategies.
With a mix of FB groups for homemade products, SEO articles and posts on forums I plan to spread the word for these new products at no cost.
Another way (which I`ve had some success with already) is for my spouse to go around different hairdress and nail salons and just talk to the stylists, who are typically the owners, and leave my products in there for them to sell. ATM we got 2 salons on board selling lip balms.

3. Improve my online presence.
While I`ve been somewhat active, doing posts here and there on my FB group and instagram I see a lot of potential that I can tap into.
I need a plan, what posts to make (seems like having a girl/woman in the photo makes a huge difference) and then set a schdeule for X amount of posts on Y amount of topics/products per month.

4. Do at least 1 bazar event per month.
The next is this december 2022, but I want to do at least one per month, since sales on events are easy, lucrative and fun.
You get to meet new people, network, get random gifts from other people and so on.
Its a great way to get exposure and get direct feedback on what you are doing.

5. Improve the quality of the product info and photos.
This is easy enough. My website and FB page just needs an upgrade for which I can contract a photographer.

6. Ads, Instagram and other social selling channels
I was on a conference earlier this month and I met a company which have an awesome service.
They track down and contract social influencers which then get added to their platform.
As an advertiser of products you have a list of influencers which will make posts about your product if you send it to them for free.
Its easy to use, you create campaigns, send your product, they make a post and thats it, easy ads which reach tens of thousands of people.
This however is reserved for when I have production figured out.

-------------------------------------------
Since I already have a positive response from the market, my goal is to have fully fledged business by the end of january 2023.
Meaning that I must be at point 6 around that time and point 4 has to be figured out.

Now in the next posts I`ll details the journey so far starting from october 2021.

Good luck, looks like a Gold thread in the making, what resources did you use to educate yourself if you don't mind me asking. I had a similar revelation to yours yesterday looking for a hair product for my partner, ran the idea through grademybusinessidea.com and got a B so interested in exploring further

 

[alexkuzmov]

Good luck, looks like a Gold thread in the making, what resources did you use to educate yourself if you don't mind me asking. I had a similar revelation to yours yesterday looking for a hair product for my partner, ran the idea through grademybusinessidea.com and got a B so interested in exploring further

Mostly trial and error.
Half, boiling stuff on my stove, burning my hands, half google, reading about oils online, how to mix them, watching people on youtube mix them and make handmade comsetics.

When it comes to cosmetics there are a lot of chemistry and physics stuff that you cant learn witout trial and error.
For example, water can reach higher than boiling point temperature if it has enough mass of oil on top of it.
Because the oil is lighter than the water it floats creating a preasure lid of sorts.
So finally when it boils over you get a mini explosion of boiling water and oil in your kitchen.