Where do I begin with my beauty startup? How do I find a good team to get me going?
I'm working on a beauty startup and seeking advice to get my engine going. I want to be sure I'm headed int he right direction.
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Jul 6, 2017
Others have answered the question if you are opening a hair salon. I started and sold a cosmetic brand for over a million dollars so I can help you there. For your "team" you may mean the subcontractor manufacturer. If so, go with the best. You will pay more but the quality will be worth it and it will spur repeat customers. Another vital part of your team will be your sales reps. I hired the top rep agencies in my marketplace who had established relationships with store buyers. Please tell us more so we can all give you more specific help. Good luck.
Jul 5, 2017
Before starting anything I always prefer people to go and have some experience of the field first. If you are looking to launch something unique in the beauty industry then you're most likely going to a team of people who can help you spread the message across the globe or in your target market. Plan all the budget and human resource separately and start looking for people with different expertise, for a startup I always suggest a team of people with fresh ideas and good energy level, you can contact the friends in your circle to get some info about the right person for the right job. You can also post Ads on linkedin or freelancing website to meet new people in your relevant fields as well.
May 15, 2014
Hi Imani
Hope it's not too late for my comments as I have just joined this social site.
Probably I am qualified to share some insights. I have a good knowledge of everything except beauty but I found a B2C online beauty site for China market. the site aims to be one stop solution platform for unknown beauty brands penetrating into China market. we are in phase 2 and moving into phase 3 to complete the fulfillment of aforesaid mission. Glad to share if you are interested.
Mar 6, 2014
long before you ahve the tean you should have the information and research
what part of the beauty industry
where
target market
profitability
we have a free financial planner at enetrprisesa.com to see different scenarios on how much you need to charge
how are you going to pay for the team?
what is your contribution?
Ideas are not business, have you worked in the industry?
whats the competiton doing?
are you going it alone or working with a franchise?
there are hundreds of questions you need to answer to begine
Mar 5, 2014
Imani,
Build a small team of specialists. You needn't be good at everything. Delegate and let people take ownership and make them accountable for the portions that they own.
Have a good vision on how you are going to build customer loyalty. If you are a local business, you will want your customers to keep coming back to you. We are building a mobile app for a saloon that helps in managing their clients as well as send notifications for new offers, greet them on holidays and special occasions, send them discount coupons for loyalty, build a customer referral program within it, the options are endless. Thanks - Chacko
Mar 4, 2014
Hi Imani,
First of all, congratulations on starting-up! It's very exciting, and I agree that all the available information can be very confusing without someone to help sort it out and guide you through.
I am assuming that you have already validated that there's interest in and willingness on the part of the customers to pay for the product you are creating.
First, if you haven't, I recommend some market research and planning (find out who your competitors are, how much they charge, how they get the word out/market/sell/find customers, define how your products/offerings are better, etc.) This will really help you with the direction of your product as well as your marketing, positioning, and messaging.
My recommendation is also not to worry about titles yet, but think about what jobs/titles you will need in order to get your venture off the ground. The titles will become obvious. There are many aspects of the business you need to think about but I'll list a few high-level items I recommend you think about before you hire a lawyer or marketing consultants. Without knowing a few more details about your business, I can only give you general items.
Think about and write down all the details for:
1. The product (the beauty education product you will be producing). This is one of the most important things you need to think about.
- What do you need to get your product created? Camera? Studio? Costume? Make-up?
- Who is your target market? Who is your customer?
- Who will do what in order to get your product created? Are you the talent? Writer? Cameraman? Post-production editor?
- Once you list all the tasks involved in producing your product and who will do each task, try to estimate the time required to do each and every task, and the total time to produce each product.
- Estimating costs. Will it cost you money to produce? How about to distribute? Hosting costs? Production costs? Will you be hiring on-camera talent? How much and when will you have to pay?
- Who is the best person out of the current team suited to be ultimately responsible for the direction and strategy of the product? While everyone may provide input into the product, the team will be more successful if you assign one person to be accountable, or act as the project manager and make sure things are getting done.
2. Marketing and selling your product. This includes: your website, your business cards, etc. Will you be blogging? Who will blog? Will you be advertising? Will there be travel associated? Will anyone be directly talking to customers? Who will support customers? Try to estimate costs associated with all these things, as best you can, based on the information you have at this time. Who is most suited to be responsible for marketing or sales? Again, while you may want to make sure that the founding team has input, you want to make sure that you assign one person to be responsible for monitoring this.
3. Finances. Who will keep track of your finances? It doesn't have to be complicated, just make sure someone is keeping track of expenses. When you open a business account at a bank, who will be authorized to sign checks to pay vendors? Who's authorized to make deposits?
4. Finally, are you all splitting equity evenly? Are you planning on raising capital? Are you going to hire many employees or issue stocks? Are you going to look for VC money? If you are, it is often recommended that you file as a Delaware corporation, and issue stocks, etc. But keep in mind that it comes with its own complex rules and document/filing requirements. Also, know that you can always convert your business entity later on if the nature of your business changes.
With my clients, whether they are working on a new product or trying to innovate on an existing product, I walk them through a process I've developed that guides and takes them from the idea stage, through finding their market fit, development, and ultimately launch. I highly recommend hiring someone like me or a business coach, who can start you going in the right direction.
Good luck!
Mar 4, 2014
Hi Everyone,
I didn't know this question would come with so many answers. :)
So, the startup consists of education and beauty, I have a partner who has an MBA and a small following. Someone to help with visuals and that's it.
This is not a beauty salon. More so dealing with a virtual capacity...
When I google titles(CEO etc...) or who I need for a team, I struggle on finding to best. Also, not too sure if I should move forward without them at the moment.
Oh and if I were to get the business name officially, would it be best to do an LLC or corporation? I've read so much and just get confused as tech is an interest for me, but not my specialty. I'm a cosmetologist and a member of the DLA - Digital Life Academy (google it). So I know a little something something. :)
Anyone have a short list of core people I'll need in my early stages?
What questions should I ask myself when doing the business plan?
Comments about making a list about my strengths and weaknesses towards this goal is a good idea.
Mar 4, 2014
I like your site! As an owner of a small marketing firm, Leunami, we work with several business like yours. I would love to speak with you more about different advertising options.
Mar 4, 2014
One of the resources available to you is the Small Business Development Center network. If you go to http://www.asbdc-us.org you can find the organization representing your area. They provide free one-on-one counseling to entrepreneurs. They will make sure that you start with a business plan that identifies the characteristics of the management team you should be looking for. If you are in pre-startup mode you should start with a feasibility study/plan to determine the feasibility of your particular enterprise.
Take heed to what everyone else has said also. Once you identify what you need in a team, you have to find them.
Mar 4, 2014
you need to start with yourself and a hypothesis of your business model and your value proposition ,customer ,distribution,what are your revenue streams,and the costs involved in the product , customer creation and distribution.
Mar 4, 2014
Hi Imani, do you have a team for the startup or are you looking for partners ? Linkedin is a good platform for business development . Do you have a business plan ? you need to acquire some knowledge in small business - marketing, sales, pr, social media, logistics and money handling (income, expenses,purchase).
i wish you success
avigail
Mar 4, 2014
Looking for a team/partners. I'll definitely start a forum on LinkedIn. I'm in PR and beauty. No plan yet. Thanks for the wishes.
Mar 4, 2014
Make a very thorough list of every expense you will incurr before you open. Also create a Cash Flow/Budget for the first 12 months. This will take some time. It needs to be as close to reality as possible. The Cash Flow is a forecast of your checkbook. Before you open, connect with an accountant who works with small businesses.
Good Luck
Charlene Finerty
Mar 4, 2014
There are a number of ways to approach this.
Although "team" could mean anything, I'll assume you mean stylists, estheticians, etc.
You could go to local beauty schools and seek graduates. You can offer graduates entry level pay, they don't come with bad habits picked up at other salons and you have a wide selection of prospects.
You could also search for prospects that already have a following if you want a faster start. You might run into some operational friction but you wouldn't be starting from scratch.
Look for a team that has its finger on the pulse of the industry. You want them to know what the current trends are, where the fastest growth is and a strong product knowledge.
I hope that helps. Good luck.
Mar 4, 2014
I assume you mean a beauty salon? Or are you talking about developing a line of beauty products? It's not clear which. In any case, you need to study the market and see what others are doing in the same field. If you want to be successful you have to demonstrate to prospective customers that you have something that is faster, better, or cheaper than others doing something similar. If you don't have a viable "value proposition" I wouldn't do it. Once you have proven that you are doing something different or unique then you can start looking for the right people to help you get going. Here again, it's not clear as to what kind of "right people" you are referring to - those that can work for you to make it happen, or those who will give you some money to get going? In either case, no one is going to help unless you can convince then that you have a winning value proposition. Good luck.
Mar 4, 2014
Not a beauty salon. More so something virtual dealing with beauty. I'm doing research now. I believe it's unique.
I'll work on it.
Mar 4, 2014
I used to own a hair salon in San Antonio. It was the official salon of the Spurs and voted best salon in SA two years in a row. The main thing is like Jonathan Gorman said, you have to have a great management system for clients. A system that offers rewards, call backs, reminders, and sends out specials. Use social media to grow the business and make sure you can be found on Google search engines. Offer a lot of services and make sure that all of your stylists are great. You have to keep payroll percentage at the right percentage or else you will run out of cash flow. Be unique, different and edgy. Have a business plan as well to guide you through. I do business consulting for these exact types of businesses and can help you set up everything if you would like. Just contact me via MosaicHub. I don't charge much and it will be worth it in the end to have everything laid out correctly before you open.
Mar 4, 2014
Too vague. Suggest Business Startup audiobook on audible.com which covers the nitty gritty and Innovation & Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker. Simply Magazine has his HBR abbreviated article in audiobook form (condensed by him) on audible.com too. This is the best book on the subject. Listening is cheaper than hitting every pothole yourself.
Mar 4, 2014
Are we talking beauty salon? And by team do you mean stylists or a team of people to help you get started such as a coach, lawyer, accountant, etc?
Mar 4, 2014
With a Beauty Salon you are going to have significant turnover. It just happens. Whether its because there are flakes that cut good hair or because the best always get lured away by other salons, its a fact of life.
The shops that I've seen grow the fastest have the best client relationship management system. They make sure that everyone (I mean everyone) that goes into the shop is entered into the system with their phone numbers, birthday and addresses. That way when someone leaves, you can immediately call the client and give them a coupon or incentive to work with another stylist instead of losing their business to your former employee/contractor.
Also you need to make sure that you set everyone up as a 1099 contractor - and that means they have to be responsible for their own equipment. See a local CPA for assistance.
Mar 4, 2014
First of all you should expand a little bit more in your business explaining with more details where are you, your market etc? then I think i might be able to give you a worthy reply.
Mar 3, 2014
Figure out what skills you need and find the best to fit the positions. Your not the best at everything so write down what you are and aren't good at. Hire A+ people who are better than you and you will make a great team that's more likely to be successful. The most important thing is that they share your passion for the business. With that, they will do anything to make the start up successful.
This was great advice. Thank you!