Launch Yourself Part 1 - How To Start?

This is Part 1 of a series of 4 Parts
by Joan Morais, Natural Cosmetic Formulator, Instructor, Aromatherapist, Herbalist  www.JoanMorais.com

You want a business making natural body, hair and skin care products. How do you start? I compare making natural products to cooking. If you are a cook, do you want to open a restaurant or do you want to sell a food product you developed? What type of food is it; Thai, Mexican, Italian, Hawaiian, American, etc? Who is your customer, who would pay to eat your food? Ask yourself these similar questions for making natural products and picture in your mind your vision for the products and your business. Here are a couple of ways to consider on how to start and begin to clarify what you want.

 1. Start with the Big Picture.

The Ultimate Vision of What Natural Product Business You Want. Create a Vision Board, File or Notebook. Write down the vision you have for your business, cut out photos of what your products and business will look like. Start building your business in your mind and on paper first. You can work out a lot of details and start figuring out what you want. Once you have done that, you can break it down into small pieces and work on a plan with the details of how to get there; including the financial aspects, the equipment, the time involved, rental of shop, employees, etc.

2. Focus on a Few Products.

Pick out one to three products you are very interested in learning to make, promote and sell. Focus is one of the fastest and simplest ways to success. Maybe you want to make a body lotion and a face cream. There are many advantages to making similar products; the equipment is the same, ingredients are the same and can be ordered in bulk saving you money and yet can be customized with different extracts and essential oils to make them unique. The containers can come from the same supplier and the professional labels can be similar. It is easier to start making and selling few products and later adding more products to your line. Years ago, cosmetic houses allowed approximately one year to launch a new product. Now it is about six months. The key to a successful product is to develop a stable, effective and wonderful product consumers will enjoy and keep purchasing again and again. It takes a lot of time to tweak a formulation to be excellent. Cosmetic formulators may charge $8,000-$10,000 per formula as it takes a lot of time to tweak and test the product.

 Here are some questions to ask yourself to clarify what you want.

1. Do you want to focus on body care, skin care (the face) and/or hair care?

2. What products do you want to make and sell?

3. Of the list of products you want to sell, which 2-3 products do you want to develop first?

4. Who is your customer? Age Group? (is it anti-aging, teens, children, etc.)

5. Is there a theme for your products such as Hawaiian, African, etc?

6. How will you sell these products? In a store front? Farmers Market? Trade Shows? Amazon? Spas? Your Website?

7. Do you have a business name? If so, have you reserved the domain name (web address)?

8. How much money can you invest right now in your business?

 Upcoming Posts

Part 2 Launch Yourself - Production: Equipment, Ingredients and Manufacturing Space

Part 3 Launch Yourself- Retail and Wholesale: Pricing Products

Part 4 Launch Yourself – Launch Your Products and Business