Objectives

Despite the common adage that "it's what is on the inside that counts," myriads of beauty
products are for external application. The cosmetics industry revolves around beauty and seeks
to enhance your natural features by producing innovative products that should be safe to use. It
continues to grow the world over, churning out brand after brand, in most cases driven by
customer feedback. Since consumer satisfaction is paramount, the industry places a premium
on making customers happy. All efforts and objectives of cosmetics makers and sellers are
geared toward maintaining a loyal client base.
No Side Effects
In line with the Administration's objective to ensure that foods and cosmetics are safe and
properly labeled, most cosmetics manufacturers ensure stringent quality procedures in the
production process. One of the objectives of reputable cosmetics manufacturers is to ensure
that products have no side effects.The seemingly insatiable market for cosmetic products has
driven some unscrupulous businesses to resort to technology that can meet the demand, often
with spurious imitations of established brands. Fake products deliberately made for a quick
dollar can have adverse effects on users, so one of the objectives of responsible retailers is to
screen out harmful knock-offs.
Offer Beauty Solutions
The cosmetics industry recognizes the unique needs for individual customers and churns out a
variety of niche products, including make-up, perfumes, deodorants, nail polish, lipstick, hair
dyes, and even contact lenses. Since not all products will work for everyone, cosmetic
businesses attempt to solve people's problems with brands that offer specific therapies and
cosmetic solutions. Customers seek variety, so part of the industry's objective is to offer a
product range in each niche to fit various clients' needs.
Reach Target Markets
To maintain competitiveness, the cosmetics industry's brands have to saturate the market and
be part of people’s lives. Apart from typical marketing tactics such as quality packaging, wide
product ranges, and reasonable price-points, manufacturers and retailers in the industry have to
develop strategies and techniques to gain entry into new target markets and maintain their loyal
base. Some of the strategies include support for fashion shows and for modeling agencies, who
reciprocate with free promotion and spearheading the industry's products.
Innovation
By monitoring market trends to gauge consumer behavior, the cosmetics industry delivers
products that consumers need and want. Part of the industry's success is innovation -- devising
better solutions that meet new customer requirements via new products and their derivatives as
a catalyst for future markets. Innovation can only be achieved through meticulous research and
good relations between the industry and consumers.
Plan of presentation

Running a cosmetic business, even one that you start at home, requires you to be very organised.
You will need a strong business plan that leads you through all of the main components of your
cosmetic business. In brief, your beauty business plan should cover the following topics:

1: Your beauty brand mission and vision

We’ve seen many start-up beauty entrepreneurs rush into designing their branding before they
have even worked out what their brand stands for. Before branding, come your mission and
vision. Your brand mission statement says what you want your customers (not you) to achieve
with your beauty brand. Your vision is about your bigger goals.

Your mission sets out why your beauty brand exists. This is a ‘make-or-break-moment’ exercise
to do at the start of drafting your beauty products business plan. You need to figure out what
you’re trying to do with your beauty brand and why you are creating it in the first place. When
you write your brand mission, you’re not just writing a boring, bland statement on a piece of
paper. Instead, you have to view you and your customers as being on a mission. What does your
brand do and for whom, how does it do it and why does it do it?

Your vision is coupled with your mission but is about your big goals and dreams. A brand vision
isn’t that you want to make organic formulations to sell to anyone. Instead, your brand vision is
about your bigger dreams and how you want to make a difference with your beauty brand. Your
vision statement has to say something unique about your beauty brand, look to the future and
what you aim to achieve and define what you are offering for your customers.

2: Your niche and customers

It’s all well and good having your vision and mission, but if you don’t know your niche in the
beauty market nor much about whom you are selling to, then you might not have a business at
all. We’re sure you’ve heard this advice a hundred times, but you need to know exactly who
you’re going to be selling to. You need to understand who this type of person is, how they live
and how they shop. Once you know who your target customer is, all of a sudden everything
clicks into place and becomes easier in terms of selling. You know which marketing messages
work best for your customer, you know what they’re looking for and you know how to sell to
them.

When starting your beauty products business, you need to have a niche and that niche cannot be
‘organic’ or ‘natural’. There are so many untapped niches in the beauty industry, for instance,
skincare for the elderly, skincare for certain types of athletes (swimmers, runners, etc.), and
skincare for teenage boys. You need to find the niche that works for you and target that niche
with your brand. We reported on some trends from In-Cosmetics Global, in Paris (April 2019).
We’re not suggesting you need to keep up with the latest fad in the beauty industry, but do your
market research thoroughly so you can decide where to position your brand and products.

3: Your beauty products

When you learn to formulate natural skincare, you create a diversity of products without much
thought about how they fit together as a range or as a beauty routine for customers. When you
think like a business, you need to understand very clearly what you are selling and what
proposition your products offer your target customers. While it is possible to launch with a single
product, and there are well-known examples of beauty brands with only a ‘hero’ product to their
name, it might make better business sense to be able to cross-sell or up-sell products within a
range. Customers are used to using multiple, complementary beauty products in combination.

Your range also has financial implications so you need to decide how many products to launch
with and which create a minimal viable range that makes sense for your budget and for your
customers’ needs. Above all, your cosmetics’ range will need to demonstrate it has a place in the
market and how it improves your customers’ lives.

4: Your competitors

Yes, your competitors most certainly have a place in your skincare business plan. You, the
founder, might bring a unique perspective to your brand so in one sense you have uniqueness
built into the foundations of your beauty business. That said, you need to keep a close eye on the
movers and shakers in your niche and in particular at your product range’s price point. Knowing
your competitors keeps you on your toes and is information any investor will ask for, up front
and early on. It can be frustrating at times to research your competitors as their websites might be
PR speak and not give much away. Look for interviews with the founders and follow them on all
their social media to glean more. Competitor research can help you identify areas where your
brand can thrive and can show you more effective ways to grow customer loyalty – and build
your business. See what they are doing so that you know what’s working for them and what
isn’t. Write a list of their strengths and weaknesses to see where you can do better. You also need
to know where to position yourself in comparison to your competitors.

5: Your manufacturing strategy

Your manufacturing strategy is a large part of your business strategy. You need to decide
whether you will be producing your beauty products yourself in your own lab or home lab
(according to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), of course), using a contract manufacturer or
opting for private label products. You need to define also which route suits you at launch and
mention any plans to switch model later on. Each model has its pros and cons depending on your
mission and vision, as well as implications for important aspects of your business such as
distribution, logistics, financing, and contractual obligations to retailers who stock your brand.
How many units of products do you envisage creating a year? Which model suits your
entrepreneurial ambitions and lifestyle? As you can see, business model and manufacturing
model go hand in hand. Having an end goal in sight is critical to shaping your overall business
plan, the amount of capital you want to raise and the way you conduct your day-to-day
operations.

6: Your retail strategy

We’ve seen many Pakistani beauty entrepreneurs think they can sell direct to consumer from
their website alone. To do this successfully, you need to invest in becoming a proficient digital
marketer – or outsource the role. Although you receive lower profit margins by having your
products stocked in stores and e-stores, retailers can help get your products sold and your brand
known. The work you have done so far in defining your niche, customers, competitors and
product range should indicate which retailers suit your brand best. Will your brand fit into the
mass, so-called ‘masstige’, premium or luxury retail categories? And which retailers do you hope
will stock your brand? What are their likely margins and what implications does this have for
your manufacturing model and financial forecasts? Will you also work with distributors in
certain markets, especially overseas, and again, how do their margins affect your bottom line?
You must address all these questions and more in your beauty business plan. It is no good
working out how and where to sell once your products are all stacked in boxes in your living
room or at a warehouse!

7: Your funding

We might have left finances to last, but where the money to fund your business comes from
hangs over your entire business plan. As you’ve seen, each previous step has financial
implications. As we mentioned in our post on how to start a cosmetic business from home, you
won’t be able to run a successful beauty brand without having a firm grip on finances. Having
sound plans for raising finance at various junctures in your business is just wise business
practice. Your business plan needs to cover the different types of funding options available to
you now and in the future, whether ‘love money’ loaned from friends and family, bank loans or
other sources such as crowdfunding. You need to understand and pre-empt what your potential
investors will ask you about financing and demonstrate in your business plan that you and your
business are worth investing in.

8: Your financial forecast

If you are reading this, it is likely you are thinking of starting an pakistani beauty business. As
business plans are best written in the first year of your beauty business, you may well be pre-
revenue when you draft it – or need it when pitching to investors. You may not have sales to
show, but you can still show some key figures on the size of your market and your brand’s
potential. To introduce your financial forecast, you should include a timeline showing your
milestones, such as when you started, your key achievements, any brand or packaging
 development, what stage you are at now, i.e. do you have a product in creation and how much
have you invested or fund-raised so far? If you are already selling, then you can show how much
investment has gone into the company already, what returns and sales you have and what your
financial projections are. Having an accountant or financial expert help with this information can
also help you be better prepared when talking about your finances to potential investors.

Public Objections and Handling them

Now, let’s be clear – an objection to buying is really fear .
 
Fear that they’ll have wasted their money on a product that doesn’t work, fear that their family
will think they’re crazy for paying so much, fear that your service won’t help them, fear that they
won’t know how to use your product, fear that you won’t give them their money back if they’re
not satisfied.
 
And on, and on, and on.
 
There are some common objections that we all have as consumers, no matter what type of
service or product we are about to buy, no matter how big or small, no matter where we buy it
from.
 
Knowing how these objections relate to your product or service will help you handle them
preemptively, before your customer walks away.
 
 
1. Cost
Cost is one of the main barriers people have to buying something.
 
So what can you do to make it easier for them? Please don’t lower your prices out of
desperation to make a sale.
 
Solutions:
 Offer a payment plan
 Show the value of your thing by comparing it to a competitive product or service
 Create a package offer that gives your customer more value for their dollar

 
 
2. Time
Sometimes people are interested in buying but feel they won’t have enough time to use it, build
it, install it, make it work, get the most out of it, whatever.
 
Solutions:
 Give a time line so that people know how long it will take to get a result
 Describe the time investment needed to install, setup and use your product
 Compare and contrast it to other products
 
 
3. Care
After people make a purchase there is still sometimes a nagging feeling that the item might be
too much work in the long run because of care, maintenance, cleaning, repair, upkeep, upgrades,
etc.
Solutions:
 Include specific instructions for caring for it or maintaining it over time
 Offer to do maintenance or upgrades for free or a reasonable fee
 Show them that by properly maintaining the item, they will save time, money or both in
the long run
 
 
4. Ease of Use
You probably think your thing is super easy to use or do, because you are the expert with that
thing. But most people feel like bumbling idiots when it comes to something they are not
familiar with. If they feel like they can’t do it, they won’t buy.
 
Solutions:
 Create a video that demonstrates how easy your product or service is to use
 State what previous knowledge or experience is helpful or needed
 Provide additional assistance if someone is having trouble
 
 
5. Support
Sometimes people feel hesitant to buy something because they feel that once they have received
it, your interaction with them is done, or that if they have problems with it, they won’t be able to
find help.
 
Solutions:
 Offer ongoing support to your customers
 Provide a follow up call
 Set up a hotline or email to contact you with problems or questions
 
 
6. Satisfaction
Underlying anyone’s fear about purchasing an item is the idea it is just not going to meet their
expectation, solve their problems or be the dream item they are hoping for.
 
Solutions:
 Include a money-back guarantee
 State a clear & simple return policy
 Provide a trial offer
 Offer one-on-one help if a customer is feeling unsatisfied
 
These general categories will cover most objections that people will have with buying your
product or service.
 
But there are probably also some specific objections that are particular to your thing or to the
exact problems that your customers are having. What are they and how can you address them?
 
If you are not sure what objections your customers may have with your thing, ask them!
 
Conduct a survey, post a question on Facebook or Twitter, or send out an email asking for
feedback.
 
Once you understand their objections, it’s time to…
 
 
Communicate Your Solutions:
The next step is to communicate to your customers the ways in which your products and services
will address those objections, satisfy their concerns and alleviate their fears.