New business venture - can anyone give me advice please

[Appleofmyeye05]

Originally posted in work and had no responses so posted here for traffic

So I have taken the plunge to go it alone! I am going to be starting my own online business selling strip lashes, hair extensions, glitter, basically everything you will need for a night out or a festival weekend away minus the clothing

Anyway, what I want to do is find a manufacturer and sell cosmetics under my own brand and by cosmetics I mean cleanser, toner, moisturiser, liquid foundation, bronzer etc etc etc

Anyway as I m new to this, google has been my best friend and I’ve managed to source manufacturers for the self tan and skin care and for the majority of other things I need. However I am finding it freakin’ difficult to find ANYONE who is doing make up aside from BB creams or anyone who is doing lashes in the UK.

I did previously order lashes from Aliexpress for a good price and good quality however they took an age to come and this isn’t ideal if I have a surge in purchases and I’m left without stock.

As I’m new to this game, can anyone point me in the direction of where I could look for said manufacturers? I’ve trawled google and found only 1 for lashes and only 1 for BB cream. Is there any a directory or anything I can go and have a look at? Sorry if it sounds like a stupid question!

Honestly I think it's a dream. A lovely dream but not a realistic one in any climate, nevermind now.

You can't just order from aliexpress and expect people to pay more for it

There really isn't a 'going out' scene and won't be for a long time

You'd need thousands to throw at advertising

Suppliers would charge you a bomb because you wouldn't be buying in bulk

Some great advice on this thread. My tip would be to utilise influencers. Don’t go for massive followings - micro influencers are the way forward

Look at the gypsy shrine - they’re pretty unique in that space and you could do lashes in that style

Will the glitter be biodegradable?

@Appleofmyeye05 unfortunately, yes I do think so. And I don't rate those courses, it is lip service from the DWP and yet another completely ridiculous scheme that is designed to have people jump through hoops to get their benefits, ultimately another arse covering exercise for the DWP.

Don't take that as me suggesting you're not cut out for business, nobody here can say that. A business buying eyelashes from Aliexpress (who I would never buy lashes from in the first place) and selling them to customers at a higher price just simply isn't feasible. It won't work. Marketing costs tens of thousands for a business like that in the first year.

I run my own business and sell a fairly unusual specialist product and don’t spend anything on marketing.
Mine succeeds on the origin aspect, excellent green and ethical credentials ( sustainable, no animals or people exploited, no miles in producing it).
There’s a massive vegan/vegetarian/ethical/ eco market maybe that angle would work for you, obviously you’d have to source/make stock but it would make you easier to find on the internet. In non Covid times it would also be worthwhile doing specialist green/vegan fairs and festivals obviously you’d have to research carefully which ones to do. Could you offer a service where you do peoples make up?
The admin side of running a business isn’t that difficult. Taking payments is relatively easy with mobile card terminals, really shop around to get a good deal.
I think your business idea would be a very slow burner much like mine was. I ran mine for seven years on a very part time basis whilst working before I went full time. I’ve been full time for over 10 years now but the business has continued to evolve so the ideals are the same but many things are totally different.

I used to sell makeup on stalls, the W7 range, and some branded makeup.
Our main seller was lipstick and then mascara; strip lashes were low sellers as too much competition from cheap shops and glitter hardly ever sold as not much market for it.
People really go for well-known brands, it's hard to break through with a new product.

I am looking to source Cruelty free/vegan/ synthetic fibre lashes. I did a poll on social media and the majority said they aren’t bothered about the origin of the lashes and were more bothered about the price which surprised me as I thought it would of been the other way around! But I didn’t realise about the Indonesian girls being paid so little! This will be someone else I look out to avoid

I'm truly surprised by this and I have to enquire who you asked and how big your sample was.

As kindly as I can possibly say it, I question whether the demographic who would be most likely to wear false lashes (so, most probably quite young) would necessarily be up to speed on what is essentially a little known issue. Perhaps if you pointed out to them just how much the ladies are earning they would change their minds?

I also wonder about vegan lashes. Would that mean plastic? Obviously animal sourced is not an option but do they make lashes out of human head hair at all? (I have no idea). There is a massive movement against plastic which is also why so many pp have mentioned about glitter.

If you can manufacture your own lashes in your front room from human head hair I'd buy!

Well you have to be careful when buying human hair, it might be from slave camps in China, the Uyghur Muslims, 13 ton container seized in America in June:

edition.cnn.com/2020/07/02/us/china-hair-uyghur-cpb-trnd/index.html

Urgh. Maybe I'm good with my own lashes then. I never saw the point of false ones. Either you're getting plastic, or mink,... or that!

I've heard that glitter is bad for the environment & contributes to micro plastics in water. Which could be ingested by animals, then humans

Argh I’m feeling like it’s going to flop before I’ve even started 😞

Honestly - that’s best case scenario!! A business that has little chance of success needs to flop ASAP to save you throwing money at it.

I second what everyone else has said here - for a new business to succeed it needs a USP. And everything you’re offering is already available quickly and cheaply elsewhere.

If you can source one unique item and sell the hell out of it, then add other products on, you may have a chance of building it up. Trying to source multiple products in endless colour variations and then rebranding them as your own will cost a fortune and will take a lot of marketing. Sorry to be a downer. I run my own businesses - have done for years - and it’s a slog, barely makes ends meet and is a constant source of stress. Now isn’t a great time to be getting into that market I think.