Christina’s advice to entrepreneurs wanting to start a beauty business...
Take on a product that excites you. I would never advise anybody to go into an area that they don’t have at least a basic understanding. Bev (Christina’s co-founder) and I both come from a strong beauty background.
I think you need to understand who your potential market is, it’s ok having a great product but it won’t work if you’re not sure how to market it or who the target market is.
Coming from the skincare industry myself, I would advise not to go into the skincare market because it’s so saturated with the ‘big boys’. I would advise entrepreneurs to look for a niche market.
On setting up your own brand...
It was hard, but people accepted the brand because they knew we were a good company with Guild accredited training.
It was hard sourcing the product and also hard to get the image and marketing right.
We got serious advice and help on marketing and advertising, that took a lot of investment but we did get that right. But it didn’t come easy!
On complying with high standards of practice in the beauty industry...
If you’re in the beauty industry it’s all about ethics and you should deliver the best quality product that you can with the best possible training.
We make mistakes, all businesses do, but Bev and I try to treat people like we would want to be treated ourselves. Bev has a large working salon and in my previous job I was responsible for a very big sales force, so customer service is top of our list.
Also, you should deliver quality and good value, times are hard and people are looking for value and we try to marry all of those elements. Gosh I sounded quite saintly, but it’s genuine, it’s what we’ve tried to do!
