The moment you turn your hobby, talent, interests or knowledge into a business, you become a Professional. Just because you love something, and are doing it alone, doesn’t make it any less professional. As a matter of fact, DOUBLE the level of severity you approach a job interview or an examination is required. Running a business can be scary, you’re literally on your own with no safety net; it is no longer your “Boss’ problem”.
It’s easy to get excited when you start earning from what you thought was a hobby, but you need to begin to understand you are now a Professional running a business and the consequences of negligence are very real.
In this post, we are going to take a look at key factors every Beauty Entrepreneur or “Beautypreneur” as we like to call them, should seriously adhere to, consider and understand before they create their brand and start running a business.
1. PLANNING (Projections -> Business Targets -> Budgeting -> Forecasting)
The moment you turn your hobby/talent into a business, you become a “Professional”. Always conduct a thorough research on the sector of the beauty industry you are preparing to go down and with your research findings, map out a proper plan.
2. PRICING (Inventory & Costing)
When it comes to pricing products or services a popular common mistake among Entrepreneurs is to base their prices solely off that of their assumed competition. When setting your prices, you need to consider the direct and indirect costs associated with your business. Such as start-up costs, product costs, transportation costs, hiring costs, breakage costs etc.
Also recognise, particularly for Makeup Artists, that when you decide to go into business, things like “your car” and “your make up” automatically become “current assets” and “inventory” respectively. There is now a depreciating monetary value attached to these things and they need to be accounted for in your costs and subsequently your prices.
3. COMPETITION (Competitors & Pricing)
When starting a business most Entrepreneurs automatically assume that a similar business in their sector of the industry is their competition. Not everyone in your industry, retailing the same goods or providing similar services qualifies as competition. What qualifies a business as your competition is your target audience. Only when you are targeting clients/customers within the same Demographic Pool does a business qualify as competition. It is also important to note that there are A LOT of specifications when deciding what that demographic is (e.g. age, location, sex, financial bracket etc.)
4. MANAGING GROWTH (Expansion)
In the early stages of your business it is very possible that your work-load starts to steadily increase but you are yet to secure that constant stream of revenue. However, because you aren’t necessarily paying attention to your numbers, you go ahead and hire an Assistant, who you then put on a full-time salary you can barely afford. A better option is to explore other avenues of employment and empowerment such as NYSC candidates, Interns and Fellow Enthusiasts seeking experience.
5. BOOKKEEPING
In business it all comes down to the numbers, you must keep an eagle-eye on, and efficiently track, your transactions. Having a record of all the money that comes into the business will put you in a better-informed position when considering hiring staff, and also cause you to identify your cost constraints early enough.
In summary, if you have identified that your passion can be transformed into a successful business, that’s great! However you must understand that only with proper Business Planning, thorough Price Evaluation and Proper Bookkeeping procedures in place, will you then be building a solid foundation upon which your business can grow.
