Compare your website with competition.
Olay.com as an example.
Your Analytics account
Google
Analytics lets you measure your advertising ROI
Facebook
Ads Guide: Ad Format Specs & Recommendations .
Get on Google Places
Free
Advice:
Let
consumers sample your skin care
products before they commit to making a purchase. Companies such
as Sephora, which offers a wide range of brands, and Burt's Bees, a company
with several beauty productlines,
use product sampling
to market their skin carelines. Sampling helps ease a
consumer's hesitation.
Facebook Analytics | Free Product Analytics |
facebook.com
You must stress your Niche.
It must offer something better and different and make people buy. Test
key words people use to find what they need in your field. You must stand out.
How to Promote
Yourself as a Skin Care Consultant
Step 1: Collect
Testimonials and Pictures
Possibly the most
powerful marketing tools you can use in skin care consulting are pictures
accompanied by testimonials
Step 2: Market Online
Start your own website
and a blog to begin drawing in web traffic. Your website should contain the
testimonials and pictures, and your blog should be on a topic related
to your business; for example, it could review skin care products.
You should make sure
your website is optimized for search engines to capture as much attention as
possible. Also, consider purchasing PPC (Pay Per Click)
You should also
consider joining websites and forums which are devoted to beauty and skin care.
make sure your voice is heard on these sites. For a start, try joining:
· Acne.org
· HealthBoards.com
· AcneForum.com
Try offering helpful
information and having your website link in your signature so people can find
you if they believe you were helpful. This will help you network and build
connections, as well as increase interest in your service.
Step 3: Advertise
Locally
You can get a lot of
customers by offering free, quick consultations and selling products or more
in-depth consultations at conventions and the like
Networking online and
advertising locally are both good ways to begin building a client base. Most
importantly, though, make sure you have pictures of the results people can
expect by using you as their consultant.
Became
a certified Aromatherapist, in fact.
sit
down and do a lengthy consultation about their top skin concerns as well as do
skin patch testing with specific essential oils. Since I can’t sit with you in
person and do the skin patch testing, I am going to ask that you do a skin patch test on your own whenever
you want to use essential oils you’ve never used before – it’s very important.
The last thing you want is to make up an essential oil blend for yourself and
have it be irritating! Red and inflamed are NOT adjectives we want used to
describe our face (our lips, on the other hand, are another story, but more on
that later).
Use Videos - This You Tube Video has 171,000 thousand viewers.
Use Videos - This You Tube Video has 171,000 thousand viewers.
Video content accounts
for approximately 80 percent of all U.S.
Business Plan
Sample – Cosmetics
• SAMPLE PLANS
FROM BPLANS.COM
Purchase Orders
Invariably, successful
products catch the attention of retail store purchasing agents. If your product
meets their criteria – it’s great, has mass appeal, and is profitable – you may
get a purchase order. Most initial purchase orders tend to be “test runs” for a
few hundred thousand dollars. And here is where things start to fall apart.
Financing works only
with products that have high gross margins – often 20% to 30%. This limitation
can rule out this method of funding for commodity-type products.
Most startups
subcontract their large-scale manufacturing overseas. And your manufacturer won’t
do a production run unless you pay them first. This dilemma can leave your
startup with an all-too-common problem: a large order but not enough money to
fulfill it. Many great products have perished at these cross-roads.
Could conventional
options help? Maybe.
One way to handle this
problem is to look for conventional financing. Having a purchase order on hand
is certainly proof that your product could be viable. Some banks may actually
provide funding.
The problem is that
retail purchase orders tend to have tight deadlines. Your bank’s
underwriting department may not be able to meet your deadline since they often
take weeks to make a decision.
Another avenue is
venture capital or angel investments. The right investor could provide the
funds that you need. Furthermore, they could provide additional access to
capital which could help you scale your startup.
This strategy poses
two problems. First, finding a venture capitalist (or angel) is extremely
difficult. And most of them invest in only a small fraction of the deals they
evaluate. However, having a PO from
a major retail on hand definitely helps you get noticed.
The second problem, at
least in my view, is that you have to surrender equity to the VC when the value
of your company is very low but your potential is high. As a result, choose and
Angel or VC that brings more than just money to the table. Choose one that
brings contacts and experience as well.
Keep your equity. One
way to finance your orders
One increasingly
popular alternative finance tool in recent years is purchase order financing.
This solution is designed to help companies finance the supplier costs
associated with a large purchase order from a commercial buyer. Basically, the
finance company uses your purchase order as collateral for the transaction.
They pay your supplier, which allows the supplier to manufacture the product.
Once manufacturing is completed, the product is shipped and the order
concludes. The transaction settles once the customer pays the invoice. Read
this article for more information on purchase order funding.
Like any solution,
purchase order financing has some disadvantages. The primary disadvantage is
that it works only if you use a well-known and established third-party company
to manufacture your product. Another disadvantage is that purchase order
However,
purchase order funding offers startups and entrepreneurs two key advantages.
First, it scales easily. Most lines are structured to grow alongside your
business. This allows startups to use purchase order financing to build a
track record of growth and then move on to more traditional financing.
The second advantage
is that purchase order funding does not require you to give up any equity. The
funding is transactional – and when the transaction is complete, you are done.
This feature can help startups whose founders want to grow the business without
giving up equity.
One word of caution
The biggest financing
mistake that your startup can make is waiting until you have a purchase order
in hand to get financing. Most purchase orders have 60- to 90-day deadlines.
And, underwriting a transaction can take several weeks. The best approach is to
start discussions ahead of the order so that you can have the funding lined up
if the order materializes.
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