What You Should Know Before Starting A Skincare Company

When I started Zoe Organics in 2010, I didn’t have much of a business plan. There weren’t online organic skincare formulation courses or even labs that wanted to work with me. There was a budding indie beauty scene and natural products industry that was in its infancy. Retailers didn’t have “clean” or “natural” sections. I had identified a need, validated my idea and felt so passionately about it that I pioneered my vision to life.

I began in my kitchen with a few hundred dollars in ingredients and a vision far bigger than my experience. I learned by doing — and by failing, iterating, pivoting, growing.

Today, I’m helping other founders build brands of their own with far more intention, strategy, and sustainability than I ever had in the early years.

This post is for any founder (or aspiring entrepreneur) standing at a beginning. Here’s what you should know before you start.

1. A Good Product Isn’t Enough

Technically beautiful formulas won’t differentiate you. Packaging alone won’t carry you. What customers connect with — especially in today’s crowded market — is your philosophy.

Why you create what you create. What you believe about ingredients, transparency, sustainability, or efficacy. Who you are here to serve and why that matters.

This is also one of the first things I work on with clients: the clear, powerful through-line of their brand.

2. Innovation Often Feels Like Isolation

If your idea feels new or disruptive, it may be met with skepticism at first. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
I learned this when labs refused to support my natural formulations. Years later, the industry validated what I created. Our customers required education before they understood the value of what I was offering. Not too long into my journey, I connected with other founders with the same mission and we worked together to bring awareness and education, and carve out a new space in homes and on retail shelves for our natural products.

If you feel ahead of the curve, but you have validated your idea and believe there is a market for it— stay steady. Founders often stand alone long before the market catches up, and sometimes you need someone in your corner who’s been there to help you hold the line.

3. Start With a Hero Product, Not a Full Line

New founders often overwhelm themselves with too many SKUs. Be careful not to fall into this trap. Most entrepreneurs aren’t short on ideas, but not every idea is a winner and timing is important. Choose your BEST product(s) and focus your energy and resources on getting them right before adding on. Too many SKUs dilutes margin, messaging, inventory and energy.

The strongest modern brands you admire have a hero product that they built upon.

If you feel pressure to launch a full product line all at once, relax. Focus your launch on one outstanding formula. Then refine it, validate it and build around it.

4. Packaging Will Require Time and Budget

Packaging can make or break a product. And I’m not even talking about the visual identity and design.

Testing, compatibility, MOQs, lead times, component failures, labeling regulations…it’s its own development track. There are so many decisions to make and so many tedious details to get right.

As a consultant, I help founders avoid the packaging mistakes that cost me years and tens of thousands of dollars. And honestly? Avoiding just one major packaging error often pays for the entire consulting engagement.

5. Cash Flow Matters (Especially Early On)

This is an area many skincare founders struggle (I was right there too). We have a grand vision, but unless we have a lot of capital to burn (which is actually just foolish), it’s not where we are going to start.

Inventory ties up capital. So does compliance. And when you start adding up all of the subscriptions, contractor fees, payroll, freight and postage, marketing, printing, etc….it always costs more and takes more time than planned.

Your margins are your survival. You must have a good understanding of COGS (cost of goods sold) and what your profit margin is and plan accordingly. Stay lean and put your cash to work on what is going to give you the best ROI.

This is why financial modeling, margin strategy, and SKU planning are a major part of the work I do with founders. You don’t just need a beautiful brand — you need a sustainable one.

6. Community Is the Real Engine of Growth

Algorithms are unpredictable, but real community; grown out of trust, care, and meaningful storytelling is what carries a brand through economic shifts, (pandemics!!) and lifecycles. My early community built Zoe Organics, and those loyal customers got Target’s attention, which led to an 1100 store roll-out in 2015. These customers were also there when Target’s test assortment failed.

Build community with intention:

• through consistent storytelling

• through thoughtful sampling and feedback loops

• through rituals and education

• through brand intimacy, not noise

While reach is also an important part of building your brand, first focus on depth. Think of this as your root system for a solid foundation. Once you have that you can begin going up and outward.

7. Burnout Isn’t a Badge

One of the recurring themes in my consulting practice is creating a sustainable business model that doesn’t depend on you entirely as the founder. A model that supports a founder’s health and creativity for the long haul. Closing Zoe Organics due to major burnout was a wake-up call. There is more than one way to build a business and in my 15 years observing the industry, I am a believer in slower, steadier, sustainable growth. If you look at legacy brands—they didn’t get there overnight. It wasn’t fast and furious, it was intentional and steady. Some of the ways to support this is; fewer SKUs, stronger margins, smarter operations, and clearer boundaries.

Your well-being is a strategic asset. Protect it.

8. You Must Develop Yourself as Much as Your Products

Similar to marriage or parenthood, you don’t truly understand what you are embarking on until you actually get into the trenches as a founder. It’s messy, it’s unpredictable and you must navigate identity shifts, self-trust, emotional regulation, and inner work because these things really matter.

Your business will challenge the parts of you that need growth. Your leadership will determine your longevity. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that our businesses mirror our ability to grow and expand. This is why my consulting approach is holistic. It’s strategy + founder work. You can’t build a strong company on an exhausted, contracted or chaotic foundation.

9. The Brand You Start With Won’t Be the Brand You End With

Brands evolve because you evolve. Markets shift. Conditions change. Your clarity sharpens. Don’t hold so tightly to your original vision that you are blind to opportunity to grow in unexpected ways. It’s why I always tell my clients that a business plan is a working document. Not something you write and then never look at again, or follow rigidly. Keep an open mind and your business plan flexible so you can pivot when necessary.

If you are a founder who feels overwhelmed, stuck, or uncertain, get clear on your vision and values and take a look at where things may have gone off track. Simplify, scale back temporarily, if necessary, to get aligned again.

If You’re Starting (or Restarting) a Skincare Company

I want to help! The learning curve is steep, the industry is complex, and the stakes are high; especially for self-funded founders or those balancing family life with entrepreneurship.

My consulting work exists to support founders exactly like you:

• those who want to bring a product to life with integrity

• those navigating formulation, packaging, compliance, or operations for the first time

• those building (or rebuilding) a brand with intention

• those who need an experienced partner, sounding board, strategist, and calm guide through an overwhelming process

If you’re in the early stages or dreaming up a new brand, I’d love to support you.

You can learn more about working with me here.

And if you’re building a skincare brand right now, tell me:
What’s the biggest question or challenge you’re facing?

Your questions often inspire my next posts — and I want this to be a place where emerging founders feel guided, supported, and seen.