539: How to Build a Million Dollar Beauty Brand | Alicia Scott [VIDEO]

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0:39Just head to omnisend.com forward slash founder without the E to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. I honestly hopped on Google and it was just like, how do you start a makeup brand with$150? Working a nine to five, come home, hour two for dinner and then basically working on range for the rest of my life. It took me around three years before I even had a finished product. Two months later, I was contacted by a buyer for Target. She reached out and was like, hey, we're interested in seeing if we should carry you in store. That was a very validating moment of like, Target wants the brand?

1:22That's what? You do not need thousands or millions to start, you are able to start small. And the biggest thing is just stop waiting.

1:33Here are the stories, learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan.

1:47Welcome back, Alicia. Really excited to speak with you today. So the first question that I wanted to ask you is how did you start Range Beauty with such a small initial budget into multi-million dollar brand? Can you take us back to those early days? Yeah, so my background wasn't even in beauty. It was in fashion. I worked in a lot of different jobs in the New York fashion industry. And simultaneously, I was on my own skin journey where in college, I developed really bad eczema from head to toe. After graduation and moving to New York, I developed cystic acne. And so I was always having to be very mindful of what I was using on my skin.

2:30And while working behind the scenes and in the front of the fashion industry, I had to, I was like, I wish I had a little confidence booster sometimes when I would have my eczema patches on my face or I would have really active breakouts. I was wishing for a makeup brand that could cater to that without making it worse. And that was a match for my skin tone. And I think working in the fashion industry in New York exposed me even more so to seeing a lot of the makeup artists were actually lacking shades when we would cast for models for runway shows for campaign shoots. And so it just sparked this light bulb for me where I was like, not only do I want a makeup brand that has deep and inclusive shades, but I also want it to be clean with this ingredients and non-toxic ingredients.

3:23And I want the ingredients to actually work against the symptoms of eczema and acne. So that's where the seed was planted. And from there, I honestly hopped on Google and it was just like, how do you start a makeup brand. And I kind of created my own little checklist and went through this process. I think it took me around three years before I even had a finished product. But in that time frame, I decided to leave New York. And even though it was my home, New York can be very expensive. The fashion industry is such a hustle culture that I was like, I need to move somewhere where I can still work a nine to five and get that reoccurring income, but be able to have the time, energy and extra funding to put into launching this brand.

4:12And so I packed up, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia. And while here, got a nine to five, made sure all of my expenses and personal bills were taken care of. But whatever residual income I had after my paychecks, that's what went towards building range beauty and so when I found this manufacturer who was like listen our MOQ is literally you have to spend$150 with us and we'll ship to you I'm like wow and with the$150 I bought beakers I bought test tubes like they had all of this stuff that you could use to mix and basically be you know a kitchen chemist uh and that's how I started with the$150 dollars yeah wow and so talk me through the early days so you started to mix your own product like how did you find this manufacturer because so many people get stuck with like these large moqs or you know i want to start a brand but i can't afford it talk me through how did you find this manufacturer like talk us through that how do you like yeah so you handmade the product like talk us through that yeah so when i used google to research how do i create a brand one of the sites that came up was called cosmeticindex.com, which is, it was like a yellow pages or a directory for everything that you could possibly need for starting or launching a cosmetics brand, whether it was makeup, skincare, haircare, whatever, that took you through, if you needed a lab, if you needed a manufacturer, if you needed to source packaging components, if you needed a graphic designer, all, everything that you would possibly need was housed in this directory.

5:54And so for me, it started with me searching through the manufacturer database. And I had, I think it was like three things that were very important to me, which was they need to be up to date on using clean ingredients. They need to be able to create deep shades, so have really great pigment options. And then the third was that they need to have small MOQ where they're not asking me to invest a lot up front. So that was my mini checklist. And I kind of got it down. You know, you might start with the list of like 20 or 10. I think I got that down to five. And I was basically dating. I always say it's very similar to dating or like, you know, testing out the water to see are we a match.

6:40Getting on the phone with these people, emailing these people, telling them my vision but not giving them too much of it. Just a little bit of like, hey, is this something that you're capable of? And from that, I narrowed it down to one manufacturer and I've been working with them ever since. Yeah, there you go. And so you said it took you kind of three years from thinking of this idea to actually bringing it to life. So talk me through putting together the brand because that's something you're really strong at. You talk about this a lot in your amazing program that's launching on the Founder Plus platform called Million Dollar Beauty Brand.

7:21But, you know, talk us through just take us back through the stories. We want to hear the stories. The stories is what sticks because like this is the parts where people get stuck, right? They might have an amazing idea, but, you know, it's hard, right? It's hard to bring it to life. And hearing your early journey is what really can be a source of inspiration for people and show people that it is possible. And it feels uncomfortable, but at the same time, you just got to move through. Like what were the sticking points in those early days? Yeah, I am here to say in the beginning, I didn't have it all together either.

7:56I didn't have, you know, the perfect package. I didn't really know where I was taking it. And so initially when I launched the theme and our tagline was clean beauty for the forgotten shades, which when you hear that, it sounds pretty broad. It sounds pretty general, right? And so when I initially launched with that, I used that theme across like our social, making sure I was kind of getting the word out about, oh, we use clean ingredients and we have deep shades. Like that's going to be what Range Beauty is. And initially, honestly, I had it under a different name, completely different vibe, completely different color scheme, idea, everything.

8:39but we received a cease and desist letter which I'm so happy about looking back because it made me go back to the drawing board and even when I looked when I took a step back and I looked at the brand I'm like this isn't even my I don't even feel a connection to this brand and so threw that away went back to the drawing board narrowed in on okay what are we and still even though I changed the name, we were still going with clean beauty for the forgotten shades. At this time, I started applying for pitch competitions and grant funding. And I remember I went before I judge, I gave my pitch, I'm telling her, you know, I have sensitive acne and eczema prone skin.

9:23And this is why I created the brand. But I really heavily focus on, oh, we use clean ingredients and we have deep shades. Those were the only two points that I really stacked the deck on. And at this time, now Fenty Beauty has launched. We're seeing a lot more diversity when it comes to shades. And so the judge was like, I don't really see what makes this special. Like we now have Fenty. She came out with 51 shades and you have 21 shades. So how does, how is that going to match up when you're saying, you know, you're focusing on these forgotten shades? and I told her I was like well the specialty comes in the ingredients because of my acne and eczema and it was her push of being like why aren't you talking about that more why isn't that your primary messaging why didn't I hear more about that through your pitch and went back to the drawing board and then I flushed everything out and was able to reiterate around now being makeup for skin that acts up so I don't know for people who think like oh my gosh how do I come out the gate with having it figured out and knowing what my messaging is going to be.

10:32I feel like you should, yes, figure out your audience and figure out who you want to speak to, but it may take one or two tries before you land on what that actual niche messaging is and what that actual brand voice is going to be. And that's just like, I think every single founder that I've interviewed, they have this twist they have that turn and it's just part of the story right but if you get so worried that that's going to happen and get this analysis paralysis you don't move forward right and you know i i had a similar trademark issue to you and it was like one of the best lessons ever you know the brand wasn't called founder same as you it was a blessing in disguise and now we have founder so these things are just part of the story and it's just great like some of the toughest times are the best lessons.

11:26So how'd you get your first sale? Oh, so before I actually launched, I had a heavy social media presence. So I created the range Instagram page and was posting a lot of inspo images. I was doing a lot of engagement with other people that I found under competitor brands. So I would go onto their page and look at what people were saying in the comments and then go find that person's page and DM them or message them or like something or follow them just to bring more eyes to the actual Range Beauty Instagram. And I was also doing this with our Twitter and our Facebook. And so I had all three platforms kind of going at the same time, very heavy on Twitter, very heavy on Instagram.

12:08And once our website went live, we already had a wait list of potential customers who were interested in finding out what is this brand? What are you watching what's going on. And so that's what contributed to our first sale. And then I would say our next like or our first big wave of sales was makeup influencer picking up one of our tweets and reposting it in her call out. She was like, now this is what you call range. And that went super viral and brought like my first real wave of orders. And so then it was on me sustaining that with emails, sustaining that again through social. But yeah, the first email was or the first order definitely came through my social media presence.

12:58Yeah. Okay. And talk me through kind of so you were hand making the product still at this stage, right? How like, yeah, that's crazy. So So talk me through any crazy stories where it's just like you can't keep up. Were you making the product like through the night? Oh, yeah. There were so many times. And mind you, at this time, I'm still working my nine to five. So I was working my nine to five two years before I ended up quitting range. Or sorry, I ended up quitting and taking on range full time. And so for me, it was like working a nine to five. I would come home, maybe have like an hour or two for dinner and kind of, you know, taking off the load from work and then basically working on range for the rest of the night, sometimes until like 2 a.m.

13:48going back to sleep, waking up from my job. Like that was pretty much the cycle. Everything was in my apartment. I think I utilized every single room except my bathroom and my bedroom. But like the kitchen, the living room, my dining area space, everything was covered with stations that had mixers and beakers and, you know, mailers and packaging and everything like that. at the time, this to me was still a side hustle. I really, even today, like where I am today, I never imagined where range was going to take off to like, no. So I was still keeping things very small in house, literally. And so I was ordering a lot of stock packaging.

14:34And for those who don't know, stock packaging is when you go to a packaging component manufacturer, and they might say, hey, this type of 30 ml glass bottle, which is very plain, doesn't have anything on it. We're selling these for 90 cents a piece. And so I would buy those in bulk and then I would buy my labels in bulk. And then I would sit here and hand label the bottles and then hand fill the bottles and box them and ship them out. Yeah. Wow. So it's so crazy. You and I have such a similar story like that's how I started founder I didn't think it would turn into anything big and then it kind of just slowly took off did worked on it on my on the side in my day job I was even taking the magazine to job interviews in early days then had a trademark issue then eventually went full-time so I'm curious how did you know that you were on to something was it some of those big orders like from that tweet or like when did you kind of go yep all right this is going to be a thing.

15:35Yes, I will say I was fortunate to know pretty early on. So I launched Range in August of 2018. And two months later, that October, I was contacted by a buyer for Target and who saw our social media presence, thought it was very cool. And she reached out and was like, hey, we're interested in seeing if, you know, we should carry you in store, would love to set up a meeting and would love to come to you in Atlanta to do a line review. And of course, I'm like, a line review? What does that mean? So again, I'm like scrambling online. I do feel like my experience in the fashion industry was helpful because my last role before I moved to Atlanta was as an account executive for an Australian women's ready to wear sales and PR showroom.

16:32So we would take a lot of Australian-based women's ready-to-wear brands, bring them to the U.S., basically fix them up to be U.S. market ready, and then sell them to major retailers like Barneys, even Marcus, even retailers like Free People. And so that gave me the knowledge around margins. That gave me the knowledge around, you know, writing POs around when we would do line reviews for the collections. and so I don't know it but hearing it I was just like in person line review it was like my mind started scrambling I'm like just take what you know from when you had to do it for clothing and apply it to beauty and so I created this very blood deck um I made sure I had all my products we met at a hotel here in Atlanta and it was two buyers that came I went I presented the line they when I told them I just launched two months ago and they were like we thought you were here for much longer I was like thank you I must be doing something right um but they broke it down how expensive retail and especially target can be um I you know they were very open to hearing that I'm not ready right now but I would love to get ready and that was a very validating moment of like Target wants the brand that's what and so that's where I felt like okay if a major retailer is reaching out that means I have something I think aside from the retailer yes seeing the traction come through in orders seeing people speak about us on social media we had really strong influencers reviewing our stuff on YouTube Instagram Twitter um so just seeing I guess the awareness that was starting to grow, I was like, wow, this is a real company.

18:23Yeah. And when you first started in the early days, each package that you sent out, did you attach a handwritten note? Yes. Even today, I still have our postcards still have a note from me. Back then, I was handwriting every note. And now it's printed on the card. But yeah, back then I was, you know, hi, Molly, thank you so much for ordering, you know, the True Intentions Hydrating Foundation. Hope you enjoy. Here's, you know, another 5 % if you want to come back and order, you know, things like that. But yeah, making sure that there was some type of intention in every order. Yeah. And the early orders and hand packaging them, writing the note, it's really fun.

19:11It's so exciting. Like I know those early days. I built an e-com business as well um but at what point like how long did it take before that became like tough you know like it's like oh you know so much packaging yeah yeah I think once it started growing I feel like once we started getting probably like 20 plus orders a day I called on my family and friends to help me with packaging and but it would just be here and there when I'm like oh my gosh you guys I'm swamped you mind coming over this weekend and helping me? It wasn't until I believe it was 2020 when the pandemic occurred. And now we're looking at this is my first year that I decided to go full time with range.

19:58So I left my job in December 2019. You know, starting full time with range January of 2020. A few short months later, we get the notice about the pandemic occurring. And I'm like, wow this is a tough time that I chose to go full-time um but I had to rely on I'm like okay I decided to go full-time because it started getting chaotic and I was like if I could take this extra time and energy that I'm putting into this nine-to-five and put it into just going full time like who knows what the results could be and I just remember my dad I was telling him I wanted to quit my job but I was so nervous and he was the he was the big push because he was like as long as you have a savings and you have some type of nest egg, like who cares?

20:44And he's like, what's the worst that could happen? It doesn't work and you have to get a job again. And I was like, yeah, that is basically the worst thing. That's not too bad. So I took it on full time and the pandemic occurred and it ended up being, even though obviously very devastating time, this is when people are now forced to be home and they are just going crazy shopping online. And so that was proof to me. I'm like, wow, I already knew beauty was recession proof, but now we see that it's also pandemic proof. Um, because I, as the orders were coming in, we basically sold through three months of inventory in one month.

21:23And I remember we had 500 orders overnight and I had two of my relatives helping me. And I have pictures and video of the way that my by this time, I'm still in my house and my apartment. And I don't think there was an inch free from packaging mailers products, whatever we were working like a machine. And I was like, Oh my gosh, we need help. Like, I need help. This is crazy. And I think even then I was still nervous. I was so nervous to take it out of my hands, which I think a lot of founders, especially early days, feel where it's your baby and you feel like, I don't want to give this over to somebody else because they're going to mess it up.

22:08So even still, I did not move to a warehouse to fulfill orders. I was just making it happen with team. And it wasn't until the following year that we actually gave it over to a 3PL to fulfill for us. Are you hesitating to take the next step in your e-commerce journey? Founder Plus has you covered. With proven frameworks tailored to your business needs for fast results, a supportive community of over 30 ,000 like-minded entrepreneurs, and weekly live mentorship sessions, Founder Plus is your key to success. Try Founder Plus today for just$1 for seven days and start building your dream business with confidence.

22:46You can visit founder.com forward slash start dollar trial or click the link in the description to claim your trial. Got you. You've got to show us. I'd love to see these photos and videos offline. You have to send them to the team. I think that would be great just to just show. That's crazy. That's crazy. So when did you go on Shark Tank? Tell us about the Shark Tank piece. Yes. So we filmed the episode in July of 2021. So we went and filmed July of 2021, but the episode did not air until February 2022. And so that was a whole experience because we started basically working with the production team.

23:29I think it was back in February. So from February to July, we were prepping, getting everything ready, having discussions around how we want our set to look, making sure our product was there. And this was also a very time because we had just decided to completely rebrand at the top of 2021 when we got the call from it was like back to back we received the email from Glossier that they were considering us for it was a$50 ,000 grant which what and then right off of that we received an email like hey we were reaching out to see if you would be interested in coming on to Shark Tank and we had just started the process for our custom packaging it wasn't going to be ready until like august and so i'm completely pushing the team i'm like we need the actual real samples um and so having the shark thing once we sent the product to them and we were able to review the products with them and meet with production and get ready and then once the day came in july um we were very fortunate that we had a guest shark that day named Emma Greed.

24:39She's the co-founder of Skins, Good American, anything basically the Kardashians put out, she is like a CEO or founder of. Her mind is crazy. And so she was our guest shark and we were able to pitch to, I think it was four core sharks, one guest. And it was an incredible experience. Yeah. And did you get funded? Yes. So we received a dual deal from Lori Greener and Emma Greed. And we became the first black woman owned makeup brand to receive a deal in Shark Tank history. And Shark Tank has been on for 14 years. I think now it's 16. But at the time, I believe that was their 14th season. So that was very, very, very crazy, but cool.

25:30I know with Shark Tank, so we've interviewed Emma. She's amazing. And she's super, super savvy, super smart. But I know with Shark Tank as well, sometimes the deals at the end, they don't always come to fruition. Did it come to fruition? And what is it like working with Emma and Laurie? Yes, it did come to fruition. Emma, I think it's so special working with Emma because she is a black woman. She understands working with underserved communities. I think even when we look at what she's doing with Good American where her and Khloe Kardashian really pushed inclusivity, really pushed, you know, making sure they have inclusive size ranges, making sure that they told retailers, you know, we're not entering your stores unless you carry our full size range.

26:17We're not going to just let you take the small sizes. You have to take all of our sizes. And so knowing how she's a champion for inclusivity, knowing how much of a champion and she is for Black founders. Also, she sits on the board at the 15 % pledge, which encourages retailers to support more Black-owned brands on their shelves. Like, it just couldn't have been a better match, truly. And so, yeah, in her marketing mind, she is just a genius when it comes to working through how to show up, you know, through digital marketing, how to show up in-person marketing. So it's been amazing working with her.

26:57Can you share like maybe one or two pieces of gold or unlocks that you've had, like a problem or anything you could share? Yeah. Okay. So I was able to meet with her at the Good American headquarters, which was very special to walk through. I had like sessions with the entire team and it was very cool. But my session with her, we walked through the range website, which has since been rebranded. But at the time, she was showing me on the Good American website how they had started pushing this feature. It was like a try-on feature where when you picked a size, let's say you picked a small, it would show the model wearing it in a small.

27:38Then let's say you picked a large, it would show the model in a large. It would show you what it looked like on that body size, which I thought was very unique to the industry, especially going into plus sizes. and so it helped me think about how to shoot our you know future campaigns how to shoot our assets when it comes to try on tutorials when it comes to um even just the photography assets like what angles are we showing of this model with the makeup um and so it helps you with like our big thing is we have 21 flex shades of foundation which means there could be three different skin tones that are very close together that could wear one foundation shade.

28:22And so making sure we had assets and imagery that showed like, oh, here are three different women who are able to wear this one shade. And so we did that, especially now we're launching at Sephora. And that was a big new thing that we decided to try and do for our campaign shoot for that. And it was well received. and so that was really cool I think the second big thing she told us or shared with me was that there will never as a woman as a woman founder to never try and focus on balance so a lot of times I think society tries to push like oh my gosh you have to balance your job and you have to balance your you know it has to be a work-life balance and a gem that she dropped was just like, you cannot have it all, all the time.

29:13And it's something she pushes anytime she gets a chance to talk about it, she talks about it on any platform she's on. Or it's just, I think a lot of times women were expected to show up in all these different ways. And when you're a business woman, when you're a founder, like you have to take that cape off. And it's like, sometimes you're gonna be the best CEO today. Sometimes if you have kids, you might be the best mom today, but then you're, you know, the work might, you lack a little bit, or sometimes you might have to miss this event because of this, but making sure that you are giving yourself grace, um, and that, you know, it's okay.

29:50Like you can have it all, but just not all the time. Yeah. No, look, it's great to hear that. Um, I love to ask that question, um, to a lot of founders because I think, especially like successful ones, like super, super successful ones where you can look at them from an outside perspective and think they have it all right like i loved to ask you know joe jebbia the founder of airbnb like multi multi multi-billion dollar company can you have it all right i love to ask you know um i asked steve huffman founder of reddit he's built one of the top most visited websites in the world i think the top 10 or top 20 like can you have it all like no like you you can't but for whatever reason society and in our minds that's what we're always striving to and we we beat ourself up if if things aren't going well in one area or many areas and you do need to be kinder to yourself because it's just all the journey and then when you look back like now i look back on some things like some of the funnest times perhaps your mind whatever you forget some of the tough times right and you just yeah you go back and just like, oh, that was like some of the best times, you know?

31:05Exactly. And I think in a similar sentiment is we forget such great milestones and achievements where it's like, even I've had to take a pause and I'm like, the things that I have been able to do when I'm beating myself up and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm not as far as I thought I should be. Or I might see another founder or brand where I'm like, why am I not there? Or how are they able to do this. And I have to take a pause. And I'm like, I quit my job. And I have been able to work this full time since 2020. Like that is a huge accomplishment. I survived a pandemic. That's a huge accomplishment, you know, and a lot of times we forget.

31:46I'm like, these are things that we could have never imagined accomplishing it, whether as a person or as a brand. And we just we get distracted sometimes about chasing after the next big thing. where it's like, no, give yourself that pat on the back. Give yourself grace. Yes, be kinder to yourself and sometimes take a pause to just reflect on what you have been able to do so far. Yeah, I agree. So talking about setbacks or tough times and staying resilient, do you have any stories where perhaps things were really tough or has it just been booming ever since? Oh, I mean, I say last year, 2023 was my toughest year yet.