Since the start of the pandemic, uncertainty has been a business constant. Heading into next year, with the economy and the state of indie beauty rocky, the uncertainty is by no means fading. Amid it, indie beauty entrepreneurs and executives have to evaluate milestones their brands can practically achieve.
To learn about their aspirations going forward, in the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 25 entrepreneurs and executives the following questions: What realistic goals do you want your business to accomplish in 2023? What are stretch goals?
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Jessica Jade Founder, SunKissOrganics Experts predict that the beauty industry's revenue will grow 10.8% in 2023 to a total of $589.2 billion, which is the fastest annual growth rate in 13 years. In 2022, personal care and skincare led the beauty industry's revenue growth at 45% and 27.2%, respectively.
With that growth in mind, we plan on allocating 25% of our budget to increase our conversion rate to 4% as well as increase new customer orders by 15%. Our stretch goal for 2023 is to expand our product offerings in three categories: body care, fragrances and candles.
- Sarah Villafranco Founder and CEO, Osmia
You’ve caught me at a time when I’m looking at all of Osmia's goals, turning them upside down and inside out, and seeing what truly resonates. We’ve always had growth as a goal for Osmia (and still do), but I’m intentionally putting that goal on the back-burner for a moment.
Today’s economy and the shifting digital marketing landscape are both tricky for growth right now, and I’m more interested to see how we can do what we already do very well even better in 2023. We have an incredible DTC customer base, and my focus for the coming year is on making the experience of becoming and staying an Osmia customer as good as it can possibly be.
The stretch goal? Introducing as many new customers as humanly possible to the brand!
- Keith Cornelius Jr. CFO, Maison 276
Given that global supply chain challenges have broadly impacted most CPG brands, Maison 276’s primary goal is to maintain full inventory throughout 2023. While it’s certainly flattering to experience stockouts due to high demand, our challenge to consistently provide the Maison 276 community with products that they’ve permanently implemented into their beauty regimen is frustrating for all stakeholders.
Competition in the beauty market is as intense as ever. However, we’re optimistic that full inventory will enable Maison 276 to maintain and expand market share within our target demo.
Secondly, although competitive and fragmented markets present challenges to all beauty brands now vying for consumers’ declining attention spans, it presents attractive opportunities to brands, founders and stories that can deeply resonate with their respective audiences.
Capital can’t buy the human connection now required for brands to build community and achieve outsized returns over the long term. From our perspective, we believe there are strong opportunities to partner the Maison 276 community with unique, innovative media partners to drive high engagement and significantly reduce customer acquisition costs.
- Victoria England Founder and CEO, Tulip Perfume
Let's be honest, most independent beauty brand owners are still working to get back to where they were before the COVID pandemic. We are moving into a built-to-suite new brick-and-mortar in touristy Old Town Eureka, Calif., with onsite manufacturing. Our goal is to be open by summer 2023. All efforts are going toward this project.
I really wanted to get back on the trade show circuit for 2023, and after careful consideration, decided to hold off until 2024. There is such thing as promoting yourself too much! There is no point in getting in front of a new wholesale market with new opportunities if all of your resources are tied up in growth of the direct-to-consumer portion of the business.
Once the new facility is up and running and the retail store is running smoothly, I will be ready to do a trade show as we will have the capacity to produce more. We manufacture our own products, so the facility has to be able to handle the growth.
For Tulip, 2023 will be all about designing our new store, promoting our grand opening and working out the kinks.
- Nadine Joseph Founder and CEO, Peak and Valley
2023 is going to be a whirlwind of retail growth for us, and so many of our goals revolve around wisely navigating this growth with profitability in mind. We are a premium indie brand headed into an economic downturn, when many buyers have been tasked with reducing their overall SKU count.
Therefore, we're intensely focused on retail velocity. Past recession data shows that for premium brands, some SKUs will be “elastic” and can retain and increase their velocity during a recession, while others will dip.
Hurdle rates for our category are usually set at .1 units per store per week, and we've held on strong across the board at .25. Realistically, I'm focused on retaining that velocity, with marginal growth, over this next year. Stretch goal will be to continue to increase our velocity at the rate we are currently operating.
- Martha Van Inwegen Founder, Life Elements
The last three years feel like it's been a 10-year roller coaster ride, and with a recession looming ahead, it's quiet unnerving. However, we are still bullish on the future as we see our Q4 numbers are up over last year. Moving into 2023, we have industry-leading conversion, customer retention and repeat purchase metrics that help create a solid foundation for or business and growth.
A key focus for next year is efficiency. One of our primary goals is to update and complete a comprehensive documentation of our operating procedures and IP to improve our team's ability to be more decentralized and self-sufficient. This will also help in our goal of preparing the company for a turnkey transition process.
We are self-funded to date, and through some of our existing distributor/retail partnerships, our stretch goal is to bring in some strategic equity to expand our manufacturing operations and expand our customer base to accelerate the reach of the Life Elements brand. Stay tuned.
- Jamika Martin Founder, Rosen Skincare
Realistic 2023 goals: For us, 2023 is the year of more localization. Transparently, I do wish I would have focused here a bit earlier this year, but I’m excited to hone in next year.
With that being said, we are really looking for increased store velocities and brand recognition with our core audience in LA and Brooklyn specifically. We’d like to see strong growth here to be able to translate this strategy into a few other key cities and be set up for door expansion with our key partners in 2024.
Stretch goals: In the best-case scenario, we really see our localized efforts work early 2023, and we can double down efforts in LA and Brooklyn and add in another city or two. This would, of course, mean a loftier revenue goal and team expansion, but we’re really relying on the data here before dumping resources into a huge plan.
- Abena Boamah-Acheampong Founder, Hanahana Beauty
Our realistic goals for Hanahana next year is to finish our first round of fundraising, successfully launch into a large mass beauty retailer as well as become a certified B Corp company as we grow our nonprofit arm, Circle of Care, which supports our shea harvesters in Ghana.
Reach goals: Generate over $5 million in sales, launch four new products and launch with a larger retailer that is U.K.-based as we want to increase our global footprint. In addition, we would love to launch our mobilized healthcare days and serve 2,000 people in Katariga, Tamale, Ghana, which we are currently raising funds to build a well in the village for the people.
- Nina Zilka Co-Founder, Alder New York
We have to acknowledge that whether there is an actual recession ahead, the fear of a recession is leading to a lot more caution on the part of both consumers and investors. Our goal for next year is to continue to provide our customers with our streamlined, synergistic product line while being cautious about spending. We want to focus our spending on the essentials to running our business, keeping product in stock and operations running smoothly with an emphasis on growing revenue.
Given the economic landscape we outlined, our stretch goal for next year is to increase revenue by 66%. While we see the possibility of a recession ahead, we think our product offering of effective yet minimal personal care routines at an accessible price point is only becoming more desirable to consumers. So, while we remain tight with our budget, we do see the potential for substantially increased revenue next year.
- Deborah Burnes Founder and CEO, Sumbody
In light of the current events of the past few years and currently seeing how inflation is affecting consumers, our goals for 2023 are less about a large growth spurt and more about engaging our customers better with education on both skin and the environmental impact of the cosmetic industry. My first book, “Look Great, Live Green,” written 20 years ago tackles these issues and offers solutions.
We want to encourage thoughtful purchasing. Understanding skin, its needs and the impact on the environment enables consumers to make choices that are healthy for them and the planet and use less.
We also want to partner with some key retailers who have similar ethos and are committed to the health of their customers and the environment. With this comes our continued messaging of less is more in packaging (think outside the box, ditch secondary packaging), water usage and rejecting unethically harvested ingredients.
A stretch for us would be something I have long wanted to make happen. I would like to unite with other like-minded brands and lift each other by promoting each other on social media, offering discounts to our customers, blogging together, the collaborations are endless. To me, to be truly clean green and planet friendly, it means to reach out support each other and embrace our community as one. There is power in unity.
- Melissa Butler Founder and CEO, The Lip Bar
As we enter our 11th year, we are hyper-focused on growing TLB Inc. by driving deeper engagement through intent-based, personalization and communication to better address the complexion and beauty needs of our consumers.
Our stretch goals include doubling our business through customer acquisition, personalization and innovation.
- Chelsea Lewis Founder, My Mommy Wisdom
Our goal for 2023 is to double our previous year’s sales growth. By doing that, we want to become more of a household name.
Our goal is to be visible as much as possible within our niche community for moms. We are implementing a robust influencer campaign strategy to help us get our brand in front of more doulas, pediatricians and parents.
Our stretch goals are to continue to pursue more retail opportunities. Right now, we are on Amazon and Walmart Marketplace. The stretch goal would be to be available in big-box stores. Target and Buy Buy Baby are our ideal companies to work with.
- Davlyn Mosley Founder, Namesake
For me and the business, 2022 was focused on testing, learning and listening to our customers. Understanding what about the Daily Moisturizer worked for those that tried it and what didn't.
We've gained a ton of great feedback and insights that we will be implementing over the next year. 2023 is all about fundraising and launching additional SKUs to expand the brand and the customer's skincare experience.
Launching three new products in 2023 is a stretch goal, but definitely possible with the fundraising that we plan on accomplishing. As we all know, access to capital is the No. 1 roadblock when it comes to growth, especially in beauty.
Launching additional products is important to us as our customers have consistently asked us to build out their full skincare routine. Very excited about that, but we won't launch a new product for the sake of it. It has to be innovative, exciting and most of all efficacious.
- Camille Barreto Founder and CEO, ME Cosmetics
In our first year, we achieved a number of milestones, most notably establishing a new product category, complexion products for the scalp, contributing in a meaningful way to the goal of women speaking openly about hair loss concerns, and being named a finalist or winner of several beauty awards, including a beloved Beacon!
A brand’s goals are always evolving and, as a young brand that just turned one, our journey demands establishing goals with an allowance for strategic flexibility. This being said, our top six priorities for 2023 are:
- Increasing brand exposure and awareness. Our emphasis is on hairstylists, MUAs and dermatologists as they are the trusted sources for people with hair loss concerns. However, I also prioritize building relationships with complementary brands/products/services such as our friends at Kegelbell. Many life events that impact the pelvic floor also coincide with hair thinning.
- Launching several new application tools and new shades. Both of these priorities were driven by requests and suggestions from our amazing Confidence Crew, our community of customers and supporters.
- Prioritizing profitability as a key performance metric. As a bootstrapped company, we are already very careful with our financial resources, and while revenue growth and data collection were the priority for our first year in operation, I am placing greater emphasis on profitability for 2023. I survived the dot.com meltdown while working in the tech sector, and the financial crisis while working in banking, so I always try to prepare for economic headwinds.
- Expanding beyond DTC distribution. Our focus is establishing relationships with two wholesale partners, which we are on track to achieve by Q2 ’23. Working in our favor is the fact that our scalp foundation is highly demonstrable and complements existing product lineups, and I feel very privileged to be able to make these announcements in Q1.
- Continuing to enhance customer experience. In our case, this involves two key components: (A) Expanding our educational content. Establishing a new product category is exciting, yet also poses the hurdle of teaching users how to apply a complexion product to the scalp and hair, as this is a new experience for most users. (B) Delivering excellent customer service, which we will continue to enhance via thoughtful expansion of our tech stack such as Wonderment and Giorgias.
- Fostering a greater sense of community among our Confidence Crew. Here we plan to implement a membership program, roll out a quarterly newsletter with success stories and best practices as well as a continuing to break down barriers so that our community feels more comfortable sharing UGC about what is currently often a private experience for many.
As for hefty, audacious goals, geographic expansion is at the top of this list. We receive many requests for The Scalp Foundation from regions such as the U.K./EU and Australia/New Zealand, and resources are our limiting factor on this front. This being said, we were delighted to expand to Canada in our first year and also started shipping to Puerto Rico, Hawaii and as far as Guam!
- Maia Alejandro Founder, FOR TMRW
Realistic goals: In 2023, we are going to be leaning into a more 360 approach to storytelling through in-person events and pop-up stores. We are expanding our offerings to help complete our customers' self-care rituals at home and see this as a great way for customers to test our products in-person, something we have not been able to do much of before due to COVID.
Stretch goals: As an affordable luxury product, we are working on partnering with an aligned national retailer who wants to expand their offerings from BIPOC founders in the beauty space.
- Tiffany Tarazi Founder, Nosta Beauty
With the ever evolving and changing landscape of the beauty industry, our main goal is building brand awareness and community. As a young and growing indie brand, it is imperative that we reach our target customer in the most organic fashion. Another goal for 2023 is for Nosta Beauty to get into retail/pop-ups. We evoke memories with our makeup palettes and consumers love to experience that firsthand IRL.
At Nosta Beauty, we love to dream big and let our imagination go wild! We would be ecstatic to land a retail partnership with Ulta or Sephora. Also, collabing with the Spice Girls or Dunkaroos on an epic nostalgic themed collection would be a dream come true. We are big dreamers, but, if this journey has taught us anything, it would be that anything is possible!
- Maddie Fantle Founder, Maes Face
A focus of ours in 2023 is to increase brand awareness. As a young brand, I think it's the most important thing you can do in hopes that that brand awareness turns into conversions. We'll do this by continuing to be active on organic social, making sure we jump on trends/new platforms that our audience is going to be on and investing some money in paid media. Additionally, we'd like to grow with our current retailers and expand into new retailers that make sense for the brand.
Our ad budget is directly pulled from revenue made. Every year it increases, so we anticipate that for 2023 as well. I will say though that we have majorly slowed down on paid Instagram/Meta ads. While it’s still part of our marketing plan, a lot of budget in 2023 will go towards influencers.
The stretch goal would be developing a new product line for the brand. We have products in the works that we're super excited about, but, as a self-funded company, right now all our money and resources will be allocated to growing our brand awareness and current product line that we know is amazing.
I think one of the biggest mistakes a startup can do is expand too fast, and oftentimes that's with product lines. This is something I've learned in my two years of running Maes Face and have to remind myself often because we are very excited to one day launch some more amazing products.
- Meerika Khanna Founder and CEO, Rthvi
In 2023, our business goal is to double our annual revenue and increase profit margins by 1.5X. We also intend to work on organic channels to increase brand awareness by 10X. We have always been a profit-first brand, and we believe that hyper growth without profitability is not sustainable.
The stretch goal for next year will be to expand into five new markets: Canada, Mexico, the U.K., UAE and India.
- Liz Folce Founder and CEO, Nakery Beauty
In 2023, I really want the consumer to see how well the brand is fulfilling the needs we’re sharing. Since launch, she is responding well to our targeted solution approach. We’ve addressed issues that no one is talking to her about, boob sweat, pain and more, these kind of concerns that she typically can’t find from a beauty brand. And she wants them in her routine. We will be tackling even more concerns in 2023 such as eczema, chafing and so on.
She has really responded to that we aren’t just another body care brand. We’ve introduced ingredients in our daily use products like body butter and body wash that you would find in high-end skincare for face only.
We’ve introduced luxury-level, complex fragrances that she’s loving and evolves with her lifestyle and mood, so she is getting more than she expects from a fragrance point of view, on top of the powerful ingredients within the efficacious formulations.
We are launching more products in 2023 than in the first year of business. The goal is to see the consumer respond to how well we are listening to her needs.
As for our stretch goal, it would be that we will emerge as one of the top three brands on TV shopping channels.
- Elena Frankel Co-Founder, Flyte.70
We are aware at how saturated our market is. People are being bombarded on Instagram and TikTok with sponsored ads and repetitive content. Influencers seem to be losing some weight as many are now pushing more and more brands, which are making customers confused and skeptical. Micro-influencers with followers based on quality not quantity are proving to be more attractive to viewers.
It’s getting harder and harder to be seen on both platforms, but we will continue to push forth with honest and real content and align with influencers who have a genuine interest in the brand, not just the commission. And we must have a genuine interest in their content as well.
We would love to be on the shelves of some larger retailers where it makes sense. We don’t see many makeup brands that directly target those over forty, and it is our hope that they see will see us as filling a void. Our customers often tell us that Flyte.70 resonates with them because we acknowledge that they exist as the modern, fresh person they are today and not the antiquated stereotypes of yesteryear. The beauty industry needs to catch up with the mindset of gen Xers, for sure.
My co-founder Carolyn Barber and I are living proof of that. So, it would be great to have our brand seen in some doors of larger retailers, sitting next to Rare Beauty or Kosas, for example. Our packaging is ultra-modern and whimsical and not what you would expect to be targeting those “of a certain age.” This was purposeful.
If we’re seen, that means those over 40 are being seen, which is really the end goal. If you make aging a positive, then the younger generations will see it as something positive for themselves. That’s a win for all. Our products, while formulated for mature skin, have a following with younger demographics because they love the packaging and the message on ageism.
Our final stretch goal would be to earn enough revenue in 2023 so that we can launch the new products we have resting on the back-burner and hire some key positions within our small company. Fingers crossed!
- Jamyla Bennu Co-Founder, Oyin Handmade
Our realistic goal is to offer more in-person events and experiences at our new storefront and showroom in Baltimore. We've recently moved into a new purpose-built manufacturing facility with public-facing space, and are looking forward to holding workshops, pop-ups and unique creative experiences for our local customers.
Our stretch goal is to introduce a new line of products built around our bestselling herbal hydration spray, Juices & Berries. This line will be herbally inspired, lightweight and eco-friendly. We can't wait to share it with the world.
- Lacy Messinger Founder, Lace Luxury Haircare
Realistic goals: We are working on becoming more conscious as a company, and we would like our packaging to reflect that. I am currently looking into both recycled and biodegradable packaging options.
Stretch goals: We are working on some fun, new products. We would love to double our SKUs in the next year. We have five SKUs currently. We are working on releasing three brand new products plus the clean version of our flagship product, Blow Dry Primer, the only SKU that is not clean and vegan yet.
We also would love to start wholesaling to salons, setting up a salon education system as we go.
- Shannon Davenport Founder, Esker
Esker sits at the intersection of wellness, skincare and home, so we're looking forward to truly expanding omnichannel in 2023. We're also excited to dive into spa, hospitality and treatments as we continue to grow our e-commerce business and expand our footprint at national retail.
With spa treatments already established, we look forward to diving even deeper into in-room amenities and services, custom scents and experiences. Corporate gifting, wellness experiences and brand partnerships are another area we’re excited about.
As an ultimate goal we’d love to win a partnership with a multi-property hotel group to help bring our brand to life at scale in a multi-sensory, inspiring setting and grow revenue at the same time.
Our other initiative for 2023 furthers my personal passion as a founder, which is to continue to create innovative products that are new to our category. The success of our patented Body Plane and Shower Steamer products has shown us how eager people are for newness, and we already have three very exciting products in the pipeline for next year.
- Faith Appleton Founder, FaTH Skincare
FaTH Skincare on track to increase its 2023 DTC business 10x over 2022 revenue. It recently launched partnerships with Goop and sustainability-based Rêve En Vert. It is preparing to ramp expansion up much further with a multi-tiered brick-and-mortar rollout in 2023.
The brand is launching a 360 influencer program with both micro- and macro- influencers with a focus on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. It is continuing to expand regenerative farming practices with the introduction of sustainable botanical treatments in two new categories.
The brand will open public access to our FaTH Farm & Formulary Botanical Research Center in Essex, Mass., for people to learn more about our cutting-edge research in regenerative farming.
The brand will announce its charity partnership with a soil health-focused NPO to give back to the earth with each purchase and will introduce a FaTH custom facial system in multiple luxury spas in New England and New York.
- Conny Wittke Founder, Superzero
We have a lot to accomplish in 2023. We want to replace hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles with solids that perform better than liquids while being plastic-free, microplastic-free and carbon-neutral.
We are also gearing up for a major brand upgrade, a very significant retailer collaboration, and we are bringing a lot of firsts in terms of clinically proven ingredients to the solid space. We have a major campaign planned and will bring amazing talent on board. So, all in all, a very exciting year for us.
In the world of mission-driven startups, there are no stretch goals. We have a very important mission of ridding the beauty industry of plastics and microplastics and achieving massive carbon reductions with solids that outperform bottled liquids. It matters to everyone that we as a brand and also as a category make goals stretch goals and achieve them all.
If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs and executives, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.
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