New Year, New Business Resolutions: Indie Beauty Brand Founders Strategize For Success In 2019

In this edition of Beauty Independent’s ongoing series posing questions to beauty entrepreneurs, we ask 14 founders and executives: What is a New Year’s resolution for your brand?

Maya Crothers Founder, Circcell

In 2019, we are working on refining our formulations that are in tune with more stringent clean standards. We have been working for the past 18 months on formulating out EDTA and phenoxyethanol of all of our products.

Our new, cleaner formulations will be hitting the market in early 2019, and we are so excited. We are also planning on introducing one to two more products in 2019 concentrating on a super luxurious mask or eye treatment.

Sally Olivia Kim CEO, Crushed Tonic

We have quite a few resolutions, but the one I’d like to focus on most is making sure that, as a brand, we are more encompassing of uniqueness and diversity. We look forward to incorporating more gender-neutral language, aesthetics, content, and models of various ethnicities and backgrounds.

Sara Grey Founder, Fitonic Body

In 2019, we will be coming out from behind the screen. We launched mid-2018. So much of the year felt like drinking from a firehose. Now that we have more systems in place and the right people working to build the brand and are working in a more consistent rhythm, we are turning our focus to connection.

As our founder, I am accepting more on-stage speaking opportunities. We are connecting with women through our Athlete Spotlight program in more dynamic and exciting ways. We are appearing at more events, collaborating with other brands, and we are starting to share our brand story.

Our goal remains to principally be an online brand that partners with select retailers. But, for 2019, we resolved to physically step out into communities to engage with, inspire, and cheer on women on the move.

Jas Rana Founder, Lotus Potion

For 2019, we will be focusing on growing the product lineup. We have some amazing products in development at the moment, and we’re excited to launch them and gain feedback from our audience.

We hope to increase brand awareness with PR activity and build the Lotus Potion community. Social media is also a huge priority for 2019. We have successfully built up a strong Instagram following, and the next step is to really engage this audience and create exciting conversations.

Jenni Curtice Founder, Luna Tea Co.

I want to inspire more people to drink tea. My brand is a lifestyle brand, and we're part of a movement: self love, health, and wellness. When you're kind to yourself, you're kind to others. Drinking tea inspires quiet moments for people to work on themselves, in turn making the world a happier, more positive place.

Leila Aalam Founder, Beuti Skincare

We have made very strategic distribution moves in the U.K., Canada and U.S. We plan on exploring and expanding within the U.S. market, and working on more brand collaborations and event activations in the U.S. We also have plans to introduce a new product and hope to have it available by the third or fourth quarter.

Maisha Harris Founder and CEO, Pink Beaux

Our resolutions are to expand our skincare and color cosmetic offerings, keep our eyes open to new beauty trends and churn out meaningful sought after content for our beauty edit, The Beaux Book.  We want to not only grow in our relationships with brands, but continue to build trust among consumers to bring credibility to the luxury indie beauty landscape.

Trisha Watson Founder, Trisha Watson Organics

Upon researching skincare trends for the New Year, I have decided to embrace the waterless product trend and incorporate more waterless products into my line along with the viscous formulations such as facial waters, oils and cleansing grains.

James H. La Founder, Niucoco

For 2019, our focus is to deliver new quality products to our demanding consumers. Additionally, we will be leaning toward performance marketing companies to help us scale our online sales faster, a model that provides more cost certainty versus traditional "spray & pray" marketing advertising practices. We will put an emphasis on streamlining decision-making processes by simplifying our performance indicator dashboard.

Carson Meyer Founder, C & The Moon

We would like to find an affordable way to ship large orders without plastic bubble wrap and become even more environmentally-conscious.

Hedieh Asadi Founder, DeoDoc

We want to continue empowering women by offering more innovative products. We are so proud of the brand’s growth since we launched four years ago and hope to continue on that same path into 2019. Also, we would love for Oprah to use DeoDoc, and let us know what she thinks.

Evelyne Nyairo Founder, Ellie Bianca

The last three years we have focused on building brand awareness and really getting grounded in the industry. In 2019, Ellie Bianca’s New Year’s resolutions and goals are centered around increasing sales. We plan to achieve this through increasing brand awareness in existing markets and successful entry to new markets.

We will evaluate our digital growth and employ proven marketing strategies to increase our digital presence. We will utilize social media and beauty influencers to support the growth of our brand and to connect to new and existing customers.  

We also hope to raise awareness and make a bigger impact on the lives of women through the Ellie Bianca Foundation.

Thomas Moran Co-Founder, Teadora

We have an incredible, growing community of enthusiasts as part of our Botanist’s Workshop. This community provides feedback and insight and we rely on them to help co-develop and design new products and services.

In 2019, we will expand this community, helping them connect more deeply with both the Amazon rainforest and the women-led harvesting communities that provide our sustainable ingredients. We’ll also continue to help them engage and be a voice for the transition to #CleanBeauty, which is important not just to ourselves and our families’ health, but to the health of the planet.

We will bring new services, content and engagement opportunities to our community throughout 2019 as well as a new ambassador program with the ultimate goal of connecting an increasing number of customers to the beauty and wonder of the Amazon and the people, animals and plants within.

Danuta Dudek Founder, Cotarde

We had a fantastic 2018, but 2019 is all about scaling it up.

If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.