Launching a beauty brand with >$10K 👽; New year, more Majic; ✨ Avoid this mistake! 😬

Hi! It's your BFF in biz dropping into your inbox with your weekly source of inspiration & information on all things in the e-commerce and CPG space.

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Doone Roisin
January 08, 2023

Hi! I’m Doone, your hype girl in business. This is your weekly source of inspiration & information on all things in the e-commerce and CPG space, read by like-minded Entrepreneurs - that happen to be women - like you. If you find value in this content please like & share above, or forward it to someone in your network. I love it when you do that! If someone forwarded you this email you can subscribe here:

Bulletin 📌

New Year, More Majic ✨

We're back, baby! New year, new me is out. Finallyyyy. Whoever decided that committing to overly ambitious goals in January just to feel like a failure a month (or a few days) later when you can no longer juggle it all, was really NOT onto something. It reminds me of a message I shared with our Majic members a few months back:

"Do you ever set yourself an overly ambitious goal, and feel like a failure when you (have to) abandon it a few weeks later? Same, girl. Same. I came across a word this week that flipped that whole thing on its head, and have been dying to share it with you ever since. Kaizen. It’s this Japanese word and philosophy that’s less about hustle culture and more about working thoughtfully. Accepting failure, and applying your learnings to work better. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from chatting with the guests from the show, is that it does always come back to accepting failure and keeping the engine running. That really is the secret recipe for surviving & thriving, not just in entrepreneurship but in life. So today, I don’t want you to think about the big goals. I want you to sit back and ask yourself… What small step can I take today to keep the needle moving?"

2023, the year of Kaizen, of keeping the needle moving, & of Majic. We're accepting Founding Members for a few more weeks and then we'll be raising our prices.

Wig biz for sale! 🎟️

This 9-year-old WIG e-comm store is for sale at a super fair price with great potential for growth after a little TLC. Here are the deets:

  • Asking price: $9,500 💰

  • Monthly Profit: £702 🤑

  • Average Order Value: £172 👀

Industry News You Should Prob Read 🗞

Check out Forbes' list of notable leaders of 2022, and who to watch in 2023. Google and Meta ad dominance falls behind TikTok. The success of social commerce. Tay Swift is rumored to be on the Barbie soundtrack and we’re here for it. Abortion pills are coming to a retail pharmacy near you. Why two jobs might make you happier than one. We lost two incredibly inspiring women whilst we were away, news broadcaster Barbara Walters and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Remote work regulations are becoming more and more common throughout the world. How do we feel about Nike’s slip-on shoes? How did the 2022 holiday sales shake out? The TikTok debate moves from Washington to Main Street. The hottest place to network RN is an ice bath. We're big fans of Femstreet's top highlights of 2022 (check out which women to watch in 2023). Privilège Ventures launches fund IV for female-led startups.

🔑 Insights From This Week’s Episodes on the Female Startup Club Podcast

BEST OF '22! Key insights of the last year directly from the women building the world’s most exciting businesses in the e-comm and CPG space.

1. Launching a beauty brand with >$10K 👽

EP473: A reflection on chatting with Lisa Guerrera, the founder behind the brand you’ve most definitely seen on IG & TikTok - Experiment Beauty.

What do you do when you have an $8500 budget to launch a beauty brand?

You get creative pretty. damn. quickly. Lisa shares her 3-step organic marketing approach that got her hero product out into the world ✨without spending a dime✨.

  1. The Product: you have to clock this one early on, but creating a product that is memorable, meme-able, and sharable will simply sell itself

  2. TikTok: there’s just no way you’re going to get around this one if you’re a brand launching in 2020 - get behind the screen yourself and work with other creators to push your product out there (bonus points for going viral)

  3. Brand Collabs: creating a product that pairs well with other products is a dream for organizing cool collabs, it’s a win-win!

Have a really unique perspective. And own it. Beauty is one of the most crowded spaces. Stick with your vibe, your absurdity, the fun, and the people will follow.

2. Avoid this mistake 😬

EP371: Learning from Aisha Fatima Dozie, she’s the Founder of Bossy Cosmetics, and, she shares all in this tell-all episode.

Imagine having a certain Mr. BOSS knock on your door with a cease and desist, and it not being the first time a company is going after you…

Aisha fell in love with the name of her future company whilst on an afternoon stroll and just couldn’t get it out of her head. Bossy. She’d always been called Bossy as a child, and was confused why it then held such a negative connotation. Emma Watson’s UN speech on gender equality comes to mind, anyone? 💪

Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only one with that idea. When embarking on her trademarking journey, she found Bossy to be SUCH a common word in beauty. But hundreds of thousands had been spent on products at this point. So what do you do when the cease & desist land on your doormat? You fight your battle.

“I was telling women to be confident and to go out and fight for themselves. If you believe in yourself, fight. We didn’t have the capital for a lawyer, I did it myself.”

Though Bossy Cosmetics is killing it now, the multi-year process remains the most expensive heart-wrenching anxiety-riddled journey of Aisha’s life. The learning? Do your research before setting your heart on your brand name. Avoidance is the cure!

Biz Wins & Failz 🎢

Straight from Majic.

We’ve got an ongoing Biz Wins & Fails chat going in Majic. This is where we can learn what we can hopefully avoid in our own journeys, and what keeps us feeling like we are not alone in celebrating those highs.

This week, Majic members took the time to share some of their 2023 goals:

"It's going to be hard, but I want to 5-10x my business revenue in order to make a stable and sustainable income for me and at least two employees!"

We love a big ✨money✨ goal! An important reminder to put yourself first to make sure you make the money you need for longevity in business.

*The doors to Majic are open, now’s the time to join our community of uplifting entrepreneurs building the future CPG companies! It doesn't need to be lonely.

What’s on this week? 👀

BEST OF '22! Let’s see what we have in store for you this week, as we'll be playing you our best hits from the past year...

MON 👉 Zara Saleem from Delhicious - award-winning ayurvedic skincare bursting with powerful ingredients ✨

WEDS 👉 Miki Agrawal from TUSHY - the modern and sustainable bidet company 🚽 & MAJIC's First Weekly Virtual Coffee Chat @ 11:00EST 💗

FRI 👉 MAJIC's Second Weekly Virtual Coffee Chat @ 09:00AEST 💗

What to Read, What to Listen to 🤔

📚 Radical Candor by Kim Scott: kick ass at work without losing your humanity.

🎧 The Daily from The New York Times hosted by Michael Barbaro: how the news should sound (twenty minutes a day, five days a week).

💌 Glowreel Newsletter founded by Shilpa Bhim: amplifying the cool stuff that BIPOC women do! News & empowering stories in 5 mins.

GlowreelJoin thousands of women of colour and allies and get our 5 min weekly newsletter to be inspired by the women you want to become.

Job Alert Time! 💼

Check out these cool women-owned DTC job listings on our radar:

REMOTE 🌎

  • Malala Fund, working for a world where every girl can learn and lead, is hiring a Regional Advocacy Manager for Africa. More info here.

NYC 🇺🇸

  • August, the company redefining period care, is looking for a well-rounded and ambitious Developer to join their team. More here.

  • Unsweetened water brand Ruby Hibiscus is looking for a Territory Sales Representative to join their team of Ruby-nauts. Something for you?

SoCal 🌞

  • Soda brand Poppi is looking for a few part-time Brand Ambassadors to assist with some demos and events, find out more and apply here.

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It feels darn great to be back in your inbox! If you loved something in the newsletter this week share it with us on IG tagging @femalestartupclub & @dooneroisin ✨

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