Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in personal care but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Melissa Cutler, Owner of International Beauty Institute, located in Mississauga, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We train beauty professionals worldwide on esthetics services through high-quality, hands-on, online courses.
Tell us about yourself
I wanted to create a scalable business model that helps change lives. Access to high-quality beauty courses is attainable for some. Course costs are too high, the schedules are inconvenient, and if there are no quality beauty courses in your town, you'd have to travel to a significant city and incur extra expenses. This puts barriers in the way of building a successful beauty business.
When first researching other online beauty courses, I found they severely needed more quality. For example, for 100 British pounds, I received a PDF and what looked like a Snapchat video recording with no sound and sparkles on the screen. This was not professional training. So we set out to challenge the status quo of online training in the beauty industry. Everyone should have access to high-quality training, no matter their budget or location.
Furthermore, many schools teach beauty pros about the services. Still, they need to equip them with how to run their business. That's why we began adding free business resources like our Planning and Registering Your Business Mini-Course and Marketing Your Beauty Business Mini-Course. Both are free to anyone - you don't even have to be our student! We love helping our fellow beauty entrepreneurs succeed.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is everything I've learned along the way. From not knowing a thing about website design 1.5 years ago to having an international online store that generates revenue is a huge accomplishment. Knowing how to sell something online is a fantastic transferrable skill that I'm very proud to know how to do successfully.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Inconsistency in sales. One month, you're up. One month, you're down. It makes it hard to plan, hard to budget, and hard to hire. After being in the online business for almost two years, we have our year-over-year numbers to compare. With courses, there is some seasonality regarding customer purchase patterns. September and January are great months, but people don't opt for training in the summer months. In an industry like ours, it's essential to factor the seasonality of your products into your business strategy.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Focus 80% on sales and marketing and 20% on product development.
- Hire a good business coach early if you can afford one.
- Become exceptional at branding and marketing.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://shop.intlbeautyinstitute.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/internationalbeautyinstitute
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intlbeautyinstitute/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-cutler-071942198/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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