Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$66

$700

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$11,650

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$4,786

Total Startup Costs

$7,877

$62,947

Sephora

sephora.com

2,007

Byrdie

byrdie.com

7,711

DECIEM

deciem.com

12,118

Morphe

morphe.com

27,408

Tarte Cosmetics

tartecosmetics.com

32,706

Ajooni Care

ajooni-care.ueniweb.com

36,280

e.l.f. Cosmetics

elfcosmetics.com

38,988

Jolse

jolse.com

40,426

Clinique

clinique.com

40,761

Beautylish

beautylish.com

42,150

Fenty Beauty

fentybeauty.com

43,295

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Rewarding work

Starting a makeup brand can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a makeup brand. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

High margins

The gross margins for your makeup brand are typically around 80%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily.

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

Longer Sales Process

A makeup brand can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.

High employee turnover

In the makeup brand, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

Taxes

As a makeup brand, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.

Niche Market

A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.

High overhead expenses

With starting a makeup brand, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.