Executive Summary

This week, the Coresight Research team attended Fashion Group International’s “The Making of a Beauty Entrepreneur” panel in New York City. The event was sponsored by Cosmoprof North America and featured a panel of four beauty industry leaders who spoke candidly about their personal and professional entrepreneurial journeys. Here, we share our takeaways from the event.

• The right time to launch a brand is when the entrepreneur has a story, passion, and an opportunity. Timing is a personal choice and there will never be a perfect time to launch, so the panelists advise that entrepreneurs organize, prepare and plan, but also operate with agility.
• Product transparency is not a choice for beauty brands today—consumers now demand it.
• Brands should distribute through a variety of channels, but all decisions should be driven by a focused and strategic mind-set.