While we are thinking about being careful with spending money and planning a business, Megan Cox went to bed and woke up in the morning to find that she had made $10,000 in sales overnight. While we are busy thinking about hiring web hosting services to protect our business, Megan Cox was busy shipping 500 orders. What did we do wrong here? Why does Megan Cox keep making money despite starting out a business with such meagre investment while we are stuck here thinking about making business plans? Well, first of all, who is Megan Cox and what can we learn from her? Keep reading this article to find out!
Amalie Beauty, a beauty brand founded in 2013 with a vision to solve the world’s toughest beauty problems through real science & natural ingredients by Megan Cox, an MIT student at that time is now a six-figure beauty brand that launched in a dorm room. How did it get there? First, let me tell you a little bit about Megan Cox, the founder of Amalie Beauty. Megan Cox conducted a thorough research after destroying her natural lashes and not being able to find a restorative product that worked. In desperate need to fix her lashes, she spent so many days researching until she found something; a product to fix her beauty problem and a massive audience for her product – those who need a natural solution to their common problem. However, creating her product alone was not an easy journey; she had to learn her lesson and she had to learn it the hard way. By trial and error, she learned more and more about business and manufacturing. Let’s learn what she learned from her business journey.
Know what you are doing
A good product is made from good knowledge and good research. Megan actually discovered a formulation that worked to restore her lashes – something no other product on the market could claim. When she didn’t find lash enhancers from many brands that worked, she went to conduct a research through MIT’s research paper database. There, she found that essential fatty acids showed promise in studies but no other company was using it in lash products. Despite her short-lived chemistry education, she still has good knowledge on product formulation; however, the most useful information that helped her the most was the stuff on the internet. The point is not about where you got information from, it is about how you don’t stop learning and finding more information that can give you clear results until the information is accurate and you can use it for your business.
Just start, don’t make excuses
I know I have told my readers several times that a business needs a thorough plan that you can’t be reckless when starting a business. However, sometimes if you don’t start now, you will only procrastinate later and start making excuses. When Megan first started her business, she didn’t have much money or experience. However, when she tested her new formulation on her friends, she got positive results and her friends encouraged her to sell the product. She started with $1,812 and it was every penny she had. That being said, she didn’t make that as an excuse for not starting. She incorporated the business for $700, bought 500 bottles and a few thousand boxes, and paid for her first month on Shopify. She had $6 left to her name. With almost no experience, she tried to market her product by getting creative in her own way. One day, a simple call to her hometown’s local paper changed her life – that was the catalyst for her big ‘debut’. After being interviewed by the paper, she got a couple more sales, but then the story was picked up by the state paper. That’s how she woke up to $10,000. The lesson learned from this part of the story is that when you have a few business plans, don’t wait for another. Start now or never.
Let things flow
As mentioned above, with the lack of experiences, she only had 500 units to be shipped and she had to restock and for that, she needed two months to restock and fill the rest of the orders, which resulted in two people wanting a refund. However, the hardest part was the email marketing. Being a newbie, she barely knew how to write a proper email for her customers at that time, so after shipping 500 orders, she emailed the rest and said, “Guys, we sold out. I’m sorry. It’s going to be a while.” Luckily, only two people wanted a refund; the other customers were happy to wait. From this point, we can learn that she managed to get herself together and instead of being panicked, she stepped up her game by doing her best to send a simple but clear email and letting things flow.
I don’t know about you, but what I learned the most from reading her business story is that starting a business is about being so brave to take risks. We can’t start a business when we have the faint of heart or when we are not so sure about taking actions. What Megan did might have been reckless for some people, but she took action because she was certain about what she wanted to do with her business. And that was what changed her life into what she is today.