Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Studying Feasibility

While it was easy enough to sample the products of mineral makeup companies simply by placing orders, it was a bit trickier to get information about how well these small businesses were doing. With notable exceptions, business owners aren’t typically anxious to share their secrets with potential competitors.

By calling or writing to a dozen or so for advice, though, I did manage to conclude that mineral makeup in general was indeed a hot commodity. One company owner claimed the product was “flying off the shelves” of those who were marketing it. And everywhere, it seemed, I kept hearing the phrase “women who try it never go back to regular makeup.”

Another indication of the appeal of selling mineral makeup as a small business, as opposed to a big-name player, was the sheer number of companies doing so. On eBay alone, nearly 200 store fronts at any given time offer mineral makeup, either by selling the dominant companies’ products at reduced prices or by marketing their own brands, and many of these storefronts have off-eBay companion websites. There are thousands of searches for mineral makeup on eBay every day.

While I was still gathering information and samples for my mineral makeup enterprise, I sold on eBay to get some experience selling on-line. There is a wealth of information and knowledge to be gained from selling on eBay, from how to purchase various products at wholesale to shipping charges and methods, and I would strongly recommend eBay selling to anyone considering online retail sales as a business.

The owner of one of the small companies I approached was particularly forthcoming about the field of mineral makeup. In a brief conversation, she filled me in on some of the challenges and controversies I would be facing, from how to handle the minerals to which ingredients to avoid and why. Her advice was priceless, and shortly thereafter I began to test colors and formulas.

Meanwhile, more than a thousand folks have visited my website! I am all aflutter.

Posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Alice Cosmetics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.