Topic that gets people talking: is going self-employed for everyone ?
Entrepreneurship, whether in the field of cosmetics or another, requires several thoughts:
1. Evaluate your current situation (student, unemployed, CDD, CDI), in my case, I was unemployed with the hope of quickly finding work (0 hires, thank you the pandemic!)
2. Evaluate your resources , the funds you have (loan? equity? crowdfunding campaign?)
3. Assess your motivation , do you feel like quitting everything? If your motivation is less than 100000%, drop it.
Creating your brand is made up of several stages:
- The desire to do something else, to learn new things, to work for yourself and be accountable only to yourself
- The excitement of having taken the first step, ideas that flow and the encouragement / support of loved ones
- Questioning is inevitable: is my product efficient enough? will you like it? will I be able to get paid? a stable job is still less risky, isn't it?
- The relief once our doubts have been dispelled and the solutions found, what a pleasure to see the realization of your project, giving life to your products
Be careful, you should know that when you set up a brand / company, there is no downtime. It's not because the product lands on store shelves that everything stops and we wait wisely for the money to come in.
You have to continue to develop your business, new products, improve, rework, modify, deploy. In short, an endless tunnel (friends of the routine, go your way!).
One of the key points in entrepreneurship lies in those around you, especially if you are starting alone (my case). All your entourage whether family, friends, friends of friends, colleagues, former teachers must be mobilized .
In the event that you would like to make a crowdfunding campaign (system of pre-financing your project), your first circles will be the triggers for the success of your campaign. In case you don't campaign, having opinions from outside is always good because a little reminder: you don't create products for yourself, you create to please and sell to your future customers.
Here are some questions/answers that I hope will help you better:
- What steps to create your brand?
Check with the INPI (National Institute of Intellectual Property) that the brand name you want is available. If so, file it (the process takes about 5-6 months) and the price depends on the number of categories in which you wish to have your brand protected.
You can launch the creation of your company in parallel (in particular the registration in the Trade Register, the statutes...), for my part, I went through the start-up LEGALPLACE which took care of all the administrative procedures (3 week delay). You can do it yourself but you need to have a minimum of knowledge and time.
The capital deposit at a professional bank (I chose SHINE) where you set the amount of your capital (minimum €1 for an SAS / SASU).
- What are the costs to create your brand?
INPI trademark registration (3 categories) = 270€
LEGALPLACE fees to create the company = 600€
SHINE fee for capital deposit = €150 (excluding monthly bank fees)
The administration to create your company and your brand costs around 1000€. These costs are obviously amortized over time, it is your first investment.
I also added 5000€ for my capital but these funds are immediately released in order to pay for your first supplier purchases.
There are still a lot of costs to anticipate when creating a brand (cost of the first production of products, professional insurance, domain name, accounting fees, professional email, regulatory files, registration with GS1 for the creation of its product barcodes, the design and costs of the website, etc.).
In short, I spent 20k € to create Versatile and its first production (whereas in general most founders spend between 60-80k €.
- How did I avoid certain fees?
By doing everything myself (or my boyfriend / family): photos, logistics, packaging, communication, marketing, design / visual identity, website...
We have no premises (and yes, we stock everything at home!) = no overproduction = no excessive production costs incurred.
In short, when you don't delegate, you save (but it takes time and energy!)
- Is a business plan required to get started?
I am the bad student on this subject. I did not do BP. Why?
I know the sector in which I want to position myself, my investment is relatively small (and therefore more likely to be reimbursed quickly) and I know the creation processes, the cost prices of the products.
In short, I don't know everything and I'm probably going to have to get started but honestly, don't get stuck on something you can't do, find out about all the administrative formalities, know all your production / resale costs by heart and with a bit of luck, you will get there!
- How to manage failures / victories on a daily basis?
As in any profession, there are phases up and phases down . Entrepreneurship, being your own boss does not mean the end of worries, looooooin of it! We would tend to believe that we can get up at 3 p.m. and work 2 hours a day, yes it's true, we can decide to do it but let's be realistic, if we want our society to work, it's not really the path to take.
It's true that you're only accountable to yourself and that's perhaps precisely the difference, you take things much more to heart (for my part) than for a CEO you only know the name, for whom you are an insignificant ant who will kindly rework his little presentation overnight for the next day. On the other hand, the little ant in entrepreneurship, if it makes a bad choice, it will be directly impacted on its brand, its company, its image..
On the other hand, the little ant in entrepreneurship, if it makes a bad choice, it will be directly impacted on its brand, its company, its image... You learn a lot about yourself.
- What are the keys to success?
If I had them, it would be known!
Unfortunately my activity has barely started, no one is immune to creative slowdown, consumer enthusiasm. No one has the keys to success.
Believing in yourself, making your way, taking on big walls, then succeeding in climbing them, reworking your failures and celebrating your victories, these are the keys to being an entrepreneur. The rest, only time will tell!
- A little report 2021?
26 shops (2 e-shops and 24 shops in France / Belgium), + 1500 perfumes sold, a community of + 3600 versatilien.nes, many new ideas in mind and an immense desire to continue to grow the brand, thank you for everything.
I hope this article will help you in your thinking.
If you are hesitating, one piece of advice, go for it.
PHOTO: VERSATILE PARIS
