I started in beauty in 2005, handing out samples at a department store counter in Manchester. Twenty years later, I've worked across retail, brand-side, agency, and now run my own company. Here's what I wish someone had told me on day one.
The industry rewards speed, not perfection
My first brand launch took eighteen months. We agonised over every shade name, every font weight, every influencer shortlist. By the time we went to market, two competitors had already claimed the positioning we wanted. The brand that wins isn't the one with the prettiest deck - it's the one that ships, learns, and iterates.
If I could go back, I'd cut every timeline in half and accept that version one is never the final version.
Retail relationships are everything - and they take years
I spent my early career thinking the product would speak for itself. It doesn't. Buyers are drowning in submissions. The brands that get shelf space are the ones whose founders pick up the phone, show up to store visits, and make the buyer's job easier.
I've seen brilliant products fail because the founder treated the buyer relationship as transactional. And I've seen average products thrive because the founder understood that retail is a partnership built on trust, data, and reliability.
The content game changed completely - twice
When I started, "content" meant a press release and a glossy magazine ad. Around 2012, it became about Instagram grids and curated aesthetics. By 2020, it was TikTok, short-form video, and raw authenticity. Each shift caught brands off guard.
The lesson isn't about any specific platform. It's that the distribution channel will always change, and the brands that survive are the ones with systems flexible enough to adapt - not the ones married to a single format.
Cash flow kills more brands than bad products
I've watched founders with genuinely innovative formulations go under because they couldn't manage the gap between paying suppliers and getting paid by retailers. Net-60 terms sound fine on paper until you're funding a £200k production run and your biggest account is 45 days late.
If I were starting again, I'd obsess over cash flow modelling before I ever thought about packaging design.
Data was always the answer - we just didn't have it
For most of my career, beauty operated on gut feeling. Which shade to launch? Ask the creative director. Which market to enter? Follow the competition. Which creator to partner with? Whoever the PR team liked.
Now we can actually measure what works. We can test 50 content variations in a week. We can predict which products will sell through before they hit shelves. We can identify creators whose audiences genuinely convert, not just engage.
The instinct still matters - beauty is emotional, personal, cultural. But instinct paired with data is unstoppable. That's the shift I'm most excited about, and it's the reason I started Beauty 2.0.
What I'd tell my younger self in one sentence
Stop trying to be right and start trying to be fast. The beauty industry doesn't reward the most polished plan. It rewards the team that learns quickest.