Do you need a big budget to start a lash supply business?
No. You don’t need a big budget to start a lash supply business. From Just 3000 USD is enough.
Table of Contents
1. LASH SUPPLY BUSINESS STARTUP COST-BREAKDOWN
The following table will help you estimate a pretty comprehensive budget to start a lash supply business. Don’t forget to update the numbers of the cost at your market to have a closer estimation.
| Category | Item | Cost Range (Low) | Cost Range (High) |
| Initial Inventory | Lash Products | 500 | 2000 |
| Adhesives and Tools | 200 | 500 | |
| Packaging | 300 | 1000 | |
| Storage Solutions | 100 | 300 | |
| Branding and Design | Logo Design | 50 | 300 |
| Product Labeling/Packaging Design | 100 | 500 | |
| Website Design and Development | 200 | 2000 | |
| Legal and Administrative Costs | Business Registration and Licensing | 50 | 500 |
| EIN | 0 | 0 | |
| Insurance | 200 | 500 | |
| Marketing and Advertising | Social Media Ads | 100 | 500 |
| Influencer Collaborations | 50 | 500 | |
| Photography and Product Shoots | 200 | 1000 | |
| Operational Costs | Office Supplies | 50 | 200 |
| Shipping Supplies | 100 | 300 | |
| Platform Fees | 30 | 80 | |
| Shipping Costs | 100 | 500 | |
| TOTAL | 2330 | 10680 |
Many lash manufacturer in Vietnam are willing to support customers to start small. Any some of them are professional in doing that.
2. TIPS TO OPTIMIZE COSTS WHEN STARTING YOUR LASH SUPPLY BUSINESS
Free samples
You don’t need to always pay for the sample. Many lash suppliers in Vietnam are willing to offer you free samples. Don’t underestimate the sampling cost, since you might need to try the samples from several suppliers before choosing the right one. This is the number one reason that leads to over budget to start a lash supply business.
Free support to design the label and packaging
Professional manufacturers usually have the service supporting you to design label & packaging for your products under your private label (ODM/OEM services). And they can do it for you for free.
Free support of photography
Similar to package designing, some manufacturers can also support you in product photoshooting. Don’t hesitate to ask them help you for free, or at last at a cost lower than the same service at your place. They can also hire professional photography service at manufacturing country with lower cost than it is at your country.
Ex: Sen Lash Factory Vietnam is offering Free Support on Product Photoshooting for wholesale customers.
Make use of space before renting a warehouse
“Need to rent a warehouse before starting your lash supply business” is just a 1 misconception. The lash products are normally very small. 3000 boxes of lashes will take you just less than 0.5m3. And for a simple start, Many of our customers just need about 3m2 for: a shelf, a table for packaging, for computers and sticker printing. So renting cost should not be in your innitial budget to start a lash supply business.
Ask your lash manufacturer to help optimize your buying budget
For example, if you would like to invest $2000 to innitial lash stock, and you would like to have as many types of lash possible in your catalog. You can ask your lash manufacturer to help you making an optimized proposal. They can even add more market insights from their experience to your lash order.
Ask for gifts instead of discount
Value of a product is always higher than its cost. Lets examinze this case:
For a lash box, your cutomers buy it at $10, you bought it from the manufacturer at $4, and its cost your manufacturer only $2.5 to produce.
So if you need a budget of $100 USD for the promotion it would be:
- If you use $100 USD as discount: Your customer can buy 10 more boxes.
- If you ask your manufacturer to send you more boxes of lash instead of discount, they can send you from 25-40 boxes more. (100/4 = 25 boxes; 100/2.5=50 boxes).
Simplize every operations to save operational cost.
You may notice that managing operation of lash supply business is actually a management on 3 flows: physical product flow, information flow and financial flow. Keep those flow as simple as possible and don’t rely too much on complex information system when you start your business.
3. OVERCOME THE PROBLEM OF MOQ
MOQ of a lash manufacturer is mainly decided by 2 MOQ: MOQ of lash manufacturing & MOQ of packaging manufacturing. And normally the MOQ of producing the lash is lower than the box. In almost cases, the lash manufacturers are not producing the packaging by themselves.
Therefore,
- If you use standard packaging, the MOQ is the MOQ of lash manufacturing
- If you use non-standard packaging, the MOQ is the MOQ of the box.
However, your lash manufacturer can have very creative solution to resolve the MOQ problem. So don’t hesitate to ask them to start small.
For example, if you would like to do private label, your manufacturer can help you to design creative logo stickers or cover too add outside the standard boxes. Or for case that you would like to make custom-design cardboard box, you can ask your supplier to pay surcharge or make boxes to stock and use them for several delivery order of lashes.
In conclusion, You don’t need to have a big budget to start a lash supply business. You can start from just several thousand dollars while still be able to have advantages. The most important thing here is the art of optimizing the cost since the ability of cost-cutting is actually a big competitiveness.