Yvonne Row and Marcia Griffin, Griffin + Row, Natural-based skincare

Starting a beauty brand in your 60s may be considered by some a daunting and overly ambitious venture. Not so for Melbourne grandmother Yvonne Row, 63, and her business partner Marcia Griffin, 61, who didn’t hesitate launching their natural skincare line Griffin + Row with as much enthusiasm and gusto as they have devoted to their many careers and businesses over the past few decades.

“I knew we had a great idea for a skincare brand,” says Yvonne, “and we saw our age as a benefit not a negative, knowing that we could harness and harvest all the wisdom of our years of experience and channel it into this venture.”

Yvonne, a former model who graced the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly back in 1963 and went on to become a Lady Mayoress of Melbourne to eventually founding Melbourne’s first organic supermarket, Passionfoods, says her involvement with organic foods and natural and organic beauty products over the past 10 years, fuelled her desire to create her own natural skincare line.

“I noticed people’s growing interest in beauty products that didn’t contain parabens, sodium lauryl sulphates and other chemical nasties, and realised that there was a need for a well-priced, natural skincare range that was simple and effective,” she comments.

The result is a terrific natural and straightforward range of products for busy working women, available at Target.

There are so many creative people who have great ideas, but a huge number of these fail to successfully go to market because having a great idea is one thing–getting others to believe in your idea – whether its a product or a service is another. But you need to ask yourself – Who will buy this product/service–? How have you tested your idea — its not good enough for a friend to say that’s a good idea!! You need to do extensive/intensive research.

My business partner and I started griffin+row in order to satisfy customer needs–Yvonne (my business partner) had customers coming to her organic store asking for a range of pure, natural anti-ageing skincare – so we knew that people were keen on this product concept.

I had had 16 years as a CEO of a skincare and cosmetic company so that brought a large amount of knowledge about women’s needs in skincare – we also looked around the broader market to see how serious the trend to natural, no-harmful chemicals is – we learned that this section of the market is growing rapidly- more rapidly than any other part of the skincare industry. So we could validate our idea not through hearsay and guess work-but by working with a consultant who works in this area.

We also researched the global market, which is easy to do now through the internet. We knew that what we planned was part of a global trend -so we have the opportunity for a very large global business.

How will your product/service be different to what is currently on the market?What are the unique selling features of your product? How will you differentiate your product in the market? How will it stand out from the rest? Branding of your product or service is really important.
Do you have the resources to get this to market? Who is going to finance the development? How long will this take? How much will this cost?
What price can you get for this product? How have you come to this decision? What are other like products selling for? How will your price affect volume?
Should you make a lower margin but sell more? should you sell fewer at a higher price.
Once your idea has been validated and costed, its critical to get the right people around you; banker/lawyer, accountant etc, get referrals to these people/companies — this is one of the keys to success.

Begin with the customer in mind and work back from that. Who will buy, what will they pay, how will you get it to them?
Do the costings and see if there is a worthwhile margin for you. Think of what else you could do with this money and what return you could get.
Find a wise mentor. Plenty of people have started up businesses before you. Ask and learn from them. You don’t need to make all the same mistakes over again!
Do serious financial/cash flow assessments. Most small businesses fail because of cash flow and the banks are not in a giving state of mind at the moment!
Once you are committed, stay committed and be prepared to work hard and smart. There are very few businesses that are overnight successes.

If you can, fund yourself!!

If you have to take on an investor, choose wisely. Be sure that you are clear about expected returns and financial goals
Put everything in writing -use a lawyer
If you have a partner, put everything in writing and be very clear about expectations. Have a shareholders agreement.
Make sure you have enough funds up to the first projected revenue and then more up up your sleeve in case the revenue takes longer to arrive.
Do cash flows on a realistic basis and budget carefully. Most small business failures occur because of lack of money and its really hard to get funds for a business project unless you have great contacts and/or a great business plan.