by ANHC Pro Founder, Elaine Truesdale
There are several viable ways hair stylists seek to expand their offerings beyond styling hair behind the chair. One of those is launching their own hair product line. This is a good direction for hair stylists because stylists already have a customer base which trust their opinion on hair care. However, there are several barriers to cross before a person can successfully enter the market place with a new product. Those barriers include marketing, production, distribution, and sales. Today we are going to talk about marketing, the last thing most people think about but the first thing you need to consider.
Before you can begin mass selling your product, whether your develop it yourself or select a pre-formulated private label product, you will need to do research and build a customer base. Having loyal customers and advocates in place will make it easier for your to obtain investors, find manufacturers, and get you product into popular retail outlets. Lets look at building your customer base from the bottom up.

Who are the easiest customers for you to obtain? Hopefully, friends and family. In addition to providing you with honest feedback, your friends and family should become your first loyal PAYING customers. When we say PAYING we are not saying that you can not offer a "friends and family" discount, but if your friends and family are not willing to pay something for your product they cannot be true advocates for your product. Of course as you are developing your product or testing private label options you should charge little to to nothing for your products.