Michelle Phan has grown from humble YouTuber to a full-fledged beauty business guru. Read all about her story here!
Girl Boss Lessons to Learn from Michelle Phan
Michelle Phan is a force to be reckoned with in today’s beauty industry. She’s gone from recording videos on her YouTube channel to having a legion of fans who love her and always want to listen to what she has to say. In addition to that, she also co-owns a beauty subscription business which has customers from both the US and Canada, a studio in L.A. for content creators, and her very own makeup line! Today, we’ll take a look at her story and see how she’s worked her way into getting the success she has now.
1. Humble YouTube beginnings
Michelle Phan had her start in YouTube. Her first video featured a natural makeup tutorial and after her first week, she found that she got 40,000 views! Mind you, she was also experiencing personal and financial problems during this time. She worked while studying and even got rejected when she applied to be a makeup artist, but once she hit “record” on her laptop, she knew she struck gold and found one of her passions. “
2. The Power of Influence
Her fans would always watch her videos to know the products she’d use. They listened to her reviews and bought the ones she’d talk highly about. Soon, brands took notice of her fanbase’s purchasing power and started signing with her. Fast forward to now, she has a book about makeup, style, and success.
3. A Relationship of Trust
Michelle takes care of her fanbase by being truthful with them. She gives honest beauty reviews and makes it a point to be authentic — something her legion of supporters have always loved about her since day 1. Building this relationship took her years but it has definitely harvested a million-fold of followers and believers of her brands.
4. Focused on a Niche
The road to Michelle’s success wasn’t easy because Ipsy, her subscription beauty sampling business, was met with a lot of doubters at the start. She’s also currently rebuilding her makeup It’s on its rebranding stage or rather, rebirth stage as per Michelle phan, and will be relaunched this 2017.
Michelle persevered, stuck with what was meaningful to her, and created a sustainable and not to mention successful business soon after. Clearly, she trusts the niche market she’s in and she adapts to the changes accordingly.
5. Problem Fixer
Being Asian herself, Michelle knows a thing or two about catering to the problems that the Asian market (and women in general) want to solve. She knows that Asian eyebrows tend to be thinner than other ethnicities and that most people would prefer to make their eyes appear bigger. She knows women have insecurity issues. She knows women want to look good but not spend too much. She wants to solve each problem one at a time with all her ventures.
6. Savvy Entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur means keeping on your toes. It’s all about preparing to make changes to evolve with your market. This is why she took to data to see how her customers were behaving and she’d switch up her business plans whenever necessary.
7. Turning A Blind Eye
Being in the public eye can bring buckets of negative comments and trolls sometimes, but Michelle Phan always chooses to look at the more positive side of the internet. After all, it’s what’s turned her goals into a reality and made her into the star and successful entrepreneur she is today.
Here’s a blast from the past! Press play on one of Michelle’s most popular videos!
Michelle Phan sure has come a long way, ladies. I’m sure you all agree with me when I say that she deserves all the recognition she has now. Do you have any other girl boss you think we should feature on our website? Tell me your picks in the comments below!
Get to know another YSP Girl Boss! Click here to read about DJ Hannah Bronfman!
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Feature image via Michelle Phan Facebook Page