Key takeaways

Continuing to act like a startup means being agile, taking opportunities, being extremely cash conscious and creative.

Just because your product is made in New Zealand, don’t think that is going to win you business, it’s just a value add.

If you want to launch your brand effectively when breaking into a new market, start in the top tier to create desirability, then you can move on down the tiers.

As she celebrates the 20th anniversary of her Antipodes natural skincare business, Wellington entrepreneur Elizabeth Barbalich says one of her biggest tips to small businesses is to continue to run their business like a startup even if they’ve taken their training wheels off.

“Adopt a startup mentality and take a number of these strategies into the future as the business grows,” says the company founder, who went from a small to a medium sized business in 2012.

By a startup mentality, Barbalich means being highly creative, extremely cash conscious and efficient. It means being very agile and able to move fast, she adds.

With a team of 45 globally, the majority headquartered in Wellington, the Antipodes range of organic beauty skincare is stocked in New Zealand, Japan, China, the UK, France and in some Eastern European countries. The company has sold 15 million pots of serum, creams and potions.

Barbalich remembers being in Paris meeting buyers and the department store buyer at Samaritaine told her a brand had just pulled out of a display in one of the best parts of the store. Would she be interested? She would normally have had to pay 30,000 Euro for this spot.

They told her, if she took the opportunity she would need to turn it around in a week.

“I said, "Leave it with us," and we did an amazing display which has led to lots of opportunities," says the Antipodes CEO.

A big brand would not have been able to move that fast, she adds.

“It helps build trust with retailers that you can move quickly. It helps them and it helps us,” she says.

Don't be afraid to be a leader in your field as the newcomer

The Wellington businesswoman is passionate about her vision to outperform luxury synthetic brands with her 100% natural ingredients, glass jars, biodegradable card and vegetable inks for her natural moisturisers and serums.

These days Barbalich is sharing her story of sustainable practices with beauty giants like L’Oreal, Estée Lauder, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Clarins.

In the Paris region the Antipodes range is in 300 stores, among them, Le Bon Marché, Galeries Lafayette and Oh My Cream as well as pharmacies.

When selling her product in a new market, the entrepreneur says she always adopts a top tier down strategy, going to the top department stores first which sets the position, then to pharmacies and health stores.

“You go to the top ones first to create desirability,” she explains.

Once you’ve established the brand in the top stores and have a good rate of sales in the channel then you can go to other ones.

Have face to face relationships with every major customer

The company founder is a big advocate of having face to face relationships with each buyer at each retailer she sells to.

“If they know you, they are more loath to cancel their business with you,” she says.

In her first five years of being in business, Barbalich was the travelling salesperson for the brand.

"It was before Instagram and Tiktok - I went and met with buyers and trained stores and showed a lot of gratitude," she says.

In 2008 with the Global Financial Crisis, stores didn’t delist the Antipodes brand. They said, “We like Elizabeth, we will keep the brand on the shelf.” "

For the full article go here on Stuff.

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Keep a startup mentality even as your company grows