Ideas for Small Cosmetics Companies with Low Investment

The idea of starting a makeup business is exciting. But many ideas require time, money, and risk.

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually many ways to start a business that let you focus less on the logistics and upfront costs and more on getting started.

These low-investment small-business ideas make a great entry point for beginners, bootstrappers, or anyone with a busy schedule and let you pick up a side business without having to drop everything else.

You still need to come up with a solid idea, build a brand, put effort into marketing, and provide excellent customer service. But there are ways you can bypass many traditional startup costs, such as initial inventory, warehousing, and retail space.

Try to start a dropshipping business:

Buy stock, store it, pick it, pack it, ship it. Managing inventory is a big commitment when you’re running a business.

Dropshipping is an easy business to start and the first of our good business ideas. Dropshipping is a fulfillment model where a third-party supplier stores and ships inventory to customers on your behalf. It’s one of the best businesses to start because it’s low overhead, hands-off, and scalable. 

You don’t need to handle any products yourself—you just need to make the sales and pass orders on to your supplier. In fact, it’s one of the quickest and cheapest businesses to start. 

You can curate products from one or more suppliers into your own online store under a theme that focuses on a specific niche, like gear for yoga enthusiasts or water bowls for dog owners. When a customer buys a product from you, the order is sent to your supplier, who fulfills it on your behalf. However, you are still responsible for your own marketing and customer service.

There are both local and overseas suppliers you can work with, as long as you can establish a relationship with them built on trust—an unreliable supplier will reflect poorly on your brand.

Dropshipping is a low-investment way to test product-market fit and launch a business before you invest in your own original products. Just be sure to always order a sample for yourself to make sure your supplier is reliable and that the quality of the products is fit for selling to your customers.

Create an online cosmetic store:

If you love makeup and sharing your sense of style online, you can consider creating your own online cosemetic store. You don’t need to become a cosmetic designer—you can simply curate items from other vendors into your own online store (using the dropshipping model we discussed earlier).

Makeup, DIY Palette,WIG, and more—you can build your own cosmetic brand using several product sourcing apps, model them in your own product photos and social media posts, and build an online following as a trendsetter.