Make up your own business

"Feel the fear and do it anyway." This phrase stuck with Gillian Moore since she came across it while studying entrepreneurialism in fifth year in school. Now she has put it into practice with her cosmetics brand, Fuschia. Caroline Maddenreports.

"If you really believe in what you're doing . . . and if you have the drive and ambition to see it through and make it work, then don't let anyone put you off," she advises.

Certainly, launching the first ever Irish make-up and cosmetics line into a hugely competitive marketplace dominated by multinationals was a David and Goliath-style challenge that required a huge leap of faith.

When Gillian and her husband Aidan Brady launched their flagship store in Scotch Hall Shopping Centre in Drogheda two years ago, one of the key challenges was marketing their then unknown brand.

Unlike multinational cosmetics companies that spend millions on extravagant advertising campaigns, the couple had to figure out how to increase their profile on a shoestring budget.

"When we set up first, we were totally unknown," recalls Gillian. "Local people get behind you because you're local and you're Irish, which was great, but not everybody out there knows that. Our business relies heavily on advertising, but we didn't have the money to spend."

Their solution was simple, cheap, yet remarkably effective.

"We had a very, very small budget, so we came up with the idea of looking for the 'Face of Fuschia'," explains Gillian. The idea was to select a winner who would model Fuschia's make-up for posters in the store.

The competition seemed to tap into the zeitgeist, striking a chord with a generation addicted to America's Next Top Model and makeover shows, and the first Face of Fuschia competition was a big success. It attracted more than 600 entries and succeeded in getting local people involved in the brand.

Fuschia has now run the competition four times, and has its own Bebo site (http://x-fuschia-x.bebo.com) to help to promote the company and the Face of Fuschia campaign. Ideally, Gillian would like to run the competition seasonally.

The company didn't want to alienate its biggest customer base - women over 35 with plenty of disposable income - by representing only teenage customers and pigeonholing Fuschia as a "teenybopper" brand. It produces make-up for every age group, so it was important for the brand's marketing to reflect this. For this reason, it has already created store posters representing older clientele, and is holding another photo shoot this month featuring five older women.

Fuschia's marketing drive has been an unmitigated success, but the branding of the product began long before the Face of Fuschia campaign. Gillian and Aidan devoted two years to perfecting the brand, selecting colours, designing the huge range (they now stock 1,000 products) and the packaging. "We were still in our own jobs while doing this, and then we took a leap of faith and committed to Fuchsia and our location in Scotch Hall," Gillian recalls.

As well as selling their cosmetics line through their retail outlet, Fuschia makes clever use of a number of other distribution streams such as beauty salons and pharmacies.

"From a business point of view, it's fantastic for us because we supply the product but we don't incur the overheads," explains Gillian.

At the moment, salons can't get enough of Fuschia's mineral products. Minerals are the next big thing in the cosmetics world, producing a flawless finish and healing the skin underneath, and are suitable for conditions like acne and rosacea.

"We're one of the few who do a really good, affordable mineral range," says Gillian.

Salons are snapping up Fuschia's bestselling product, mineral foundation, and also take on other top-selling products in the line.

Despite the challenges faced along the way, Fuschia is continuing to go from strength to strength. The company was named best new business at the 2006 Drogheda Business Excellence Awards, and last month received the accolade of best small business at this year's awards.

Gillian is just one of eight entrepreneurs featured on a DVD that should have arrived in your school recently in the Exploring Enterprise resource folder, which was developed by the County and City Enterprise Boards in partnership with Second Level Support Service.

Why not ask your teacher to play the DVD in your next class and find out the secrets to making it in business?

If there are any areas of business which you would like to see covered in Business 2000, please e-mail business2000@irish-times.ie.