Baking up cosmetic formulations is nothing new for Kristin
Penta. "I used to work on my own formulations all the time [as
a kid]," says the 29-year-old. "I was always sending
letters to Estée Lauder telling them about my newest
formula." Today, she has creative control over and owns
approximately 20 percent of Fun Cosmetics Inc., a $5 million
Hillside, New Jersey, cosmetics company that sells mass merchandise
cosmetics through a wide variety of retailers.
"I wrote to almost every cosmetic company when I graduated
from college," adds Penta. "I wanted to work for a
company that manufactured cosmetics and didn't just market
them." She found her start in the cosmetics industry with
pencil manufacturer Pentech International Inc., which
private-labeled low-cost cosmetic pencils to a variety of
companies. Penta had lots of new ideas for low-cost cosmetic
products for teenage girls and started promoting her concepts
within her division. When Pentech wanted to focus on writing
instruments, Penta helped get her products bought out by investors
in 1997, and together they started Fun Cosmetics Inc.
Penta's success points to two valuable lessons for inventor
entrepreneurs: 1) There is more than one way for young,
underfinanced inventors to make their fortune, and 2) Working for a
small start-up is a world away from working for a big company.
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Learning the Ropes
Penta was hired right out of college by Pentech because the
company had started to sell
private-label cosmetic pencils and knew little about the industry.
Pentech didn't want to invest in an experienced employee, and
Penta was the perfect choice, a young woman with an artistic bent,
a college degree and an understanding of the process of making
cosmetics. Pentech provided Penta with a chemist and a molder (for
packages), and she was able to create her own products. Before the
line was bought, Penta had put 15 products on the market for
Pentech and had sales up to $1.8 million for the four years that
the line sold.
And Away We Go
Since being free of the constraints of a big company, Penta has
gone to town with new products. She's introduced lip gloss with
a mirror on the bottom and a line of temporary tattoos that come
off with soap and water. She introduces new pencil products every
season that fit the newest colors and trends. She's even
introduced a Fortune 2000 product, which is lip gloss and a fortune
in a miniature Chinese food container that sells for $2.99.
What's really helped Penta in her new company is that she's
constantly able to introduce new products into the market, which
keeps her one step ahead of the competition. Penta defines her
products as "cheap chic, cool but affordable."
Don Debelak (dondebelak@uswest.net) is a
new-business marketing consultant who has been introducing new
products for more than 20 years. He is the author of Bringing
Your Product to Market (John Wiley & Sons, $19.95,
800-225-5945).
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