The phrase “it’s just business — it’s not personal” doesn’t really apply when you’re a solopreneur. After all, starting your own business is a deeply personal endeavor — even so, figuring out how to separate your feelings from logical, data-driven business decisions is crucial to success.
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Why understanding where your business stands is so key for solopreneurs
This beauty business founder says learning to be objective was crucial to her company’s success.
Photo illustration by Kelly Millington
Kristen Noel Crawley learned that lesson when she created KNC Beauty, a clean beauty brand focused on fun, playful self-care. The idea for her very first product — a lip mask — came as a way to moisturize her dry, chapped lips during harsh Chicago winters. Crawley first discovered lip masks on a trip to Japan, but most ingredient lists were full of chemicals she didn’t want to put on her lips.
Only after doing market research and discovering no natural lip masks existed in the U.S. market did Crawley actually launch her business in 2016. That first innovative product led to others, and today, KNC Beauty is known for its best-selling retinol-infused, star-shaped eye mask, as well as the collagen-infused lip mask that started it all.
Developing exciting new products — including a new reusable eye mask customers can use with any serum — has always been Crawley’s strength. Managing her business’s finances has come with more of a learning curve, which is why she relies on Intuit QuickBooks to manage cash flow, payroll, payments, and banking all in one place. “I need those tools to help me do the other side of the business, which is the business stuff that I’m not so great at,” she said. “I am a creative, but I also have to make sure that the business stays afloat.”
Just as Crawley’s had to adapt to the challenges of running her own business, QuickBooks has been adapting to offer new products like QuickBooks Money. QuickBooks Money makes business banking simple and allows you to earn 5.00% APY* on money you put away in savings envelopes, helping Crawley better track invoices over time while building the business’s rainy day fund. “When you start a business, you have to do everything yourself and it’s literally bootstrapping to a tee,” she said. “QuickBooks was so fundamental in just helping me stay organized.”
“When you start a business, you have to do everything yourself and it’s literally bootstrapping to a tee.”
Keeping meticulous records of her inventory and cash flow is especially critical in the beauty industry, which comes with long lead times for product development and manufacturing. “In the beginning, I didn’t know that it took 12 months to put out a new product,” Crawley said. Those lead times mean Crawley has to put down a deposit for each order sent to her factory several months before seeing any revenue from that product.
Crawley learned that lesson the hard way. Early on, she committed several-hundred-thousand units of one product to one retailer, but didn’t receive any payment until she delivered the product almost six months later. Although the deal eventually brought in revenue for KNC Beauty, Crawley was forced to take a loan from a family friend to cover the cost of product development in the meantime.
Today, she uses QuickBooks to see a clear overview of her business’ cash flow with real-time insights. Crawley can see money come in and out over time, allowing her to stay on top of bills, make smart business decisions, and know that she’s always on budget. It’s particularly helpful when Crawley is deciding if she has the funds to release a new product. “Because I am a small business, I have to put things out in pieces. I can’t do full sets or a full collection,” Crawley explained. “I have a whole timeline.”
Photo illustration by Kelly Millington
Though Crawley doesn’t have all the resources at her disposal that a larger corporation does, she has learned her scrappiness and creativity can be just as much of an asset. In fact, the feature that put KNC Beauty on the map — eye masks in unique shapes like leaves and stars — came to her as a way to avoid paying for advertising. “I’d never had the budget for marketing, so that’s why I had to make an eye mask that was really cool-looking that people are going to want to post and share on their own,” she explained.
Doing business differently means using your strengths to your advantage. Crawley sees her connection with her community as another one of these strengths. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she created the KNC School of Beauty: a space for women entrepreneurs to connect, share stories, and learn from one another. “You realize how many issues that you share with other people,” she said. “There were so many women that came on whom I admire, and it was really nice and humbling for me to hear that they also go through very similar trials that I go through.”
Crawley also consults her friends and family for advice — even if she just needs someone to bounce ideas off of, those conversations can spark some surprising revelations. “I have about three go-tos, and they all have different opinions, different tastes, and different mindsets,” she said. “I kind of run [new product ideas] by each person and then when the final version is done, if they all approve, I know that across the board people are going to like it.”
In fact, whenever she’s faced with a challenge, Crawley falls back on her strengths: her creativity, her community, and her savviness. “I didn’t grow up with a lot of opportunities. I’m from a small town, my parents don’t know anybody. I really built everything on my own,” she said. For Crawley, that’s what doing business differently is all about — making your own way with what you have to work with.
*Intuit is a technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by our partner, Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC.