BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Basq's Female Founders Share Secrets To Their 13 Years of Success In Business (And Friendship)

Following
This article is more than 5 years old.

Photo Courtesy of basq

Kelli Kenny and Lauren Parisier attended Columbia University Business School, worked together on a corporate market analysis team, were both pregnant around the same time, and founded basq, a leading skin care company for new and expecting moms. Today, 13 years later, celebrities Heidi Klum, Molly Simms, Jamie Lynn Sigler, Jennifer Love Hewitt, among others are avid clients of the brand.

As most entrepreneurs know, it’s no easy feat to create a successful business with a friend and maintain a strong friendship while doing so, but Kenny and Parisier make it look easy. While statistics about friends who go into business together are hard to come by, I've spoken to numerous entrepreneurs throughout my career who have shared challenges and fallouts they didn’t anticipate when starting a business with friends.

Most people share their business ideas with friends or acquaintances, not strangers, and that’s why a large number of entrepreneurs looking for a co-founder end up in business with someone they know well. And across the board, most people think that since the friendship is strong and they get along with one another, that doing business together will be the same. Only to find out that so many other factors come into play when it comes to running a startup, from financial pressures to management styles, there are plenty of reasons it often doesn’t work out.

Kenny and Parisier not only beat the odds of creating a successful business, considering that 90% of startups fail, but they also defied the idea that friends can’t run a business together, so I asked them to share their secrets to success.

Turn Customers Into Brand Advocates

When creating a marketing plan for their business, they looked at the nine months of pregnancy through a different lens. They saw this period of time as having the longevity to create brand advocates and grow their reach through word of mouth.

“Where there was one pregnancy, there was the potential for more through friends, family and colleagues. If you have one woman love your products, she’ll tell some friends and they’ll tell more friends and before you know it, you’ve got a village raising your brand. We felt totally comfortable with the venture as we were our own best customers," says Kenny. Both women became pregnant around the same time and were unable to find the right skin care built for pregnancy.

"We were happy to launch in a niche space we understood personally. Plus, we knew we wanted to create a business for women, run by women. Pregnancy skin care felt like the perfect fit. It took almost a year of research on ingredients to build products strong enough for the stretch of pregnancy that were also gentle enough for mom and baby to be,” adds Kenny.

Sometimes, Going Against The Grain Is The Right Move

Initially with their new small business, Kenny and Parisier didn’t follow in the footsteps of the beauty brands they admired. Instead, they took the opposite approach.

“While our favorite brands literally filled shelves in a battle for real estate, we knew our consumer only needed a few things specific to pregnancy. We took our time growing the brand, starting with just four products that targeted the top needs of pregnancy. We knew the consumer wasn’t going to give up every part of her beauty routine. In fact, we understood our products needed to match or exceed her beauty expectations while offering solutions that her current assortment couldn’t handle. We built the perfect add-ons. To this day we’ve stuck to this simple strategy: create absolutely beautiful products that meet a real need so they become addictive and friend worthy,” shares Kenny.

Be Fanatical About What You Do

Having laser-like focus is the key to creating a thriving business. You have to know when to say no, where to spend your time, and exactly what your consumers want, so you can deliver on that.

“We listened to customers and continued to create products based on need. Our edge is that we are fanatical about aesthetics – from texture to absorption, aroma to skin feel, says Parisier.

Find Out What Your Competitors Are Doing Wrong And Solve Those Problems

Identifying a gap in the market can provide the differentiating factor you need to beat your competitors at their game. That’s exactly what the founders of basq did through research and product knowledge.

“As basq succeeded our retail partnerships grew and so did our line. Our retailers saw we understood skin care and consumer needs. We were challenged to branch out - create beautiful, effective skin care at a value price. We knew we could, we also knew it would take some work. For starters, most value brands used cocoa butter and mineral oil because they are less expensive. The problem is those ingredients are not right for pregnancy – both because they don’t help stretching skin build collagen and they are heavy and greasy which makes for a lousy beauty experience," shares Parisier. “Both of us now had families and we could relate to the need to boost skin strength, moisture and nutrition.”

Always Remain Flexible

“With the growth of the business, we’ve found we still operate with a super flexible structure. From the very beginning we shared decision making and co-headed most operating functions. It is one of our biggest strengths and challenges. As we grew, a natural division of primary responsibilities developed but we still have a great deal of fluidity and overlap. We are most comfortable jointly making decisions and trust each other’s instincts. While we often seek outside opinions and recognize when we are beyond our areas of expertise, we have not taken outside money and continue to self finance the business. We want to make decisions because they are right for the business and not because of financial pressure,” says Kenny.

“Part of our success in meeting market need is that we can make changes fast. We don’t think of ourselves as “the boss” when it comes to jobs - we play a variety of roles and have our hands in everything to make sure the work gets done. The same goes for our employees,” she adds.

Measure Passion, Not Hours

basq has an entirely female team and everyone wears many hats. That’s one of the keys to most successful startups - having team players who have a wide range of skills and are willing to do whatever is needed at any given time - whether that fits their job description or not.

“We love hiring women to work part-time because we know there’s a lot of talent out there, but many women need flexibility that corporate jobs often can’t accommodate. We look for team members that are passionate about our business. We firmly believe that when you love what you’re doing, you’ll put in the maximum effort – it’s a much better measure than hours.  We love running a small business and we focus on building products made in the USA to further the job equation. Our success has come from sticking to our founding principal - offer products people feel they need, make them extraordinary so your customers become your brand ambassadors,” says Kenny.

Have A Sense Of Humor

When asked what tips they could share that have helped them maintain a friendship while growing a business, they did recognize that they've been lucky, but it's definitely not all about luck. "When you start a business you have no idea what it will bring.  Kelli and I bring different strengths but we have a shared vision. We work a lot because we like to achieve, we are never satisfied and we laugh all the time to keep sane," says Parisier.

Kenny adds, "It's beneficial to have someone else vested in the business who can temper the negatives and really understand the successes – small and large. Having coverage around the clock is really important and having a partner makes that possible. I tell people never try to do it alone, especially if you have a family. The amount of work, time and commitment is so great, a partner enables balance when you need it."

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website or some of my other work here