From spa owner to 8-figure beauty brand success
How Urban Skin Rx founder Rachel Roff leveraged a gap in the beauty market to create a multimillion-dollar formula for success.
Rachel Roff on building a beauty brand
- Enlist experts early on.
Rachel approached stylists who then persuaded customers to try her products.
- Invest in staff.
Urban Skin Rx offers a commission structure for all staff.
- Consider gifting.
Giving away products or services was more cost-effective than paying influencers, early on, says Rachel.
It was when she was bullied in high school because of her appearance and weight that Rachel Roff, the founder and CEO of Urban Skin Rx, first discovered how solution-oriented she was.
"I got into aesthetics because I wanted to make myself look better and help others going through what I went through, look better," she explains. "I feel very empowered when I find solutions to improve my life."
More than two decades later, Roff has built a multimillion-dollar brand – Urban Skin Rx – on exactly that, and her clinical-strength skincare line for darker skin tones empowers women all over the world.
"I feel very empowered when I find solutions to improve my life."
A licensed medical aesthetician, Roff's first entrepreneurial undertaking was opening her own clinic in North Carolina in 2006. From the beginning, Roff’s Urban Skin Solutions, a medical spa and laser center, specialized in treating women of colour.
"It was an industry that had neglected to be inclusive of the needs of tan and darker skin types," she recalls. "There's no question that melanin-rich skin is more fragile and burns a lot easier, but just because there are hurdles it doesn't mean that you ignore an entire demographic's skincare concerns."
Enlisting experts early on
Roff found she had a natural talent for marketing. "I was like, 'Where can I tap into clients who care about the way they look and are investing in the way that they look?' So, I went to every barber shop and every hair salon in Charlotte and I'd pass out free blueberry muffins, coupons and flyers to stylists," she says.
"I knew that if I could get them hooked, they would keep coming back."
"I would offer them their first service for free or for half off. I built a rapport with them. I knew how good my service was and that if I could get them hooked, they would keep coming back and paying full price and they would refer their clients. It really worked to my advantage."
Launching a skincare line
By 2010, having performed over 100,000 treatments alongside her team of melanin experts and with the knowledge of which ingredients and formulations actually worked on diverse skin tones, it was a no-brainer for Roff to pivot into homegrown skincare products.
"I launched a skincare line when there was already a demand."
"People ask me, 'How did you develop such a demand for your skincare line?' Well, I launched a skincare line when there was already a demand," she explains. "Having a very robust medical spa led to a high demand to manufacture products."
Attracting an A-list clientele
Urban Skin Solutions quickly grew a high-profile client base. "I would say [American singer] Fantasia, my first celebrity client, was a turning point because that led other celebrities [such as singer Teyana Taylor] to seek me out."
When it came time to market her new skincare range, Roff stuck to what she knew – and offered complimentary products and treatments to her celebrity clients.
"A lot of people do not believe in giving away services and products for free; they feel that it devalues them, but that was not my experience," explains Roff, who started giving away treatments and products to her celebrity clientele in exchange for Instagram posts.
"I didn't have $10,000 to pay for a post on social media but I knew the service I was charging $1000 for technically only cost me about $300," she says. "This isn't the most realistic strategy for everybody but, because I had the med spa, my cost of services and cost of goods was so much cheaper than paying to market my products.”
A few months after Teyana Taylor (who currently has more than 15 million Instagram followers) posted about Urban Skin Rx's Even Tone Cleansing Bar in 2017, the brand launched in Target stores nationwide. A year later, Ulta Beauty and CVS joined the list of stockists. "Once one retailer takes a chance on you, it validates you and then other retailers are willing to take a chance," says Roff.
"Once one retailer takes a chance on you, it validates you to other retailers."
But nothing could have prepared Roff for the company's "biggest pivotal jump" in 2020 after a TikTok user posted a before-and-after video of herself using the now famous Cleansing Bar.
"The viral moment financially grew our company in a significant way," explains Roff, who sold the med spa last year. "That year we grew by 100 per cent. We went from a $10 million company to a $20 million company."
Taking on tech partners
A substantial part of the continuing growth of the business is down to Afterpay. "When we launched it in 2018, immediately our average order value increased by $10, which is significant," says Roff. "It's so easy and seamless. I can't think of one reason not to have it."
As a brand that offers products and collections at multiple price points, Afterpay is particularly useful for customers who are considering a higher-priced purchase, but don’t have the funds to pay for it all at once. It also allows customers to experience the full product range – and benefits – from the outset.
“Our skincare value sets come with five or more products and average $100 or more,” explains Roff. “We push our customers to invest in them because they tend to get the best results, particularly if they’re looking for a quick solution for problematic skin.”
Investing in staff
Roff is also a huge believer in commission structure for every employee, from receptionist to customer service agents. She wants every single person representing the brand to be able to be incentivized by growth.
"Bonus structures help employees to invest in your business’ success."
“I have pretty much always had my employees on commission and bonus structures tied to sales because it helps people take more ownership in your business’s success and the customer experience,” she says. “With a growing business you can’t micromanage and audit everything, so this strategy ensures my team is paying better attention to details that can potentially cost the business money.”
Now stocked in 10,000 retail stores across America, 50 per cent of Urban Skin Rx's revenue comes direct from the website (urbanskinrx.com), which ships internationally. "And we have a 50 per cent retention rate of clients, which is very high for the saturated skincare industry," says Roff.
Customer service as a secret weapon
Her secret weapon? An in-house customer service team who operates five days a week. Over half of which are licensed aestheticians who offer free virtual consultations five days per week.
"Our virtual consultations actually spend more time with current customers who have questions or concerns about the products and their results rather than selling to new customers; this really helps with retention," says Roff.
So what does Roff think sets the company apart? It all comes back down to, of course, being solution oriented.
"People love the results they get," she says. "The percentage of active ingredients are the same as you would find in an aesthetician or dermatologist's med spa – these are not fluffy, feel-good products, they are strong and efficacious."
Rachel Roff's tips for success
- Do surveys and focus groups prior to launching.
just because you and your friends and family think something is great, is it going to resonate in a mass audience? Doing what you can to get consumer insights into the behaviors of target customers is going to set you up for success with marketing, which is key.
- Never compromise on your formula or service.
It's always great to figure out how to cut costs on the nice-to-haves but you cannot cut corners on the things that lead to the quality and results that your product or service brings to the table.
- Incentivize employees.
I'm a huge believer in commission structures for every single employee, from receptionists to customer service agents. You really want every single person representing your brand to be able to be incentivized by growth.
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