Emerging in the Beauty Industry: A New Course on Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship in the Beauty Industry

Dr. Miesha Williams has decided to take her expertise and knowledge to the new beauty industry course titled Entrepreneurship in the Beauty Industry. Williams is an Associate Professor of Economics at Spelman College. She contributes crucial experience as a researcher of macroeconomic policy and racial disparities, and she recently served as a Visiting Scholar at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

From students majoring in economics to those minoring in cosmetic science, the course equips them to assess the feasibility of a beauty product by examining supply and demand, production strategies, risk factors, and market positioning.

"This course is centered on the “lean start-up” entrepreneurship pedagogy and is supported by concepts from managerial economics." Williams stated

The first learning point involves assessing economic feasibility of a beauty product through supply and demand. This will help them determine whether there is a market for their product idea and how pricing strategies could affect success.

Another core topic this course offers is scheduling feasibility of a beauty product through production optimization choices.  Production plans that support a successful product launch are important to know when dtermining consumers demand.

Third, the course encourages students to consider technical feasibility by identifying potential risks in product development and estimating the costs associated with those risks.

Finally, students will research operational feasibility by identifying their product’s market niche and value proposition.

“Benefits of this course include its focus in the Beauty Industry which will serve to support the cosmetics science minors who want to improve their business acumen; its use of economics concepts that will cultivate the entrepreneurial skillset of developing a feasibility study; and a final product that will help students to decide if it is in their comparative advantage to work alone in the development of a business idea, or hire help as they go on to pursue innovative and entrepreneurial ventures,”  Dr. Williams quoted.