Solo skincare founder: where should time and money go first?
A one-person founder who just launched a niche skincare brand asked r/ecommerce for help. With an accounting background, e-commerce was new to them. Early traction came from Reddit communities, but video editing was eating whole days, paid UGC videos performed unevenly, and influencers with 15k+ followers quoted $3,000–5,000 per post. They were already running email flows, weekly SEO blogs and cold emails to dermatologists and estheticians, and wanted to know where to focus.
What the replies said
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The "do it all" camp: run SEO, email, Meta and Google ads and social content, even a little of each.
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Just as many said the opposite: you're spread thin, start with whatever drives revenue directly.
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Outsourcing video editing to free up time for strategy got strong agreement.
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Several said ads only worked after they fixed landing pages and messaging.
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Put the founder's story front and centre, and reuse one vertical video across platforms.
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Some suggested TikTok Shop or in-person sampling.
Desk note The US FTC tells creators to disclose paid or gifted relationships clearly, inside the video itself, where it's hard to miss. If you pay for UGC or gifting, it's safer to write the disclosure method into the agreement along with the fee.
If you could put your first marketing budget into only one channel, which would it be?
Original thread: r/ecommerce — ROI advice for a new skincare brand · Source: FTC
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