Huda Kattan: 'My three secrets to being a successful entrepreneur'

The undisputed queen (and founder) of billion-dollar beauty brand, Huda, gives us a masterclass on the surprising qualities you need to start up a business (no life savings necessary)

For Huda Kattan, founder of Huda Beauty, empowering women via her beauty blog was the philosophy that turned a simple love affair with make-up into one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in the world. Now with Huda Beauty valued at over $1 billion dollars and launching into skincare in 2020, Huda shares her essential tips on how to go from influencer to building your business in less than a year.

1. You must believe passionately in your brand

'Loving what you do is the key ingredient, so start with these basic questions: Why do I want to start a business? Do I like the industry enough to be living and breathing it 24/7? Do I have enough passion for beauty to follow it through? Personally I’ve always given people make-up advice and talked about beauty products because that’s what I’m passionate about. I can’t promote makeup on Instagram if I don’t believe in the product. If I'm asking people to spend money on Huda Beauty products, I have to genuinely believe we have created the best.'

2. Surround yourself with a loyal team and share responsibilities

'To scale your business, you need to delegate responsibilities to others and establish a strong company culture. That means having a loyal, supportive team. I have my whole family involved because this instils a positive, kind environment and I need people I can trust. I was so scared setting up a beauty brand because I expected the rest of the industry to be catty. If I ever come across attitude, I'll nip it in the bud right away. There’s no way I tolerate that behaviour.'

3. Be kind to other brands

'It has always been Huda Beauty's policy to support other brands on YouTube and Instagram. The comments show that people really appreciate us giving different price points. We even share dupes of our products. If you’re looking for a more reasonably-priced version of our product, why not buy it? Even when we criticise products we do it with the intention of educating people and not hurting a brand. Some brands do the clickbait thing of ‘never try this’ to get traffic but it’s against our ethos and people are tired of negativity. You lose integrity and therefore followers.'

Shop our must have Huda Beauty essentials:

Huda Beauty Mercury Retrograde Palette, £58

Huda Beauty Throwback Power Bullet in First Kiss, £22

Huda Beauty Kayali Vanilla EDP, £84 for 100ml

Huda Beauty Life Liner, £22

Huda Beauty Hoodie Lash, £17