Christine Chang and Sarah Lee, founders of the ecommerce site and brand consultancy, Glow Recipe, have parlayed the Korean beauty wave into a thriving small business.  They are the fastest growing K-Beauty site and fresh off of an appearance on ABC's Shark Tank, where they closed a deal for $425K for 25% of their company after convincing the sharks on the potential of Korean beauty in the US, as well as the steep growth of their business.
  
1. Engage with your community: “The way a small business can differentiate from a larger, more established business is to engage with its customer on a more personal level, to be more relatable,” says Christine.  “Sarah and I write a lot of blog posts about our personal routines… we're very present on Instagram, interacting directly with customers and clients.”
 
2. Digital is your friend: “Digital really helps to level the playing field in terms of building awareness,” says Sarah. “There is all matter of tools at your disposal to drive engagement, build your brand, create a lifestyle. Glow Recipe utilizes digital to help build buzz when we first discover products in Korea and eventually bring them into the states, keeping our customers involved every step of the way. Then we follow up with educational content via Youtube videos and blog posts, seeding with digital influencers.”
 
3. Never stop being a customer in your field: Being able to look at the category you are in from the eyes of a customer is critical to keep your business fresh, relevant and exciting, according to Sarah. “Between the two of us, we travel to Korea 6 to 8 times a year, to keep our finger on the pulse and it is an eye opening experience each time,” says Christine.  “There are always amazing new innovations to discover that we think will be perfect for US women.”
 
About the experts
Glow Recipe curates and launches unknown Korean brands for American women.  Sarah & Christine come from 20+ combined years in marketing and product development in the US and Korea and offer an interesting small business lens from which to examine the K-Beauty craze that is reshaping the beauty category.