An entrepreneur in a hurry
Kevin Liu aims for success with focused cosmetics line
Just two weeks ago, young cosmetics entrepreneur Kevin Liu, 25, was on the phone at 3 a.m. He was trying to get a crucial product shipment through U.S. Customs when his wife signalled him.
“Everybody was on the line — the buyer, FedEx. At the last moment, I said ‘Excuse me. I am in labour with my wife.’ ”
By 11 a.m., the rattled entrepreneur’s first child, Emma, had arrived. A day later, mom and baby were home, and Liu’s first U.S. eye cream shipment had arrived safely at Ross Stores’ California warehouse. Liu is a man in a hurry. “I’m the first among my friends to get married,” acknowledged the co-owner of one-yearold Adorlée Beauty Inc. “I got everything done. I’m ahead of the game.”
The fledgling company’s eye creams are already in 1,600 stores through test market contracts with the 1,200-store Ross chain in the U.S. and a 400-store discount clothing and home fashions chain in Canada. Son of a successful Chinese cosmetics distributor, Liu arrived in Canada as a 14-year-old when his family immigrated from Harbin, a northern Chinese city famous for winter ice sculptures. Liu attended Magee Secondary in Vancouver.
“I couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Cantonese, so I was in the middle,” the Mandarin-speaker said. His grades languished until he learned enough English to decipher when his assignments were due.
Then he turned his attention to getting a job.
He started by washing cars — 320 tire rims a day “because I was new. Good squat exercises.” He graduated to stocking supermarket shelves, and then took a job at a gas station.
“I wanted to fit in to society, to gain working experience. I heard a lot that western culture focuses more on experience, not so much on math skills as in China,” Liu said.
Knowing his family’s move to Canada was for his benefit, Liu felt an intense responsibility to do his parents proud.
When he applied to university with a 92 per cent average, he applied to UBC Okanagan by mistake. “How come school is (such a) drive every day? It was a silly mistake.”
In his first year at Simon Fraser University, his parents installed him in a Burnaby apartment and temporarily flew back to China. “I partied a lot and invited friends to come over and go for trips to Banff.”
In his second year, Liu begged his father to let him assist him in China. “My father was like, ‘ No. Absolutely no. Don’t even think about it. Get your education here and you’ll have a bright future.’ Typical Asian style.”
Forced to stay put, Liu charged through an accelerated marketing degree at SFU, worked as a realtor’s assistant, and took Blanche Macdonald Centre’s one-year makeup program — all at the same time. “I couldn’t stop. Because ... I don’t know ... I’m in a rush.”
The idea was to gain practical skills in his chosen industry, but Liu turned out to be a dreadful makeup artist.
“The teacher was nice. She gave me a pass. The grades, I would like to keep to myself.”
When Liu started Adorlée in 2014, he worked with local businesses to formulate and manufacture his product.
He hopes to compete by focusing on one niche and by selling “affordable luxury.” Adorlée Youth Preserving Eye Cream retails at $39 for 50 millilitres in a crowded market with some 200 products retailing between $15 and $400. In five months, Liu’s sold half of his initial 5,000-unit order.
Liu and business partner Gavin Nwaokorie, a formal Scotiabank small business adviser, have more products under development.
Liu knows his business experience will be quite different from his father’s.
Much has changed in China since the elder Liu started wholesaling cosmetics 22 years ago. Brands no longer see benefit in granting exclusive rights to distributors. “They don’t need a middle man like us. They rent warehouse space from us, but they no longer need a sales team,” Liu said.
Where Liu’s father believes “you can’t say no to opportunities, or to money,” Liu’s take is “if you focus, you win.”
For now, Liu is targeting mass market value and drugstore chains, and sacrificing margin for market presence and volume.
“Not going into Sephora helps us avoid direct competitions with other beauty brands.”
He does have moments where he wonders if Vancouver was the best place to start his business.
“Most of my friends went to more business-oriented cities in Asia. Vancouver is a lovely city, but for a young man starting a business here, it’s a little bit challenging.”
But Liu’s parents and brother are here, and his integration into the Vancouver lifestyle continues.
“I started drinking coffee four or five months ago. I had to find a way to keep myself awake,” he said. He has even started running, and now gets 10K in a week. “I gained a lot of weight because I had too much pizza to save time.”
Meanwhile, the payment for that first U.S. order is due 30 days from Emma’s birth.
“Emma really brought me good luck.”