Written in Partnership with Amir BakianBeauty is big business. The US beauty and personal care market is projected to bring in a revenue of $92.8 billionin 2023, and is expected to grow by around 2.5% annually for the next five years. Many new brands have emerged in recent years, as entrepreneurs have seen the market’s potential and have thrown their hats in the ring. Among them is Bill Xiang, CEO of beauty brands Lorde + Belle and RealHer, who shared his inspiring story in becoming one of the rising stars of the US beauty industry, involving three major life pursuits.
Bill was born in Wenzhou, China to a low-income family. His father, who was a carpenter, struggled to make ends meet. The moment Bill was old enough to comprehend his family’s financial situation, he promised himself that he would work hard to change their fortunes, a phase of his life he calls the pursuit of money. He started as a salesman for his father’s carpentry business and later, sold computer parts to help fund his college studies. After graduating, Bill did not want to become anyone’s employee, and instead partnered with a factory to be an independent sales representative. He chose to not receive any salary, purely operating on commissions. He leveraged his skill in English to reach out to customers overseas, leading to more than $30 million in products sold in his first two years. This lifted Bill and his family out of poverty, but that was just the start of his entrepreneurial journey.
“Entrepreneurship involves a lot of hard work and numerous setbacks. I’ve started various businesses in the past, including a design workshop and an electronics trading company. I tried all kinds of things until I found the cosmetics industry. And, somehow, it just clicked, and I’ve remained in this industry ever since,” Bill says.
Bill set out to grow his cosmetics manufacturing business, expanding from his native Wenzhou to Shanghai before venturing overseas to South Korea. Seven years ago, Bill expanded his business to the US, migrating with his family to California. He signed contracts to manufacture products for some of the biggest beauty brands in the world, which is testament to Bill’s manufacturing capabilities and expertise in the beauty industry.
Having been in the industry for more than a decade and having gained experience working with some of the largest names, Bill decided to create his own brands. Lorde + Belle is his flagship brand, synthesizing his 15 years of experience in cosmetics. Its tagline of Consciously Created™ means its products are designed by science, designed with quality, and designed with potency. Lorde + Belle focuses on effective skincare, featuring some of the highest content of active ingredients that have been proven to work. Lorde + Belle’s regimen has three goals – to Cleanse, Repair, and Hydrate the skin of people who use it.
RealHer is a cosmetics line that seeks to empower women by providing them the confidence to face the challenges of life. Aside from being gentle on the skin and featuring the trendiest colors, RealHer’s products contain positive words of encouragement to lift the mood of anyone who uses them. According to Bill, he was inspired to create RealHer by his daughter, whom he wanted to provide with the best future possible by raising her with confidence, regardless of physical appearance.
Bill calls this phase of his life, characterized by the rapid expansion of his business, the pursuit of achievement. One day, Bill realized that he had already long surpassed the original goal of ensuring his and his family’s freedom from poverty, and that it was time to enjoy life with his family and give back to society, helping others become happy. This third phase is Bill’s pursuit of happiness.
Lorde + Belle and RealHer operate on a social selling model, allowing individual distributors to sell the products directly, helping them achieve financial success. This mirrors Bill’s big break, when he sold $30 million of products in two years. Bill also works with several nonprofit organizations through his company’s philanthropy partnership program, reaching out to people in various vulnerable sectors to help them achieve a better future.
“My dream back then was to make $500 a month to help my family. Today, I’ve achieved much more than that, building a successful cosmetics business and bringing my entire family to the US. Hope is so powerful and dramatic, and I want to bring this power to as many people as possible through Lorde + Belle and RealHer,” Bill says.
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