Tisha Thompson brings two decades of beauty industry knowledge to her current role as founder and CEO of LYS Beauty, a “clean” cosmetic company specializing in skincare for people of color. After working for others in the industry, the 41-year-old entrepreneur accumulated diverse experience in product development, brand management, and marketing.
Beauty and makeup were always her first love, but she began her professional life in the unglamorous world of accounting.
“Makeup was my side hustle,” she explained. “It’s what I loved to do, but it didn’t seem like I could make a career of it. I had very traditional military parents. They wanted me to go to college and get a real job.” Following their instruction, Thompson pursued an accounting degree, which turned out to be “the best decision I ever could have made.”
Thompson’s accounting training gave her the financial skill set that proved essential years later when she transitioned into entrepreneurship. Long before that happened, however, accounting opened the door to the industry she loved.
“I was fortunate to be hired as an accountant for an established beauty brand,” she said. “One day, I took a demotion when a marketing coordinator position opened up. I went from balancing books and booking journal entries to getting coffee and opening retail locations nationwide. It was an opportunity to propel myself to what I wanted to do.”
Thompson rose to the position of senior vice president — an experience she described as being in “boot camp.” Eventually, she was ready to strike out on her own. “I said to myself, ‘I can do this for myself. I have what it takes to run a beauty brand.” She launched LYS (for “Love Yourself”) in 2021 during the height of the pandemic. It was a precarious moment to introduce a small venture to the marketplace, and Thompson’s mentors in the beauty industry advised her to wait. She decided, however, to follow her entrepreneurial instincts. The gamble paid off. “Oh, my goodness, people showed up and showed out when we launched the brand. It was phenomenal. We projected four months of inventory at launch. We sold it in 10 days.”
Thompson credits the brand’s initial success to the story and mission behind LYS Beauty.
“We fill a void in the clean beauty space,” she explains. “I had seen so many other brands treating people of color as an afterthought in their marketing and product development. I wanted to create a brand that prioritized people of color. It was important to me to create a brand rooted in inclusivity. Right out of the gate, I ensured we had a scalable brand that worked for every skin tone.”
LYS Beauty achieved success during a pandemic – no small accomplishment. Thompson, however, is now focused on longevity and legacy. That has meant a significant concentration on money management and financial planning for the business and her household. Thompson admits engaging in a steep learning curve to ensure growth and stability.
“Even though I came from accounting, I didn’t come from wealth,” she maintains of her working-class upbringing. Initially, the millennial founder didn’t believe she had the tools to necessary create generational wealth and gain solid financial footing required for the long haul. To gain a comprehensive financial education, Thompson leaned on industry mentors for advice as well as enlisted a financial advisor to help her manage finance and avoid common money traps.
She asserts: “I had to establish a budget and a financial plan. As an entrepreneur, it’s very easy when you start getting liquidity to go crazy and try to keep up with the Joneses. The way I was brought up, for example, you got your tax refund check, and the next day, it was gone. It’s important to make something of those opportunities.”
Thompson has embraced a sensible saving and budgeting strategy and places a high value on insurance – a hard lesson she learned from a family tragedy. “I started the company with very little money. I didn’t think it was something that I would ever be able to do. Then, I lost my dad to a massive heart attack, but he had an insurance policy. The policy covered his burial costs, but the additional inheritance allowed me to invest in my company. That’s how I started my business. That’s why insurance is important to me,” she explains.
As a business owner, Thompson has benefited from insurance protection to navigate problems typical of product retail – transit damage and the like: “Creating and generating the revenue is one side of the equation, but then protecting it is another. You have to protect your downside.”
Beyond insurance and budget planning, Thompson is now exploring investing more aggressively in real estate and building a diversified portfolio as part of wealth management. She believes the identification of multiple revenue streams as a savvy way to generate wealth and help finance a contingency fund as protection against unexpected circumstances
“When you talk about things like a pandemic or all those situations you can’t [forecast] like the market being unstable or consumers not spending as much, you want to weather the storm. Remember, makeup is a discretionary [buy]. I want to make sure that we have liquidity and are being y smart financially.”
As things stand, the future looks picture perfect for LYS Beauty. Thompson has plans to extend the company’s reach in the US and expand her brand globally. Moreover, she’s optimistic about the progress of Black voices in the beauty industry. “I pinch myself every day because I have a business that’s done over $12 million in sales since we launched. It’s breathtaking. Many of us who began in the industry working for
established brands in instrumental positions now have the opportunity to create our own. We can bring our thinking and our voices to the light.”
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