My Biggest Mistake: Iris Smit, founder of The Quick Flick

Iris Smit created her $15 million beauty empire ‘The Quick Flick’ to set a new standard in the beauty industry.

For Smit, her Perth startup The Quick Flick is more than just a beauty brand. Through the business, she wants to shake up the industry’s approach to beauty by challenging traditional cosmetic applications with compact, multi-functional and time-saving products.

The business — which recently landed a deal with Coles Australia to launch its skincare/sunscreen hybrid range Quick Screen in 820 stores across Australia — currently employs 25 people and has a sensational following on social media — 185,000 followers on Instagram, 42,000 likes on Facebook, 840,000 likes and almost 26,000 fans on TikTok.

As well as its ‘skinscreen’ range, Smit’s company also sells eyeliner (The Quick Flick), lashes (Quick Lash), brows (Quick Brow), and make-up remover pens (Quick Fix) to name a few, available online and in 250 Priceline stores.

Smit remembers her biggest mistake like it was yesterday. It’s a mistake that haunts the dreams of many entrepreneurs across the world, yet it’s one that any business owner, whether they run a small business or a multimillion-dollar company, can make in a split second.

The mistake

Packages come and go. There are so many steps involved for businesses that sell, pack and send physical goods to customers. Process payments, finalise logistics, double check the addresses and products, print the address slips, ensure the package looks presentable, make sure the branding is visible and correct, check for spelling errors, take the package to the post office and post it. Not necessarily in that order. It’s essential for business owners to check every parcel before it leaves the warehouse, their business or their home.

Smit had always prided herself on being diligent when it came to checking orders before they were sent to the customers, especially when she was working out of her two-bedroom apartment (The Quick Flick’s headquarters at the time) as a one-person show after she launched her business in 2017. She recalls taking orders to the post office herself with a trolley.

But the one and only time she didn’t check an order led to her biggest mistake. 

Back in 2018, Smit and her team had been working on a big bulk order to send out to a customer. What they didn’t realise was the manufacturer at the time had made an error: the branding and print for the products had arrived warped. It was the first time Smit hadn’t checked an order and, on the spur of the moment, she gave the go ahead for the products to be sent to the client.

“I learnt a big, important and expensive lesson that day,” Smit said.

“That mistake cost us money, time and products. It shouldn’t have happened, but I chose to learn from it.

“Quality checks are so important, you should never just assume an order or product is fine. You have to go and check it for yourself before you send it to a customer, whether it’s a bulk order or a smaller order.”

The context

For The Quick Flick, 2018 was a big year. It was only the year before, in 2017, that the business was born from Smit’s dining room table while she was studying a Bachelor of Science in Interior Architecture. She invested $10,000 of her own money to launch The Quick Flick after seeing a gap in the market for products created as a rebellion to anything that slows beauty lovers down. 

She also wanted to develop products with all levels of experience, skill and ages in mind.

The Quick Flick was growing from strength to strength, gaining a loyal customer base and a strong following on social media. Smit’s business started going global in January 2018, when Huda Kattan of Huda Beauty reached out asking to try her winged eyeliner stamp. That year, Smit also declined a $300,000 investment offer on Channel Ten’s Shark Tank, which gave her small business incredible exposure.

With so many positive things happening for The Quick Flick all at once, it was only a matter of time before there was a small slip up.

“I honestly believe the company grew overnight what other businesses would grow in a few years. It was definitely tough and I had to put procedures in place pretty quickly to ensure we could keep up with the demand,” Smit said.

The impact

The Quick Flick brand was lucky not to be too badly affected by the error, which could have put a spanner in the works for a small business that was only 12 months old. Thankfully that didn’t happen.

However, Smit says she felt a personal toll as a business owner who had just started building her business from the ground up. 

“It had a big impact on me because I was the one who said ‘go ahead’, I allowed the order to go out,” she said.

“Immediately after it happened, I checked the processes in place and I checked myself. For me, it was a big learning curve and it highlighted the importance of having quality checks and procedures in place.”

The fix

Although there was no getting the time, products and money that was spent on the bulk order back, Smit knew what she had to do to make sure a similar mistake never happened again.

Instead of dwelling on the mistake, the founder chose to learn from it and became even more motivated to succeed and grow her business as a result. She was honest with herself and the client about what happened with the order.

“I accepted I made a mistake, but then I put better procedures in place to fix it,” she said.

“That’s what you have to do as a business owner.”

The lesson

The lesson Smit took from her mistake was a simple one; be diligent when it comes to processing orders. Check the products, printing and packaging before it even leaves the room.

“It was an expensive lesson to learn, but I learnt to never assume that an order is perfect and ready to go out,” she says.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of quality checks and checking an order before it’s delivered to a client or customer.”