The Indie Experience
August 27, 2007
A Publication of The Indie Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 8, Issue 34
To subscribe, click here
-- Sponsor --
1. Meet IBN's New & Renewing Members!
2. New At the Blog: Win a $100 Gift Certificate From Staples!
3. Today On Indie Business Radio: Beauty, Business and Blood
4. Indie Candy: Keith and Robert: Shambhal-aaah!
5. Indie Business Magazine: A Long Overdue Update
Indie Beauty Ritual: Creamy Lemon Cleanser
1. Meet IBN's New & Renewing Members
Welcome
Renewing Members!
Mieko | Lynn Chou | California
* Member Since July 2005; Mieko offers soothing spa and
skin care products handcrafted from natural ingredients. Formulations were
inspired from Mieko's experience as an herbalist, acupuncturist and
chiropractor. Our primary focus is to create a high quality product that
incorporates the natural healing properties found within the blending of
ingredients. Our line of products is a creative endeavor blending the
wonders of essential oils, spices, herbs, butters and nut oils. Indulge with
our Lavender Mandarin Sugar Scrub.
Welcome New Members!
Essentials NW, LLC | Diane Hague | Washington
* Essentials NW signature product line is PUR ESSENTIALS;
aromatherapy products for the home and body care. We utilize only the purest
essential oils and natural bases.
August 29 | Gemma Marchioni | North Carolina
* Apprentice Indie
Long Hair Lovers.com, Inc. | Jennifer Bahney | Ohio
* Since 1999, Longhairlovers Products have helped women all over the
world grow and maintain the healthiest hair possible.
Stuff For Sprouts | Kristen | Bassick |
Pennsylvania
* Stuff for Sprouts is skincare for little kids. Because kids
shouldn't crunch.
Organikah Bath and Body | Pansy Bonner | Georgia
* Organikah offers a collection of bath, body, home and hair care
products made from natural and certified organic ingredients. We use
moisturizing oils and butters, healing botanical extracts and mood-enhancing
scents that will truly pamper your from head to toe.
Belle's Botanicals | Shelly Santi | California
* Here at Belle's Botanicals we strive to make accessible the highest
quality aromatherapy & herbal products on the market. Our Essential
Oils, Carrier Oils, Absolutes, Resins & Herbs are the finest available,
pure & unadulterated. We want our customers to feel good about the
products purchased from our company, knowing they are made without animal
testing, animal products, chemicals or petroleum & therefore good for
your emotional, physical & spiritual well-being.
Learn more about Indie members and their exciting products, services and
activities by visiting their websites through our Online
Member Directory. You can search for your favorite Indie by
state/country, business name, keyword or alphabetical listings.
2. New At the Blog: Blogs of Interest to the Indie Beauty Community
Blogs
of special interest to the Indie Beauty community:
2007
Love To Be Indie Contest:: enter to win a $100 gift certificate from Staples --
deadline is next week! is extended to September 10!
The
Best Busingg Blogging Tutorial Ever!: if you've ever thought of
launching a business blog or are wondering why yours is not serving you
well, this is for you! The 4-part series starts here.
Mom's
Love Lucy!: a fun report from a television show taping!
3. Today on Indie Business Radio: Beauty, Business & Blood
Indie Business Radio offers practical advice and workable strategies to achievement-oriented, independent entrepreneurs who are trading in the traditional corporate ladder to enjoy life and business on their own terms. Enjoy downloads and audio streams of recent shows at this link.
This
Week's Show: Beauty, Business & Blood
Guest:
Indie Beauty Network members Bill and Debbie Brink of Pure
Enchantment. I love to
showcase Indie Beauty Network members who are successful in their
businesses and love to donate their time to help encourage and inspire
others. If you have a business with a family members, or are thinking about
going into business with your "other half," you won't want to miss
this show! And while you're waiting, you can meet Bill and Debbie here
too!
How To Enjoy the Show:
To join live, log onto Global
Talk Radio.com at 1:00pm EST. Email your questions to info@indiebusinessradio.com.
Upcoming Shows:
September 10: Shawn Gilleylen: Mind Your
Manners: How Proper Etiquette Can Enhance Your Business (confirmed)
September 17: Lorraine Morris Cole and Pamela M. McBride: How Women of
Color Achieve Professional Success (confirmed)
September 24: IBN's own Dawn Fitch of Pooka
Pure & Simple: shares tips from her new book and how to achieve in
the indie beauty business (confirmed)
"I Love Indie Business Radio! "
-- Sponsor --
4. Indie Candy: Keith and Robert: Shambhal-aaah!
I love sharing Indie stories! It's just such a pleasure to show the world
what's possible. So many people have dreams of being in business for
themselves, and even though it's easier than ever today with new
technologies making it easier and much more cost effective to be your own
boss, many people are still afraid to take the plunge. If that's you, then
read this story. Here's two guys minding their own business in Texas, who
made a few bath and body products for the holidays. Less than a year later,
they are grossing thousands and thousands of dollars quarterly, have opened
a store and are fielding too many wholesale orders to handle. Meet Keith (in
the orange shirt) and Robert of Shambhala Body Gallery, and be inspired to
be your best today!
How did you start your business and what was the inspiration for it?
Shambhala Soaps was started as simple holiday gifts for friends and family. Response was immediately overwhelming. We were very pleased and decided to start learning more about natural soaps and bath products. As we began to study and learn more about aromatherapy, essential oils, and the processes of making soap, we made small batches
and tested them on ourselves and friends. The feedback was excellent and soon, we had offers to buy what we were making.
Our slogan is "Let Nature bring to Life what Time destroys."
When we were trying to decide what to call the company, we wrote down everything that came to us. We wanted something that was aligned with
our lifestyle: natural and stress free, a holistic view. One day we came across
the story of how Shangri-La was based on the concept of Shambhala, a mystical city in the Buddhist religion. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise
-- a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. It just fit. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala (also spelled Shambala or Shamballa) is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snow peaks of the Himalayas. Shambhala is a Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness".
What a perfect name for our company. We are Shambhala Soaps for manufacturing, and Shambhala Body Gallery for our store.
Do you make any of your products yourself?
We currently produce all of our products in our home in small batches. We still test on ourselves and friends. We will move production to our new store in stages, as space and time allows. We have found that people are fascinated with what we make and are very interested in watching us make the products.
Tell me more about your products.
During our research we found that the soap, lotions and bath salts we made from all natural ingredients to be far superior to anything commercial bar that we had used. The difference is truly remarkable.
We started with our soaps and ventured into bath salts and soaks, herbal bath teas and herbal facial scrubs. Our Shea Butter lotion has been a hit as well as the Shea Butter lotion sticks. People love that they are not greasy at all and leave a nice silky feel on their skin. We recently introduced lip balms and they have taken off as well. Pictured
here is our Indonesian Teak soap, containing the scent of fragrant teak
wood, along with soft, exotic floral notes.
Our goal is to continue to research and develop natural products. Anti-aging products, eye-creams, hand creams, etc. We believe that Mother Nature has provided us with everything we need to take good care of ourselves.
We are also expanding to making soy candles since we have had many requests for
them.
How do you manage your day to day business operations?
My partner, Keith Emmons and I, applied for and received our first business
license in February 2006. We eventually transitioned to a limited liability
company, which is how we operate now.
Keith has an excellent management background and is a registered massage
therapist. He focuses on managing the company as well as marketing.
I focus on production, research and development. Honestly though, we will do whatever is needed at the time; from labeling to hanging drywall in the store. Whatever it takes, whatever needs to be
done, either of us will do it!
We believe that it is important to our customers to know that we both make the products. When we say that our products are handmade by us, it’s true. We are even considering once we have employees, that they will be required to learn how to make the products as well.
A very important help to us has been our mentor. We found each other last year when we were purchasing some fragrance oils. We struck up a conversation and have been talking ever since.
She has a wealth of knowledge and experience that we are extremely grateful for. She has inspired us and helped us to move forward. I highly recommend finding a mentor. I often find myself with pages of notes after a 2 hour
call with ours.
We are working on finding an attorney and accountant that we like. Things are progressing faster than we had planned. We didn’t expect to have a store for another 1-2
years, yet here we are and we are very excited.
What tips do you have for other people who might want to start a business?
Lots, but a few of them we consider to be very important.
· Never think you can't! When we opened our first store, we decided to give it a go and if it didn't work out, we would recover. We started up with $500.
· Don't let anyone tell you, "You can't do that!" I am a man making soap and bath and body products. Most of my customers are women. Many people in my field are women. I love what I do.
· Pay attention to the universe and things and opportunities around you. You never know when the universe will present an opportunity; you must be ready to take advantage of it.
· Always believe in yourself. When you are doing something for the first time, you WILL be nervous and you WILL get over it. In the end you are the only person you have to rely on.
· Research and become knowledgeable. I cannot begin to list the pages and books we have read on soap making, bath products, natural ingredients, rules laws, etc. By knowing your product, you add validation and inspire confidence in your customer.
· Reach for the stars! When we were getting ready to start our business, we decided we must have insurance. We looked at a company that many were using. The problem was the limitation on sales volume. I did some quick math and decided I wanted to make more than that $5,000 limit in the first year so we had better find a different company. Needless to say we blew past that limit within 4 months after we started selling our soaps.
· Never sacrifice quality. We will never sacrifice quality. We will never manufacture an inferior product. We will not sell a product to someone else that we haven't used or wouldn't buy ourselves.
· Never be afraid of competition. Competition keeps us on our toes. It also helps us to appreciate our customers. Without customers we would not have a business.
· Believe in and focus on the outcome. We build the images of what we want and/or where we want to be. We focus on those things and work to make it happen. I believe 95% of the time it works out. When it doesn't I just missed the opportunity or it wasn’t the right time.
Do you work outside the business, either P/T or F/T? If so, what do you do?
I current work full time as a network engineer for a global internet company. I keep things connected and the traffic flowing. If you use the internet, then you are probably seeing the work I do every day.
As an interesting side note about paying attention to opportunities; I received a call from a recruiter last November for this job. I wasn’t looking at the time. I followed up and took the job. The job schedule was for 3 days a week, Sun through Tues. They also provide partner benefits, which was wonderful and great timing for us. This job has freed me up to make product and work in the store.
I truly believe that the new job and the work schedule showed up so we could open the new store. This is a great example of the universe providing an opportunity. I paid attention, not knowing why it presented itself, but 3 months later we knew exactly why.
What are the best things about doing what you do?
Other than making lots of this Cool Citrus Basil soap for summer, the best thing is that we have learned to give back. For everything that we have been given over that last year, we are truly grateful. We donate products to a local
women's shelter. I know that the women that use this shelter are often walking out of their homes and live with nothing but themselves and their children. We respect what this shelter provides. It is our hope that a little something nice may help to brighten their day.
What are the biggest challenges and how do you overcome them?
I think money can be a challenge if you let it be one. We know what we had for money, and it wasn’t much. We survived the last year on
one income while Keith was going to school. We started with the money we had in our pockets. There are so many things needed from fixtures to software to licenses and permits. Not to mention the stock needed to open a store. We started this company with about
$500 and we have paid cash for everything.
We believed that the time was right for us to open the store. Many of the items including the beautiful counter we now have basically found us. Keith was at the right place at the right time when a showroom was being demolished at the Dallas Market Center. We were given a custom built maple counter for free; we just needed to remove it by 10:00am the next day.
At the moment my focus is trying to figure out 4th quarter projections. The store is doing very well and we are still in the black. Trying to determine stock amounts and what fragrances and new items we want to bring in for holiday sales has been a great challenge. A crystal ball would be nice at the moment. Instead we are looking at our current numbers and projecting based on information we have read about.
Another challenge for us right now is controlling our growth. We are getting requests for wholesale and private labeling. We decided for now that we first had to learn what it takes to run the business we have before we take on more. We will not make a commitment that we don’t think we can honor. Most people respect our position and are waiting for us to open up wholesale. Those who do not
understand can find someone else.
Why do you love being Indie?
We joined IBN this year. We like the information presented. We enjoy the atmosphere and the people we have communicated with. We are planning on utilizing the resources and contacts provided to their fullest extent. We are looking forward to the resources and networking that is offered. We also want to give back whenever we can. We have learned so much this last year about starting a business. We are starting to journal about this year in business. Maybe someday we can mentor someone as well as we have been helped.
Being an Indie is a state of mind. We believe we will succeed. We attract opportunities, We build our success!
When you're not working Shambhala, what are you doing?
Sleeping!
At the moment, we have very little time. With a fulltime job, building out a store and making stock for the store, we have a very full schedule. Hopefully once the store is open we can get back to working on our yard and working on our
house, a 100 year old home in a lovely historic district. There is always something that needs to be done.
What business book have you enjoyed lately that has helped you in business and why?
I read Jim Collin’s Good to Great last year. It was part of a leadership class I took and
was very interesting. I have seen examples, both good and bad in the companies where I have been employed. One principle that often comes to mind is, “Surround yourself with good people.” I found this applies to our affiliations as well. This is another reason we joined
IBN.
What's on the horizon for Shambhala? Retail online only? Wholesale? Both?
We just opened our first full time store. We are very excited about this!
We are reworking our website to help with online sales. We have a lot of ideas about marketing and the web site will be key in getting it done and making it functional.
We are going to take the wholesale leap next year. We have set a goal to have 20 wholesale accounts by the end of the calendar year. Of course this includes those additional tasks such as a catalogue, a wholesale policy, etc.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. With the store we are looking at things to help people create a “me” space; whether it’s a nook, a bathroom or even a corner in a room. We all need a little space to call our own.
We are just filled with ideas. We are excited about our business! The next idea, person or opportunity is just a moment away. We can’t wait!
Learn more about Shambhala and get some of their products at their website. Visit their retail store in Dallas at 320 W. 7th Street.
5. Indie Business Magazine: An Update: Resuscitation Efforts Are Underway
The
Bottom Lines
While recognizing that it is completely unnecessary to point it out, point it out I must. The latest issue of the magazine is late. Four months late, to be more or less exact, and that's only if you start counting in January. Another issue will be published this year. Under the circumstances, it would be bold indeed to precisely date it so it will simply be identified as 4th Issue, followed by the month and year (2007, yes!) it is mailed to you.
There is another bottom line, and that is that the "planned to be quarterly magazine" will become a "periodic magazine," and will be published when and if there is something to say and Indie has the ability to say it.
The Explanations
Alas, there are always lots of those, but for those who have asked, I have responded in your individual email messages. It's not that I don't want to share the explanations with the world. But I hate excuses. Since none of this means much of anything unless I try to make it up, let's move onto ...
The Remedies
To Paid Non-Member Subscribers
You paid for and were expecting 4 issues last year. Instead, you got 2 last year, and 1 so far this year, and will receive another one this year. Yes, that's 4 issues, but it's not what you were promised, and the fact that 4 equals 4, and that 4 is not enough, is not at all lost on me. I would like to make it up to you somehow but I'm not sure what would work. I'd like to hear form you. Slam me, bam me -- whatever you want. Send me an email and let me know what you think is fair. Put Magazine/Non-Member in the subject line. How can I help you in ways that are not 4 color, glossy and packaged in an envelope? Free business consultations? Reduced membership dues? Did I say that?
Yes, because there's no script for this. How many people launch quarterly, bi-monthly or monthly full-size magazines and live for more than a few years to tell about it? Not many. I still hope to be one, but that day -- if it ever comes -- will have to wait for now.
To IBN Members
Membership in IBN has been $100 (full member) and $125 (supplier) since January 2000 when it was launched. If your prices have remained the same for 7 years, email me and let me know how you do it. If in addition, you've added something new, like oh, say a full color, full sized magazine, and still kept your prices down, l will nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize. All jokes aside, from the beginning, the magazines were included as a part of dues. Great idea, but truth be told, as it turns out, the only way to do that and sustain a quarterly publication schedule was to raise dues. Didn't want to do that. Still don't want to do that. Only time and the economy will tell, but I hope I never have to do that. Maybe I should have, but I hate spilled milk. It's sour and smelly. So let's get some fresh milk.
For members who joined IBN since June and have not yet received an issue of the magazine, you will get all 3 of them in September. You will also get the 4th one later this year. For those who joined before June and have received only one issue, please send me a quick email with Magazine/Member in the subject line and let me know which issue you got. I will send you the others.
For people considering joining IBN, all of the benefits are yours for the asking, and from now until further notice, the magazine will be published "periodically," with no way of predicting exactly when that will be.
lo
Please accept my apologies for keeping you all waiting so long. You have been more patient than I had any right to expect. I offer no excuses, only a well intended heart that is prepared to continue to give you value added services, even though they won't come regularly packaged in the traditional sense in your mail box.
... at least not for now.
Best & Success!!
Donna Maria
Editor, The Indie Experience
The Indie Beauty Network | www.indiebeauty.com
Copyright (c) 2000 - 2007 by The Indie Beauty Network (IBN) and Donna Maria. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or reproduction is prohibited. IBN does not necessarily endorse any product, event or ideology featured in The Handmade Beauty Connection (HBC) or on IBN's website. All information is provided on an "as is" basis and no express or implied warranties are given. Any use of the information contained in the HBC or on IBN's web site, including recipes, is solely at your own risk. IBN and Donna Maria disclaim any liability in connection with the use of all recipes, products reviewed and other information. Except for sponsorships, HBC refuses compensation from companies to feature or mention their names or products. Opinions expressed in any Product Review are personally those of the reviewer and do not represent the views of IBN, Donna Maria (unless she is the reviewer) or any other person or company.
