Handmade Beauty Connection A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
May
24, 2004
ISSN 1530-9630 | Vol. 5, Issue 21
To subscribe, click here.
-->This Week's Sponsor <--
Green Valley Aromatherapy www.57aromas.com Our business helps your business make good scents!  Toll Free: 877-572-7662 or email us. |
: Welcome New & Renewing HBN Members!
2. Join Me For My Handmade Beauty Brunch: June 13 With Special Guest Lisa Price!!
3. Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: Strawberry Face Mask
4. Beauty & The Business Trivia Question: win a 1/2 hour Lifestyle CEO consultation with me!
5. The Lifestyle CEO: What I Know For Sure
6. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Oatmeal & Honey Complexion Scrub
1. HBN Update: Welcome New & Renewing HBN Members!
Network!
Network! Network! Here's HBN's weekly crop of new and renewing members. So
open your email browser and say cyber "hi" to yet another
like-minded business owner!
Queen
Esther's Soaps & Body Creations | Diane Buono | North Carolina
* renewing member; all-natural, handcrafted, therapeutic soaps
and body products
Turtle
Woman Herbs | Barb Porlides | Connecticut
* renewing member; handmade skin and body care
products, made in small batches for freshness and quality
Sublime Escentials, Inc. |
Lauren Lamy | Connecticut
* renewing member; products made with organic herbs, essential
oils, purified water, natural mineral plants and vitamins
Crescent Moon | Edith
Bennett | California
* renewing member; custom blended essential oil products
Dragonfly Herbals | Ghita
Heidt | Florida
* renewing member; soaps, salves bath salts body butters and
other handmade body care products
The Buying Group | Rachel
Ratledge | Florida
* renewing member; buying group saving you money on toiletries
supplies, including packaging, base oils and pre-made bases
Sweetmama's Kitchen |
Heather Henry | New York
* homemade body butters and lotions made with the finest
oils, butters and fragrances
Feathered Frog Essentials
| Shirley Mrau | Canada
* cold process herbal soaps, body butters, lip balms, bath salts,
bath milks, massage oils and bath bombs.
April Showers | Melissa
Rivera | New York
* handcrafted and aromatic products made with essential oils
and organic botanicals
DSA Aromatherapy, LLC |
Diane Olsen | Arizona
* handmade body butter, shea butter soaps, face oil, hand cream,
bath salts, hair rejuvenator, lavender aroma mist, and massage oils
Earth Element Soapworks |
Kellie Quarles | Maryland
* gentle, natural herbal bath products for the entire family
pure peace | Cherie Bianco
| Illinois
* Pure Peace
The
Body and Dessert Shoppe | Colleen DeLost | California
* personalized creams, lotions & bath products that smell as
delicious as your favorite dessert and bakery items
HBN Members On The Move
HBN Member Kibby Mitra is pleased to announce the launch of their newly designed website at From Nature With Love! Stop by and have a look!
Learn more about our members and
their exciting activities by visiting their Web sites through
HBN's Online
Member Directory, now with 4 ways to search: (1) by
state/country; (2) by member business name; (3) by keyword search;
or (4) using our new alphabetical listings.
2. Join Me For My Handmade Beauty Brunch On
June 13 With Special Guest Lisa Price!
Lisa
founded
* includes your free autographed copy
of Lisa's freshly published book, "Success Never Smelled So
Sweet"!
* learn Lisa's 3 Secrets Of Sweet Success!
* develop new business relationships
* strengthen existing ones | network! network! network!
HBN Members Enjoy 10% discount!!
For Directions, Information & To
Register, download our PDF registration form here.
(If Adobe Acrobat is not
installed on your computer, download it free here.)
Essential
Wholesale: pure essential oils, over 200 cosmetic bases, hundreds
of carrier/fixed oils such as meadowfoam, cranberry, jojoba and shea
butter plus a new Short Run Private Labeling Program! SunRose
Aromatics: pure essential oils (many organic), carrier oils and other
aromatherapy products, each carefully selected for quality. Check out
their new Perfumer's Emporium. The
Scent Shack: fragrance oils and soap supplies. Fragrance oils are pre-tested
in cold process, melt & pour soap, and candles, and test results are
listed at the Web site. Scents tested by
soapers for soapers! From
Nature With Love: over 1,600 ingredients and supplies, including
cosmetic ingredients, spa supplies, bath accessories and packaging
supplies!
3.
Handmade Beauty Recipe Of The Week: Strawberry
Face Mask
Strawberry
Face Mask is especially good for oily skin due to the
astringency of the strawberries and the lemon essential oil. It's
easy and it's fun, plus you have a delicious strawberry to chew on
in the process!
When you visit MakeYourCosmetics.com,
it's easy to buy the ingredients you need by clicking on our Selected
Supplier links:
Bramble
Berry, Inc.: over 105 different fragrance
and essential oils (including their exclusive "Energy" and
"Relaxing"), all soap tested, soap molds and unscented soap
bases!
4. Beauty & The Business Trivia
Question: last
week's winner was Sonya Maddox of Ardmore, Alabama. Sonya won some
fantastic handmade soap!
Last Week's Question: The grand opening party for the Carol's Daughter retail location in New York was scheduled to begin at 10:00, but when the day finally arrived, there was a line around the block by 9:30. To win this week, state the date of the grand opening party.
Last Week's Answer: August 21, 1999
This Week's Question: Lisa's first marriage took place when she was a part of a pan-African religion that focuses its attention the practice of the Khamitians -- the ancient name for Egyptians. To win this week, state: (1) the name of the religion; (2) the first name of the man Lisa married; and (3) Lisa's age when she married him.
Be the first to correctly answer this week's questions and win a 1/2 hour Lifestyle CEO consultation with me!
Please read the contest rules here before submitting your entry. Put "TRIVIA CONTEST ANSWER" in the subject line or your answer will not be considered.
While time does not permit me to respond personally to all entrants, the winner's name will be announced in the next newsletter!
5. The Lifestyle CEO: What I Know For Sure
OK, I know what you're saying. "What I Know For Sure" is a column
in Oprah's magazine; what's dM doing using it? Well, let me first give credit where credit is due: thank you
Oprah for distilling a short phrase that captures the essence of what we mean when we say we are certain about something.
Having said that, let me interrupt this series on "The Balance Myth" to respond to the emails and phone calls I received last week
from people around the country who are discouraged about where they are in terms of their progress toward their dreams.
Maybe it's the moon or something, but whatever the catalyst, last week was the
time to be contacted by people who are enduring their business "wilderness
experience," in large part because they feel they don't have the money to
make their business a success. The purpose of this week's column is to say:
"Please don't be discouraged!"
I'm not suggesting you should not feel overwhelmed and walk around acting like what you're doing is all fun and games all the time. It's not. Having limited funds is not fun anytime, anywhere -- but especially in business. If you don't have the money to buy diapers for your kids, you can usually get that from a friend, relative or even the state. But it you don't have the money to make your business successful, good luck finding anything from a handout to a high interest loan!
But you are not alone, and with a little patience and creativity and planning (yes, PLANNING!!), you do have at your disposal everything you need to move forward. The world is filled with people who started businesses with very little money and built successful ventures. I don't mean they became as wealthy as Bill Gates necessarily. I just mean they were able to build ventures that provided good lives for themselves and their families, and created legacies and job opportunities for their children and perhaps others.
On the other hand, the world is also filled with people who started with a lot of money and blew it because they did not make wise choices, because they gave up or God forbid, because they just got "unlucky." Whatever the case, none of us knows the extent to which we can maximize our potential unless we first decide to try. And in trying, please don't forget to plan. That is, gather as many of the relevant facts as you can about your business and what you project it to be before plunging headfirst into a fiercely competitive no man's land.
While a well thought out and detailed business plan is nice, let's face the fact that many business owners don't have the forethought to create one. Or, what most frequently happens, they have actually found themselves in business before they see the wisdom of having a plan, and by then, they don't have the time to create one because they are so busy running the business. If you find yourself in this situation, here's a mini-business plan project for you.
dM's
30-Minute Business Plan
1. Make
a list of priorities for your business.
2. Then
make a list of everything you know you need to do in the foreseeable future to
meet those goals.
5. Then
look at your funds. Include cash on hand, things you can liquidate like an old
car, 401(K), some savings, stocks, bonds, credit card advances, etc.
6. Then
decide whether you want to liquidate some or all of those things.
7. Then
look at how much money you would have left after liquidation. Include how much
money comes in each week that you can pour back into the business.
8. Earmark
that money for the top priorities until you run out of money on paper.
You now have an "at-a-glance" view of what your priorities are and how much money you have to accomplish them. Know that t his quick exercise will never replace a well thought out business plan. On the other hand, it's better than nothing, and with it, you can plan your business as wisely as possible, considering the time constraints, implementing specific steps to reach your goals. Understand and accept all times that you can't plan everything. Bad times WILL come, but you WILL get through them -- and always remember that you are building for the future.
Consider the real life example of Lisa Price of Carol's Daughter. Lisa made a success of her business without a full blown plan, but her wilderness experience was anything but pleasant!
If you are experiencing a wilderness experience in your business, what better time than the present to take advantage of the inspiration and encouragement you will receive from Lisa herself at my Handmade Beauty Brunch as she shares her 3 Secrets Of Sweet Success. She'll share first hand how she got through staying up all night with nursing infants while she still had orders to fill. She'll tell us how she had to call customers and tell them their orders wouldn't be ready on time because a child was ill. She'll elaborate on being flat broke, with no place to sell her products but her living room coffee table, and how she still turned down investors because she wanted to create and own a legacy for her children. She'll share how she figured out she needed find the resources to trademark her company name so it would be hers and hers alone. She'll recall her darkest fears that she was ruining her children's chances for a good life by buying the ingredients to make Jamaican Punch Honey Butter instead of putting the money into their college fund.
You'll
be surrounded by people like Lisa who, using sheer determination and will, and
money as it came in, to make it work. I might even throw in my two cents -- like
the time when after
the birth of our first child, my husband and I had about $25.00 in the bank, and
I was crying my eyes out while my daughter was at my breast; and how he yelled
at me in anger and frustration that I should "go back to work, should never
have quit my job -- look at where we were now.!!" He was working like a dog
and we had nothing to show for it but a pile of bills that we couldn't even look
at because it was too depressing and we couldn't pay them anyway so what was the
point?
These
are the stories of life and business ownership. It's not a cake walk. But, as
Oprah would say, One Thing I Know For Sure is this:
I
would repeat every argument my husband and I had, and I would cry every tear I
cried a thousand times over for the privilege of making a living doing something
I love, that also benefits other people and that I know reflects the essence of
who God created me to be. It simply doesn't get any better than this.
6. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Oatmeal & Honey Complexion Scrub
If
you have sensitive or dry skin, yet you like the feel of a gentle exfoliant,
this may be the product for you. Made with apricot kernel meal, jojoba spheres
and flax seed meal which are suspended in a smooth foaming base, Oatmeal &
Honey Complexion Scrub also sports a nice citrus aroma. The texture is like a
light facial cream. Because I like a lot of lather in my cleansing products, I
often mix this with lather from my favorite handmade soap and use it. First, I
get a good lather on my hands and wash my face. Then I put some Oatmeal &
Honey Complexion Scrub in my palms and massage it over my face. Before rinsing,
I quickly massage what's still on my palms over my hands and elbows. (I'd rub
longer but the toddlers await!!) It feels really good. "Scratchy" is
the wrong word, but it feels invigorating! I think that anyone who likes the
feel of texture on their face would enjoy this product -- even those with dry or
sensitive skin.
You can get your own Oatmeal & Honey Complexion Scrub from HBN member Splendid Blends Natural Skincare. They have a really user friendly website with great product photos, and they make it easy for you to shop, view ingredients and ask questions about products.
Visit The Handmade Beauty Connection Archives.
Visit our suite of Web sites serving the handmade toiletries
industry:
HandmadeBeauty.com: the
leading industry trade organization
MangoButter.com:
450+ suppliers of raw materials and packaging, updated weekly!
MakeYourCosmetics.com:
ingredient encyclopedia & original cosmetics recipes
DonnaMaria.com:
sound advice for your small business, Create The Life You Love™
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Donna Maria, Publisher & Editor-In-Chief, DonnaMaria@HandmadeBeauty.com
The Handmade Beauty Connection
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