first customer, new labels, and ideas...

guess who made her first sale last week? me!!! :-) One of my aunts has been gifting/introducing people to my products for the past year or so. several weeks ago she asked me for a product/price list because she and her friends were interested in orders for the holidays. i hadn't heard anything, but expected them to contact me once we got closer to fall. well, one of those friends emailed me last week. she ordered the largest sizes of three different products. the first product, whipped sugar soap,  she had used before and the other two (shea so soft body butter and butter love body balm) she hadn't tried. no website. no pics. just descriptions. and she still wanted the largest size possible. i almost started crying when i got her email. (I don't know what the deal is with crying lately. I'm NOT prone to shedding tears.) I guess it was validation that I'm on the right track. i'd been worrying about my pricing strategy as well. i mean, my software was showing me that i would make a profit and took into consideration all costs. i just thought the prices were a little expensive. but, guess i was taking into consideration what i can afford and that's not the best way to think about it.

i went to brunch with my two friends that i met in my doctoral program and one of them gave me a great business idea for expanding Head Over Heels. I can't say what it is because someone might steal the idea. this blog doesn't get many readers, but you never know. anyway, it was so funny that she brought it up because when i saw my tarot reader last spring, she brought up the same idea. the thing is, i have no idea how to make it happen. and, honestly, it's only something i would only do if i was more established. but, it's a great idea, nonetheless.

a few weeks ago, i was freaking out because i thought i needed a product photographer. i wanted the photos to look perfect, but couldn't afford a full time photographer. so, i posted a FB status about it and got a few recommendations of people who do photography on the side. i touched base with one guy that was recommended and we communicated via email about him doing the work for me. he immediately agreed and we set a date (this Saturday). for some reason, i'm getting this feeling to not work with him. i didn't get a bad vibe, per se. and maybe i'm having a cheap attack and thinking i should just use my phone and get it done. i've been looking at small companies that sell similar products and almost all of their pictures aren't professional. some are better than others. but, the thing is, they're making sales. so, maybe i just need to bite the bullet.

I finally had professional labels created! For years, I've either created labels using Vistaprint or just wrote everything by hand. Vistaprint was an ok option, but the label sizes are limited. writing them by hand was sooo annoying and i hated doing that, but it was cheap. so, i asked the woman who designed my logo to create some labels. I found the right kind of labels at onlinelabels.com and will just print them at home. it took a while to get them designed, BUT they are done. Here's what they look like: 

You can't see it, but the sides have the ingredients, directions for use, and contact information. I wanted something clean, modern, but also allowed me to make it personalized, which is why I asked her to leave a fragrance line. I'm offering 30 or so fragrances, which means everything needs to be made to order. I mean, I'll create an unscented base, but the color and scent will be made to order.

Now, my mindset is shifting and orienting towards the fact that I need to step my ingredients supply game up majorly. In the past, I'd buy a pound or two of something like shea butter and that would be enough. that won't work anymore. i need to order much larger sizes, which means more money from me upfront. I know it must be done, but a part of me is hesitant to spend the money. but, i know i need to do it because it's cheaper in the long run.

at the same time, i'm thinking about various products to add to my line. room sprays, body sprays (just to name a few). the only thing holding me back (again) is the cost of purchasing those supplies ahead of time. sigh... money, money, money.

my first customer also gave me a cute idea for a newsletter name. Of course, I don't have any subscribers yet, but I had been thinking about a newsletter.  the question is, what content would go in the newsletter? I'm thinking of highlighting a specific product, introducing new products, offering a discount code, and....?? What kind of information do you like to see in a monthly newsletter?

So much more I want to talk about. But, it's time for bed. until next time...

growing pains...

starting a business (the right way) is not for the faint of heart. people don't know all the behind the scenes efforts that must be done right. creating labels per FDA, getting sales and use permits, opening accounts, ordering supplies, product photography, the list goes on and on. and, since i'm not selling anything, all of these this is being funded by my personal funds.

Last Friday, I was on the verge of tears while driving to work, which is significant because I'm not really a crier. There wasn't anything majorly bad that happened. I was just tired and frustrated by a series of things that weren't quite right, both personally and professionally. I started to wonder if all the effort was worth it. This is the first time that I've done something that doesn't have an clear pay off. I'm investing a great deal of time and money into getting this business off the ground and who knows if it will be successful.

at the same time, there is a sense of fulfillment in starting a business and doing something for myself. answering only to me. this morning, i told JE that I was tired of working for other people. he said he felt the same way. honestly, i think that's part of the reason i wanted to cry last week. i guess i'm just ready to move into something new, but i'm stuck at the moment. it's an uncomfortable position.

on the plus side, my PCOS is getting under control. I've been on particular medications to treat it, and the blood work that came back today shows that the medication is working.  I'm still seeing some physical effects of this condition, but at least the blood work is changing, slowly but surely.

while at work, today i decided to watch (well, listen) to Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts. In hindsight, that may not have been the best idea. It's so angering to see (again) how the people of New Orleans were treated pre and post Katrina, and all because of  faulty engineering. Anyway, the documentary made me think about a family I met who evacuated from New Orleans to Tulsa. Back in August 2005, I was working for the housing authority for the city. After Katrina, the housing authority took in New Orleans residents.

Three families were assigned to my complex and I became acquainted with one of them fairly well. a man, woman, and their two elementary aged sons. the man and woman had lived in New Orleans their whole life and said that when they went to the Superdome, they fully expected that they would return to their home later. Instead, they lived in the squalor at the Superdome, got on a bus in the middle of the night, headed to someplace unknown, with nothing but the clothes on their back. they ended up at Camp Gruber in Oklahoma, and finally wound up in Tulsa. part of my job was to help them get situated by connecting them with various services in the city. Oftentimes, I had to drive them around until they felt comfortable taking the bus. So, we would talk and I just loved their New Orleans accents. But, I loved their spirits most of all. while they were obviously in shock, they were still pushing forward and you could tell they loved one another greatly. I even stayed in touch with them after i left that position. however, as time went on , we lost touch with one another. I would think about them every time I went to New Orleans and wondered how they were doing.

So, while listening to When the Levees Broke, I decided to do a Google search. And, I found a story about them in Tulsa's newspaper that was published in December 2011. It turns out the man had a heart attack and died suddenly while at work one day in August of that year. He was the primary earner for the family and they had struggled since his death, so the family was being featured as a needy family who would be receiving services from the Salvation Army for Christmas. As soon as I read that, I burst into tears at my desk. It just broke my heart. They'd been together for 22 years. I can't imagine losing all Earthly possessions and then to lose your partner.

until next time...