Indie Business Blog

Indie See, Indie Do

We start out in business excited about the great stuff we're going to do. But it's easy to get carried away with all the enthusiasm, and forget how important it is to stick to the basics and keep things as simple as possible.

            

My mom says it's great to learn from your mistakes, but better to learn from someone else's. So if you're just starting out in your industry, or even if you're not, here's a tip. Visit the websites of 10 competitors whose businesses are no more than 5 years older than yours. Make notes about the things at each site that entice you to do business with them, and make notes about the things at each site that repulse you.

Do the things you see that you like.

Don't do the things you see that you don't like.

Indie see, Indie do.

Beauty Boom Or Beauty Bust

Since everyone wants a business that booms, not busts, I get emails regularly from people asking how to boom in the beauty business. A business is as distinct as a fingerprint, so one-on-one or group coaching is best to address individual details.

         

Since I lead the Indie Beauty Network, many of the requests I get are from people in the beauty industry. But since many of the issues faced by starts ups are the same no matter what, I offer these Ten Things to those who have sent me emails, and especially for Lebogang in Sandton, South Africa!

Boot Camp Bonanza

Boot camps generally describe workshops that help you do things. Oprah's Boot Camp will help you lose weight like a rich person. Writers Boot Camp will help find the writer in you. Mushing Boot Camp will help you learn to mush.

            

But if you don't have time to exercise, write or mush because you have to get ready for the holiday sales season, here's a tip. Head on over to Jamila White's Supersize Your Web Sales 6-Week Boot Camp. It's held by phone so you can bone up on increasing your sales in your all together. The feedback I hear about Jamila's boot camp is phenomenal. It starts September 20 so march on over and have a look.

Another boot camp with a super cool name is Bootstrap Boot Camp. Now why didn't I think of that?!

The Power Of One

Riding high on the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, The Walt Disney Company last year dumped several high level executives who were responsible for labor intensive projects that did not result in lucrative licensing deals. In June 2007, the third installment in the Pirates series took in $43.2 million worldwide in its first three days, proving the power of one good project over many mediocre ones.

                  

So here's the tip: the next time you consider launching a brand new product, think first about whether expanding the power of an existing one might be a better strategy. If piggy backing on the proven strength of one success rather than using resources to create new ones works for Disney, it will probably work for us Indies too.

• Proven products
• Increased financial rewards
• Less work
• More personal time

Isn't that what you're in business for in the first place?

The Jibbitz Blitz

In football, a blitz occurs when a defensive player charges the quarterback with the goal of forcing the football from his hands by any means necessary.

            

After making decorations for their Crocs with clay and rhinestones, Sheri and Rich Schmelzer and their kids started selling them to family and friends. They took out a home equity loan, set up an assembly line manufacturing plant in their basement and hit the trade show circuit. A year later, they had sold over 8 million Jibbitz decorations. While I could not verify it at their website, I have read that they set out from the start to form a company that could eventually be sold to Crocs, Inc. In October 2006, Crocs announced their purchase of Jibbitz, LLC for up to $10 million based on hitting certain financial targets.

People buy Crocs in part because they can choose their favorite colors. Jibbitz products heighten the Crocs experience by allowing consumers to further personalize shoes that they already feel emotionally connected to. So here's the tip. Invent a product that complements an existing product and perform a blitz of your own.

My kids have been asking for Crocs for months. Today, I finally got them some. We also got a Jibbitz (at $2.49 or $2.95 depending on whether they were licensed Disney characters) for each shoe. $2.49 x 8 million -- and that was last year.

Now that's what I call a blitz.

Women's Conferences Spur Sales

Indie Beauty Network member Jamila White is a busy woman these days. In addition to working on a lucrative e-commerce consulting project for the Smithsonian Institution, she serves several clients one-on-one and also runs j.blossom, a bath and body products company aimed at young girls.

I caught up with Jamila yesterday at the Mocha Moms conference where her j.blossom lip balm, bath/shower gel and body lotion were flying off the table. The squeals of happy mothers was music to Jamila's ears and made my day too.

Jamila connected with Mocha Moms when I recommended her as the keynote speaker for my former Mocha Moms chapter's annual Business Extravaganza last year. Jamila joined Mocha Moms even though she's not a mom herself, because she supports the platforms of the organization, one of which is to encourage mothers who work at home.

Since her products are aimed at little girls, and each product label contains a positive message to inspire girls, the Mocha Moms conference was the perfect venue for Jamila. So here's the tip: don't overlook niche conferences as a way to expand your brand. There are mom's conferences, dad's conferences, kid's conferences, marriage conferences, sports conferences and conferences for just about every topic you can think of, and many of them have vendor tables.

For example, companies with products aimed at young mothers and children should sell their products at pediatric, parenting and family conferences. You can find them through resources like All Conferences.com where I found tons of conferences related to children all over the word including in the US, UK, Saudi Arabia, India, Iran, Canada, Turkey and Argentina.

Whatever your niche, chances are good there's a group of people holding a conference to support it. Conferences large and small can generate new customers, word of mouth advertising (the best kind!) and expand not only your brand, but your personal horizons as well. Like Jamila, if you join the organization, you will probably enjoy even more sales at their conference. Jamila's signage indentified her as a Mocha Moms member and several moms said that was the icing on the cake of doing business with her. Cha Ching!

Conferences are sometimes held in exotic locales or on cruise ships! This provides an interesting opportunity to combine business with pleasure and enjoy the tax benefits too. If you have a tip or story about how selling your products at a conference helped expand your brand, please share it.

How To Act Outside The Box

This time last year, my family and I sold our home and were packing our life up to move nearly 600 miles away from everything we knew and held dear to the great state of North Carolina. My husband and I were born and raised in Washington, DC, and grew up in the same neighborhood. Our nation's capital was all our kids had ever known.

In business as in life, "thinking" outside the box is one thing. Actually "acting" outside the box is quite another. One of the most popular questions I am asked during media interviews is how we decided to move, and how we decided where to move. For those of you Indie Business owners out there thinking that a lifestyle change may be in order, here are our best tips for thinking and acting outside the (moving) box.

1. Know What's Important To You
Despite its attractions, the DC area is an expensive place to live, and according to the most recent issue of Forbes Magazine, the nation's capital commute is among the unhealthiest in the country (along with Atlanta, Los Angeles and Houston). Rush hour traffic is an all day affair and gas prices are crazy like everywhere. We lived in a great county in the suburbs, but the public school system left much to be desired. Private school was an option but there'd be little left for fun summer vacations. Add to that the fact that we were spending the kids' college fund on property taxes. As Indie Business owners, we knew something had to give!

We started by deciding what what was important to us: saving for retirement and college, quality public education, lower property taxes, proximity to a major city, a friendly climate and a location not too far from the ocean. Once we knew what mattered most to us, we were ready for the next step.

2. Research The Country
Armed with our list of priorities, we assumed the position in front of our laptops and began using search engines to scope out states that fit our criteria. We eliminated most of the country because it was not near an ocean. Left with both coasts and the friendly climate factor, we narrowed our search down to: California, Florida, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina and Oregon (well, we had to have a wild card!)

Then we called everyone we knew in each of those states and quizzed them on everything from the price of bread to the public school options. We quickly eliminated California and Oregon (too expensive and too far away from family). Then, we nixed Florida because we don't like hurricanes. New York and New Jersey were next on the chopping block for a variety of reasons I won't mention. I'll just say that a lot of people who lived there told us to let them know where we ended up so they could come too!

That left us with Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

3. Visit In Person
Now, it was time to travel! We knew Virginia and Maryland well enough since we lived in Maryland and had been to Virginia on numerous occasions. Not much to do there but research property taxes and property values in a few counties that were semi-rural. We found some promising options but in the end, whenever we talked of either state, the conversation stalled.

That left Pennsylvania and North Carolina, so we packed up the kiddies and headed out on the open road. Each state had a lot to offer, plus our dearest friends had recently purchased a home in Pennsylvania. There were some good public schools there and the coast was not too far away. New York and all it had to offer in terms of entertainment was close and we could be home to visit our families in 2 hours or so. In the end, when we talked of Pennsylvania, we could only get excited about our friends. We knew that wouldn't be enough to sustain us until our kids turned their high school tassels, so off we went to North Carolina.

My husband was a bit on the terrified side where NC was concerned because he had never lived in the south. I was a bit less nervous because I went to college at the University of South Carolina. Still, the thought of being so far away in the state were tobacco, cotton and slaves were once the biggest export was a bit scary. After all, when I started college in SC, they were still flying the confederate flag over the state house, which is located in the middle of campus. Yikes!

Once in NC, we were captivated. The ocean and the mountains were nearby. The school system in the county we had our eye on (Union) was award winning. Property taxes were non-existent compared to what we were paying. The neighborhoods were family friendly and we were 30 minutes away from Carowinds. We also connected with a great kid-focused church.

We put the house on the market in July 1. We had a contract on July 11. We settled on July 30 and leased the property back for a month. By the first week of September, we were NC residents and loving it! How's that for confirmation of the right move?! (These guys were our moving crew.)

4. Act!
Packing up the whole family and moving hundreds of miles away may not be for everyone. But this is just an example of acting outside the box. In the end, thinking is just that. But it's the Indies who act who accomplish their goals and better their chances of living their best life possible.

The Indie Business Trifecta

If you could be guaranteed Indie Business success just by remembering 3 things, and working according to them, would you be up to the challenge?

If so, here is today's tip:

The Indie Business Trifecta.
Read it. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Act on it.

1. Make Technology Your Slave.
Big topic, I know. But let's start with e-commerce. No Indie should have a website with a printable order form. Do you have time to choose a product, print an order form, fill it out, write a check, find an envelope, find a stamp, seal everything up and keep track of it until you get to the post office? Yeah, I know. Get a merchant account and make it easy for your customers to buy your products. You can use services offered by your banking institution. If they can't help, use a search engine to find merchant services that fit your needs. If you can't get a traditional account, use PayPal or Checkout. If they don't work, use CCNow. (They charge too much, but at least you get the sales.) Other ways to use technology include a user-friendly website, a digital camera to take pictures for your site, an email newsletter, a blog and countless other things to make your business easier and more fun for you and your customers. If you don't make technology your slave, you will work harder for less.

2. The Riches Are In The Niches.
No one buys jeans anymore. They buy low rise jeans. They buy jeans for women with hips. They buy boot cut jeans. They buy customized jeans. They buy stone washed jeans. Levi's has the bucks to make and effectively market all of them. In other words, they can be all things to all people. Indie's can't. Start with one thing and expand from there. Pick a niche and stick with it. Pick and Stick. I like that.

3. Schmooze Or Lose.
No Indie is an island. Just like an attempt to live life without like-minded friends will be a disaster, so will an attempt to enjoy Indie Business without like-minded Indies. Find a trade association, local chamber of commerce, moms group, dads group, whatever, and start showing up. You'll get new business ideas, leads for new customers, leads for new vendors and you'll have fun at the same time.

... and they're off!

PS - I love blogging for many reasons, one of which is it gives me a chance to engage in shameless and gratuitous sharing of my kids' pictures. I'm sorry, I can't help myself. Above, they are with a friend at their weekly horseback riding lesson.

Indie Families Rock!

The media devotes a lot of attention to moms in business, as well it should. But let's also hear it for the dads who are also charting their own course!

Today, I taped an interview for Ron Haney, talk radio host at Froggy 104.1's Community Focus Show which airs throughout western Tennessee. (I'll post when the show will air.) Ron asked me several questions about Indie Business success, one focused primarily on how dads are getting into the Indie Business act. I told him what Indie Beauty Network member Maggie Hanus of A Wild Soap Bar told me years ago: the family that grinds together binds together. Who says that only government and big business can create a family friendly work environment?!? I've said it before, and I'll say it again: we can create our own!

Indie Beauty Network members Kibby and Jay Mitra of From Nature With Love exemplify how dads and moms are joining forces in business to create their own brand of family and work balance. When the Mitras had their first child, Kibby left her job to be at home and discovered a knack for making herbal bath and body products to help with the baby's eczema. She eventually began selling the products, teaching others how to make the products and selling ingredients and supplies.

Their business was formally birthed when Jay, who has a background in finance, noticed that the more eczema cream Kibby made, the more the family checking account grew. He eventually left his job and today, he runs the financial end of the business while Kibby's psychology background is put to good use on the marketing side. Ten years later, the couple has 4 children and their family business has expanded to include several independent revenue streams, all managed from their home office in Oxford, Connecticut.

How cool is that?! Read on for Kibby's tips on being successful in Indie Business.

The Democratization of Business

Despite some advertisements and prominent headlines, you do not have to be drowning in profits to be a success in business. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for profit. Make money, yes. But Indie Business owners achieve success in part because they don't buy into the lie that unless you are a millionnaire several times over, your efforts and your business are not significant.

These days, business is for everyone. I call it "the democratization of business," and every family should be Indie, somehow creating or aspiring to create wealth on their own terms, either on a part- or full-time basis. I cover this topic in some detail in The Entrepreneurial Imperative.

There was a time when "small business" necessarily meant bank loans, investors and at least a few employees. Those days are gone. Consider Warren Brown, who started CakeLove out of his passion for baking cakes after long days working as a regulatory attorney in Washington, DC. (That's Erik, one of Warren's pastry chefs in the photo.) Warren had little money, and even less after he opened a store and an employee squandered much of the profits. To be successful, Warren had to take orders for cakes, deliver cakes, collect money for cakes -- and then go back and bake some more cakes.

Warren's father eventually contributed a small loan, and that's the point. Family members help other family members achive their dreams. Today, Warren has two stores, a cafe, a soon-to-be published cookbook, cake baking classes and hosts the Chocolate Cuisine Cruise and a Food Network show called "Sugar Rush." A third store will open later this summer.

And the best part is that if you have a passion, you too can do what Warren did! If there are things holding you back, read on for some tips that might help you cope.

The Indie Business Way

Taken following my daughter's pre-K graduation ceremony a few weeks ago (that's her in the yellow dress), this photo captures the joy of life through the eyes and squeals of several 5-year old girls. Life can be difficult between this stage and adulthood. It can even have a way of stealing the kind of purity of heart that is captured in the faces of these precious little ones. There was a time when I had lost my joy, but God restored it several-fold in many ways, the most profound of which is The Indie Business Way.

The Indie Business Way

• The Indie Business Way gives you confidence. Just when you think you've encountered a business wall you cannot scale, or a customer returns your products in a huff, you find the strength to climb a little higher and chalk your mistake up to experience. You learn to welcome the challenges. Each success leads to another. Each mistake makes you better. Soon, there's nothing you can't do.
• The Indie Business Way empowers you to help others. When you build something from scratch, you learn a lot. Along the way, a lot of people help you. You may have formal investors or friends who give you the money to cover the phone bill now and then. Or maybe you have a spouse or sibling who chips in during busy times to package products or help you update your website. When you humble yourself and allow others to help you, you are empowered to in turn help others.
• The Indie Business Way makes you smile. When you start with nothing and end up with a valuable asset, it feels good. And no matter what else comes your way, you always have something smile about.

Playing It Safe Can Be Fatal

Swimming with my 5-year old daughter today reminded me of the similarities between Indies and children learning how to swim. When learning to swim, kids need to rely on inner tubes, inflatable arm bands and swimwear with personal flotation devices built in. These "safety nets" empower new swimmers and encourage them to gain confidence in the water.

But relying on flotation devices after they are no longer needed can cause a swimmer to remain stuck in the baby pool forever. At some point, the safety devices must be discarded to make room for new growth and expansion.

It's the same with Indie Business owners. Holding onto extraneous flotation devices for too long can hamper your growth and prevent you from expanding your circle of influence. When that happens, the next thing to go is new customers. And when they stop coming, the gig is up.

From holding a full time job after its no longer needed to mailing a brochure when an in-person cold call is needed, playing it too safe can land you knee deep in a sea of ho hum competitors.

So here's the tip: A safety suit is great when it serves a legitimate purpose, but eventually, you have to remove it and get soaking wet in order to make a difference in your life and in the lives of others.

The Stores Less Traveled

I was in a Dilworth's Coffee House expecting to get a plain old cup of coffee, but the first thing I saw was a display of Indie beauty products made by Moondance Soaps in Raleigh, North Carolina. Forget about the coffee! I want some soap!

It started me to thinking about how so many great products are competing for space on the same old spa and boutique shelves, when there are so many other places to pitch the same products without having to compete so intensely. Do you have a coffee inspired soap? Imagine how many local coffee houses in your city might make perfect prospects. How about a great lip balm? Maybe there are some music stores with customers whose lips could use some TLC from all the horns, tubas, clarinets and other instruments they play. Or maybe a wonderful hand cream? Perhaps a local needlework shop would like to carry a cream to soothe customers' hard working fingers.

So here's the tip: Check your local phone book or chamber of commerce for the stores less traveled. You're more likely to get your foot in the door faster and can more easily pitch your products.

There But For The Grace of God Goes Indie

I love doing business with other Indies. That's why I was so glad to find David at the Mail & More franchise location in my new hometown in suburban North Carolina. My office and home are co-located in a rural area and the post office is quite a distance away. Mail & More is two doors down from the local grocery store so it's a cinch to shop for my family, and mail for my business without having to make two stops.

Sadly, those days are over. When I went to see David and his staff today, I was met with a darkened store, a locked door and a note in the window. It seems David was unable to find a buyer for his franchise. He was not able to make payments to the franchisor, so he had to close his doors.

This could happen to any Indie. Whether a franchisee or an Indie who owns both the business and the brand, often times we are a few payments away from a darkened store, a locked door and a note on the window.

At times like this, I am reminded of how much we need to support and encourage one another. So here's the tip: Pick up the phone or send an email to an Indie who is going through a rough time. Boost his or her spirits. Maybe even share a little about how you came through a tough time in your business, and are now all the better for the experience. Give someone a reason to continue seeking after the economic independence that is so important to us as Indies.

Next time, it could be your turn. Or mine.

Trade Show Magic

Last week, I delivered the keynote address at the Conference of Handcrafted Soap Makers in St. Louis. While there, I met with Susan Ryhanen of Saipua in New York. Susan (pictured, left, with Sima Dadamiya of Jumana Handmade Products in the United Kingdom) is a member of the Indie Beauty Network and a savvy trade show veteran. Saipua's soaps have been featured in Martha Stewart's Blueprint Magazine, Lucky Magazine, and even on NBC's Today Show. My favorite is Green Tea Soap, made with real green tea leaves.

If you're a retailer looking for some high quality gift soaps to carry in your store, you can meet Susan (and her soaps) at the Extracts trade show in August, order at her website, or visit her store in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where she and her daughter Sarah also carry a unique array of fresh flowers.

At the conference, Susan's presentation on how to make the most of a trade show appearance was fabulous, and she graciously gave me permission to share some of her best insights with you. So read on for some great trade show tips.

5 Reasons To Be Indie

I - Income. Indie business owners define and generate wealth on their own terms.

N - Newsworthy. Indie business owners create "buzz" as they simultaneously pursue their passions, help others and support themselves and their families.

D - Destiny. Indie business owners don't rely on traditional means of income to define, create and control their destinies. Often, they are women with children who use their business to create a legacy for their children.

I - Independence. Indie business owners are true entrepreneurs -- creating something out of nothing. They are completely independent of mainstream ideas about what constitutes a successful entrepreneur.

E - Equity. Indie business owners own equity in their ventures, and this equity interest distinguishes them from businesses that are owned or controlled by third parties.