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Old February 27, 2002, 01:08 PM
elizabeth
 
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Default Big thanks Dien, Duane and Anya

Thank you for your excellent comments and support. And all the other avenues I could use to promote my products. I think they are all very doable and I've actually been giving some of your ideas a great deal of thought over the last couple years.

I've had an interest in aromatherapy and cream making for over 10 years. So why have I not turned this into a business? I think mainly because this is a very labour intensive type of operation, very manual, which is why I've kept it as a hobby rather than a business. One also needs a cool area or extra fridge to store the ingredients. All not entirely possible when we live in a condo, with limited room for expansion.

I actually have a friend who runs her own shop as well as sells her creams via mail order. She appears to be doing fairly well, but were it not for the school that she runs, where she actually gets her students to help with the making of the products, she could not produce enough product for retail sale, on her own. She would have to hire a couple employees to make the products.

Shelf life is also a big issue. While some of the essential oils and other ingredients are in themselves natural preservatives, for the most part, the shelf life of the products is 8-12 months max. You can still maintain 'natural' on the label by using ingredients that will allow for a longer shelf life, but this is an integrity choice I would have to make whether or not I want to compromise quality for longer shelf life. I have yet to experiment with the longer lasting preservatives. The recipes that I have and the products that I buy from my supplier are all as natural as one can get. As some of the purists say, "if you can't eat it, you should not use it on your skin :-)"

I like Anya's idea of teaching others how to make the product, as one actually gets to take home a product. This is probably a good way to start off small and see how things develop from there.

I got a couple people who sent their comments directly to my email box. It does appear that targeting the women to buy for the men, is a good marketing strategy. I think this is a tried and proven strategy that works, which I had not thought of, but stares me right in the face every time I walk through the cosmetics counters at the major dept. stores that sell men's body care lines. There's no doubt that today, there are many more companies specificallly promoting body care prods. to men and they're buying it up. If the average man is any indication of what my spouse is like, i.e. if it smells good and the product delivers on its promise, men will buy it, at any cost. I think selling to women is much harder work, as on average, we do a lot of price comparison shopping, read labels, and are not as quick to part with our dollars as the men are.

And if I'm wrong on the last sentence, I apologize in advance :-) This stat. is based on a survey of 2, me and my sister.
Regards,

Eliz.
 


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