Hi there.
You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 108.
My bath bomb sales were skyrocketing.
My soap sales were dropping because of the way I displayed
them. Hi,
this is John Lee,
Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped,
and now it's time to light it up.
Welcome to gift bears,
unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
and grow your business.
And now here's your host,
Sue Mona height.
Before we get into the show,
I have a question for you.
Do you know that you should be out networking,
but you just can't get yourself to do it because it's
scary. Are you afraid that you might walk into the room
and not know anybody or that you're going to freeze?
When you get up to do that infamous elevator speech,
where you talk about yourself and your business,
while I'm here to tell you that it doesn't need to
be scary.
If you know what to do to help you with this,
I would like to offer you a coffee chat for the
price of buying me a cup of coffee.
We can sit down through an online video and I'll tell
you everything that I know about networking and how I personally
built two multi-six figure businesses,
primarily through networking.
You'll walk away with a solid understanding about how networking can
truly grow your business.
And you're going to have new found confidence because I'm going
to give you 10 fill in the blank templates that you
can use for your introduction message.
To learn more about this opportunity.
Just go over to Bitly forward slash network and then job
that's B I T dot L Y forward slash network Ninja.
And now let's move on to the show.
Hi there it's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped
podcast, whether you own a brick and mortar store sell online
or are just getting started,
you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
business today.
I want to introduce you to Sheena Smith.
Sheena started her business called blues bath and bomb just one
year ago.
As you may have guessed,
she sells homemade bath bombs and also handmade soaps,
sugar scrubs,
bath salts,
and lotion bars selling online only through Facebook and in-person at
craft shows.
Her business is exploding just like her bath bombs.
Do a typical weekend Event will result in the sale of
two or 3000 That box.
And to think this all started from selling donuts.
I know this doesn't make any sense,
but it will.
When you listen to her story,
so let's get to it.
She knows Come to the show.
Thank you Sue,
for having me.
I've given a little bit of an intro,
but I want you to share with us something a little
different, and that is having you describe your ideal motivational candle.
So if you were to choose a color that really resonates
with you and a sane that would be on the candle,
what would that be?
Ooh, colors.
I couldn't narrow it down to one color.
I would say iridescent like an iridescent glitter,
but the iridescent,
because the colors change as you angle your candle,
just like my life.
It changes day to day with my business,
my quote on this candle,
I found it to deal with being brave and being strong
and being humble.
And I found a quote that I liked.
It said be strong when you are weak,
brave, when you are scared and humble when you are victorious.
And I just thought that was so beautiful.
Yeah, because it's like the opposites.
Yes. Yeah.
I love that.
Do you know who that quote is by?
I didn't get to really find out who it was by
You research the quote and find that quote specifically for the
show. Yes,
I did.
Okay. Because I think it's a great one for us all
to remember as we Move on,
correct. Because there is so many times that I just want
to just say,
forget it,
but I have to be strong.
And this interview with you,
I was scared to death because I never did anything like
this. So I said,
I'm going to do this,
even though I did not want to do this with you.
But I said,
you know,
what do it do it?
And right now I'm not at the top of my game
with the soap business,
it's going to go further,
but I'm doing very well for being into it a little
bit over a year.
So when I'm at an event,
sometimes there's other soap makers and bath bomb makers at the
same event,
I know I'm doing better sales than them.
So I do stop by their booth and try to find
a unique product of theirs,
something I like and ask them questions about it.
So that if a customer of mine is looking for something,
I have no problem with sending one of my customers over
to this.
I would say a newcomer or somebody that has a different
product than me and saying,
Hey, you see that young lady down there or that young
gentlemen down there with soaps.
Also, they have this awesome soap.
And I went over there.
I asked her questions and I would buy it.
I would buy it myself.
So I would suggest,
you know,
go over there and see if she's got something you like,
That's great information.
And you know,
so many people wouldn't do that because they think that they're
then losing sales for themselves.
But it's so crazy.
Just like your quote of a little bit of the opposite
is the more generosity you give and you help your customer.
The more it comes back to you and you would almost
think it doesn't,
but it Does.
It actually has,
because at an event I had a girl who had,
you know,
a little bitty,
tiny stope stand,
maybe about six feet long,
directly in front of me.
And she paid the same fee to get in the event.
And at this event,
some of my customers,
I would send them to her because she did a lot
of room sprays with essential oils.
I don't do room sprays with essential oils.
So I actually sent my customers to her.
I'm like she has some awesome stuff.
And one of my customers actually turned to me and said,
I'm going to buy something off of you,
just because your honesty about another business.
So your product has to be awesome.
So it does pay back.
And it actually in front of my face,
paid me back when a customer turned it around on me
and said,
I'm going to get something from you too.
Wow. And that young girl that was directly in front of
me, she had no bath bombs.
She had soaps and room sprays.
So I dragged her and her mother when we had a
slow period over to my booth.
And I trained both of them,
how to make bath bombs,
using their essential oils.
It's all going to come back to me.
It all does come back to me.
It already has come back to me.
So she knows what you just described is what I would
call a power partner.
We covered this gift biz listeners,
way back in a show.
I don't recall the episode number,
but it was with Julie yousome.
I will put it in the show notes what the episode
number is.
And if you don't know about power partners,
you should,
because this is exactly what she was talking about.
If you share an audience with somebody,
but you provide different services,
just like Sheena's talking about,
you know,
she had the bath bombs and the person across had something
else, but it's the same audience.
It's the same type of customer.
You guys can help support each other.
And both of your businesses can grow.
I'm not going to go into that here because we have
a really super cool story about Jean.
I'm going to stay on topic,
but go back and look at that because that could be
really valuable.
So Sheena,
I kind of teased a little bit in the intro that
your whole company started from donuts,
which of course is super confusing to everybody.
Why don't you take it away and fill us all in
on how that happened?
Oh, wow.
I would say about six years ago,
actually I wanted to purchase a house outright cash,
and then everything I wanted to buy it.
I wasn't happy with.
So I turned to my husband and I turned to my
16 year old daughter because at the time she was working
at the mall and she would come home every day and
tell me how she made her quotas,
that her boss gave her and sales.
So I said,
I got a good salesperson.
I'm going to start from there.
I'm going to start a business in the mall.
Well, what do I start?
I had no clue.
I looked at little hotdog cards.
I'm like,
no, I don't want to do that.
Then I remembered my mother about 20 years ago was telling
me that she waited in line at a festival for a
half an hour.
The line was a block long.
And she waited in this line for these hot,
fresh mini donuts that come popping out of a machine in
front of your face.
Now I'd never tried the donut.
I've never even seen the machine.
So of course,
what do I do?
I call the company that manufactured,
that machine bought the top of the line machine opened up
my kiosk in a mall.
I found the kiosk on eBay from another mini donut lady
out of New Mexico,
bought it,
used, put it up in the mall,
started making donuts.
Now my machine was being delivered still.
I never tested the donut.
Never tried it.
I'm just going off of my mother saying it was the
best donut she's ever eaten in her life.
So I Google find a local vendor within an hour of
where I live.
That makes many donuts when to one of his shows,
he was an awesome gentleman.
He took me and my husband behind his booth showed us
how to make donuts,
let us eat.
The donuts,
gave us so many tips and tricks.
So that next week we can open our business.
That's crazy.
And that's again,
just like you were talking about in the beginning sharing expertise
and not being selfish,
but being generous with information and learning and sharing.
Correct. He was really a godsend and he didn't have to
do that,
but he took his time out and showed us how to
work the machine and how to make a perfect donut.
Okay. So I'm going to challenge you now,
how in the world does that lead to bath bomb?
Ooh, fast forward,
about six to eight months later after opening our business in
the mall,
we were a temporary business and a permanent business with the
mall, which was a corporate business,
wanted our location because we were strategically placed by the kids'
play area.
So they wanted our spot.
Well, of course us being the little guy,
we had to be moved to a different location.
So they showed us the location,
which was across from a Yankee candle,
which is awesome because I love the smell of Yankee candle.
But the first problem was that with my business mini donuts,
it was action attraction.
You smelled my doughnut throughout the whole mall.
So now me and Yankee candle are going to have a
problem because their smells and my smells.
You're not going to know who you smelled.
And also to reroute our electricity was going to cost us
an arm and a leg over four or $5,000.
So my husband and I said,
let's buy a concession trailer.
Let's stay local and do festivals and fairs in our own
backyard and only have to work weekends instead of working seven
days a week,
10 to nine in a mall.
Because at this time we also had preschool aged children.
I believe my children were four and five years old.
So we bought a concession trailer,
fixed it up,
started doing festivals and fairs fast forward a year later,
a lot of the promoters loved my husband and myself because
we were friendly with customers.
We were easy to work with.
We would get into a festival.
They can call us at the last minute we would be
there. So a lot of these festivals had empty spaces where
a vendor didn't show up something would happen.
So a lot of the promoters would ask,
Hey, do you know somebody that can fill this space last
minute? Well,
we were calling our vendor friends and getting them in.
And the idea clicked with me and my husband.
We already started this donut business for our four year old
son so we can build it up.
So when he's older,
he has something,
let's start a business for Lula our five-year-old daughter.
But at this time she was about eight,
eight, nine years old.
Well, what business do we start?
Well at the time,
just for fun,
I was doing a Melton pour soap.
You know,
you go to Michael's and you buy this little kit and
it has some glycerin soap and a block.
And you toss it in the microwave,
melt it,
add some color at some fragrance and bam,
you have cute little soaps,
but I wanted to do something more of what our grandparents
did, dealed handmade,
original. So which at the time I thought,
Oh, this is a lost art.
Well, I start searching.
I find out in Facebook,
there's a whole bunch of people doing handmade salt.
So I started doing a Facebook search.
I found a couple of groups of people that did handmade
soaps across the world.
And I was so surprised that they are still using the
same ingredients that we used,
Like way back when or something.
Right? Yeah.
So how did you feel about that?
Because at first you thought,
Oh, you know,
no one's doing this anymore.
I'm sure you're thinking I'm going to slip into the market.
It's going to be so fresh and new.
And then you did research and you found that AU contraire,
there are a lot of people doing it.
What was going through your mind then?
And what made you then decide to keep going?
Because I noticed they were doing it on a smaller scale.
They weren't taking it to the level and some of them
were doing it.
They had their own brick and mortars too.
So you had every level of person,
you had the lady in our kitchen making handmade soaps for
her neighbors and her friends and her family.
Then you had a couple people doing the same thing I'm
doing now,
but that didn't stop you then.
No, it didn't.
It did it because in my area there wasn't anything like
that. Ah,
so there's your niche,
this type of thing,
right? In your area,
because you were going to stay in sell locally.
Correct. And I had a worldwide network of other soap makers
from India,
from Australia,
from the us helping me.
Right. They don't know me.
We just know each other on Facebook,
but we were all helping each other out.
Like here here's some tips and tricks.
Here's a nice booth set up.
Why don't you try adding this ingredient to your soap?
Why don't you try doing this?
So I had thousands of people across the world helping me.
Awesome. Okay.
So you had that,
you did your research,
you already knew the name was going to be your daughter's
name. So that totally makes sense.
How did you get started in terms of presenting these to
the market?
Well, we were scheduled to do a wrestling show for the
Ford motor company union employees.
So the union president said,
you know what,
go ahead and bring your soap business with.
Cause I explained to him we're starting a soap business.
I would like to bring that out.
Since we already booked our donut business to cover your concession
for your wrestling show,
what this wrestling show we had both booths set up right
next to each other.
My husband and son-in-law was working the donut stand.
I was working in the soap booth.
Well, adding that second booth and me taking over that booth
and no longer helping with the donut business,
we got swamped.
It's A perfect storm,
right? Yes.
So all three of us started working both businesses at the
same time.
My word.
Yes. So that's so business took off right away.
Exactly at the same pace as that donut business.
Like if it's been there since day one of the donut
business, wow.
After that night,
I was getting calls from Ford,
the Ford motor company,
their employees that attended that event.
We need more soap.
Can we buy this in bulk?
I had one lady call me and say she was almost
in tears because she said,
my husband used your activated charcoal and it has peppermint and
tea tree in it.
My husband used your soap for the first time this week.
And he has never felt so good and relaxed in his
whole life.
I need to buy every bottle that soap that you have
left. That's a testimonial.
I think I had 10 bars of it left.
I packaged up those 10 bars of soap and I met
her at a local restaurant supply store.
Oh my gosh.
And now every couple of months she calls me and I
sell her and it's open to everybody else,
but I sell her that soap by the loaf.
So she's buying 25 bars and that's all she's using.
She's giving it out to friends and family,
her husband's got his stock and she's happy.
Wow. Well that is the testimonial to the product and the
quality of what you're producing for sure.
So, okay.
So we're at donuts and now,
so correct.
Then what happens When I started going into,
after the Ford motor company event,
I went into,
it was a local indoor garage sale.
I was kind of on the fence for it because I
thought garage sale,
that stuff from people's attics and basements,
you know,
one man's junk another man's treasure.
I didn't want my pretty soaps to be considered something I
found in the basement and the attic,
but I'm like,
you know what?
I'm going to do it.
It's only a couple blocks away from my home.
Well, this booth was actually two times the size of my
wrestling event booth.
So on this one,
I had upped it from 15 different lines of soap from
the wrestling show to now about 40 to 50 lines of
soap. I also threw in some bags of bath salts,
I made,
I also made about a hundred little bath bombs just to
put out there.
So now my customers have a little variety.
I actually went and made some cute little displays and got
some signs made from Vista print and set up my booth.
Well again,
soaps were flying off the shelf.
I didn't get a chance to eat during that seven event.
I could not leave my booth space because everybody was piled
into this little 10 by 10 foot booth space.
That's crazy.
I bet the time went so fast though.
You probably didn't even realize you didn't get a chance to
eat. Correct.
It was nine o'clock when I set up,
it was one o'clock when I realized,
Hey, I'm out of here in two hours.
Yeah. I'm going to stop you here really quickly because gift
biz listeners,
we've just covered a couple of points that I really want
to underline.
First. Sheena's talking about the fact that some of these small
local events,
you know,
she's thinking,
should I do it?
Should I not do it?
Look at how our business has grown from being exposed through
those types of events.
So if you have an opportunity,
you just don't know who might be coming by.
You know that it's a weekend and it's leisure time who
from a large company might be coming by or you have
big business potential from some of those events.
The other thing is she talks about her product growth and
how it started with the soaps.
She saw an opportunity because her customers are already liking that
product to extend the line,
a similar thing.
They're still pampering products,
but different versions of the same.
So she's staying in her core business,
which is pampering products,
if you will,
but extending.
So in that way,
she's giving people a way for herself to upsell,
right? Because people are not just going to buy the soap.
Then they might buy the bath salt or my personal favorite,
the sugar scrubs.
So, but that's an automatic way.
You can start growing your sales when you stay in your
core focus,
but you add options just like Sheena was doing.
All right.
So you did this garage sale that you weren't sure about.
And again,
proof of concept everyone's buying you out.
Now, what happens Now?
I start getting invited to events by customers that came to
that big garage sale that were actually promoters for other events.
So one of the invites I got was a rescue pet
shelter in our local County expo center.
So I'm like,
this is different.
So I set up a booth,
made my stand even bigger.
This time I brought out couple hundred bath bombs labeled up
my sugar scrubs,
bagged up more bath salt,
added some solid lotion bars that could be used for human
and for the bottom of pet dogs and some solid lotion
bars that we created for dogs here in the Chicago land
area. A lot of people throw salt on their snow.
So when you take your dog out to use the restroom,
that salt eats up your dog's feet.
So I created a lotion bar with coconut oil,
beeswax and cocoa butter.
And this was like waxing,
you Dawes pause.
So that dog can go outside and wouldn't get that salt
eaten Up.
Well, I'm going to need some of those.
Oh, those fly off the shelf to a lot of people
consider their dogs and cats to be their children.
Absolutely. So just like we put shoes on our kids' feet.
When we take them outside,
this is a different way.
You don't have to put those booties on their feet.
And a lot of the dogs take them off or they're
uncomfortable, right?
It's natural.
It's safe.
If the dog goes to lick off the lotion bar,
it's not going to hurt the dog.
It's safe.
There's nothing the dog can choke on.
There's nothing that will poison the dog.
Everything is edible.
Good point.
All right.
I want to ask you a really important question here.
A lot of our listeners are in the same boat as
you they're makers or creators of their product.
So you're kind of in a catch 22 because you want
to bring in more business.
But when you're bringing in more business,
you're actually making more work for yourself because you've got to
produce the product.
What do you see in terms of any challenges there and
what do you do about that?
Because everywhere you're going,
I'm hearing it with successful.
You're selling through product like crazy.
So this is what happened.
I started selling more product,
which meant I need to make more product.
And I was one at the time to refuse,
help from anybody.
No, I got it.
I can do it on my own.
So I did that for about a month living on nothing
but coffee.
Oh my word.
And maybe a couple hours of sleep at night.
Finally, a friend of mine offered to help.
I said,
no, no,
no, I got this.
I got this.
Well, she wouldn't take no for an answer because she seen,
I guess what?
I didn't see.
I was beat.
I was tired.
She was a smart friend.
Yes. So she just showed up the next day and said,
I'm helping you.
And from there I was like,
wow, I really got something done.
She did a great job.
And from there,
my cousin,
Nicole started coming over and helping me make bath bombs.
Because these bath bombs,
I was making approximately one to 3000 bath bombs by hand
per week for my event.
Oh my word.
Yes. So now we created a bomb squad,
which consisted of course,
all this time.
My 23 year old daughter,
Ariel, she was helping me behind the scenes since day one,
whether it would be taking her brother and sister and watching
them for me,
helping me carry some heavy stuff,
helping me make product,
helping me with ideas.
My daughter Ariel was always by my side.
So now fast forward,
we have a bomb squad.
It consisted of myself,
my daughter,
Ariel, my girlfriend,
Jenny, and my cousin,
Nicole. So everybody would come over,
we'd get plenty of food,
plenty of stuff to drink.
And we would just build bombs.
We would start about five o'clock in the afternoon.
We wouldn't get done till maybe two or three o'clock in
the morning.
And we would do that about two times a week.
But I bet you had a blast because you're all going
together. It's not,
then you working solo anymore.
It was fun.
You couldn't talk and chit chat and do whatever while you're
making the bombs.
Right? Correct.
And then they would also give me design ideas.
Like let's try layering your colors and see how that would
look or let's make this one lighter or let's make this
one darker.
Or they would just completely make up their own bomb color.
And I liked it.
It's good that you accepted input from them too,
because then they feel ownership,
feeling satisfied and gratification for what they're doing to help you
fabulous that you would do that.
And I got to tell you,
this is a classic problem that I think makers fall into
is, well,
any entrepreneur,
let me go with anybody who starts a business is I
can do this all myself.
I don't need help.
I'm going to save every little penny.
I possibly can throw it back into the business.
And I am super woman and can do it.
And it was so great that your friend jumped in and
said, Nope,
you do need help.
And kind of forced you into it,
because think about it.
You would have never been able to do that for the
long haul.
You would either landed in the hospital or after,
I don't know,
two months,
if you could even have gone that long,
at some point you would have just had to be hands
up. I give in That is correct.
Now let's fast forward a little bit.
This fun little bomb making party and this little bomb squad,
the girls were getting worn out.
They started dropping like flies.
The dangers of success,
Chino. Yeah,
We were all tired.
So now they are just as exhausted as I am.
So now I had to put on my thinking cap and
think of how can I not wear out my friends and
family? What can I do to make this bomb making process
go smoother,
go quicker.
Yeah. So what did you do?
Well, my husband by trade is a mechanic and he loves
his old fashioned cars.
He loves his rat rods.
He loves his classic Chevy's and he loves his hydraulic pumps.
So what he tried to do is design me a pneumatic
press that will automatically make my bath bombs for me.
This was about late September.
At the same time,
a friend of mine that makes bath bombs.
He was trying to design a press.
So we were talking back and forth with him.
How to adjust the press.
What can we do anything we can do to get this
press working?
Well, this press was slowing me down.
So we tossed it in the back of the closet.
And I just continued with whoever would show up at my
house and helped me make bombs.
I would just continue the hand-making of the bath bombs.
And plus now we're getting into October where my festival season
is slowing down.
So now instead of making 3000 bath bombs,
I can get away with a thousand to 2000 a week.
So now my friend in Wisconsin perfected his pneumatic press and
it was beautiful.
He called it the bath bomb express.
I named her Stella and I fought him on it.
Her name is Stella because she was beautiful.
She was made of steel.
She Was gorgeous.
So the bath bomb press,
I think he was like around with the mold.
It was around 500 bucks.
And I was still on the fence because I had already
invested in my non-working press about $500 already.
And I didn't want to spend $500 on somebody else's product
when I had something that was close to working.
Yeah. But somehow You have to invest in the future.
Shayna. Correct.
So what I did,
he had little raffles going on because he's building his bath
bomb press business.
So one day I was at an event,
I was bored.
I seen he had a raffle going on.
It was a $20 ticket.
I never win anything.
I don't even find that loose quarter on the street.
So what I did,
I bought me a $20 raffle ticket and I thought nothing
of it.
I'm like,
you know what?
I'm going to support my friend.
I'll buy a $20 raffle ticket.
Well, out of nowhere,
I'm getting all these messages and notifications.
You won,
you won,
you won what I won the bath bomb press.
That's crazy.
That is fate.
You've got the press.
Now, what has that meant?
And where is the business today in terms of production,
Press my husband and my 10 year old daughter can work
it when I need that backup.
I don't use it because my hands are actually faster than
a pneumatic press.
If you would believe that now this means that the people
in my own home under my own roof,
if I need them to back me up,
they can jump on a press and make bath bombs for
me. Wonderful.
So it's kind of a contingency plan when you really are
needing it at this point,
you still have the ability to grow now with the equipment
that you have,
correct. Beautiful.
Okay. I want to talk a little bit about how you're
marketing your business and it's different than a lot of people
are doing and it's working fabulous for you.
So it's a great thing to be sharing with our audience
here. There are only two ways that you're selling your product.
One is face-to-face,
which is what we've been talking about this whole time.
And then also online,
only through Facebook,
right? As of today,
As of today,
really what I'm doing is just festivals and events,
face to face.
Some people in my local area can contact me on Facebook
and I allow them to do a pickup or I'll meet
them somewhere at a public location.
I do ship some of my products,
but never my bath bombs.
Okay. So you are using Facebook to show people the product
and then tell them where you're going to be live next.
That is correct.
So that is a whole different way of using Facebook to
sell than a lot of people ever think about.
And because you are so successful in person,
plus then you don't have the shipping and you know what
else? You don't have any of the bagging materials that you
would need,
because I think you put them in like Brown bags or
some bags right at your booths,
right? That is correct at my booth.
When you come,
the reason why I don't have an Etsy store or an
online website is because at a festival and event,
you get me,
you get to talk to me and ask me,
how did you make this?
What is in it?
I want to know,
can you make me a specialty product?
Can you make something for my baby shower?
Can you make something for my cousin's wedding?
You are getting me.
And also when you come to a festival and event,
everything is spread out there where it's self service.
I have over 30 boxes of bath bombs.
And on my counter,
there is bags spread out throughout the counter.
You have my soaps,
you have my sugar scrubs.
You have my bath,
salt, you as the customer,
get to go in there and pick out what product you
want. So if a bath bomb has a chip in it,
you don't grab that one.
You grab that nice,
pretty one.
And that chip bath bomb goes into a box that I
call the uglies and we'll get to the ugly soon.
My customers get to pick out whatever product they want and
then they come to me.
That's beautiful.
And you know what?
You sent me a picture of the booth and I am
going to put it on the show notes page because it
really is a great visual of what Sheena's actually describing.
All right.
I want to hear about that ugly box.
Is that like a discounted box?
And when can I see it?
This ugly box is exactly that it's from my ugly bath
bombs. Whether I didn't put enough color in it,
I put too much color.
It was a cracked bath bomb.
My husband had broken a batch of bath bombs.
It's an ugly box for the ugly bombs and they're not
for sale.
What it is is for my repeat customers as a thank
you. When they purchase something again,
there's the ugly box.
I fill up a bag of ugly bath bombs because they
still work,
right? It's just,
they're ugly.
But I give them to my customers for free as a
thank you for coming back and seeing me.
I love that.
And you're not compromising quality at all because since it's existing
customers, they already know your product,
correct. Beautiful.
The ugly backs.
You've got great terminology.
I want to sit with you and have a planning meeting
and you can give me all these ideas of what to
call for different things because they're so creative.
Well, a customer,
a young girl,
she must've been about 13 years old.
She calls it the old box.
I actually like her terminology better the old box,
but I'm so used to calling it the ugly box that
it's stuck,
but I really want to start calling it the old box.
You can merge it together or something.
I dunno.
Now that display,
I'm very proud of that display because on that display,
those boxes that create my bath bomb.
That's a recyclable item.
There's a lady in Chicago that makes wine out of her
basement out of her home.
Those are great crates.
She had about 50 of them in her basement.
She put out a Craigslist ad selling all of those crates.
I made an offer.
I went there and picked up off 50 of those crates.
Didn't know how I was going to hide them from my
husband because my house has now turned into soap.
Bath bomb sugars.
It's a supply house.
I bet it smells marvelous.
Oh, you could smell my house from the sidewalk Yom.
So I had to figure out a way to hide these
50 crates in my house.
So I grabbed a corner and I stacked them to the
ceiling, but I started putting my bath bombs and my soaps
inside these crates at festivals and events.
That's when really my bath bombs and my sales skyrocketed on
bath bombs.
What I didn't notice until a couple months later,
my soap sales had fallen by me taking my soaps off
a wood riser and putting them in those crates.
So now my bath bomb sales were skyrocketing.
My soap sales were dropping because of the way I displayed
them. So I kept those wood crates from my bath bombs
and went back to a wood riser on my soaps.
That is a gem of a tip.
Really, really smart.
By the way it was being displayed is how,
especially at festivals,
right? Correct.
Because people are going to come in because of what they're
seeing, they're going to be drawn in,
you know,
and usually there's table after table or booth after booth.
So displays are everything.
I am on my fourth option to display my soaps.
My first option,
I made a wood riser.
My husband said,
no, honey,
you met at a set of stairs.
My second option,
I made it on a pair of window shutters with boards
coming to it.
It kept falling apart.
Third option was that failed bath bomb box that I put
myself in.
So now I'm on a collapsible wood riser and things are
starting to pick up again.
Good. So you might've found the magic there,
correct? The display matter.
I am still looking for another option because I'm not a
hundred percent happy because it is time consuming to take out
my soaps out of a container and display them like my
bath bombs.
I store transport and display in the same container.
I want to do that same thing for my soaps,
where I store transport and display in the same container.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's a good point too.
But at least you have something that's increasing the sale.
So at least for now,
you know,
you're on the right path.
Correct. You can always switch it out as you go.
Right. Right.
All right.
Sheena. I want to roll now into our reflection section.
And this is just a real quick look at other things
that you've been doing and things that you can share with
our listeners that have made you successful.
So these are just really quick answers.
What is a single trait that you have that you've called
upon regularly that you think has made you successful?
I honestly think it's how I treat my customers.
I don't treat them like customers.
I treat them like friends.
I come in and I treat them like if they're family,
I know that you do that because the way I discovered
you was from a show and I didn't even know you,
of course I loved the product right away.
Cause anything that smells yummy is great for me.
But you were,
you're so friendly and jovial at the booth.
And it's very,
very clear that you like what you're doing.
I love what I'm doing.
I am happiest when I'm at that booth on a weekend.
And I'm even happier when my daughter Lula,
is there helping out.
I bet you are.
I'm sure of that.
So yeah.
The way you treat your customers,
that's going to make people come back to you for sure.
And that's going to spread the word,
no question about it.
Is there some tool that you're using besides the hydraulic press?
Because a lot of us don't need that for our businesses,
but is there something else that you're using just to conduct
business in some way that you could share with our listeners?
I just network with other crafters,
with other vendors,
with other promoters.
I stay in touch with them.
Now I'm at a point where I've already gotten invites for
events in October.
So a lot of it has to do with networking,
talk to your other crafters,
become friends with them because they can tell you about upcoming
events. Where are you networking on Facebook Book?
You're talking about in groups or Local Facebook groups on my
groups, in our area groups at events.
I talked to my neighboring crafters,
my neighboring vendors at events I walk around and I actually
purchase from my other vendors for my other crafters,
A number of different places.
You are networking people at events.
You're networking with people in local Facebook groups.
And then also industry Facebook groups like crafting groups,
et cetera.
Correct. And now I have my customers because I'm based in
Northwest Indiana,
which is a Stone's throw from the Illinois,
Chicago borderline.
So I mostly stay in Indiana.
But last fall I started branching out to the Chicago land
area. So I'm getting a lot of my Chicago customers saying,
Hey, we have an event here in Aurora.
We have an event here in Naperville or Grey's lakes.
Why don't you try to see if you can get into
our neck of the woods so we can get more bombs.
So now I have customers saying,
Hey, here's an event.
Can you try to get into that event so we can
get more bombs?
Is there a book or something you've read or listened to
lately that you would share as a resource?
I haven't read any books.
Where do you go to keep yourself educated or learn new
things? Google I,
Google has everything.
It is crazy how,
when there's questions,
so many people will forget about Google.
You know,
we'll have questions.
You'll be like,
Oh, I wonder how this,
I wonder how that,
and then you almost,
I don't know if you do this,
but I do I'll challenge Google.
Like there's no way I'm going to be able to find
the answer to this question,
but I'm gonna try it anyway.
And guess what?
Sure enough,
there it is.
There's the answer.
Yes. Right in front of my face at my fingertips.
Yep. That's crazy.
All right,
Sheena, I'm so sad that this is coming to an end,
but it has to cause we all have to get back
doing work.
But I want now to invite you to dare to dream,
I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
height that you would wish to obtain.
Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
What is inside your box Business growth currently right now I
purchased a vintage newspaper truck that I am going to be
restoring to transport my soap business.
Something that I have on the horizon would be to open,
not a brick and mortar.
I believe in reuse,
recycle. I want to use shipping containers as my brick and
mortar stores and have them almost like a franchise where you
can purchase the shipping container,
purchase my product,
lease a piece of land in a high traffic area.
That's what I want to do.
You have someone to connect you up with about that?
Remind me after the show.
Okay. Thank you.
I have someone totally different industry,
but someone who may be able to help you out with
some of that,
I would like to see my business in shipping containers.
How creative who's seen anything like that before,
right? I mean,
what a great idea.
Well, our living in shipping containers,
which that's another vision I have.
I want to stick my whole family in a shipping container
home, not your average one box shipping container.
We had a little bit more elaborate design,
but I want my home to be out of shipping containers.
I want my business to be out of shipping containers.
And in Cleveland,
Ohio, they have a whole retail street of nothing but shipping
containers. There's other spots of Vegas,
I think is doing a shipping container wall.
I think we have something going on in Spain And it's
becoming a thing.
Yes, it's Out there.
It hasn't caught on well.
So I want to be at the forefront of that.
And this is a way that you can actually grow because
at some point the way you're doing the business now,
unless you continue hiring people and hiring people and hiring people,
you do max out on your time.
I mean,
there's only one you and there's only one weekend a week.
So at some point you would max out,
but this is a way for you to expand your business
without you having to totally be part of it as you
move forward.
So I love,
love, love that idea,
gift biz listeners.
I have to tell you,
usually at this point,
I'm telling you an online site where you can reach out
and buy from Sheena.
But right now I think we're just going to talk about
her Facebook page,
where you can go see what she's doing.
And if you're lucky enough,
it sounds like they might be able to direct message you.
If they want to try some of your fabulous product.
I don't know if you want us to do that or
not. Shana,
Ken. I am trying to create my bomb to be harder
where it could take the abuse of being thrown around in
a, ah,
Okay. So that's one of the reasons why you're not shipping
right now.
Correct. And you know what,
that's another way for future growth.
Once you've got that done,
which I am totally confident,
you will given the whole story.
One thing's led to another.
You've seen a need,
you filled it and continued and carried on in the same
way, found another need and filled it.
So I'm certain that you're going to be able to figure
out how to do that with your bath bombs.
We will be watching you before.
You know it,
you may even have a website up and be taking orders
that way,
who knows?
So, but in any case much success to you,
I'm so excited to see what happens with these shipping containers
as you move forward.
And may your candle always burn bright?
Where are you in your business building journey,
whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
you want to know your setup for success.
Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
access the quiz from your computer at Vic dot L Y
slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift
biz quiz to four four two,
two, two.
Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
next episode.
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