Beauty ain’t always pretty…

Some of you may know me from my La  Dolce Diva Bath & Body  collection. Others may know me from my 20 years as an apparel designer. Some of you may be in the dark with the mushrooms and not know me at all…whatever. The point is I am here now. “What for?” you ask. Why to truly shed  light on the bath and body business.

No, this is not some 20/20 special about the dirty goings-on with shea butter, or the evil empire of label printing. This is me, sharing with you, what I have learned in my trials and tribulations with the “beauty” business and business in general.

It seems that my outlook is very different from most of the “soapreneurs” or bath and body indie businesses. As are my back ground, life & professional experiences. This doesn’t make me more special than anyone else… perhaps just a more curious mixture. A mixture that seems to interest my fellow colleagues in the bath & body world, as well as anyone who is just entering the retail – wholesale world.

Whether it’s marketing, branding, merchandising, identity, research & development, competitive product analysis, costing, sales, production, sourcing, profit margins, ROI, P&L, sell-throughs, buyers, trade shows – YOU are chief cook and bottlewasher. You may have employees, you may be on your own, either way, when you are a small biz, you have to know all facets of your business, even when you may not be hands-on in every capacity. You still make all the big decisions.

This information is NOT a tutorial on “How to make your first million in 10 days or less.” If I had that kind of information, I wouldn’t be just writing a blog about it!

This is simply cobbling together my 20 years of experience in various capacities in the wholesale/ retail world into a small business resource niche that is bath & body based – but can reach beyond into other small businesses.

Be prepared for the good, the bad and the ugly of the beauty world- isn’t that what you face everyday?

I won’t lay out all my secret plans yet, stay tuned.

Free Surfing Lessons

I was born and raised in Southern California. Do I know how to surf? no.  The best I can do is surfing on dry land or on the Internet- so to speak. And you  have already become adept at it too, I’m sure, but isn’t it tiresome  and frustrating? yes.

That’s why I want to help. I’m sure you feel better already.

First of all, there’s already a lot on the site, or at the least, a lot of stuff in the works. Depending on which wave of development you  catch, or which wave you decide to ride, you may become overwhelmed. Stop, enjoy the scenery, paddle around a bit. No one’s  judging you. You don’t have to shoot the curl the first time out, double back and gel. OK. Too much surf-speak. But you get my “drift.”

TOP GREEN BAR:
The different pages and their sub-categories are listed here as tabs and drop downs within the tabs.

This is the cake. The rest is just icing. Icing is still yummy, but you have to have something to put it on.

Aside from the obvious, About, Home and Contact pages, you’ll see additional  tabs to pages with priceless information and links to even more pages!

BIZ SHOP:
This is in the works, but it will include gobs of fab information for you to purchase, download and be enlightened. We promise to provide Invaluable information that you’ve been looking for, but have yet been able to find.

CONSULTING:
Just what it says. Me available for consulting you on your Beauty Biz.

RESOURCES:
Places to go, books to read, associations to join. All to help your Beauty Biz.

TOOLS:
In the Works….But will have Free stuff to help you and your business. Forms, lists, calculators and more.

VISUAL GUIDE:

Top Green Bar:
This is where we started above….but again – The different pages and their sub-categories are listed here as tabs and drop downs within the tabs.

Grey Bar:
The topics listed here regard to the post I I will make and the different categories they fall into.

Middle White Band:
These are Featured Articles. They will also appear in the blog posts, but I choose what I think will be of the most benefit and interest to you. All my posts will surely qualify as sheer brilliance, but some may be more brilliant than others and I will want to “Feature” them to make you think you are actually learning something and to attract unsuspecting peeps who “StumbleUpon” this site.