My good friend Marla Bosworth from Back Porch Soap Company just returned from an exclusive interview with the owner and founder of Pangea Organics, Joshua Onysko.

Below is the post from her blog as well as a link where you can listen to the first part of her interview.

It’s an excellent interview with fabulous insights to starting up, growing and maintaining a business.

With Marla’s wonderfully knowledgeable questioning, you will find her asking the same questions you would if you had the opportunity.

Originally posted on Back Porch Soap:

Joshua Onysko and me at Pangea Organics, Boulder, CO

Inside the Heart & Soul of Pangea: Part One

What I found most impressive about Joshua (besides being incredibly gracious and having lived in my hometown of Jackson Hole, Wyoming), is what’s inside his heart and soul and how he transfers this gift to his company. For example, Pangea Organics gives 5% of its profits to Women for Women International, a program founded to micro-finance women-owned cooperatives in developing countries who are producing ingredients that he uses in his company’s products.

By the way, Joshua founded Pangea in 2000 when he was 23. Although it took the first five years to reach profitability, from 2005 to 2010, Pangea will have grown from almost $0 in sales to over $10 million. He is candid in this interview about the low margins on his soaps, especially with sustainable and organic ingredients, marketing and the company’s overhead.

In this 20-minute interview (this is part one of two) I ask Joshua questions on how to be a successful bath and body entrepreneur. He also shares insights into Pangea. I hope you find him as engaging and fascinating as I do. Check back on Friday, February 26 for Part Two of the interview!
Marla’s Interview can be found on her blog. Click Here

Inside the Heart & Soul of Pangea: Part Two
A week back from Boulder, Colorado and I’m still inspired by listening to the thoughts and ideas of Joshua Onysko, founder of Pangea Organics. Founded 10 years ago at the age of 23, Joshua now owns the largest handmade cold process soap company in the U.S. Pangea is not your average soap company. It’s the leading manufacturer of organic, sustainable, handcrafted and cruelty-free skincare.

You can listen to Part One of my audio interview, posted earlier this week.

In this 23-minute interview (this is part two) Joshua talks about:

* Living inside Pangea’s first three facilities;
* The importance of balancing your career and your personal life;
* Why being palm-free is important; how 95% of all ingredients used in cosmetics and skincare are imported and how one of Pangea’s missions is to source 50% from the U.S.;
* Raising capital;
* Being ahead of the organic wave in the U.S.;
* How it took five years for Pangea to post profits;
* Why he expects it to take until 2015 for the U.S. natural industry to weed out inconsistent brands and be filled with authentic, organic products
* How and why Pangea’s ingredients are food grade
* This year marks Pangea’s 10-year anniversary in April and how Joshua views the celebration
* One of the biggest challenges that he faces today (hint: he had to cut 72% of his stockists.)
* What going mainstream by selling to Sephora in 2009 has done to his business.

One of his messages to soapmakers in the U.S. is to create a high quality product to raise the bar (my pun) on the quality and sustainability of ingredients used in handmade bath and body products. “If you’re out there making skin and bodycare products, know that if you put a poor product together, you’re not doing the industry any good. Because people are going out there and having a bad experience with this gooey, separated mess and associating that with organic. So if you’re going out there and make an organic product, make it work better than everything else on the shelf. Don’t sacrifice quality for one ingredient you don’t want to use.”

Be inspired and take a look at Pangea’s research and development mission. There are three key factors that have to come together before their product will hit the market: everything has to be natural, it has to be food grade, and as many organic ingredients as possible. Once these three factors come together it then must be an efficacious product that outperforms everything else on the shelf. For example, the reason Pangea hasn’t introduced a haircare line is that there is not yet a surfactant on the market that meets their environmental and quality standards.

All business aside, perhaps one of the best suggestions Joshua gives to bath and body company owners is a philosophy on how to view life. “Focus on the small victories and view every day as a gift. There’s challenges and there’s weaknesses, but there’s also these moments, these small victories that happen every moment, every day that you have to focus on.”

Enjoy!

~Marla

For the Audio version: Click Here to Go to Back Porch Soap

I  tell my clients that marketing is a lot like working out – you have to be consistent or you won’t see results.

No one expects to see muscles popping out all over after one visit to the gym. For the same reaons you can’t expect immediate, lasting results from one promotional campaign. As you look toward 2010 and what will surely be a better year for all of us, it might help to build a marketing practice that looks a bit more like a workout schedule. Here are few ways to do just that.

1. Decide on your goal measurements. This could be different depending on your business – maybe it’s orders, website traffic, inbound requests, proposals…or a combination of anything that’s proven to add up to more sales for you. This year, I’ll be working toward a goal of writing a certain number of proposals a month.
2. Determine your marketing workout. Will you finally be getting into social media this year? Or do you need to increase your brand recognition locally? If you’re not sure, maybe the first three months of the year will include trying several different things to see what drives the best results. Often you have to find the right recipe for your business – it might take a little while. (Here’s an article on blending traditional media and social media if you’re looking for more specifics on this.)
3. Think about your marketing and PR budget in terms of TIME rather than MONEY.  You might sit down every year and decide how much you’ll spend on ads or other promotions. But many of you end up spending that money unwisely because you haven’t planned your activities – or end up not spending it at all. Usually it’s the time that becomes a challenge, much more than the money.
4. Schedule your workout time on your calendar. Frankly, marketing and public relations are often done last minute or when the situation is dire. Dedicate 2-3 hours a week for marketing tasks -  maybe that includes time working with an administrative person or consultant who will be the one to carry out the tasks. Consistently work on your promotion tactics, even if it’s 20 minutes a day spent on increasing your digital footprint through social media. The main thing is, make it consistent and turn it into a habit.
5. Switch it up. Just as your muscles need to experience a new workout in order to be challenged, your marketing programs can also get stale. Don’t keep doing the same old thing just because it’s easier to re-up than to do research on what might work better.
6. Spend an hour each month reviewing the results of your work. If you’re buying ads in a community paper, what was the result? If you’ve been blogging consistently, is your web traffic increasing? Once you’re done measuring your efforts create a list of improvements for the following month.
7. If you’re still having trouble fitting it in, find a workout buddy. Another business owner with a similar customer demographic can be a huge boon to your business. You can tell each other what’s working and tweak your marketing programs accordingly.  When something isn’t working, another business owner can be a great second pair of eyes and ears.

And finally, be patient. Marketing and PR takes time to grow and it’s often the synergy between multiple campaigns that yields the best results.

For more ideas on building your marketing muscle, check out my favorite marketing blogs.

~ Bonnie Harris

For more great information- check out Bonnie’s Blog.

I talk a lot about the need for the right “mix” when you promote your product, business, book, whatever it is – engaging in social media is no different. To get a good result you have to find the recipe that’s 100% ALL YOURS. But just like the hard-to-bake souffle, there are some ingredients I’ve seen in of the work of ALL successful social media contributors.   Here are the components I believe you should always use for your  social media recipe…and some of experts who cook it up just right. Feel free to add your favorite folks – let’s get a good list going!

- Content is SO important. But not YOUR content all the time. Go find some interesting info and share it – we like it when you do research for us. If you don’t have a ton of time, add some RSS feeds to your Google homepage. Mashable and Brian Solis always have daily  stuff you can show your readers. I add in weird stuff once in while just to keep it interesting – a little orange peel adds some zest to the recipe don’t you think?

- You gotta have a sense of humor,  especially if you have a ton of content and you post frequently. Copyblogger does a fantastic job of keeping humor in the mix almost all the time and yet it’s one of the most instructional social media sources I know. On the other hand, I love the content in Problogger but if we were talking cereal Copyblogger would be Raisin Bran and Problogger that fiber stuff.

- I love Mari Smith because she’s so approachable. Of course, she’s the Queen of Facebook so we expect that of her. But it’s not a given. I’ll leave unnamed a few social media snotties that  have great content but leave me feeling like I’m sitting at the nerd table in junior high all over again.  (Or if we’re still talking souffles,  eating at that posh French restaurant with the waiters staring disdainfully at my hush puppies .)

- I don’t know if editorial guidelines are needed  but consistency is really important. When you visit your favorite restaurant and order your favorite food, you want it to taste pretty much the same. Maybe there’s chocolate drizzled on it occasionally and perhaps you order cider instead of beer but you really want to know those ingredients you love are mixed together just the way you like ‘em.

All this goes toward one thing – building a unique voice in the social media world. Just like a great recipe it takes time to develop and sorry, not everyone will like it. For me there was a point suddenly when it was easy to stay connected in my social media world and it was an important part (if not ritual) of my day. That was when I found my voice.

I’m always trying to make my own personal souffle better but I’m still totally thrilled when people like it. Thanks for reading!

———————-

You can always read more from Bonnie at Wax Blog.

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the FTC has released new regulations that directly apply to Bloggers & Social Media.

Basically, they (we) must disclose any type of benefit, payment, free samples, etc. that is received for publishing information about a product or service. We must also disclose if we have a relationship with the company or product we are endorsing.

There’s already been a lot written about this and a lot more to come, I’m sure.

What I want to pass on to you is a tip on a fast, free and easy way for you to comply with these guidelines.

If you don’t want to clutter up your posts with lots of extra paragraphs explaining your “Disclosure”, you can have a simple link at the bottom of your post that looks like this:

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

When readers click on the link, they will be taken to the full disclosure, which looks like this:

DigComm launched CMP.ly which addresses the new FTC guidelines for endorsements and provides a simple and easy method to disclose material connections in the content that you publish.  Cmp.ly disclosures follow a standard naming convention that is easy for readers to understand and can be used for disclosures in print, online, SMS, tweets or other digital communications.

There are 5 disclosure options right now and one in the works for a custom version:

CMP.ly/0 – No conflict, unpaid, my own opinions

CMP.ly/1 – Based upon a review copy

CMP.ly/2 – Given a sample by vendor/agency/brand

CMP.ly/3 – Paid post – cash payment or other compensation

CMP.ly/4 – Employee/shareholder/business relationship

CMP.ly/5 – Custom Disclosure

Below, I’ve listed some links that may interest you for more on the FTC Guidelines:

Ad Group Calls on FTC to Rescind Blogger Rules

FTC: Bloggers, testamonials need better disclosure

Commentary And Analysis: The FTC’s New Blogger And Social Media Advertiser Guides by Indie Beauty Network. Of which, I’m a member – not sure if I needed to disclose that

Bloggers Mugged by Regulators: The FTC wants to police book reviews on Twitter

The FTC Guidelines go in to effect December 1, 2009.

I wonder how this is going to affect affiliates? Maybe it would be a business relationship or a Custom disclosure? What do you think?

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

*originally posted on Wax Blog July 24, 2009

It’s summer and so for that reason I’ll break from my insistence on pragmatic advice and write on a topic you might consider fluff. Yet it’s the biggest mistake I see small business owners make, including me. We have no patience. I think that it’s a given that a requirement for being an entrepreneur is to have a low grade case of ADD, or in my case, ADHD with an emphasis on the H. And in marketing, that will kill you.

I can’t tell you how many times a client tries something and when there are no immediate results says “Well that doesn’t work.” It’s like lifting weights one day and expecting a tricep cut to develop overnight. I’m not suggesting that we all go out and spend a bajillion dollars on advertising during American Idol. But I do think that in order for your PR, social media and marketing tactics to work you have to learn to wait a bit. Here are a few tips to use to figure out if you’re too impatient.

• Are you measuring your campaign results by the number of orders you’re getting off each initiative? In a word, DON’T. Look at your website hits instead, or the traffic in your store. What’s the first step toward buying your product or service? Do they request a brochure? Do they visit the website? Are you adding Twitter followers or Facebook fans like crazy? Measure by those “first steps” in the short term.

• Are you changing your marketing strategy on a weekly or monthly basis? WRONG. You had better have confidence in your strategy (or your consultant) from the start. Nothing works if you don’t believe in it 100% from the beginning. Switching around what you’re doing on a constant basis and you’ll end up running circles.
• Are you relying on only one outreach method? It may work now, but it will stop working eventually. Or you’ll end up trying one thing after another. BLEND your messaging channels. If you’re doing radio, connect it to a twitter promotion.. Trying guerilla marketing? Make sure you’ve got some PR working in conjunction with those “on the ground”techniques.

Particularly in the online world, patience is the key to success. Jay Conrad Levinson, the founder of Guerilla Marketing, believes that patience is the most important characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. Be confident in your approach. Measure it wisely. And then, like that old farmer in the field, be patient and watch the seeds of your marketing work grow.

Here’s a great post with some more tips on social media and patience – great stuff here!

* You can check out more from Bonnie at  The Wax Blog

I received this question in a private email so I won’t disclose the name. ..

Dear Beauty,

if you don’t mind… I’d like to ask you a question… How long did it take before you were making money from your business. Right now, I’m plugging away and I’m getting some business, but it still seems like I’m putting out more than I’m getting back. I know all businesses are different, but can you give me a ballpark so I don’t continue to drive myself crazy? LOL!

Best,

IBN Member (Indie Beauty Network)

Dear IBN Sister,

I’ll be honest…it has taken me about 3 years to have my Bath & Body  business begin paying for itself on a daily basis. Any large expenses- like website redesign, label overhaul, etc, still come out of pocket.

The economy has not helped. Things were really picking up about a 1 1/2 years ago, then leveled out when the recession is said to have started.

I know that we have to maintain positive attitudes and being an entrepreneur is tough- but that doesn’t mean you can’t be frustrated, discouraged or even cry from time to time.

I really try to listen to my intuition, and most of the time I know when my head is over riding my gut instincts. I like to listen to my gut.

After all the excitement of starting up and getting your first sale and sales after that pass, reality and the daily grind sets in. Just because your business doesn’t take off overnight does not mean you should give up.

Also, being an overnight sensation is NOT all it’s cracked up to be. There are plenty of small businesses out there that amp up their production in order to meet a flush of sudden demand- they think it will go on for ever  (Crocs, for instance) then when sales die down or level out- they are left holding the bag.

The real part of being an entrepreneur is assessing your business, evaluating your potential and making a decision to fish or cut bait.

There is NO shame in cutting bait. I’ve done it 3 times with other ventures that I knew, on almost the outset, were not for me.

And fishing takes patience, strategy and preparedness.

So, I can’t give you a ballpark, I think it’s different for everyone.  Some get lucky and can make a living off it right away, others struggle more. One company is not better than the other. It’s just timing.

HOWEVER, not every company is going to make it. If your company is not fulfilling you in other ways while you wait for it to take off, then reassess your expectations and timing. Give yourself a time frame to have things happen before you move on or just scale back and keep trying. A new idea may percolate.

Thanks for your question!

Have  a Bizzy Day,

A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world – to its creator. But when an editor or producers says “pass” it’s the publicist who has to tell the client .Sometimes ZERO  media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it’s couched. For me, it’s the equivalent of having to tell clients “your baby is ugly” 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible.

Why do I bring this up? Two reasons -

1) People need to engage in the public relations game knowing their odds. The chances of getting on national television or major print are very slim unless you are a celebrity or just did the impossible – like climbed a mountain for the first time while drinking martinis in pink bloomers. And even if you are a celebrity, you still get bumped. Michael Moore was bumped by Paris Hilton on Larry King Live (and boy was he angry)

2)  Publicists need to tell their clients this. I love DIY publicists like Joan at the Publicity Hound. She gets that most people and companies don’t have the money to keep a PR campaign going as long as it takes. So she teaches them how to do it themselves. That helps them get PR in the first place and it also helps them understand the process, which helps ME when it’s time for them to engage in a PR firm.

Here are a few things people should know before they go into this.

• It’s not personal. The editor at Health magazine told me one month she got 400 new fitness DVD’s in the mail. How could she possibly go through them all?
• It has to be relevant – not only to the current media environment, but to the editorial guidelines of the pub or broadcast show, to the preferences of the producer, to what they’ve done in the past 12 issues or shows, to the juxtaposition of Mars to the moon (okay I’m exaggerating) Point it, we can’t possibly know all that before pitching. Whether or not something will hit is at best an educated guess.
• You might have the best publicist in the world and due to circumstances out of their control, you might get nothing despite their best intentions.

So why do PR if it’s such a crap shoot? First of all, if you’re consistent and pitching the right thing to the right media, it will work – eventually. Nothing is more effective long term than public relations done well. (and I emphasize DONE WELL)

So bottom line? Don’t take it personally if someone doesn’t like your pitch. Change the angle and move on. We really aren’t telling you your baby is ugly. It’s just not the right size, right now.

* You can check out more from Bonnie at  The Wax Blog

In order to bring well rounded opinions and advice, I’ll be asking experts in varying related fields to post guest blogs.

I’ll also be asking permission to republish archived posts of subjects I have found interesting and useful.

Beauty and Your Biz’s first Guest Blogger is Bonnie Harris from Wax Marketing.

Wax Marketing was founded in 2002. It provides comprehensive, Fortune 500 quality, affordable services to growing firms.

Bonnie has been marketing, promoting and managing services and products for more than 20 years. She has been quoted and/or featured in several publications including USA Today, Selling Power, PRWeek and BusinessVision Magazine. She holds an Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Minnesota. Bonnie and her family reside in St. Paul, Minnesota and Breckenridge, Colorado.

I know Bonnie from Twitter and Wax Blog. She is decidely down to earth, honest,  funny, informative and real.

I recommend you subscribe to her blog. She presents PR topics in an accessible and entertaining way. I’ve learned a lot from her and her blog. I think you will too.

Aside from all that, she personally squired Captains Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand from Deadliest Catch around town for radio and TV interviews last fall. Just think I’m one Twitter degree of separation from the crew of the Time Bandit.

Let’s give Bonnie a big Beauty welcome! *clap, clap, clap*

Don’t wait around for me to cover a topic or situation that may be at the top of your mind…post a comment about it!

I can’t promise that I have all the answers, but I may be able to point you in the right direction.

And for all you lurkers out there…step up and be counted! Life’s too short to linger in the shadows.

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.