Taking the dream to the "Recipe" for success

 

"The best way to try new things is to just throw caution to the wind!"

Lilac

Today was an odd day by all means I can think of.  That was what made it the perfect day to experiment with making handmade things. I have been planning for a few weeks now, gathering supplies and writing recipes in my Green Notebook.  It kicked off with a Bath Bomb set that came with a tiny amount of all the needed ingredients to make several bombs.  Apparently Bath Bombs actually explode!  I did not know that until now.  Did you?

These were my first few Bath Bombs.  Some of them "bombed".  Even the failed pieces taught me something.  I added too much water to a few of them and so I thought I had ruined them.  It turns out that I could have just let it dry longer....live and learn!

RECIPES for HOMEMADE STUFF

When I say "recipes", I don't mean food. I am referring to recipes for soaps and lotions and fragrance blends.  Last week we mastered the technique for winding our Arrowhead stones and crystals.  Today I got the finishing item, the clasped cords for the necklaces. I labeled everything and put them in clean containers.  Those will be a project for me to work on next week.

For this week I focused on researching and writing my own recipes for the following products:

1.  Deodorizing Foot and Shoe Powder

2.  Body Lotions and Creams

3.  Lip Balms

4.  Bath Bombs

5.  Bath Salts

6.  Hand Soap

7.  Facial Cleanser

8.  Surface Disinfectants

9.  Carpet Deodorizer

10. Muscle Salve

11.  Warming Muscle Rub

12.  Pet Deodorizing Spray

13.  Soy Candles

Many of the products in this list use the same ingredients or similar ingredients.  But in order to make them very special and a proprietary blend, I need to be willing to use variations and not just what I have "on hand".  For example, if I could use Olive oil or Jojoba oil- I need to perfect when to use one over the other.  Each oil as a base does bring a certain texture and fragrance to the product.

Although ingredients overlap on occasion, NONE of this is cheap to produce.  The ingredients get really expensive really fast.  There are so many components to it:  the oils, the emollients, the aromas, the colors, the packaging, the shipping if applicable, the labeling and photos.  Phew...that's  a lot by the way.  I need to consider each of these things for each of the above products.

WHAT PEOPLE WANT. WHAT PEOPLE LIKE. 

WHAT PEOPLE BUY.

While giving consideration to what items I might want to sell in my shop, I asked myself these three questions:  What do people like, want and then buy?  After shopping around for years, I can honestly say that people buy so many different things!  So I went a little deeper.  What motivates people to shop in a store?  I want to speak to the psychology of the shopper.  So many stores treat shoppers like an after-thought.  Shopping environments (in my opinion), do very little to add to the comfort and experience of shopping.  There is extra bright lighting.  There are unhappy employees.  I see many aisles of identical products- cookie cutter.  

I personally do not shop at these type of stores.  I do not shop at Target or Wal-Mart.  I prefer small shops and stores, especially those that specialize in items I am looking for.  I find very few of these around where I live.  Choices are slim, and the best ones don't seem to be lasting.  Even in terms of Groceries, I have changed my purchasing habits by omitting Stop and Shop and going with Dockside and Dave's which are more local and offer fewer but more select options. 

I want to surprise shoppers...with a keen sense of what they are seeking.  What do people shop for and why?  What can I do to drive shoppers to my store to buy things that I carry?  I know that I SHOULD be full of doubts as to if this will work or not.  But I am NOT full of doubts.  In fact, I am SO CERTAIN that it will work and yet I have no basis for that certainty whatsoever. I am starting to think I should have my head examined!  For now, I am committed to spending the next year developing products that I deem "Giftable".  If they make good gifts, then my recipients will tell me.  My goal will be to make it store quality gifts which people would purchase in a store they might shop in.  From there we can look at sales.

SERVICE

Service with a smile.  It means you should smile.  That was easy.  You smile, your customer smiles.

WHAT IS IN THIS?

So I spent the day Thursday  mixing and boiling and shaping and writing recipes.  I am determined to make some personal products to sell in my shop.  I also want to sell other items that are not HANDmade by me...but it is very important to me to provide good things that help and do not harm people.  Some part of me has always wanted to do this.  It's hard to explain that statement.  I have always been so much about serving others and about towing the company line for whatever organization I was working for.  But now I find myself wanting to reinvent ME.  I want to represent myself...for a living.

When I answer the question, "What's in this?"...I want the answer to be, "Me".  I am in this.  I think the customers of the future will understand this sentiment.

When making a high quality Candle, I will only use Soy wax for burning.  Soy wax is the best way to enjoy candles in your home and to not add pollutants to the air. Many people use candles at home but not enough people are choosing Soy candles over other types of wax and it's not hard to see why.  COST.  Many choices we make are influenced by three things:

COST

Items of better quality are available but then there is a cheaper choice with worse quality right next to it.  

ACCESSIBILITY/AVAILABILITY

Is it on the top shelf, middle shelf or bottom shelf?  Is it in the store nearby where I am already stopping for some essential items?  Is it convenient?

INFLUENCE

Advertising often feeds the masses the idea of what they SHOULD WANT...should buy .  Availability and accessibility along with cost feed this idea as well.  People are influenced (subtly) to forego the better quality/healthier choice, for the cheaper and more accessible variety.

My hope is to bring QUALITY to people by making it available, consistent, and alluring.

CHOOSE ME

Why should I?  This feels like a dating profile.  Why should I swipe Right?  Why should I pull into this parking lot and shop in this Boutique store?  Why should I shop there every week regularly?  What's in it for me?  What is this relationship based on?  How strong is our foundation?  When I sold Avon, I felt a connection to the products and also to the customers.  It was not hard to match customers to products.  I never realized back then how intuitive I really was...and I completely had no idea how to incorporate my intuitive knowing of what was best for a person.  But now I do that all the time.

Imagine you walk into my Boutique shop and you are comfortable shopping there because the atmosphere is perfectly balanced.  You shop for 15-30 minutes, spend $50 and repeat weekly.  Each week, same experience.  You can COUNT on it.  It is consistent.  You know how the shopping trip will make you feel.  Then later at home, the products make you feel happy too.  You have now found bliss.

If I can get 100 customers to spend that $200/month in my shop, my earnings are $20,000 per month before expenses.  Pipe dream?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Rhode Islanders like their Boutique shops.  We have a lot of tourists.  I can still remember a time when Warwick Rhode Island actually HAD tourists.  We had Rocky Point Amusement Park with the Shore Dinner Hall and Oakland Beach with Iggy's.  We have several pretty beaches and parks.  So tell me this:  Where can you buy your "Warwick Rhode Island" memorabilia and your souvenirs?  Good luck finding that place.

I LOVE to travel.  LOVE IT.

Two years ago on my birthday, my husband and I took a weekend trip to Maine and discovered Ogonquit.  What a gorgeous Beach!  It was such an adorable little town.  After walking barefoot around the beach in our hiking clothes, snapping photos, my first thought was, "where can I buy something to remember this visit?"

As I sit here writing, I can still remember some of the things I bought that day from a GREAT little gift shop on the beach strip (road)...It was a little store with the word "Lobster" in it and I took a photo of the shop from the Parking Lot.  I bought a seafoam-green miniature Mason Glass which sits outside my front door now on the glass table on my patio.  I filled it with tiny bits of Seaglass and then I added a Battery-Operated string of Seaglass lights to match it.  But the idea all sprung from a $3 keepsake I bought at a beautiful beach on a spontaneous stop while passing through town!

Memories evoke many things in us...among those things, the desire to commemorate an event.

IF YOU LOVE IT, YOU WILL BUY IT

I am surrounded by oddities that I loved and bought and these are the things that bring me happiness and joy (aside from my beloved family).  

I would like to feature a "Warwick Rhode Island" section in my shop and I would like it to be in the Conimicut area of Warwick because that is where I live.  This will be a place to buy tee shirts or drinking cups/mugs.  I would like to carry some School Flare too, maybe Pilgrim and Bishop Hendricken?  I plant to be within a few miles of each of those.  Definitely items that say "Oakland Beach" as it is a popular Tourist attraction and also Rocky Point.  I would like to feature also an Information Board for local attractions such as the Rocky Point Blueberry Farm and Tommy's Clam Shack.  I plan to reach out to the Warwick Historic Society since Conimicut is a thriving and growing area of Warwick with its own tiny but hearty culture.  Apponaug has a cute little Town Center too where our City Hall is located and our Police Department.  And of course, one cannot forget the Airport!  Way on the outskirts of Warwick near and overlapping East Greenwich, is the gorgeous Goddard Memorial Park! Abutting the major shopping zone we call "Bald Hill" is the tiny region of Drum Rock- home to Tollgate High School and outlying against the town of West Warwick.  Once upon a time, West Warwick and Warwick as well as East Greenwich were ONE TOWN.  The oldest town in the state of Rhode Island!  Little known fact.  But you can learn more about it from the books I will carry in my featured section of the store...they tell the story of the villages of Rhode Island.

CREATING A MARKET

Manifestation plays a huge part in creating a market for the items I want to sell in my shop.  That market will emerge over time when I show up and stay. I think people expect a thing to come to life and just BE, but good things, meaningful and long-lasting things take time.

I want to appeal to the passerby and neighbor alike.

I don't plan to sell milk and bread and eggs!  No...not that kind of store.

But I do want to see people regularly.  So I have to provide a purpose for people to come in and see me.  That piece, I am still working on.  I will know it when I see it.  But for now, I also know that CREATING things and selling things I have made myself, will be a cornerstone. So developing those products is the key to my happiness, hence my success.

I know where my talents lie and where I am not gifted...so I will also look for other artisans to let me carry their special things in my shop on consignment.  Those items could range from hand sewn bags and masks to beautiful watercolor paintings on canvas!  I hope to carry some exquisite and unique Greeting Cards too.

A very quantitative piece of the store will be represented by books, Tarot Cards and other Spirit-driven staples such as crystals and incense.  I want people to know where to go to buy those "essentials".  These will be my bread and milk, so to speak.  In addition to spirit-based products, I hope to bring services to the customers too...making them Tarot Clients or Reiki Clients. 

I plan to create a Shoppe.  That will be my Legacy for the kids. It will embrace all ages and cultures.  It will appeal to locals and visitors.  It will be essential.

~Namaste

Lilac