The Most Valuable Skill To Have…
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This is a revised version of the original article on Excellent Living Guide.
What is the #1 skill you need to run a successful bath and body business?
Without this most valuable skill, all businesses are doomed to fail. With this skill, though, your chances for success are astronomically improved. This skill is at the heart of every business from the smallest card table at a craft fair to, well, Bath and Body Works! Before you read on, try to think of what it might be.
Is it creativity? Or problem solving, positive attitude, innovation, persistence, or a strong work ethic? No, although those are strong contenders for #2.
In my experience, the most important skill for a business owner is selling. If you cannot sell, you don’t have a business. Instead, you are just “playing business.”
It may seem obvious, but if businesses cannot get enough sales, they go out of business. They may have everything else – a great location, good looking packaging, lots of walk-in traffic (or website traffic), unlimited startup capital, fantastic products. But if they don’t exchange those products for money, they are not a successful business.
Don’t let this happen to you! Here’s a cautionary example…I worked with a business that had exactly the things listed above: a large, beautiful retail space, professional packaging and graphic design, good quality products with a high percentage of natural ingredients, a chemist from Bath and Body Works, and nearly unlimited startup capital (they burned at least one million dollars). But they could not sell the products.
I joined the company about six months after they opened, and I stayed until almost the bitter end. I became close with the owners and heard a lot of “behind the scenes” stuff that I wasn’t supposed to hear. What it came down to was that the owners knew nothing about sales. Not one of them had worked in retail, or even sold Girl Scout cookies door to door!
They hired a good sales staff to represent the products in person, but when it came to promoting the store, they just couldn’t do it. They couldn’t “sell” the store well enough to get people in the door. They had no idea what to do, and they were stupidly doing the same few things over and over, expecting different results. (Why did this happen? My take on the situation can be found in “What It Takes,” the first installment of my free course on cosmetic business success.)
And worse, because they didn’t know anything about selling, they were slower than a sloth when it came to trying out new products and promotion methods. It took them a month to put out a mailing list signup clipboard. It took them three months to make up a new flyer. Instead, they made themselves feel busy by hiring a designer to make new labels, hiring more lab staff, making someone a floor manager, shuffling papers, etc.
What does this mean for you?Some of the most common questions I get from aspiring business owners have to do with trademarks, business names, tax IDs, registering a business, bookkeeping, packaging, business cards, storefronts, and stuff like that. It’s all irrelevant if you can’t sell your products.
Ockham’s Razor
Everything you do, especially in the beginning, should be the most direct, short path to selling. All the “extra stuff” should be minimized as much as possible. For example: if you need a book keeping system, but how ’bout a pen and notebook? Don’t spend time and money learning Quick Books – it will take you at least a month to get comfortable with the new software. Once you have a high enough volume of sales, you can always hire an accountant to help modernize your system.
You may need to register a business in your state, but don’t worry about a cute name! Start by doing business under your own name, use your social security as your Tax ID. You can worry about business names and trademarks later. Having a catchy name isn’t nearly as important as getting your products in front of potential buyers. They won’t care what you’re called, just as long as you sell things they want to buy.
Yes, you do take a hit when you have to do make-up work or fix messes after the fact, but if you wait until the time is just right to start selling, you will be waiting forever. Plus, you can outsource your cleanup to people who are experts. It’s not as expensive as you think.
“But I don’t know anything about selling…”You may not know how to sell, but that’s okay. There’s always a lot of learning involved in any new job. At your first craft fair, you may feel uncomfortable even looking people in the eye when they come up to your table. You may have no clue what to put on a flyer or ad. You might not know how to “close” a sale, especially when you write Etsy listings. But you will figure it out, don’t worry!
Everyone has to start somewhere. Don’t worry about being sophisticated. You get knowledgeable in selling with sales experience.
Previously, I had some specific “action steps,” but those particular techniques aren’t as effective anymore. The artisan cosmetics market has exploded since 2007, which is when I first wrote this article; the bar has gone up for reaching customers effectively.
How To Take Action.
For your own action steps, I suggest making a list of every way you can think of to promote your products. List at least 20. It may take you a couple hours to come up with that many. Start putting them into practice, from the fastest / easiest to the hardest.
Not all of them will work, and that’s simply a fact. In advertising, no matter how good the advertiser is or the products are, over half the ads don’t get results. Don’t let that stop you; let it instead make you aware of how many times you have to try before you may see results.
About The Author
Katherine Durkes
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