It was fueled by a phone call from a subscriber, my own experiences on Etsy, and my clients’ challenges for this new year.

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve sent anything out about bath and body business. There’s a good reason for this, and I will tell you about it a little later.

But first, let me tell you a story — my recent experience as an Etsy buyer.

So, my brother shaves the old-school way, with a straight razor, mug, brush, and soap. I was looking on Etsy for shaving soap to give him as a gift, and I could not believe how many bath and body / perfume / home fragrance sellers there were! The choices were dizzying, even for men’s shaving soap — something that I really didn’t expect.

On the one hand, this is fantastic.  It means that more people are making stuff, and there are lots of choices for buyers. But for sellers, it can be really intimidating.

Just from my tiny site that is woefully out of date (I’m a baaaad blogger, I admit it), I get questions about how beginners (and even some non-beginners) can compete with all the sellers “out there.”

This is a question that many people have, but it is not the right question you should ask.

Because I didn’t buy any bars of shaving soap. I wanted to buy something — I love buying stuff for other people, and I had my credit card literally sitting out, next to my keyboard, ready to be used!

But in the end, I chose to do nothing.

The real question you should ask is: “Why should people buy your stuff vs doing nothing?”

I believe that doing nothing is your real competitor, these days. Confusion is the enemy of sales. When faced with too many choices, all delivering more-or-less the same thing, no clear decision can be made.

Quite honestly, I was confused. I knew nothing about men’s shaving soap, and they all looked the same — the same level, the same scents, the same general product. Sure, they were all attractive, but I was looking for the one that would elevate itself above the general noise, shining like a lighthouse over the sea. And I did not find it.

Here’s where we get to the “good reason” part of the post.

Up until a few years ago, my marketing consulting was all about techniques. I would implement techniques for people — setting up ad campaigns, watching website stats, optimizing pages for lower bounce rates, writing snappy copy for Etsy, etc.

My articles, papers, and advice used to be mostly about techniques, too. Nuts-n-bolts stuff that any small business could use — setting up and managing an email list, writing promotions, pricing strategies.

But when I started representing more lifestyle & entertainment businesses, I realized that those techniques have limited value. They are putting the cart before the horse, to use an old-fashioned saying.

Instead, I started working with companies on their core strength (just like personal trainers!) Even when they said, “We’re really struggling here, and we have to come up with money FAST,” I redirected them back to the fundamentals, first.

In a short time, they all boosted their normal level of sales. Less customers did nothing; more bought, even without the added incentive of a sale, or a holiday season, or something new.

If the core strength of a business is there, doing nothing will become less of an option for customers.

You might have guessed that I’m talking about values. Values are the core strength of your business — not your products, not your website. And your values come from you.

Anyone can make products. But only you can make your products. Are your products somehow uniquely you, in some way?

This post is already getting too long, but I would like you to think about your values, and how they translate to your products.

Do your products reflect you? Or are you simply “doing what sells,” letting trends and fads be your guide. Have your values truly influenced your decisions, or have you felt a little lost, especially about things like packaging design, logo, and websites?

I’m preparing another installment on this, but until then, feel free to email me with your comments and questions.

Make stuff and prosper!
- Katherine

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Most of the ELG Business action occurs off the site.  I prefer the more personal communication of emailing the people on my list — it’s more of a real conversation, since people can just reply directly to my emails.  If you’d like to join the conversation, sign up for my free series of papers and join my list on this page.

Yesterday was a cold, sort of wet day — not good for an active toddler!  We strolled around downtown and went in different stores to pass the time.  One of these stores was Design Within Reach.

I had only seen the catalog, so I was interested in looking around and sitting in all the chairs.  I couldn’t believe the price tags!  $1000 for what looked like a silver lawn chair… $180 for what appears to be a simple children’s coat rack (I actually own this.)  $3000 for simple glass tables and simple couches.

But I had to admit, there was *something* about every piece there that set it apart from its IKEA and Target knock-off cousins.  Everything seemed so thoughtfully designed, and all the couches and chairs were actually comfortable.  I was surprised, having only shopped at IKEA and Target for furniture, at how sturdy the pieces seemed.  This was not disposable furniture, but stuff that you could give your children for their first apartment so that they would have at least one classic work of design.

The store had no music playing, which I really like.  Everything was quiet, spacious, and inviting.  The price tags were not paper, as I had originally thought, but magnetic holders with printed magnet labels stuck on them.  How smart!

The one sales person greeted me politely, but left me to meander around.  He did not say a word about my son trying out all the chairs (I did make him take his shoes off.)  When he saw me looking at a particular couch, he engaged me in intelligent discussion about design.  He told me that he has several of the pieces in his own house, including the couch I was trying out.

My son started getting bored, so we had to go.  On our way out, I noticed this quote printed on the glass wall:

“The details are details. They make the product. The connections, the connections, the connections. It will in the end be these details that give the product its life.”
Charles Eames

For those of you who read my paper, “The Difference Between Something Good and Something Great,” this should serve as a real-life example of how excellence makes vastly more money than simply good.  Design Within Reach produces the equivalent of First Class tickets.  Yes, they are basically the same as the cheaper IKEA products, but DWR totally outclass IKEA in its attention to detail in all the areas that count… not just the products, but the entire customer experience.

I, for one, will be thinking about how to apply this to my life, and certainly my business.

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.

Want to sell your own line of bath and body products? That’s what this section is all about, but it’s kind of a secret. I don’t publicize it on my main site because… as you can imagine, many people are interested in this topic. I get flooded with questions as soon as I post anything business-related on my website.

Since people are vitally, almost desperately, interested in selling their products, they are easy to take advantage of. The topic of “how to start your own home-based business” provokes a desperate fever in people. They will buy anything that might help fulfill that dream – and usually, the material disappoints. Usually, you get stuff like: