Branding, Networking and Know-How

Over the last few weeks, I have struggled with my company image.

What do want it to be? What do I want people to see the first time they look at my product? What do I want them to feel?

Developing a company brand can be a costly, mind-numbing experience. I have my company branding heros like Kimora Lee Simmons, CEO of Baby Phat, and Martha Stewart. They epitomize what I am trying to do in terms of quality.

In my efforts, I called upon a few retail experts and a network of women I knew with different talents whose experience I could draw upon to answer the myriad of questions I had.

The first thing I did was to contact SCORE, the Small Business Administration’s cadre of retired business persons who dispense free and helpful advice. From their directory, I decided to choose both a man and a woman with retail business experience and ask each how to build my business. I received vastly different answers.

The female SCORE counselor told me to consider convention events, bridal fairs and mall booths. She gave me some constructive feedback on my Web site, telling me where I needed to make changes and enhancements...and what just didn’t work. It made me rethink and reorganize my site, after which I saw an increase in my online sales. “

The SCORE Counselor who was male was tougher. While he congratulated me on my start and the early media attention I received, he said that “I must warn you that the odds against being able to build from a website into a successful business selling through retailers are very high. The main reason, of course is simply the overwhelming number of people who have done just what you did. Take a one day course in making soap, invest minimal dollars in equipment and raw materials, create a website and say "o.k. world, here I am". So, while my goal is not to discourage you from trying to take your business to a higher level, I would be remiss if I didn't point out what a huge leap it really is.”

Wow.

First, I agree with everything he said, but at the same time, I think he didn’t clearly understand the preparation I’d undertaken before I set up shop. I had done my homework and I was pretty clear on how tough it is to create a lucrative retail business. But he did give me hard questions I needed to answer.

He asked me if I had the financial resources to develop and manage the business and how much of my personal time and time with my family I was willing to commit? And he wondered that as the business grows, whether I was going to be willing to give up the luxury of working at home and make the investment to move it into a facility.

He also asked whether I would have the time to make the sales calls needed, whether I knew how big my market should be and if I could control it? He wondered if it would be profitable to continue small production.

On my products, he asked if my packaging was appropriate for retail sales and whether I had seriously considered my cost structure. And finally, he wanted to know how much I new about the bath and body products industry.

He gave me a lot to think about. The fact that I was able to answer most of the questions on his extensive list told me that I was on the right track. What I could not answer meant going back to the proverbial drawing board and re-jiggering some of my assumptions and expectations.

He, too, gave me advice on my Web site, saying while he found it attractive he wanted to see product descriptions and pricing information that was easier to find. Those were changes I made almost immediately.

Both counselors offered to help me as much as they could. I found them both valuable tools as I build my brand and my company.

In addition to the SCORE counselors, I used the resources of other women also building businesses of their own: Gail Diggs, my good friend, and former high school chum, is a corporate marketing whiz.; Karen, a graphic artist created my new logo which I will be trotting out in a few weeks, and a photographer whom I met on an online soapers forum has volunteered to do my product photography in exchange for using the pictures on her portfolio.

It’s all about networking and using resources available to you.


Oh, and never giving up the vision.


Kathy A. Gambrell
Founder
ChesapeakeBayBathandBody.com