Craft Cafe Artisan Interview - Botanicals for Beauty
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Meet Laura Simmons From Botanicals for Beauty
♥ Please tell us about yourself:
Like many other of the newer artisans, I have problems with unemployment. After 7 years of look and not finding any work with the exception of temporary agencies I decided to finally take the plunge and paid for a 3 level aromatherapy home study course. This course had lots of information in it about nature's butters and oils plus herbs and included some sample recipes as well. So that was when I started thinking about selling skin care products and essential oils perfumes, bath salts and bath oils on the web.
♥ How long have you been in business?
Since 2/27/2012
♥ Please describe your business:
My shop contains items most of which have essential oils added to them either for pleasure or skin care. I started this business after taking an aromatherapy home course which discussed skin care issues a great deal and also talked about the advantages of various butters and oils. The second part of the course talked more about blends and essential that are helpful for a specific mood.
What inspires me to keep going are the people who have told me that they have tried everything else they could find and nothing helped them with their dry skin until they tried my products. Also I have had feedback from people who have said that they see noticeable results on the 3rd day of using my product. Unfortunately if not used every day you will not see the same results.
♥ Please share with others, your best marketing techniques:
For now it is making friends with my fellow artisans. I am also working on some research to learn how to be more effective using social networks.
♥ What do you love most about your business?
Actually it's hard to give just one thing that I love the most. There are two things and they are that I give real value in my creations because everything I sell is concentrated, nothing is watered down (except the apple cider vinegar toners due to acidity) and because of that my items not only give better results they also last for a longer period of time. Plus the success stories of people who have been relieved of a skin care problem after trying so many other things.
♥ Please tell us why have chosen Craft Café as a venue for your business?
Because the price was so reasonable and I have heard that it is a great advantage if you are among the first to open up a shop in a new venue.
♥ What advice can you give for crafters/artisans just starting out?
The first thing is to find other artisans that enjoy networking and network with them. I started a FB share and like group and so now all of us have our items shared by at least 5 other artisans on their social networking sites. The group is new so it is still small, but I also don't want anyone to have to spend too much time doing the like and shares plus I don't want my members to be thought of as spammers. If the group gets too big I will end dividing it into two groups. So can you imagine, the reach we each have now?
♥ Where do you see your business in 5 years?
I hope that I will have 100 items by then and be so busy that I will need to hire some part time help.
♥ Lastly, would you like to offer our readers a special or coupon code for your Craft Cafe shop?
Yes, I am offering FREE SHIPPING with the purchase of 3 or more items from my Craft Cafe Shop, please see my shop message for more information.
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We would like to send out a big THANK YOU to Laura for all her love and support.
Be sure to visit Botanicals for Beauty soon ♥ ♥ Craft Cafe Shop / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest
