Just to inspire..many must have read these stories or interviews but just to add hope to hopeless people, communicate to them that you might have hidden talents or something that might really bring you up and save your name in the history of the world...
What has been the customer feedback so far?
Customers are thrilled with the product and the visible results. Not only are our customers preventing new sleep wrinkles but the old ones are becoming smoother and therefore, their facial skin looks years younger. Sleepers like me are also experiencing improved breathing and better rest as the Mumbani™ lifts the head and opens breathing passages.
Additionally, Mumbani™ users say they feel refreshed and well rested in the mornings. Some customers are reporting less acne breakouts since their facial skin is no longer rubbing against their pillow or bed surface. Others are saying that since the Mumbani™ helps their face float rather than be pressed against the pillow it has alleviated their jaw and ear pain “I used to get sleep wrinkles and ear pain from sleeping on my side. But now that I use the Mumbani™ I no longer have hurting ears in the morning and I wake up well rested!” expressed Kim Scena from Newark, DE
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced when starting this business?
Time – I need ten more hours in a day, and crash course in business management is really what would have been most helpful to me in the early stages of starting my business. I have been an educator all of my adult life. Working a full time demanding job as an educator, maintaining a well balanced family life, and building a start up business from the foundation up all at the same time have been some of my biggest challenges.
The product is patent pending. What tips can you give other entrepreneurs who are thinking of patenting their products?
First, develop the total concept so it’s clear in your head and do not share it with anyone; it would not be fair to ask even family and friends to keep your idea a secret. Second, research if the product you are thinking of exists in the market before you spend time and energy working on an already patented idea/product. Third, make a prototype and test it out while keeping a log and making adjustments. Finally, when you are satisfied with the results seek a patent attorney. This is not an area to cut costs and it is the best way to proceed with a serious business.
Where can customers get the Mumbani™ Fresh Face product?
Currently Mumbani™ Fresh Face can be purchased online at http://www.mumbani.com/, Marcus John Salon in Havertown, PA, and coming soon on one of the home shopping channels.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur?
Perseverance, ambition, drive and determination can make any dream come true. Perseverance is my biggest lesson. While we hear about overnight success stories, we don’t always hear about the struggles on the path to getting to that overnight success. Likewise, hard work, quality product and great customer service is increasingly empowering my business.
How has the economic downturn affected your business? What strategies are you using to survive these tough economic times?
Sales have actually been steadily rising; the fact that the Mumbani™ Fresh Face is very cost-effective has really gotten people’s attention. Global Industry Analysts, Inc. anticipates expenditures in the U.S. market for anti-aging products that enhance appearance to be more than $5 billion by 2015. Mumbani™ is the right product at the right time. It proves to be a cost-effective tool in preventing and smoothing out existing sleep wrinkles, a cause of deepening facial wrinkles.
How are you marketing your business? Do you use social media such as Facebook and/or Twitter?
Our recent press releases have generated a buzz with newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations as well as on the internet with numerous new blogs writing about Mumbani™ every week. We are on Facebook and Twitter but have not been using it as much as we should
What are the challenges of working and running a business from home?
I am fortunate enough to have a larger home so I can use the entire lower level as my office and inventory storage space. The challenge in a growing home-based business is keeping business hours. Exceptional customer service is a top priority for me. So I check every email as soon as my cell phone alerts me I have new mail, fill orders as soon as they come in and answer every phone call etc. even long after normal business hours.
How are you balancing your personal life and family with the demands of your business?
Family has always been the single most important thing in my life. My personal life is my family and very few close friends. I was born into a very loving and close nit middle class family in India. When I was five years old my father died unexpectedly, which left my mom struggling to raise three little girls on her own. Soon thereafter we were poor. Yet I had an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. In my late teens I took my ideas to relatives for funding but was unsuccessful. In college I discovered the world of teaching which I also loved and chose as my path and calling until recently. As my business started growing I knew I had to make some tough choices and step away from my well paid job. I work hard and am on my computer almost the entire time that my daughter is at school. I am glad to be home when she comes home from school and spend time talking about her day and anything else that is on our minds. I do miss the parents and children that I was used to being surrounded by daily for over two decades but I make it up by meeting with close friends every other week.
What are your goals for your business? How do you see the business five years from now?
I established OmP3 LLC as a brand that will bring high quality, luxurious yet affordable beauty and comfort products to our customers. I see us having a whole line of such products in five years.
What tips can you share to other women entrepreneurs?
Some businesses “get” social media, but many still don’t. For those who understand how to use social media for their marketing, the results can be quite impressive.
The couple makes their cupcakes, and goes to their destination for the day for 30 minutes (or until the line dies down). Customers can check the Cupcake Calendar to see the scheduled destinations for the month. However, some days are marked as “Wildcard Spots” and the exact locations are only announced on Twitter and Facebook. Customers can also get the most updated schedules on the social networking sites.
With 3,166 fans on Twitter (and fast increasing), their tweets are light hearted teasers that their followers take to heart. Once a tweet goes out where they will turn up next, fans start preparing to go after the mobile van to buy their gourmet cupcakes. My introduction to the company came via an email from a friend alerting me that CurbsideCupcakes.com will be stopping by near my location, and I need to hurry fast to get their delicious goodies. Many fans even take the bus and the subway train just to get to the mobile van’s location.
Here are some of their latest tweets:
It is in their Facebook fan page , however, where the passion and adulation of their fans for their cupcakes are most apparent. With 5,618 fans on Facebook, fans post pictures of their cupcakes, their interactions with the pink mobile, and their love for the cupcakes.
Here’s a sampler of some interesting posts made recently – and any marketers worth their salt would die for these comments:
The success of CurbsideCupcakes.com lies in how they are able to generate excitement in the shopping process. People are not just buying cupcakes, but are participating in a fun and even thrilling experience of trying to be in the announced location at the right time. They may be a small business, but they have developed a strong brand that’s sugary sweet (pink van! pink logos!) and fun. And customers seem to be responding very well to the business.
Social media has changed how businesses reach out and engage their customers. Small businesses like Curbside Cupcakes that are able to harness and leverage social media to market their businesses can get a leg up against competition, generate increased sales, and develop a loyal base of customers.
Lisa Price has always been fascinated with fragrance. As a child, she has always been attracted to scents and smells in their house – the food being cooked in the kitchen, the roses in her grandmother’s garden, the smell of her mom’s face cream, even her dad’s shaving cologne. This fascination inspired her to create her own line of hair and body care products. Today, Carol’s Daughter is a multimillion-dollar natural skincare beauty business.
Price’s business started in her kitchen sink in the early 90s, mixing shea butters, natural moisturizers and essential oils to produce a unique fragrance. She was looking for a scent that will not make her smell “like the department store shelf,” mixing various ingredients until she hit on the right formula. She gave her homespun body creams as gifts to her friends and family.
Her mother Carol, who was the inspiration for the name of Price’s beauty products, saw the business potential of her hobby. She started selling her products at a local flea market, and found great demand. As she describes those early days in a Newsweek article:
Creating her products, running a business, working on a hectic day job, and expecting her first child with her husband proved too much for Price. She decided to quit her day job in 1996 to focus instead on the business and her growing family.
Her big break came when Essence Magazine featured her and her products. Reader’s Digest in a story about Price described those days as,
In 1999, Price opened her first store in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Her web site then describes thenext successes of her business:
Today, Carol’s Daughters products are sold in big name stores such as Sephora, Macy’s, Dillards and others. In 2009, she was tapped by Disney to create a line of Carol’s Daughter children’s products tied to the movie “The Princess and the Frog” including Princess Tiana bubble bath, shampoo, conditioner and detangling mist.
Success was not easy for Price. But her love for her family, perseverance, and willingness to take risks allowed her to grow Carol’s Daughter into the massive success that it is today.
SOURCE : Women Home Business
If you want to read more go to http://www.powerhomebiz.com
Elizabeth Bloch: Inventing an Anti-Wrinkle Sleep Product
Elizabeth Bloch knows about this extrinsic aging problem first-hand. As a young child growing up in Mumbai, India, she was told that sleeping on one’s side was the best position for restful sleep. Her culture considered sleeping on one’s back to be the source of harsh nightmares. After years of heeding this Indian myth and sleeping on her side, nightmares were not a major cause for alarm for Bloch; sleep wrinkles were.
When she was young, her facial creases or “morning face” would disappear in minutes. In her 40s, Bloch noticed that the sleep wrinkles were no longer bouncing back completely and were etched into her delicate facial skin. When expensive moisturizers and eye creams proved futile, Bloch took matters into her own hands. She eventually developed the Mumbani(TM) Fresh Face to protect the skin and avoid developing wrinkles while sleeping. The name is a play on the inventor’s native homeland.
We talked with Elizabeth Bloch about her anti-wrinkle sleeping product, and the challenges she faced when starting the business:
What is the Mumbani™ Fresh Face product? Can you describe what it is used for?
The Mumbani™ Fresh Face pillow is an anti-aging, anti-wrinkle sleep product that helps women and men of all ages lose that bothersome “morning face” while promoting healthier, smoother skin! “Morning Face” (a term I coined) can be best described as the sleep wrinkled face with lines and creases seen more notably when we wake up in the morning. They are caused by sleeping on our sides and stomach with our face constantly pressed against the pillow or bed surface.
What inspired you to create the Mumbani™ Fresh Face product? What need do you see in the market for the product?
I developed Mumbani™ Fresh Face in 2008 after experiencing deep lines, wrinkles and creases caused from sleeping on my side for hours and hours every night, for over 40 years – I called it “morning face”. When I was young, my facial creases or “morning face” would disappear in minutes. In my 40s I noticed that the sleep wrinkles were no longer bouncing back completely and were etched into my facial skin. When expensive moisturizers and eye creams proved futile, I took matters into my own hands. I eventually developed the Mumbani™ Fresh Face.
Elizabeth Bloch, Inventor of Mumbani(TM) Fresh Face sleeping product
What has been the customer feedback so far?
Customers are thrilled with the product and the visible results. Not only are our customers preventing new sleep wrinkles but the old ones are becoming smoother and therefore, their facial skin looks years younger. Sleepers like me are also experiencing improved breathing and better rest as the Mumbani™ lifts the head and opens breathing passages.
Additionally, Mumbani™ users say they feel refreshed and well rested in the mornings. Some customers are reporting less acne breakouts since their facial skin is no longer rubbing against their pillow or bed surface. Others are saying that since the Mumbani™ helps their face float rather than be pressed against the pillow it has alleviated their jaw and ear pain “I used to get sleep wrinkles and ear pain from sleeping on my side. But now that I use the Mumbani™ I no longer have hurting ears in the morning and I wake up well rested!” expressed Kim Scena from Newark, DE
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced when starting this business?
Time – I need ten more hours in a day, and crash course in business management is really what would have been most helpful to me in the early stages of starting my business. I have been an educator all of my adult life. Working a full time demanding job as an educator, maintaining a well balanced family life, and building a start up business from the foundation up all at the same time have been some of my biggest challenges.
The product is patent pending. What tips can you give other entrepreneurs who are thinking of patenting their products?
First, develop the total concept so it’s clear in your head and do not share it with anyone; it would not be fair to ask even family and friends to keep your idea a secret. Second, research if the product you are thinking of exists in the market before you spend time and energy working on an already patented idea/product. Third, make a prototype and test it out while keeping a log and making adjustments. Finally, when you are satisfied with the results seek a patent attorney. This is not an area to cut costs and it is the best way to proceed with a serious business.
Where can customers get the Mumbani™ Fresh Face product?
Currently Mumbani™ Fresh Face can be purchased online at http://www.mumbani.com/, Marcus John Salon in Havertown, PA, and coming soon on one of the home shopping channels.
What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far as an entrepreneur?
Perseverance, ambition, drive and determination can make any dream come true. Perseverance is my biggest lesson. While we hear about overnight success stories, we don’t always hear about the struggles on the path to getting to that overnight success. Likewise, hard work, quality product and great customer service is increasingly empowering my business.
How has the economic downturn affected your business? What strategies are you using to survive these tough economic times?
Sales have actually been steadily rising; the fact that the Mumbani™ Fresh Face is very cost-effective has really gotten people’s attention. Global Industry Analysts, Inc. anticipates expenditures in the U.S. market for anti-aging products that enhance appearance to be more than $5 billion by 2015. Mumbani™ is the right product at the right time. It proves to be a cost-effective tool in preventing and smoothing out existing sleep wrinkles, a cause of deepening facial wrinkles.
How are you marketing your business? Do you use social media such as Facebook and/or Twitter?
Our recent press releases have generated a buzz with newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations as well as on the internet with numerous new blogs writing about Mumbani™ every week. We are on Facebook and Twitter but have not been using it as much as we should
What are the challenges of working and running a business from home?
I am fortunate enough to have a larger home so I can use the entire lower level as my office and inventory storage space. The challenge in a growing home-based business is keeping business hours. Exceptional customer service is a top priority for me. So I check every email as soon as my cell phone alerts me I have new mail, fill orders as soon as they come in and answer every phone call etc. even long after normal business hours.
How are you balancing your personal life and family with the demands of your business?
Family has always been the single most important thing in my life. My personal life is my family and very few close friends. I was born into a very loving and close nit middle class family in India. When I was five years old my father died unexpectedly, which left my mom struggling to raise three little girls on her own. Soon thereafter we were poor. Yet I had an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. In my late teens I took my ideas to relatives for funding but was unsuccessful. In college I discovered the world of teaching which I also loved and chose as my path and calling until recently. As my business started growing I knew I had to make some tough choices and step away from my well paid job. I work hard and am on my computer almost the entire time that my daughter is at school. I am glad to be home when she comes home from school and spend time talking about her day and anything else that is on our minds. I do miss the parents and children that I was used to being surrounded by daily for over two decades but I make it up by meeting with close friends every other week.
What are your goals for your business? How do you see the business five years from now?
I established OmP3 LLC as a brand that will bring high quality, luxurious yet affordable beauty and comfort products to our customers. I see us having a whole line of such products in five years.
What tips can you share to other women entrepreneurs?
- Choose to work on something you absolutely enjoy working on and love.
- Write a business plan and think big.
- Surround yourself with good people and tap into friends and family’s expertise.
- Take calculated risks and always engage in ethical business practices.
- Check out small business information sites regularly for helpful advice.
- Have a quality product/service and provide the best possible customer
CurbsideCupcakes.com: Success in Using Social Media
Some businesses “get” social media, but many still don’t. For those who understand how to use social media for their marketing, the results can be quite impressive.
Samuel Whitfield III and Kristi Cunningham, Owners, CurbsideCupcakes.com
One home business that gets social media is CurbsideCupcakes.com http://www.curbsidecupcakes.com/, a mobile vendor of gourmet cupcakes in the Washington D.C. area. While most mobile vendors simply show up in their locations and wait for customers to come, CurbsideCupcakes.com uses the social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to announce where their mobile van will be and at what time. Thus, their customers know where to go to look for the pink mobile truck and get their cupcake fix.
Launched in August 2009, CurbsideCupcakes.com is the brainchild of the soon-to-be-married couple Samuel Whitfield III and Kristi Cunningham. Friends thought they were crazy to leave their stable jobs in the middle of a recession, but both believe that they have a wonderful product and a solid business plan. And from the reaction of their fans on Facebook and Twitter, their gamble is paying off!The couple makes their cupcakes, and goes to their destination for the day for 30 minutes (or until the line dies down). Customers can check the Cupcake Calendar to see the scheduled destinations for the month. However, some days are marked as “Wildcard Spots” and the exact locations are only announced on Twitter and Facebook. Customers can also get the most updated schedules on the social networking sites.
With 3,166 fans on Twitter (and fast increasing), their tweets are light hearted teasers that their followers take to heart. Once a tweet goes out where they will turn up next, fans start preparing to go after the mobile van to buy their gourmet cupcakes. My introduction to the company came via an email from a friend alerting me that CurbsideCupcakes.com will be stopping by near my location, and I need to hurry fast to get their delicious goodies. Many fans even take the bus and the subway train just to get to the mobile van’s location.
Here are some of their latest tweets:
It is in their Facebook fan page , however, where the passion and adulation of their fans for their cupcakes are most apparent. With 5,618 fans on Facebook, fans post pictures of their cupcakes, their interactions with the pink mobile, and their love for the cupcakes.
Here’s a sampler of some interesting posts made recently – and any marketers worth their salt would die for these comments:
- PLEEEEAAAASE come to 1250 24th Street, NW we have a building of people who would love to enjoy your yummmmmy yummmmmy cupcakes
- OMG! Cupcake Biss! Me and a coworker just got back to the office with 18 cupcakes. Just finished eating RedVelvet…..mmmm…..yummy….cupcake… Hope you come back to Smithsonian area again soon.
- Your Red Velvet cupcake rocks my world! I never chased a cupcake truck until today!! Thanks for coming to Smithsonian.
- Omg, this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Cupcake Perfection
- I’m definately spreading the word Sent out an email to all of my peeps first thing this am about voting for you guys AND the truck being at our building Would love for our stop to become a regular one hoping you do well especially with all the tourists that are around again c-you soon!
- i hope you still have some more cookies and cream!!!!
- Have you forsaken 131 M Street NE??? Say it isn’t so!
The success of CurbsideCupcakes.com lies in how they are able to generate excitement in the shopping process. People are not just buying cupcakes, but are participating in a fun and even thrilling experience of trying to be in the announced location at the right time. They may be a small business, but they have developed a strong brand that’s sugary sweet (pink van! pink logos!) and fun. And customers seem to be responding very well to the business.
Social media has changed how businesses reach out and engage their customers. Small businesses like Curbside Cupcakes that are able to harness and leverage social media to market their businesses can get a leg up against competition, generate increased sales, and develop a loyal base of customers.
Lisa Price: Success in the Natural Beauty Business
Lisa Price has always been fascinated with fragrance. As a child, she has always been attracted to scents and smells in their house – the food being cooked in the kitchen, the roses in her grandmother’s garden, the smell of her mom’s face cream, even her dad’s shaving cologne. This fascination inspired her to create her own line of hair and body care products. Today, Carol’s Daughter is a multimillion-dollar natural skincare beauty business.
Price’s business started in her kitchen sink in the early 90s, mixing shea butters, natural moisturizers and essential oils to produce a unique fragrance. She was looking for a scent that will not make her smell “like the department store shelf,” mixing various ingredients until she hit on the right formula. She gave her homespun body creams as gifts to her friends and family.
Her mother Carol, who was the inspiration for the name of Price’s beauty products, saw the business potential of her hobby. She started selling her products at a local flea market, and found great demand. As she describes those early days in a Newsweek article:
My mother was the one who suggested I start selling my body cream at a church flea market in the summer of 1993. By the end of that first day, I was pretty much sold out. I made another batch and spent most of that summer at street fairs and flea markets, paying close attention to my customers. I noticed that they were looking for hair products. So I started making things for hair to keep them from walking away from my table.For the next few years, Price worked as a writer’s assistant in the hit TV program The Crosby Show by day, and worked on creating her beauty products by night. She continued to sell her products in the flea markets and street fairs, until the cold season comes when she’s forced to sell in her apartment.
Creating her products, running a business, working on a hectic day job, and expecting her first child with her husband proved too much for Price. She decided to quit her day job in 1996 to focus instead on the business and her growing family.
Her big break came when Essence Magazine featured her and her products. Reader’s Digest in a story about Price described those days as,
Price … underestimated how fast the word would spread. When Essence magazine told her story, she returned from the hospital after the birth of her second son, Ennis, to find her voice mail overflowing. “My mailing list went from 2,000 to 5,000 in two days.”She then embarked on a mail order and web based business to sell her products, counting a number of celebrities such as Jada Pinkett Smith, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, Brad Pitt and Chaka Khan as loyal fans.
In 1999, Price opened her first store in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Her web site then describes the
The store’s success lead to appearances of Carol’s Daughter products on top national television shows, including The Today Show, The View and The Oprah Winfrey Show. This type of mega-watt attention has encouraged the brand to make Carol’s Daughter a household name – in 2005, Carol’s Daughter introduced new product packaging, an updated website: www.CarolsDaughter.com, announced exciting celebrity investors and a highly anticipated Harlem flagship store in New York City.
Lisa Price, Founder, Carol's Daughter
Success was not easy for Price. But her love for her family, perseverance, and willingness to take risks allowed her to grow Carol’s Daughter into the massive success that it is today.
SOURCE : Women Home Business
If you want to read more go to http://www.powerhomebiz.com
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