Anne-Marie Faiola, Author at Soap Queen

Customized Nail Polish Recipe

June 3, 2009 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Make any color under the sun just by using mica and your clear nail polish. You can even add a drop or two of fragrance oil to make it extra special and scented.

Here’s what you’ll need to customize your own nail polish:Clear Nail Polish
Mica (any color)
Nail Polish Remover
Fragrance Oil (optional)
Extra nail polish brushes
Small Container (for mixing)

Above we experimented with Yellow Mica and below we tested a batch using Super Pearly White. They both turned out great but ultimately I chose to wear the Heavy Metal Gold Mica creation (see the last picture). Here’s how we did it…

Step 1: Pour a small amount of nail polish into a small mixing bowl and add pinch of mica (whatever color inspires you). We did 1 small .15cc scoop of mica to .25 oz of nail polish for the final photo below.

Step 2 (optional): Add 2-3 drops of fragrance oil (your favorite summer scent – suggestions: Summer Fling, Black Raspberry Vanilla type, Beach Breezes or Apricot Freesia)Step 3: Because we’re adding to the already-thick nail polish, we added 2-3 drops of nail polish remover to thin it back out.Step 3: Paint nails with one of your extra nail polish brushes. **Brushes will be for a one time use only.

**cleaning the brushed seemed to be our only challenge. Soaking the brushes in nail polish remover and washing them still didn’t seem to clean up our brushes. Let us know if you have any tips!Step 4: Once the nails are dry, immediately flaunt them! If you come up with any great mica blends, let me know. I definitely want to hear about any cool color blends that you design.

If You Missed Etsy Labs …

June 2, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

If you missed the Etsy Lab Talk today on how to provide ‘fanatical’ customer service for your Etsy shop, you missed a good time! In the photo above, you can see how many people are in the auditorium. Notice, there is standing room only – every single seat is filled with an Etsy seller (as represented by their square icon). You can see my web cam slightly off to the right of the photo. And in the middle? That’s me, taking a photo of the classroom.

This is the brief introduction I gave, live, via webcam on how to make sure you have great customer service:

These are simple policies that as a one-person, small business, you can do yourself, just starting out:

The ‘About Us‘ Page matters. You need a phone number. An address. An email. Preferably some sort of photo of you that says ‘trust me!’You can put this on your ‘Profile’ on Etsy and on your home page, your ‘Shop Announcement’ could also have contact information.

Customer testimonials are huge to creating trust. They help to build credibility and are a much better selling point than you trying to convince people to buy your stuff. Testimonials need to be specific, not edited and ideally, have a link to the product that the customer is talking about. You can put your customer testimonials on the individual product pages, your policies pages or your ‘shop announcement’ section.

You need clearly defined policies that you do not deviate from, except in favor of the customer. If you want to get return customers and want to have people come back again and again, you need to meet their expectations and do what you say you are going to do.

My number one, be-all, end-all for customer service – where everything flows from and where, in my opinion, you should start from is accountability. Do you do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it?

As a one person shop and as a struggling small business, you may be sitting there saying ‘But, Anne-Marie, I can’t do the 24 hour order turnaround like Bramble Berry does. I can’t answer the phone all day, pack my own boxes, answer all the emails and still have time to make stuff!’ And, I’m not saying you need to do this. I’m saying that you need to have clear policies that properly keep your customers informed about what your standards are.

If you can’t ship packages until Friday of every week, clearly state that. If you answer emails within 3 business days and not 1, clearly state that. In my experience, customers are okay with that – as long as they know it. And, on the Accountability side, that also means that when you tell a customer you’re going to get back to them, you need to deliver each and every time.

Some of the things we do at Bramble Berry (that you can do too), we’ve done from the beginning:

Thank yous on every invoice, in every box. I am genuinely amazed, delighted and thrilled when a customer orders from us. I don’t take it lightly.

Hand written notes to random customers throughout the month. Every month, I try to write at least 3 to 5 thank-you notes to customers that stood out to me. They might have stood out because they commented on our blog. They might have stood out because of the way they interacted with us. But, just a simple snail mail note goes a long way to keeping a customer for a lifetime

Free samples. Not all of the sellers on Etsy sell products that will allow for free samples. But if you do sell products that have an option for a free sample, it’s a great way to say ‘thank you’ in every box, potentially sell more products but most importantly, amaze and delight the customer. Remember, this doesn’t have to be something you sell – it could even be a cool sticker to differentiate yourself – but anything that makes the customer sit up, take notice of you and be thankful that they ordered from you.

Those are all things I did, even when I was the ‘little guy’ – a one woman operation in a 400 square foot warehouse.

Now, since we’ve grown and I have more time because I’m not personally packing all the boxes at BrambleBerry, I am able to do a few more things that really allow for increased, fanatical customer service:

Run a forum at http://www.teachsoap.com/ where I can interact with customers and newbies alike

Do this daily blog at http://www.soapqueen.com/

Have fun video tutorials at http://www.soapqueen.tv/

Twitter and stay connected all the time to customers.

Ultimately, providing great customer service is all about creating a relationship. Letting customers into the backroom at Bramble Berry, so to speak, with our Twitter, blog, forums and soapqueen.tv is just one more way of helping to foster and create that relationship.

Etsy Virtual Labs in 2 Hours!

June 2, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I’ll be on Etsy in the Virtual Labs today at 2 p.m. PST to talk about the Bramble Berry story and how to provide fanatical service that totally wows your customer.

Click here to be taken to Etsy Virtual Lab, sign in and get your place in the Classroom for the 2 p.m. discussion. And, be prepared with your questions. I’ll be answering them live, on camera!

PS – Yes, that’s an actual shot from the webcam of what you’ll see in just 2 hours …

Getting Your First Line of Credit

June 1, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

Bramble Berry’s line of credit came due last week and I’ve been diligently working to get the paperwork together to renew our line of credit. This morning, the line of credit was renewed at terms I was pleased with.

Why a line of credit? You can use personal credit cards to finance your business but it gets expensive. Credit cards charge around 9% (for those with extraordinary credit!) to 22% interest rate. That’s an expensive way to finance your business. A line of credit from the bank will be anywhere between prime +.5% to prime + 2.5% (depending on your creditworthiness). Right now, you can get a line of credit for around 4.5% interest. No matter how you look at it, that’s less than your credit card.

Also, lines of credit come due once a year. Ideally, you should be utilizing your lines of credit actively and paying your line of credit down to $0 many times per year. However, it does not come ‘due’ monthly like a credit card, leaving your cash for when its convenient for you to pay the line. One caveat: a line of credit is not meant to finance large capital expenses (like a new vacuum forming machine or forklift, for example). Credit lines are meant to augment your normal cash flow situation.

For example, if you get a big order from a national chain and the national chain offers you ‘Net 90’ terms (meaning, they will pay you for your order 90 days after receiving it), you will need to find a way to order all the raw materials, make the product, ship the product and then wait the 90 days to get paid. Most small businesses do not have that kind of cash on hand.

A line of credit will help you through this cash flow crunch more cheaply than a traditional credit card.

What do you need to receive a line of credit? To get a line of credit, the bank wants to know that you have a business plan, assets to back up the line of credit and strong financials. You’ll want to go to the bank that you have your business (and/or personal) accounts with. Make an appointment with the Business Center or Business Banker to discuss a line of credit. Hopefully, this is not the first time they have seen you. Ideally, you have been dropping off care packages to them every quarter or at least every year to make sure the bankers know who you are.

To establish your first line of credit, you will need:

1. Three years of personal and business tax returns. If you don’t have three years of business returns, it’s okay. Bring three years of personal tax returns.

2. A personal asset sheet. This is a document that lists all of your assets (bank accounts, stock holdings, cars, properties) and all of your liabilities (mortgages, credit card debt, notes payable to friends or family). Even though Bramble Berry is established and has a strong financial history, the bank still asks for my personal asset list every year because ultimately, they want you to personally guarantee the money they’re lending your business.

3. Your business plan. It’s okay if you don’t have a business plan right now. You will need one to show to the bank. Don’t be surprised if your banker also wants to come see your studio in action. Our banker visits our warehouse routinely to confirm that the inventory we claim we have is here, to make sure that things are operating like I say they are and to keep our relationship up-to-date. If you don’t have a business plan, here’s the link to a simple series I designed on writing a business plan for you to get started right away.

4. A well rehearsed, confident answer on why you need a line of credit. Banks do not give lines of credit to be nice, because you think you deserve one or because you suspect you have a great plan. Just as luck favors the prepared, so do bankers.

I was turned down a few times from large, national banks before a local bank finally took a chance on me. So, if at first you don’t succeed, try again and keep going to smaller, more local banks until you find a bank that is excited about your business, your plans for the future and wants to work with you.

It’s up to you to have a business plan that makes sense and is bankable. No bank, no matter how local, will just give you money because they like you. You have to maintain a compelling reason for them to keep lending to you. That’s why lines of credit need to be renewed yearly – to ensure that the business rationale for lending to you remains the same. I make sure to keep that relationship working well by meeting with our bank quarterly to update them on our profit and loss, any new business plans and drop off bars of soap as a ‘thank you’ for their trust in me and the Bramble Berry family of companies.

As you grow, a line of credit is essential to your repertoire of tools for success. Start working on establishing one today.

More Sushi

May 31, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

In case you didn’t get the Bramble Berry newsletter, here’s my favorite photo of the sushi soap. It still needs to be improved upon a little bit before we film SoapQueenTV next weekend but it’s getting close.

You Will Come Into a Fortune

May 30, 2009 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

We’ve finally attempted (and successfully conquered) the Fortune Cookie Soap. We were inspired last year by French Hill Country (see post here) and we just had to try it!

Ingredients

Clear Soap
Sparkle Gold Mica
Buttercream and Snickerdoodle Fragrance
Vanilla Color Stabilizer
Silicone Brownie Pan
Round Cookie Cutter
Liquid Glycerin

*Optional: White Soap
*Optional: Peach Shimmer Mica

*The cookie at the bottom of the page was made with clear soap and sparkle gold mica. The cookies at the top were made with 1/2 clear soap, 1/2 white soap (for more opacity), Sparkle Gold Mica and Peach Shimmer Mica.

Step 1: Melt 6-8 oz of soap and add your color and fragrance oil. We used the delicious, yet, discoloring, Buttercream & Snickerdoodle so we added a splash of Vanilla Color Stabilizer. Add liquid glycerinto the mixture at a 10% usage rate (about .6 oz or just a splash).Step 2: Pour a thin layer (1/8 inch) into the silicone pan and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Once the soap is cooled, punch out 5-6 round cut outs with your cookie cutter (or you can freehand them like this method). Add the scraps to the remaining melted soap and save for rounds 2 and 3.

Step 3: Fold each circle cut out in half. This is the time to insert your secret message or “fortune” if you are so inclined.

Step 4: Fold the opposite ends together with out making a crease in the middle. Our cookies turned out the best when we folded the ends together around a small object like a pen.

Step 5: Enjoy yourself or make someone’s day with a forune personalized just for them! Not feeling creative? You can get fortune cookie sayings on this site.

It’s Your Lucky Day!

May 29, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The Cold Process Soap Contest has come to a close and it’s time for the
Grand Prize Drawing.Congrats to the super secret bonus winner yesterday, Molly S. from Paper Wires and Colored Pencils!

It’s such a beautiful day today in Bellingham and I’m feeling a little saucy! I think I’m going to pick 3 winners today that will receive 5 fabulous bars of homemade soap from the Bramble Berry Cold Process Pre-Made Soap Line. Ahem, quiet in the audience please…

The winners are (drum roll)…

Merryh from Body By M
Supergrover2 from Mothershare and Mosaic Soaps
Little Shadow Creations from Little Shadow Creations and Etsy

CONGRATULATIONS!
*Winners, please email us at info(at)brambleberry(dot)com with your physical addresses and we’ll get these soapy prizes out the door to you ASAP.

Super Secret Bonus Winner!

May 28, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Guess what? We’re so excited about our Cold Process Soap Contest that we couldn’t wait until tomorrow to pick a winner. So we’ve picked a super secret bonus winnerto tide us over until tomorrow. Today’s bonus winner will be receiving 4 bars of our new cold process soap!And the super secret bonus winner is…Molly S.from Paper Wires and Colored Pencils. Woo Hoo!

Congratulations!

Check back in tomorrow for the grand prize drawing…it just might be YOU!

Molly S.- Email us at info(at)brambleberry(dot)com with your physical address and we’ll get these goodies out the door for you. Yay!

Soap Queen TV – Clam Shell Soaps

May 28, 2009 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Our most ambitious project of the Soap Queen series to date is a project developed by Paula of PJ Soaps. She taught this project at last year’s Soap Weekend Intensive and everyones’ soap came out beautifully – even those that had never made soap before.

Soap Queen TV Episode 5: Clam Shell Soap from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

We did a blog post on the project and got feedback that photos may be worth a 1000 words but a video would be better. Given the complexity of the project, I agree.

Watch the video and gather your supplies. You’re going to love these soaps! You will need:

Pre-heat 4 quart pan of water on simmer (for rinsing your tools)
Gardenia Fragrance Oil
Sensuous Sandalwood
Sea Moss Fragrance Oil
shea melt and pour
clear shaving soap
Brown Oxide
Green Oxide
Black Oxide
4 heat safe containers
1 Clamshell Mold
1 double sided cleaning tool (in the tool kit)
1 strong metal dinner fork (with straight tines)
1PJ Scraper tool (in the tool kit)
1 Misting sprayer filled with rubbing alcohol

Well, That’s a Rip-Off

May 27, 2009 Filed Under: Business Musings

A couple of years ago, my sister in law gave me a $100 Visa Gift Card as a present. She purchased the card at Fred Meyers. The nice thing (in theory) about Visa gift cards is that you can use them anywhere and are not stuck using them at just one store.

While cleaning my desk tonight, I found the Visa Gift Card, issued by Green Dot Online. I was pretty sure there was a few dollars left on the card. I’d hate to leave money on the table so I called Green Dot Online to check and see if there was a remaining balance. After all, even $1 is a nice chunk downpayment on a warm and luxurious latte.

The automated attendant told me it was $.75 to check my balance. I hung up. But, then got to thinking, “Nah, that has to be a mistake. Who charges to let you access their automated phone system?”

So, I called back. Yep. They do charge $.75 to access your remaining balance. Okaaaaay … I went ahead and pressed 1 to hear my balance. Shocker of shocker when I found out my gift card was overdrawn by $9.70! What? How is that possible? It’s a gift card. How could I have overdrawn a gift card? And, I’m pretty sure I didn’t spend more than $84 on it. My careful notes on the front of the card in sharpie pen said I hadn’t.

I pressed “0” to speak to an attendant. It turns out that this “Gift Card” charges $4.95 PER MONTH as a maintenance fee on my account and has been charging that for about 7 months now.

7 months (or so) ago, I had $16.05 left on the card. Now, I apparently owe them $9.70 just for the privilege of being given this gift card. To add insult to injury, my sister in law had to “activate” the gift card for $9.95 to start with. So, her $100 gift to me actually got me $84 in product but cost an additional $35.70 ($25.75 from me in bogus “servicing fees” plus $9.95 from her to “activate” the card). So, the net-net of this $100 gift card ended up being $64.30

What a racket. And, sadly, it’s a racket that preys on people that don’t have good credit or bank balances (since it pretends to be a credit or debit card). In this case, the gift was still very appreciated and the original sentiment is still valid but what a disappointing rip-off. I wonder if Fred Meyer’s knows how unethical Green Dot Online gift card is? I think I’ll tell them. Their “Customer Feedback Page” is right here.

Cute Jewelry, Including a Tweet Bird

May 26, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Joanna Rutter is the creator of the new jewelry on my wish list. This jewelry is inspired by the link between illustrative form and jewelry. Her pieces begin life as sketches and are then rendered into metal by hand. EVERYTHING on Joanna’s Etsy site is stunning- but I did manage to narrow it down to my 2 faves…

Flighty Bird Necklace

My Heart Silver Earrings

Looking to sell this cute jewelry in your shop? Joanna says that wholesale inquiries are welcome.

10X Orange Essential Oil

May 26, 2009 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

I’m super excited; our 10Fold Orange Essential Oil just arrived to the warehouse.

What’s 10Fold? And, why would you pay more for it? Because it’s super concentrated and best of anything, lasts in cold process soap. 10X Orange is a form of concentrating the oil and removing much of the lower boiling components. The higher the number, the more times it’s been folded, or concentrated. Our 10X Orange is folded via fractional distillation. The still filters out the unnecessary components (or in this case, lower boiling point components) and concentrates all the “good smelling” components that really stick in your cold process soap. Unlike tradition citrus essential oils, this orange will actually smell good in your cold process soap after you’ve made it. We use it at .7 to 1 ounce per pound of soap and it smells juicy, ripe and delicious.

Distillation Method: Cold Pressed
Country of Origin: Canada
Part: Peel
Botanical Name: Citrus sinensis
Warnings: Can be irritating to eyes
Edible: Yes (kosher)

Flaunt Your Swirls!

May 26, 2009 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Thanks, Kaylee, for “flaunting your stuff” on the Teach Soap Forum. Your swirls ROCK! Kaylee’s enthuses, “I’m having way too much fun swirling the soap ~ it’s not as hard as I once thought! I would never have tried it if I hadn’t watched that episode [of Soap Queen TV].”See her fabulous swirl soaps below and check out her Etsy site, Crazy K Bath and Body.

Ooohh…Ahhhh! Are you inspired? Ready to try the swirling technique? See Soap Queen TV Episoade 3: Swirling Melt and Pour or purchase our Swirl Soap Kit. Just don’t forget to flaunt your stuff on the Teach Soap Forum!

Good Luck and Happy Swirling!