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Click here if you missed the first part of Cocoa Pink’s interview.

Do you have your Vision and Values determined? Would you mind sharing?

CocoaPink is committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity. We are responsible to our customers, employees, to the environments we inhabit, and to the societies we serve. In executing our responsibilities, we do not take professional or ethical shortcuts. Our actions must reflect the high standards we affirm.

You have a great site! I love the graphics on the site. Do you feel like having great graphic design has helped your business?

I love my illustrator. I do all the label design and most of the concept art and my illustrator does all the graphics. We have a great synergy, as she is able to take my vision and realize better than I could have imagined it myself. That’s the true talent of an illustrator, to honor the clients vision and surpass expectation.

I think packaging is very important. I like to pay attention to details. Yes, product quality is the most important element, however people still judge the bottle, label, packaging. I get it with the higher end retailers, as my packaging is not “exclusive” enough to be in the higher end retail shops, even if the product is superior to the “nicely wrapped” ones.

If you only had $1000 to start out your business, what would you spend the money on, knowing what you know now?

1. Insurance.

2. Legal Fees

3. Start Up Supplies

Insurance – I am a stickler for doing things by the book. I’ve learned that to maintain a well run business you need to have a secure foundation. If someone is interested in selling cosmetics to the public, they need to be aware of the liability they are placing themselves in with each sale. There are great affordable insurance options available to the small business owner. I would recommend looking at the Handcrafted Soaper’s Guild as they have a plan with various coverage options that is very reasonable.

Selling to the public without insurance is financial suicide. Just one lawsuit is enough to rack up thousands in legal fees. If you sell it and it hurts someone, you are responsible. So insurance is a must.

Legal Fees – There are companies online that offer affordable legal options for things

like business licenses, corporations, state tax identifications, and any other legal requirements your state may have for running small businesses. Legal Zoom is a good place to begin researching. I would also recommend contacting your local small business association as they can help you state legislatures and laws. You don’t want to invest in a business then get slammed by fines. Make sure you know what is required of you before selling to the public.

Remember, all it takes is one hurt customer, one lawsuit, or one state law that you are unaware of to put you out of business for good. Be responsible and take it seriously. Selling to the public is not like a grade school bake sale. You need to know what you are getting into and make informed decisions.

After you have all the red tape in place, an active insurance policy, and anything else you may need to sell your goodies to the public… your wallet will feel pretty empty. Start with one product – the product you do best – your signature item. If it’s soap, start with that. If it’s fragrance do that. Start small. Get what you need to make a few small batches and focus on that. Depending if you sell online or locally, take photos yourself to save money. Start with Etsy or another low fee way to sell your product. Save money where you can – photos, website (wait on investing in a full blown online shop until you have some profits).

What’s your favorite product to make?

Soap! It’s my zen. I soap alone, in private. It’s intimate. I love it.

What’s your favorite Bramble Berry product?

Right now I’m really diggin’ the Hello Sweet Thang Fragrance oil.

Thank you Ilona for such an informative and information-rich interview!

I “discovered” Cocoa Pink a few years ago (along with a lot of other people!) and promised to blog my review for these products. This review is now over a year late and deserves more attention than just a mere review. Cocoa Pink (aka Ilona Timoszuk) has grown her business to employ 10 people with a retail online shop and has several large wholesale accounts. She did it the old-fashioned way – with her own cash, her own sweat equity and a vision that she convinced other people to help her with (aka friends, family and paid employees).

These are the products I bought from her back in 2007. As you read through her interview today and tomorrow, notice how her style has changed in the last year.

Where did you find financing? How in the world did you grow to 10 people and finance that growth?

The way I finance CocoaPink is influenced by my father, who started his now multi-million dollar company in a similar manner, without any credit or loans.

I do not like credit; I never have. I do believe it is necessary for home buying, student loans, and autos, but I draw the line there and refuse to finance personal indulgences. I apply this philosophy to CocoaPink and I believe shifting awareness away from credit-is-the-only-way helps empower business owners – and it feels great!

I started small. I made a couple items and sold them. Then I reinvested 100% of my profits into growth. For example, I use $100 of my own money to make a few batches of Cold Process soap and maybe some lotion. I sell those and get $150 – I reinvest all $150 in more supplies to make more products. I sell those and now I have $225 and again re-invest, make product, and sell. I did not take any personal income until I I felt the business had grown to a size I felt good about, and we had enough capital that I could afford to give myself a salary.

When you begin seeing large numbers, it’s easy to feel tempted to spend. This is where it is important to remember your vision and what you ultimate goals are. For one person this may be an intimate business with just one or two employees, while someone else’s vision may be much greater. What is important is to budget towards that vision.

A person must to feel passion for their business while respecting its growth & limitations. Don’t borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars because you suddenly decided that you want your hobby to become a multi-million dollar empire. Let the company grow itself. It will take you to the size it wants to be. If it’s meant to get there, it will. However, bigger is not better, especially when your company owes more than its worth.

Do you have a big huge goal that you want to share with us?

If you ask my ego, it will yammer on about grandiose manifestations in Manhattan skyscrapers and first class junkets to Paris. My ego is quite dangerous. (grin)

So ego aside, my real goalswould be to demonstrate my values on a wider scale. There is more than enough resources and money available to us. Greed has no place in a business, and I am sick of watching corporate scandals and people not giving a @#$%& about their staff and customers.

CEOs are modern day kings. Their power, corruption, and greed remind me of yesterday’s monarchies. We may have overthrown these governments, but the same greed and power has reincarnated within our corporations. Employees work like peasants, earning next to nothing, treated like a number, while CEOs …well we all know what they are doing.

My biggest dream – the “huge” one is to work in a position of influence and maintain my strength (or stubbornness or heart or whatever drives me) to make morally responsible choices. Choices that are not about money-money-profit-profit – and come at any expense. I’d love to follow the models of CEOs like Howard Schultz (Starbucks), who was a pioneer in ethical business practices.

I’d love to stare greed in the face and facilitate its disintegration. I’d love to empower the hard working, bring employment back to the USA, and do this while being eco-conscious.

Yes, it’s “huge” – and I do not ever see it becoming a reality. I would be just as happy if more CEO “Kings” were de-throned and corporate greed was replaced by corporate generosity.

What sort of support network do you have around you? Like a Mastermind Group or a close knit family or …

My father. We are very close (he lives 3 miles away). My family immigrated from Poland when I was 3 years old and we had nothing. Just one suitcase and a teeny apartment in a very shoddy part of Boston. My father worked as a MIT professor for over 20 years. Now seeing how far he has come (working 80 hour weeks to get there) and to witness him run a company that employs over 60 people with such honor, concern and emotional connection to each employee – it’s my inspiration. He’s my moral compass as he has often sacrificed his own salary during

rough times to make sure his staff was taken care of.

Can you imagine? A CEO giving up their own income to prevent layoffs? That’s a man worth admiring.

I also have two amazing kids and a wonderful husband who remind me that there is more to life than work.

Check back Saturday for more of Ilona’s inspiring story!