A Publication of The Indie Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 7, Issue 6
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1. IBN Member Update: Welcome New & Renewing IBN Members!
2. Lifestyle CEO Report: Conference Round Up & Baby Einstein Founder Julie Clark!
3. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Lip Smacking Shea Lip Butters by African Shea Butter Company
4. Get Fit In 2006 With the IBN BIO Challenge!
5. Handmade Beauty Trivia Question: win something wonderful!
6. Feature Article: The Reluctant Entrepreneur
7. Nominate Your Choice For The 2006 Handmade Beauty Business of the Year!

\Life.Style CEO\n. A person who owns and manages a business, not solely for financial gain, but also to enjoy the personal rewards of entrepreneurship, independence, flexibility and fun.

America, get ready!! With the close of Saturday's Lifestyle CEO Conference, presentations by Yours Truly, a practical panel discussion and an inspirational Keynote by Carol's Daughter Founder and President Lisa Price (that's me and Lisa at left), a bunch of newly motivated entrepreneurs have just been let loose and are ready to "Break All The Rules, Build Their Own Corporate Ladders and Create The Lives The Love!" For the Photo Gallery, click here.

Please support the event sponsors, most of whom are members of IBN, and gave generously so conference attendees could enjoy a taste of the unique benefits of handmade beauty products.

If you missed yesterday's LIVE Lifestyle CEO Internet Radio Show featuring Baby Einstein founder Julie Clark, you can catch it whenever you want to at this link. Julie founded Baby Einstein in 1997 and a year later, had run up $100,000 in gross sales. Four years after that, Disney purchased Baby Einstein for a reported $25 million. Julie and I talked about how she made her first inroads at a trade show and what she did next to get her first nationwide sale.

Upcoming Lifestyle CEO Internet Radio Shows:

February 6, Stacy Brice, founder of AssistU will talk about the growing Virtual Assistant (VA) profession and how you can benefit from a VA's services or maybe even become one yourself.

February 13, Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul will discuss his new book The Success Principles: How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be.

February 20, Paula Deen, best selling cookbook author, owner of The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah and host of the hit show Paula's Home Cooking will join me to share her journey from divorced single mom to entrepreneur, restaurateur, author and more!

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3. Handmade Beauty Product Review: Lip Smacking Shea Lip Butters by African Shea Butter Company

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Shea Lip Butter
1/4 ounce | $3.00

Like you, I have a pretty busy life. Kids, spouse, business, family -- it seems endless sometimes. That's why I'm so glad I landed in an industry filled with life's simple pleasures. And over the course of the past several weeks, I have been enjoying a new crop of them in these 4 uniquely scented Shea Lip Butters from African Shea Butter Company.

If you've been around handmade beauty circles for a while, you're probably already familiar with African Shea Butter Company, but you probably know them most for their shea butter in several varieties and their delicious virgin coconut oil. Recently, they've ventured into a new area introducing a new line of products based largely on one of the best skincare oils in the world, organic African shea butter. It comes in 4 varieties: Kalahari Melon, Madagascar Vanilla, Rainforest Wild Fruit and Moroccan Menthe. Lucky me got to try the Kalahari Melon and Tahitian Vanilla. Both of them are smooth and creamy, and they glide onto my dry lips with ease. The Kalahari Melon is made with Kalahari melon extract and natural flavors which combine to make a fruity scent and a light sweet taste. Tahitian Vanilla is warm and rich, made with vanilla fragrance. Golden beeswax and a touch of Vitamin E holds everything together.

The same 4 varieties and more are available in 6 ounce containers of fragrant certified organic shea butter. The additional scents are Cape Chamomile Lavender and Frankincense & Myrrh, both of which are aromatherapeutic in that they are infused with pure essential oils. The Cape Chamomile, a beautiful blue oil that is native to South Africa, makes a beautiful combination with lavender essential oil. It makes the product both soothing to the skin and also relaxing.

If you're looking for some simple yet really delectable products that are well made and beautifully labeled to reflect the beautiful African terrain, these are a wonderful choice. They also have body sprays, hand and foot creams, shower creme, black soap products and more. You can get it all at African Shea Butter Company. Wholesale is available too!

Well, after nearly spraining my ankle last week, I'm realizing that as young at heart as I am, I'm just not the spring chicken I used to be. On the other hand, in exchange for my brush with crutches, I have lost 2 pounds. Yeah, I know, 2 pounds in a month is not a lot, but it's a start. And we all have to start somewhere, don't we?

Please read the contest rules here before submitting your entry. Put "TRIVIA CONTEST ANSWER" in the subject line or your answer will not be considered. While time does not permit me to respond personally to all entrants, the winner's name will be announced in the next newsletter!

If there ever was such a thing as a reluctant entrepreneur, Tammie Umbel. Today, her business boasts over $500,000 in annual sales, but there was a time when business ownership was the furthest things from Tammie's mind. Before starting the company, Tammie was a teacher whose first "on the side business" selling textiles failed so miserably that she swore she'd "never ever" start another business. Her husband, a kidney doctor, had other ideas and Tammie says he “pushed me” to start another business. Since money doesn’t push her buttons, she knew that whatever she did would have to be something she loved and also something that benefited others, and benefited the earth instead of taking away from it. African Shea Butter Company fits the bill, as a direct importer and supplier of shea butter, black seed oil, black cocoa butter, black soap and other African products. They manufacture shea butter products and shea butter bulk bases. The company keeps Tammie pretty busy. No, I mean BUSY. You see, Tammie is the mother of 11 children (one a newborn!), whom she home schools on the family farm in the foothills of the Shenandoah in Virginia. 

“I was a firm believer in natural products, so after much coaxing from my husband, my first natural product company was born,” she says. “At first it was based on third world countries including India, Egypt, etc.” What Tammie quickly realized is that her best selling product that people couldn’t get enough of was shea butter. So she changed her marketing strategy and focused on her number one seller. As a little girl, Tammie used to watch programs on starving children and tell herself that one day she would create jobs for these people so they wouldn’t have to starve. “I never would have dreamed then that someday I would start up a company like this one that actually is creating jobs for people in Africa,” she says.

About Shea Butter

Shea butter is crushed from the pit of a fruit from shea trees that grow in the harsh dry savannah of Africa, Tammie says. “These trees grow no where else in the world. The environment in which they grow is so harsh, receiving so little rain that barely anything else grows there,” she says. The fruit is collected by local women and the butter is traditionally extracted without the use of chemicals or fuel consuming machinery. Unlike other crops the shea trees grow without human intervention. “Producing the shea butter is the only means of survival for many of the women who live in the difficult terrain of the Savannah,” she says.

Tammie’s company has searched out these women in Africa to supply her shea butter. “The high price of shea butter had kept it out of most households,” she says. “That meant that less shea butter was being produced and supplied to the world.” She set out to make shea butter a household name and no longer a high end boutique product and soon her company was buying and selling thousands tons of shea butter from impoverished parts of Africa. Along with providing regular income for African men and women, African Shea Butter Company provides educational donations to the children. “We also work with small cooperatives and farmers throughout Africa to produce exotic skin care products using locally produced essential oils and rare botanicals such as oils of Kalahari melon seed, marula and others.”

Tammie says shea butter is the best skin beautifying ingredient she knows of. “Unlike other oils, it penetrates deep below the skin’s surface so it actually works on stretch mark reversal and prevention. It is anti-inflammatory so it’s great for rashes, shaving abrasions and the like.” Shea butter contains a lot of Vitamins A and E, which work against wrinkles making skin look younger, and since it’s natural, Tammie says, it works great on delicate baby skin. “I think the potential market for shea butter includes each and every household in America, “says Tammie. “Once people try shea butter they are sold on it for life.” “As far as I’m concerned, shea butter is only moisturizer people need,” she says. “It is far more hydrating and healing than any other skin care oil and skin care product on the market."

Shea Butter: A Jar of Peace

“I think that shea butter is a great way to establish peace. As a Muslim, I practice submission to the One who created us and this includes establishing peace,” says Tammie. “Shea butter is good for the environment because it does not require farming,” she said. “It is good for people. It is chemical free and great for skin. Once people realize that shea butter is the best thing they can use on their skin, they will stop using chemicals," she says. Tammie says using shea butter is good for the commerce of the people in Africa who gather the fruit to make the shea butter. “The African people will come to be appreciated for the shea butter and I believe this opens up the world to peace. I believe that when we get to know each other and get to appreciate each other, we live better with one another. Pretty high hopes for a jar of shea butter, huh?”

Rising To The Challenges

“The toughest part of running my company is rude customers and good employees,” says Tammie. “I am not a money seeker so I sometimes might discharge a customer or two who I find is beyond help. Okay, perhaps I am not supposed to say that, but I can’t stand unreasonable customers,” she adds. “I expect our customers to be just as polite as we are.”

Sometimes finding the right employees is a struggle, too. Tammie says she might go through quite a lot of employees to make sure she has the best possible staff. “I am difficult, but I want the very best for my customers. I want the best product, the best packaging and the best customer service,” she says. Speaking of customers, she says the most enjoyable part of her business is customer satisfaction. “Sometimes the business can be tough. Sometimes there is not enough money to pay all the bills,” says Tammie. “But the customers make me keep going. They LOVE our products! They praise our company and that’s what makes it all worth it.”

Branching Out

Tammie says her company is currently doing over $500,000 in sales a year and that’s just the beginning. “We are looking to quadruple that this year with deals with a few major chains,” she says. Her five year plan is to open her own chain of retail stores. “By then we will have over 100 products and will also include many natural, handmade products from Africa like baskets, honey, etc.” Tammie plans to include a tea house in her stores and envisions using the the business as a cultural exchange for Africa. “Africa is still so unexplored and so little known.” She says she has a fascination with Africa because “it is still so raw. I think it’s got great potential for the organic future.”
She also has plans for an online safari that will take people on a journey through Africa to witness how different things are made and cultivated. “It hopefully will have an interactive map and games and I hope to attract young users,” she says.

Find Your Niche

Tammie says her best advice for other handmade product developers is “to find your niche and stick with it.” She also advises to know going in that starting your own business is “hard, hard work.” “You really have to find that niche. It could be a full line of chocolate body care, yum, or something else unique,” she says. "Find it, work hard and stick with it!"

"The Indie Beauty Network really helped me get started in my niche," says Tammie who joined IBN in 2001 and has been an active participant ever since. “It is a great organization, and like the rest of the industry it is growing, too. IBN helped me get most of my initial customers and some important contacts.”

Living in Harmony with the World

Tammie is a spiritual person and a strong believer in world peace. “I hope our products can bring some peace by bridging gaps of understanding,” she says. “I believe that if people could just sit down and talk to each other, get to know each other, that they will realize that we are all the same.”

“My first connection to Africa is shea butter. It is shea butter that has knotted us eternally to Africa, which is a country full of wonderful resources that can enhance our lives,” she says. “Going back to Africa and rediscovering the botany of the land is in some way rediscovering our roots,” says Tammie. “There is so much potential there. The land when farmed by the natives can reap many fruits. Africa and the people who live there have much potential to offer. In turn we see a grand opportunity to assist a people to assist themselves.”

“I am very serious about educating Americans about Africa because I believe it is a place that has long been neglected and is not given the appreciation it deserves. Like the Native Americans, native African tribes have a lot to teach us, she says. “They can help teach us how to live in harmony with our earth instead of destroying it.”

Help IBN Celebrate 6 Years of Serving the Handmade Beauty Industry!! 

Best & Success!!
dM (Donna Maria)
Editor, The Handmade Beauty Connection
The Indie Beauty Network | www.handmadebeauty.com

Copyright (c) 2000 - 2006 by The Indie Beauty Network (IBN) and Donna Maria. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized distribution or reproduction is prohibited. IBN does not necessarily endorse any product, event or ideology featured in The Handmade Beauty Connection (HBC) or on IBN's website. All information is provided on an "as is" basis and no express or implied warranties are given. Any use of the information contained in the HBC or on IBN's web site, including recipes, is solely at your own risk. IBN and Donna Maria disclaim any liability in connection with the use of all recipes, products reviewed and other information. Except for sponsorships, HBC refuses compensation from companies to feature or mention their names or products. Opinions expressed in any Product Review are personally those of the reviewer and do not represent the views of IBN, Donna Maria (unless she is the reviewer) or any other person or company.