More Than WE Know

 As part of the Holiday season, I will be profiling Women Entrepreneurs who sell gifts online.  It will give you a chance to learn from their experiences, and give them an opportunity to share their great businesses and products with you.

Our first Woman Entrepreneur is Karine Etieve(pictured above with her children Eden and Oriane). Karine’s business is Eden Naturoils, named after and inspired by her son.

Karine’s business manufactures and sells all natural pure Galilee olive oil skin care. Her best selling holiday products are her soaps and creams.  

Here is Karine’s story:

 My son, Eden, was born with hard to treat eczema. Despite various medicated and non medicated treatments, his condition remained the same and resulted in burn like areas all of over his body. These areas got easily infected and caused bleeding, rashes, blemishes, and itchy spots.

On an occasional trip to Israel, I found an all natural olive oil soap that carried the promise to ease eczemas symptoms. I was desperate at this point and decided to try it. To my amazement, the soap did work and my baby’s eczema was finally under control. With the continuous use of the soap, I could actually see improvement and today, my boy only suffers from occasional slight itching and eczema breakouts.

Based on my experience I decided to start Eden Naturoils and share my experience and products with the rest of the moms out there.

Our products are hand made from pure virgin olive oil extracted from some of the oldest olive trees in the world located in Galilee, Israel. The olive oil we use has been extracted in this fashion for centuries and was used in Biblical and Roman times in religious and royal ceremonies for more than 2000 years.

We use only a cold pressed high quality olive oil in our products to retain the highest concentration of nutrients and vitamins resulting in a product that is 100% natural, free of chemicals, environmentally safe and not tested on animals.

When you buy our products you do not only buy a pure, hand made all natural product that is healthy for your body and that nurtures your skin, but you also buy a gateway to experience the past as our ancestors and inspirational figures experienced it over 2000 years ago.

Like so many Women Entrepreneurs, your inspiration to start a business was a personal passion around your family. What helps you stay motivated?

I want to tell the world about my products and how natural products can better help treat their conditions.

Very few Women Entrepreneurs have external investors for their business. How did you fund yours?

My husband and I put our savings into the business

Who is your target market?

Health conscious clients and clients who are not interested in using chemically based products or products who were tested on animals.

What percentage of your business is online?

100%

Where do you get most of your customers?


Word of mouth is the best way. I am also recruiting beauty consultants (work at home moms) who carry my items and sell them very successfully.

What is the biggest challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?

Getting people to experience my products. Until you hold my products, smell and feel them you do not realize how good they are. I decided to work with work at home moms to become my consultants and work with me in their communities. Together we are building great relations and customers love it.

What was the best unexpected thing that happened to you?

To make my first sale. I thought it would take longer but it happened very fast.

What do you wish you had known when you started?

More contacts at wholesale and retail stores! (smile)

What is the biggest challenge of being a work-at-home mom?

My kids go to day care so I am free to run the business but I do try to focus on them when I take them back home from day care.

How have your kids helped you be a better entrepreneur?

My kids are the inspiration for my business. Without them I would not have had a business.

How has being an entrepreneur helped you be a better mom?

I now see things differently. I want them to be exposed more to natural products than to processed ones. I feel that I can give them more time and love.

What advice do you have for other Women Entrepreneurs, or Entrepreneur-wannabe’s?

Just do it. If you continue to think about what will happen, where do I get the money, how packaging is done, what are the best marketing strategies, you will never make it. Take baby steps.

To purchase Karine’s products, visit Eden Naturoils.

If you are interested in becoming a sales rep for her products, contact Karine.

If you have a business that sells gifts online and would like to be profiled on More Than WE Know this holiday season, please contact me at Liz (at) morethanweknow (dot) com.

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If this week’s series on Work at Home Moms (WAHM) has you wondering whether working at home could be right for you, I recommend the free 7 day e-course for WAHM Wannabe’s presented by I AM A WAHM.  I took the course a few weeks ago and found it to be interesting, enjoyable and insightful. 

Topics include: Myths, Goal setting, Defining your skills, Choosing your direction, and inspirational stories from successful Work at Home Moms.

Have topics about being a Work at Home Mom that you’d like to see discussed in this blog?

Contact me at liz(at)morethanweknow [dot] com or comment below.

And be sure to check out these related articles:

Every Day is Take Your Child to Work Day for Work at Home Moms

Today’s Woman Entrepreneur - Crystal Berney

Getting Your MBA - Mom’s Business Administration Degree

and look for more coming soon!

Many Women Entrepreneurs are also Work at Home Mom’s. They started their businesses with a desire to integrate their work and their family life.  Having a flexible work schedule, and greater balance is one of their main motivations for running their own business.

But the reality is often a lot more challenging than the dream.  Many Women Entrepreneurs try to schedule their work around their children’s schedules. They work  before their kids get up, while they’re in school or after they go to bed. Some hire a caregiver to keep their children safe and occupied at home.

But we all know there are times when you need to get the work done, and your kids are home, and there is no one else to watch them.

Or else, you actually want your kids to feel included in your work, for which you have so much passion, and which takes up so much of your time and energy.

Here then, are some ideas for getting your kids involved in your business and keeping them occupied while you attempt to get at least some work done. 

I have categorized by age group. And while I have a friend who announced she was putting her 4 month old to work licking stamps because she was quite accomplished at blowing bubbles and sticking out her tongue - I started my list at age three – besides, stamps are all peel and stick these days.

3- 4 years:

• Sort paperclips, post-it’s, pens and pencils, etc. in plastic bins
• Color pictures to hang on the wall of your office
• Carry mail in from the mailbox
• Put mail in the mailbox
• Lick envelopes
• Put stamps on envelopes

5 – 6 years:

• Collate papers
• Stuff envelopes
• Sort home and business mail into separate piles
• Open mail
• Pass out business cards

7 – 9 years:

• Give opinions on business card designs, logos, brands
• Cut out pictures or cards
• Put labels on envelopes and packages
• Match sales requests with products
• Wrap products in bubble wrap
• Sort survey responses
• Add sales with a calculator
• Make change

10-12 years:

• Respond to routine emails
• Suggest slogans or headlines
• Transfer business card info into a spreadsheet or address book
• Proof-read write-ups for jargon or difficult words
• Give opinions on presentations and speeches
• Answer the phone

13-15 years:

• Respond to non-routine emails
• Do research on the internet
• Write blog articles
• Create design ideas
• Give opinions on products and sales ideas
• Program phone numbers into your phone
• Scan photos and other info into the computer
• Send faxes

16 and up:

• Create web pages
• Teach you about twitter, diggit, linkedin, myspace, facebook, stumble, instant messaging, etc.
• Most administrative and receptionist tasks
• Create powerpoint and slideshow presentations

Let me be clear, I am not advocating child labor. 

But most parents know that children, especially those under 13, enjoy helping their parents. This is even more true when they feel needed and they can work side by side with their parents. An hour here or there allows them to feel like they are part of the business.

They’ll be less likely to interfere with your phone calls and appointments if they don’t feel excluded from your life and your work. They’ll be more understanding of the work you do and more excited about sales and other successes.

And for many work-at-home mom’s, integrating work with the rest of their life, is what it’s all about.

How do your children participate in your business? Do you think it is important and helpful to get them involved in your work life? Why or why not?

Today I’m interviewing full-time work-at-home mom, Crystal Berney.  Crystal is a Regional Sales Director for Ameriplan,  the author of a blog for work at home moms and the mother of three young children.

Crystal is currently presenting at the online  Work at Home expo running today and tomorrow.  There are lots of interesting speakers and exhibitors at the expo.  Registration is free - so hurry over!

Crystal, tell me a little about your business.

I am an independent rep with Ameriplan. It is a 15 year old, Health care benefits company. I either help people save money on their healthcare costs, or I help people make money by training and coaching them to work from home. 
 

What motivated you to start your business? 

My kids. I didn’t want my children to go through the life that I did growing up. I wanted to make sure that I was there for them any time they needed me, as well as provide for them financially without having to depend on anyone else to do so. 
 

How old are your children?

My son is 8, and I have 2 daughters…One will be 7 at the end of this month (Nov) and my youngest just turned 2. 

How do you integrate your business into your life and your children’s lives? 

We have found that a schedule is a wonderful thing. I am able to focus my work around our personal schedule, and in that same sense, the children are doing great at respecting my work time, and they help around the house & with taking care of their little sister and playing with her if I have a call or 2 to make.

It’s neat how much interest they already take in the business itself. My 6 year old loves to pass out business cards whenever we go places, such as to the mall or the grocery store. She will say “my  mommy works from home,” then hand them a card. I couldn’t be more proud.

All 3 of the children also sport “My Mommy is an Ameriplan Diva” t-shirts.

What’s the hardest thing about being a work at home mom? 

At first I would say making sure I found time to actually do my business. It’s easy to let all the many other daily tasks and chores stand in your way. Especially if you are a person who is a little bit afraid to pick up the phone and talk to people. You may find that every closet in your home is spotless, but it’s important to set a schedule in regards to “work” hours and stick to it. 

What’s the best thing about being a work at home mom? 

Knowing that I am always able to be here. If the kids have something going on at school, I’m always able to go and help out. If they are sick, I’m home with them. That and the fact that I can get up and get ready whenever I choose, now that is wonderful. 

How has being a mom made you a better entrepreneur? 

Being a mom made me grow up a great deal. Knowing that it is not only my future at stake, but that of these 3 wonderful beings that I brought into the world, it pushes me everyday to try a little bit harder.

I also know how important it is what I do and how I can help others. I don’t know any mom who wouldn’t want to be home with their children if they had the choice and the ability, I am able to connect with other moms and help them do just that. 

How has being an entrepreneur made you a better mom?

I know that since I have been an entrepreneur our life has become more structured. My kids are seeing a stronger, more consistent mom and compared to the mom I believe I started out as, that is huge. 

What advice do you have for other mothers who would like to become an entrepreneur?  

Find something that you can honestly believe in, with a company that you can feel good about promoting, or a product or service that you feel people truly need.

Don’t focus so much on the compensation plan, well not solely, because if you choose to do something simply based on how much you make from each sale or what not, you will find it hard to make any money if you can’t market the products themselves.

Be sure that you have someone to go to when you need help.

And last but not least, jump in with both feet and don’t slow down until you’ve reached your goal. Just be consistent and don’t give up. If you remember why you decided you wanted to be an entrepreneur in the first place, and always keep that in front of you, any time you run into a bump in the road, you will then be able to keep pushing forward.

I’d like to thank Crystal for sharing her insights. 

If you are a Woman Entrepreneur and would like to be profiled on this blog, or know someone else who would be a good candidate, please let me know.   I can be reached at Liz (at) morethanweknow [dot] com.

WE can all learn from each other.

Women Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneur-wannabe’s that I work with have various motivations for wanting to start their own business.  The most common reason I hear is that they want more flexibility in their schedule. This is especially true for women with children.  The desire to work from home and integrate their children into their work-lives is a strong motivator.

However, I also hear from many women who are concerned that they don’t have the proper skills.  They think that this option is not available to them because they have little or no experience in running a business. 

In my opinion,  raising children is some of the best training for running a business that a person can have. While anyone can take a class in accounting or marketing,  real hands-on leadership experience is much harder to come by.  A woman raising small children is immersed every day in a leadership program which provides valuable training in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Successful entrepreneurs should be able to:

1) Deal calmly with crises – whether it is a delayed product shipment or a stolen bicycle, unexpected crises are part of life. Moms have the ability to keep everyone calm, focus on the big picture and strategize a solution.

2) Multi-task – Moms are the original multi-taskers, juggling dinner, ironing, feeding the baby and helping with homework. This makes them perfectly suited for simultaneously making outbound calls, responding to email and approving a marketing campaign.

3) Soothe angry customers – Moms have much experience dealing with tantrums, outbursts and tirades. While they can’t send angry customers to their rooms, they can listen empathetically, give them space to calm down and get them focused on solving the problem together.

4) Negotiate – Moms instinctively know which items are negotiable (15 minutes past bedtime, an extra dessert) and which are not (coming home after dark, riding bikes in the street). They know when to give in, and when to stand firm and how to bake a bigger pie so everyone gets a piece.

5) Delegation – Any mom knows that it’s more important that her son makes his bed than that he makes it perfectly. Progress rather than perfection is the key. Whether dealing with her children or her employees, she knows that by giving them both the task and the responsibility, she frees herself up to contribute in ways that only she can.

So, the next time you start to doubt whether you have the relevant experience necessary to run your own business, remind yourself that you already have your MBA – Mom’s Business Administration degree!