Well, we made it. This time twelve years ago, I was a first time entrepreneur trying to launch a business for the very first time.
I had thoughts of Melanie Griffith in the movie Working Girl swirling in my head, and I believe I listened to that movie soundtrack at least a million times.
Me: “I’ve got a head for business and a bod for sin!”
Sadly, there was no Harrison Ford to hear me utter those words. Just a small Chihuahua named Cookie.
I was single, living with three roommates, with three digits in my bank account and I had no idea what I was doing in terms of the business part (I could make skincare in my sleep).
My very first website was a giant JPG and when you clicked it took you to Paypal.
With zero money to advertise I wrote a one page press release and by the grace of God, the San Francisco Chronicle picked it up and I was off to the races.
In hindsight, I think it was good that I didn’t know what I didn’t know because that would have scared the hell out of me and may have prevented me from actually starting Celtic Complexion!
Prior to starting Celtic Complexion, I worked for every major cosmetic line on the market. It was an amazing ride and I wouldn’t trade that on-the-job experience for anything because that taught me what women wanted and what they feared.
At the end of my retail career, I had more experience than most and could describe the actual industry as:
More style than substance. More smoke and mirrors than actual change.
It’s kind of like the saying “You never want to watch sausage being made”.
I entered the cosmetic industry a wide-eyed impressionable teenager and left it almost twenty years later with bunions and perhaps a false sense of (anti-aging) security.
When I started Celtic Complexion, I not only wanted to create great products but I wanted to provide excellent customer service. I figured (at the time) that people would so blown away by the service, they wouldn’t care that I couldn’t keep a celebrity on the payroll to endorse me.
So, who knew that twelve years later the topic of customer service would play such an important role for small businesses?
No matter where you are on the fence of current events, the one thing we can all agree on is the severe lack of customer service these days.
In fact, in my small unofficial survey of nine friends, every single person had a story (and I’m sure you do too).
I don’t know about you, but when I spend hard earned money, I want to at least be acknowledged and if I have a problem, I want someone to care enough to help. Is that too much to ask?
To make matters less personal, coming soon to an e-commerce store near you, there is a shiny new object that is quite the hot topic among business owners and marketers. It’s called ChatGPT.
It’s an A.I. technology that can write everything for you (newsletters, articles, chats) so a customer will never know who or what they are dealing with.
Call me old school, but I believe this will usher in a new normal and not in a good way.
Let me be an early adopter of #workwithrealpeople.
You may or may not know that as a business owner I can: buy likes, great reviews, celebrity endorsements, and influencers “influence”, etc. It’s the modern day version smoke and mirrors.
I choose not to because I believe in authenticity.
For the record, I write everything you read myself; this newsletter, our ads, our website, our e-books and our postcards. Even the auto responders are written by me.
Yes it takes a lot of time (and you may find a typo or two) but it’s a true gift, because you can never get time back. My time is my investment in you…and you’re worth it to me.
If this resonates with you, forward this to those you care about and let them know we do actually care about you and your business. If you use and love our products, please leave a review because your voice is the one that matters.