How a Small Business Owner motivates & challenges herself - Interview: Allison Kontur, BathBodySupply

How to Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning - the Devil says! "Oh Crap, She's Up"

This is one of Allison Kontur's favorite quotes- and she is just that, a bundle of energy, moving things around, whipping up recipes for soups and soaps, 50 messages a day on facebook, twittering away, reading about the Mayans (yes!) and..
still taking the time to have a personal word to say, and not just one day -like moi- but on a regular day-to-day basis.

Allison runs Smell No Evil, Ltd. , a Wholesale Supplier of Cosmetic-Grade Raw Materials and Bulk Base Products. She is a bundle of energy, wit and je ne sais quoi..

I am in awe of her skills - she calls herself a "multi-tasking fiend" - she sure hit on her own personal success formulae - or just maybe she made up her own "Elixir of Time" and has 36 hours a day....

Today she has been running in the "windy, rainy, cold, grey...." day & she is also kicking off our new blog category " What makes her Tick & What makes her Click" dedicated to Small Business Owners who have made it big

I ask her:

1.) What motivates you to keep pushing yourself, to do something new?
Being your own "boss" has a lot of perks! The greatest perk for me is personal freedom. For me, personal freedom is the ability to set my own schedule, to travel, spending time with my family without having to clear it with my "boss", etc. It is all about "choice". Having the freedom to make choices that are not influenced by a "boss" or by my "job" is very liberating.

In the same token, too much freedom can be a bad thing if you don't have good time-management skills. I challenge myself daily by setting goals and working to meet them. When I've consistently accomplished my goals over a period of time (say every 4-6 weeks or so) I like to reward myself with dinner out or a great piece of jewelry or a trip to the spa as incentive.


2.) Many of us, small biz owners, get stuck in the daily rut & find little time for themselves to pursue areas of interest- what would you say to us?

Challenge yourself to learn something new every single day. I used to keep a "Word of the Day" calendar on my desk to enhance my vocabulary. I love to research, so I spend at least 30 minutes each day researching something of interest. It might be a new skincare ingredient or maybe a formulation question for a client or something as simple as a new recipe for dinner or a new wine I'm itching to try! I read as much as possible, blogs, magazines, news articles, industry websites and so on. 30 minutes is a small amount of time, look at it as the time you would waste watching a meaningless sitcom.

Exercise your body as well as your mind! I run nearly every day and for a long time ran the same trail. It got so boring and monotonous that I almost quit running! Instead, I started changing up the trails I was running and the distance I would run each day and now it's more of an adventure that I get to have every morning. I like to apply that mentality to my work as well to keep things interesting.

3.) You being a chemist may prompt you to find new combinations- but you must really love what you are doing to whip up awesome new recipes for lotions, soaps, and that amazing-sounding lip buff!
Any anecdote to share how this interest sparked off ?

At an early age, my mom taught me to cook and that was the beginning of my chemistry background.
In grade school, my science fair project was a lesson in natural vs. synthetic colorants. It went all the way to the state science fair and won the highest rating they offered.

I guess you could say my fascination with formulating began early! I formally studied nutrition which involved a lot of science classes. Chemistry classes were the most intriguing (and confusing) classes I ever took, but I loved putting things together and marveling at the outcome.

I absolutely love what I do because formulating skincare products is both fascinating and intriguing. It's not "work" to me, because it feels like playing! Some of the brightest minds in business have made this same statement and I'll repeat it because it is valuable, "Find something you love to do and learn how to make money doing it".

4, As a supplier, how early do you need to start a project plan?
For instance, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up, so when would you start planning for them- & what kind of work would it entail so that biz like us can be ready ourselves.

As a general rule, our project plan for purchasing is 6 months out. That gives us time to work with samples of any raw materials we are bringing in, testing is performed, pricing/availability is determined and warehouse space prepared.

Some things may be planned a year or longer in advance depending on a number of factors including cashflow, available warehouse space, or what I like to refer to as "epiphanies" which is just a fancy term for "I thought up this cool thing and need to put it on paper to figure out how to fit it into the long-range plan".

5. What do you think is going to be hot for fall/winter this year, or spring/summer in 2010- does anything particular come to mind - so we can all be ready for it.

I think the basics are going to be popular this fall.
The cosmetics industry provides affordable splurges for consumers who are feeling a little beaten-up by the economy.

The "lipstick indicator" comes to mind, in that a woman may not spend $100 to have her hair done, but she will spend $30-$40 on a great perfume, lipstick or foundation because the price is right and the emotional outcome is almost equal. We like to smell, feel and look good. When I don't have a lot of cash in my pocket and I'm looking to treat myself, I'm headed either to the cosmetics counter or a candy store! What lasts longer, a new lipstick or a chocolate truffle?

6 Last, but most important, do you feel the economy is taking a turn for the better ?

Depressed economic times have a tendency to make people cut back and pay via cash rather than credit. I read an article this morning that indicated this type of spending is preceded by a lot of forethought. Consumers will be researching more, shopping price and looking for incentives. I am noticing minor adjustments that indicate some sectors are stabilizing.

Ultimately, I feel that we are in the right business at the right place at the right time. As long as people continue to want to feel good, there will be a place for the cosmetics industry!


Allison B. Kontur
Smell No Evil, Ltd.
www.BathBodySupply.com
http://www.smellnoevil.net/

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Thank you for sharing with us, Allison, you are really motivational.

Please comment and add any more questions for Allison here ;)