Yes. So we're here with Tiffany Shannon and she has Gorgeous Natural Skincare. And she has an amazing story. So first Tiffany, tell us about, why did you start this whole skincare business?
Tiffany Shannon (00:17):
Well, I started it because I was looking for just a skincare line for myself and my grandmother had some recipes that were passed down from her grandmother. And so some of my products are just recipes that I put together myself and my grandmother put together. Her mother, my great-grandmother, was a formulist in a small town in Georgia and she will make up a lot of skincare for everyone there in their small town outside of Georgia. And so my great grandmother she had people come from all over down in that part of Georgia and she would help them with different herbs and vitamins and ingredients, and she will help him with the different ailments and stuff that they may have. Now you skip a few generations and you come to me
Veronica Jeans (01:14):
And so I know you're a teacher, so you're trying to do this all on the sideline, which is extremely difficult. For some unknown reason I've ended up with a handful of teachers all doing the same thing. Trying to get their businesses off the ground. But you sold it locally and then we met and we started going online. Right. So people really liked it. They gave you wonderful reviews. And so you still have your clients around you, but now we're expanding your clientele. You actually do this from home but you've talked to one of our mutual friends in my workshop, who does skincare as well. Now you're thinking about doing it through a manufacturer, which is going to be a lot easier,
Veronica Jeans (02:11):
Why do you want to do that?
Tiffany Shannon (02:16):
Because I just feel like the main factory process, it just alleviates the load off of me, I guess. And then also it can be a little bit quicker. I formulate everything by hand and I'm very particular and I'm very hands-on, which I should be. And so I would just give the baby over to the babysitter just a little bit better.
Veronica Jeans (02:49):
So just to make some extra money, you also made some face masks as well with the "I am gorgeous", right?
Tiffany Shannon (03:02):
It says "I'm gorgeous. Trust me".
Veronica Jeans (03:07):
So this is really stepping up to the block and saying, "Okay, you know, I'm going really slowly and I'm going to start selling something different". Have you sold any yet? I know you've just got them in.
Tiffany Shannon (03:20):
Yes. I I Sold out all my masks. I was so excited. I get so excited about that. But yes, I have sold out of all my Masks that I just had I manufactured. So I'm excited about that.
Veronica Jeans
So are you going to get some new ones in?
Tiffany Shannon
I have some more ordered - they're already being made. They're on back orders. It probably takes about another week and then I'm going to start shipping those out. So I'm excited about that. You know, I think when you cover your face up right now during the pandemic and a lot of companies have the different logos and you don't really know what that person looks like. So I think a little slogan that's people can then the laugh about and also it's like a conversation piece it's like, yeah, "I'm gorgeous. Trust me". So it's just one of those things right there as it is. So it's just something that you can just have fun with, you know? So because all you can see is just like your eyes and up. You can't see down below.
Veronica Jeans (04:25):
Right. You cant even see if you're smiling anymore. Right,
Tiffany Shannon (04:28):
Right. You can't, you see those manufacturer masks with a half a smile on it, but you just have to just tell that person, "Hey yeah, I am gorgeous".
Veronica Jeans (04:36):
How did you come up with a name. It is not easy to come up with a name for what you're selling or for your brand. How did you come up with the name?
Tiffany Shannon (04:48):
My philosophy is I believe that every woman has the right to have naturally gorgeous skin, you know? And so I just felt I wanted it to be a beautiful name. And so I just felt like gorgeous, Gorgeous Natural Skincare. I want women to feel good about themselves. And especially right now during the pandemic you know, there's just so much going on and we're having to look inwards. We'll have to look externally as well. So if we can have the natural skincare, that's all natural, that's fortifying, that has no chemicals or you know, nasty ingredients in it that we can put on our skin that doesn't slough away. All of our natural oils and our microbes - why not have gorgeous skin, have gorgeous glowing, healthy skin.
Veronica Jeans (05:40):
Exactly. And so you've started with only two products, right. So you have the scrub and you have the face oil, right? I really love that because starting with too many products is sometimes a little bit more overwhelming because when you actually making them yourself and then you have to sell them - you just never going to have time to do any of your social work, but you've also started blogging, right?
Tiffany Shannon (06:09):
Yes. That's something I'm still continuing ongoing, so yes. I've been blogging as well. So that's something I'm steadily working on.
Veronica Jeans (06:17):
Then also the social , putting it out there, talking to people trying to get your Facebook page going. How's that going?
Tiffany Shannon (06:29):
So far I'm really working at it. So the social media, that's something that I'm working on. Thank you, Veronica. You were just amazing, you've really helped me out. You've really just pushed me out there, like get out of the nest and it's very encouraging. Hats off to you, Veronica. You are the queen of e-commerce. So you know about Shopify, you know about the back room, the back alleys of Shopify, Facebook, you know it all. So thank you.
Veronica Jeans (07:05):
So told me about your labels. How did you create your labels? Because that's not an easy thing because your labels have to go into a bath with lots of waters. So you had to especially order them and have them created. Right,
Tiffany Shannon (07:25):
Right now I'm working with FedEx and so you know, I have a gentleman at FedEx that we've worked together on my labels. Eventually I would like to partner with FedEx, but they have a good small business program that they work with you. They have a good discount percentage as well, that I'm very well pleased with. And so then they will also export out and look for different vendors and stuff for small business owners as well. So they all want to save money. I really enjoy them. So sourcing other vendors and stuff for me as my line continues to grow because, you know, you have to be a budget watcher, every dime and dollar. And so he is he's looking at sourcing different manufacturers out there for me that I'm well pleased with.
Veronica Jeans (08:14):
Wow. That's amazing. You have to meet that right person to help you. Right. Because I mean, sometimes we go to FedEx, you know the help is not so wonderful. So how did you find that guy that helped you? What did you do? Did you just walk into the FedEx store and said, "Hey, I need help", or what did you do?
Tiffany Shannon (08:37):
Yeah, that's exactly what happened. I walked in and I guess you could just tell right off hand about somebody who knows the ins and outs. And so he was helping another small business owner. And so if you just watch people every day and figure out who knows what. Watch how they way they perform on their job tasks. And so I waited in line for him. I'll give a shout out at the time he works at FedEx. So yeah, I always go directly to him and he's like, "Oh yeah, it's the Gorgeous Lady". And so he doesn't know me by my first name. He just knows me as Gorgeous. And that's okay. But he has over the last year helped me. Him and I are working on different labels and sourcing. And right now I'm well pleased with FedEx. So I've got another company, a label company, but I liked that one-On-One. I liked to see who I'm talking to. I liked this relationship. A person behind the phone with a headset on that really doesn't do anything for me. I like to go and see and feel what I have.
Veronica Jeans (09:47):
Yeah. So he's actually helping you with the sticky labels.
Tiffany Shannon (09:52):
Yes. So whenever I am going there, he's always helping me out. Right now as I speak, he's kinda helped me source out different vendors for labels as I grow. I appreciate him.
Veronica Jeans (10:07):
That's wonderful. So have you thought about your packaging? What are you doing with the packaging? How are you going to package all your products or how do you package your products? Do you just use the general stuff right now and then you're going to expand or what are you going to do?
Tiffany Shannon (10:22):
I have a product here. So this is my scrub. This is my lemonade scrub. This is the number one selling lemonade scrub - for me it is. So this is all natural. So I got asked at a dinner party one time, "Is it real lemonade?" Yep you bet it is, along with other ingredients. It is just jars.
Veronica Jeans (11:00):
So where did you find your jars for instance?
Tiffany Shannon (11:04):
Oh just sources from different cosmetic manufacturers. And so that's what I did. When you start a cosmetic line or just anything, you have to do your research with anything. It's also like relationships, you know? So if you know who you know - it's asking questions, that's the key with anything, just asking questions, you know?
Veronica Jeans (11:33):
And you ask questions.
Tiffany Shannon
I do
Veronica Jeans
You're the one person that says to me, "Veronica, just go back again. Tell me again". Until you understand it, which is what you need to do because you need to really, really understand. So I picked up on one comment that you made - you do parties as well? So you don't just rely or online. You rely on friends and family and people to help you to get the message out. Right.
Tiffany Shannon (12:03):
Right. You need your direct contacts. You need just your friends and your family. They can put the word out there for you. You have to take it just one step at a time. Use all your contacts, use everyone that you know and then they'll say, "Hey, I know someone who does that". So it's good to reach out to your Facebook friends or Facebook family. Say "Hey I can do this". One day you may run into a client that can become a lifetime client that you never knew you needed. So it is like the 80/20 rule - you really have to take care and baby the 20% and the 80% will come.
Veronica Jeans (12:54):
I know you are really at the beginning of your business, it's growing slowly. I mean, there's always a budgetary concern, but we slowly, slowly starting to build it up. What would you recommend people if they ever started in this business to do besides research?
Tiffany Shannon (13:22):
I guess probably one of the things I would recommend them to do besides research is know your product, use your product. You are a representation of your product. You just can't put something out there that you don't use anywhere or you don't believe in. You have to believe in your product, you know? So just know your product. I know that when I formulate my product, it's like, "I know, man, this is good scrub. You know, man, I'm liking this". Then I'll text my clients or on my Facebook, "This is good scrub, you know", and it is, it really is, you know. I just feel like we as women we often neglect ourselves and why neglect ourselves? We put our children first, our spouses, our husbands first. And everyone goes before us. And when you put on a Gorgeous Natural Skincare, I believe that it just brings out the naturalness of your beauty and makes you want to take images and stuff even more so. And it just really highlights your skin.
Veronica Jeans (14:37):
I'm going to stop this here. And so if anybody wants to get in contact with you, I am going to put the contact stuff in the description. And you'll be in for questions and answers after this as well, but we are going to get ready for our next speaker. So I'm so happy you came and popped in and chatted to us. I think this is very exciting. We got some really cool nuggets from when you started in your business and what you're doing. So thank you very much for popping in Tiffany.
Tiffany Shannon (Shopify Owner)
Gorgeous Natural Skincare
Tiffany started Gorgeous Natural Skincare with the premise of guiding Women to have radiant, healthy skin. She has crafted her own skincare line for years from her own recipes and her family’s recipes past down from generations. Tiffany's motto for radiant skin goes with saying, “Every Woman has the right to have Naturally Gorgeous Skin.”
Connect:
https://gorgeousnaturalskincare.com/
facebook.com/GorgeousNatSkincare