10 reasons I'm an Indie!- Indie Beauty Tag Party

Ok so today IS my day to reveal a bit about me as I’ve been tagged this morning by two different sources. I’m gonna hit two birds and do them both right here!

This post is part of Indie Beauty Blog Tag Party. Lisa Rodgers of Cactus & Ivy tagged me as the 2nd tier of blog tag from Donna Maria’s Blog post. Now this makes it a bit harder because who wants to read the same things! Now I have to be creative.  Oh wait, I Do have that in me!

10 Things I love about being Indie:

Dern it…I’ve got a number here and I can’t write! I’m going to just start talking and see if 10 points don’t just pop up.  I think I’ll just bold them after the fact.

Being an indie I have learned a great deal from some fantastic people.  Some folks I’ve known since childhood, some folks are vendors, others are fellow indies both in soap industry AND other indies such as jewelry, sewing notions, toys etc.  Small business mentality is actually not new to me. If you’ve read my profile on linked in, you would know that after working corporate, I worked small business with a well established (10 years) printer laser recharge cartridge company.  When you have that sort of environment to be a part of, you get a wonderful bird’s eye view for your own study. At the time, I had no idea how much I would draw on those small business experiences in the years to come.    1. You make your own decisions.

Back to folks I’ve connected with, a friend told me about her massage therapist holding a class on soap making.  It was at just the right time. I was already in a mode of learning basics on the homemaker front. Me, a gal that had previously been proud of the fact that I didn’t cook, began learning to cook basic foods and then venturing out into bread baking, herb growing, organic gardening study. Soap making sort of felt right with the mode of learning that I was already immersing myself in.  I had the luxury of learning at my own pace. I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted.  When I found soap making, passion helped turn up the speed of my learning! 2. Learning, working, growing at your own pace. I’ve noticed that my pace varies at different times and that is OK!

Because I’m an indie, I’m able to be home when my kidlet comes home from school.  I’m able to be a part of her life AND get work type things done too.  She’s quite interested in what I do. 3. Her (children’s)  exposure to how a small business is run is EXACTLY the augmented education that kids need. Her artwork is featured within Dr. Flower  website and products  here, here, and here.

Having your own indie business is hard work and takes many hours but the flip side is that most of time it’s just plain fun! It’s fun creating new products and conducting soap experiments! It’s fun learning new ideas from other soap makers and taking a glimmer to a full fledged good idea! I’m pleased to be in an industry where I get to use scientific method and artistic creativity in the SAME products! Fun! 4. When work is fun, it’s not as hard to work.

Okay then! it’s time to throw out some buzz words…technologysocialmediafacebooknetworkingtwitterblogsmarketingSEOgradingsurfing. Being a saavy chic, I’ve taken a few of those buzz words and made them work for Dr. Flower. Others need some work and more learning. The good news is that by even writing this blog post, I’m doing some of those! 5. I’m able to use the training that helped me earn my degree in engineering to help grow my business. I’m also connecting with fabulous people from my past, my present, and my future!   For example, 6. letting my personality and passions flow through to my customers via the internet. I use one or two points of contact to connect with with folks and use technology to spread that out among the rest. I spend more time on my message and less time copy and pasting it to places folks might find me.

7. Indie businesses are uniting and taking care of each other! This fact has never been as apparent as when I joined the Indie Business Network.  I’ve met fabulous business owners as well as vendors and learned many lessons that others have already paid the “hard knocks” in their  business journey.  This group bands together to help protect the industry, provide breaks in liability insurance, health insurance, shipping, etc.  It’s like being a small business with some of the “perks” of being a larger business.  Think of the legislation concerns of toy makers.  I don’t have to be a toy maker to understand that I can help! As a matter of fact, you can too if you click here and make your thoughts known on this legislation.  We understand the need to protect our country’s safety but there is a way to do that AND support small businesses within our country. The FDA globalization Act is another similar example.

One of my passions is to work toward my journey of environmental consciousness.  I’ve been able to use my business to help promote ideals that mean a lot to my whole family and many friends.  It took a friend’s stern look 13 years ago regarding use of plastic bags for me to realize we really don’t need them and we are ruining our planet with what seems a simple thing.  We don’t learn these things in a day. It really takes education and getting awareness to the forfront. While not everyone agrees on the exact details of how, many people are beginning to understand our environmental impacts. (that’s really another blog post)  8. Through my blog, I’m able to promote environmental awareness.

9. Being an Indie, you have to wear many hats…try ALL of the hats at first even. This fact will only strengthen a persons perceived view of weaknesses.  Just this morning, I read a twitter tweet from Donna Maria of the Indie Beauty Network saying: Eleanor Roosevelt said: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”   Here is another quote same line of thinking, “You gain strength, courage & confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.’ – Eleanor Roosevelt

10. Feeling of accomplishment – It’s important that in all the fun, creativity, hard work, and education, you remember to stop and take notice of the accomplishments that started by you, for your designated purpose, using your talents and gifts, have shaped your business, life, and those around you.

Happy Washing!

~Regina

Oh! and tag you are IT!

Luci Weston

Michele Keiper

Maggie Hanus

Aromatics International