Business Accomplishements 2016

Business seems to grow painfully slow at times which is why I like to look back at a full year of accomplishments. It helps me to put things in perspective. We do more than just skin care. Here are some highlights of Colorado Aromatics and Sagescript Institute for the year 2016.

African Women's Entreprenuer Program

Mentoring

 

In September I was asked by a representative from the State Department to meet with women entrepreneurs from Africa in the cosmetics / skin care industry. This is part of the International Visitor Leadership Program project titled African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program. We met for a few hours and shared information about our businesses; problems and strategies. It was an amazing time and unfortunately very short.

In June I participated in the Longmont Startup program as a mentor to others who wanted to start businesses.

I enjoyed doing a presentation at Silver Creek High School for  Girls in Engineering Math and Science (GEMS). We talked a bit about cosmetic chemistry and made bath truffles for the girls to take home. They had some good questions about chemistry and skin care.

Through Sagescript Institute, Dr. Cindy Jones consulted for numerous small cosmetics and skin care businesses and performed microbiology testing. She continues to help small businesses perfect their formulations.

Presentations

I (Dr. Cindy Jones) gave a presentation to local esthetics students on Holistic Esthetics. This included information on using herbs in skin care.

I also gave a teleconference on “Using Hydrosols in the Spa” for the Alliance of International Aromatherapists.

In March we had a great time doing an activity at 300 Suns Brewery on “Beer in the Spa” and hope to bring it to other microbreweries this year.

Press/Media

The Longmont Times Call newspaper had a feature article on us entitled “Farm to Face: Skin care goes local” in Longmont by Shay Castle. It was also published in the Boulder Daily Camera and the Denver Post.

Green Profits and Growers Talk magazines also published an article on us titled “Going Beyond Farm to Table” by Anne-Marie Hardie.

Dermascope Magazine featured our products in several articles including Red Rocks Beard Oil, Springride Gold Face Cream, Angel Falls Shampoo, Coolness  Aftershave Lotion, Mountain Mist Hand and Body Lotion and Cucumber Face and Body Mist.

Numerous other publications and blogs also mentioned our products.

Website/Social Media

On our website I wrote many blogs and we added a function called “Ask the Esthetician”. Through this you can present your skin issues to our esthetician and get personal recommendations back.

We increased our activity on social media through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (follow us). We post about our products and about interesting hikes and outdoor activities. We  participated in the Indie Business Takeover Tuesday.

New Products

We introduced one new product; Allure Lip Conditioner. This product is formulated to help plump lips and maintain integrity of the lips for customers who spend a lot of time outdoors.

We also decided to have our bath salts as year round products rather than just for the Holiday Season. Bath Salts are part of our new gift set for Athletes.

Farm Events

In September we hosted students from the Colorado School for Clinical Herbalism on our farm as part of the practical aspect of their program. It was great seeing so many people on the farm at one time.

We also had several farm tours this summer, both private and public. I love getting people outside on the farm to see where we get inspiration for our products. Stay tuned for more this summer or contact us to schedule your group for a tour.

During the summer our farm (Colorado Aromatics) was part of the Farm Fresh program put on by the Firehouse Art Gallery and Arts Longmont. We had 4 artists come to our farm for inspiration to create some amazing pieces of art. Our artists were Ken Elliott, Janice McDonald, Victoria Eubanks and Mary Williams. Their collaborative pieces are shown below.  I love that our farm serves as inspiration for art.

Farm Fresh Art

Sales/Donations

We had successful seasons at the Boulder and Longmont Farmers Markets. These outdoor markets are fun to do but we always have to be prepared for any type of weather. I love interacting with customers on such a regular basis. We also participated in the Denver Botanic Gardens Winter Market (indoors) and the Western Colorado Lavender Festival (outdoors).

We we able to increase our sales this year and gained new wholesale accounts as well.

We had two very interesting sales. One sale was to the Colorado Division of Tourism who used our products as part of their promotional Thanksgiving dinner held in Britain. This was for members of the tourism industry to promote tourism in Colorado. Its very special for our brand to represent Colorado.

We also had one sale through Fly Denver that was also used for promotional purposes in Dubai.

Because of our sales we were able to donate many gift baskets for silent auctions this to local groups. Putting money back into our own community is an important part of having a business for me.

We were also able to make significant donations to national non-profits including Oxfam, American Institute for Cancer Research, American Red Cross, Women’s Earth Alliance and Habitat for Humanity.

One thing I love about having a business is the number and variety of positions it puts me in and the people and experiences I get to have along the way. I have spent this past week pretty much in rest and relaxation. I thank all the people who made these accomplishments possible. Without our customers nothing would be possible. I look forward to serving you again throughout the next year and bringing you functional skin care products that solve the problems you have from your outdoor lifestyle

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