By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
Jane Iredale, CEO of Iredale Mineral Cosmetics, Ltd., came to her signature business in a roundabout way, making her mark as a casting director, writer and director in film, T.V, and the theater before creating her first mineral-based powder foundation in 1994, which she designed to alleviate the skin issues of models and actresses forced to wear heavy stage cosmetics.
Soft Surroundings founder Robin Sheldon, too, took a convoluted path to the CEO chair, working such jobs as a chambermaid and ski instructor (for free ski passes) before launching her first catalog business from the kitchen table (and barns) of her Virginia home. Her current venture, Soft Surroundings, which launched as a simultaneous catalog and online retailer in 1999, will open its 29th brick-and-mortar store later this year.
These two successful women sat down with PRIME during a special event at Sheldon’s’ Soft Surrounding store at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, Connecticut, to talk about starting a business, and offer advice to today’s would-be entrepreneurs.
Q: What do you think is the key ingredient to becoming a successful entrepreneur?
Iredale: “Find something that you feel really, really passionate about. Because if you don’t… you need that passion to get you through what are going to be some rocky times. If you don’t really love what you’re doing it’s easy to just give it up.”
Sheldon: “First, Discover an empty niche. Find a way of doing something differently than the way it’s being done now. Identify a need, and don’t give up.
If you can find that little empty space where you are going to have an idea that will fit right into that, and be something that people need. That, and you need to believe in yourself. If you’ve got the dream, don’t give up.”
Q: What element or elements are crucial to the success of a business?
Iredale: “Make sure your support system is strong. You need a good accountant [and] let’s hope you don’t need an attorney, besides for advice on what type of incorporation for your business.
The accounting part is so key- it’s not just about the money, it’s about making sure you aren’t running afoul of the IRS and the states – the states are so hot now about getting their money. I started out with one product and one customer at a time. You can’t do that anymore, You have to have enough [capital] behind you so you can do all the things you need to do – develop a wonderful website, hire an IT director, develop a social media presence.”
Sheldon: Surround yourself with the best knowledge that you possibly can. It always surprises me when I run into people that are somehow nervous about surrounding themselves with people who know more than they do. Some people are threatened by that and if you don’t have that, it makes life even much harder.
Q: How has the business-consumer relationship changed, and how have you adapted?
Iredale: “The shopper, the consumer [today], she wants what she wants when she wants it. It used to be that the channels were so clearly defined – you were in this channel or that channel or that channel, but now the consumer wants to shop everywhere. There’s been a real blurring of the way you make your product available. We started out in a professional world- doctor’s offices, skin care specialists, salons, spas, then we incorporated ecommerce into that, now we’re into wonderful places like Soft Surroundings.
It’s a question of following the consumer, where she wants to shop.
Sheldon: We always knew that we were going to be a great retail business because we sell things that are soft. In the past we had to convince the customer the product is soft and comfortable and was going to make them feel good through photography, and through words. Now she can just walk in and reach out her hand and touch it, and it really changes the way that women shop, once you get used to wearing something that makes your body feel good, you just reach out wherever you go to feel the softness.
Quite honestly, I think that some of the big box retailers have failed to focus on the experience they are providing for their customers. And I think these days, having a lifestyle brand – which is certainly what we are – is being very much embraced by our customer. She wants to know that we understand what she wants and what she needs. As far as soft Surroundings is concerned, though we’re certainly in business to make money, our primary goal is to make our customers happy, to make them feel good about themselves, to be the force behind convincing them that they need to do good things for themselves.
If they buy that’s great, but if they just come by, or give us a call, we’re just happy to see them.
Iredale Mineral cosmetics are based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Soft Surroundings is based in Saint Louis, Missouri.
