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The Handmade Beauty Connection
May 1, 2006

A Publication of The Handmade Beauty Network
ISSN 1530-9630 | Volume 7, Issue 19
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4. Feature Article: Business As Passion :: Pass It On ...
by Annette Esterheld

Join us this month -- the month of Mothers, where we celebrate HBN members who are also moms!!

HBN member Marge Clark of Nature’s Gift, who has been supplying aromatherapy and healthcare professionals with essential oils, hydrosols, accessories and hard to find books and videos for over 10 years, is writing a book of her own, and she can hardly believe it. “Apparently I’ve sort of become recognized in some circles as an essential oils ‘expert,’ and that amazes me,” says Marge. “What an ego boost! I may become a real published author, and not self-published. WOW!” But getting to this point has been no cake walk.

When Life Gives You Lemons ...

The oils she loves have made a difference in Marge’s personal life, both emotionally and physically. In 1994 she was working as a secretarial and office manager, when she became disabled and was told she would never work again. She was on her own and needed to be self-supporting since life as an army officer's wife had ended several years earlier. “I was, and still am, totally in awe of essential oils and their healing, balancing power, first physically, but on a deeper level, emotionally,” says Marge. That fascination provided a direction for her to go when life knocked her out. She used credit cards to buy her first oils, and used her “job time hours” to study and learn about aromatherapy. Her friends and family were her guinea pigs and when they said she ought to sell her products, Nature’s Gift was born.

Marge tried securing loans to grow the business, but says “each time, I was either too big, or too small, or something.” So she ran her company on credit cards at first and Marge says “it was a hole the money went down. I don’t know who was more surprised, my accountant or me, when we made a profit in our first year!” It was a small profit, she says, way under $1,000, but it was there. To Marge, it wasn’t the amount of money she made and that continues to this day. For her it was reaching beyond the devastation of her disability to realize that she was free to do what she loves, which is providing essential oils to help people, and that has become the greatest gift of her life, along with her children and grandchildren.

The Mom Connection

This is coming at a time when Marge, a grandmother (and that’s as close as I’ll come to telling her age), is looking to retire and work on special projects. In fact, she had someone lined up to buy her business, but that fell apart. So these days Marge is working 12+ hours a day and in her nonexistent spare time she’s writing a book. Her

Marge has two sons, Tom and David, and one daughter, Jennifer. Tom is married to Wendy and they have three children, JT, Kaitlinn and Josh, and live in Bloomington, Indiana. Tom has a degree in business management so he sometimes helps his mom “figure out what to do next” when there’s an employee problem. David and his wife Candace and their daughter Chelsea Morgan live near Marge in a suburb south of Nashville. David founded and runs a landscaping business. Daughter Jennifer manages a veterinarian’s practice in Virginia.

Spreading the Healing Gospel of Aromatherapy

Marge has so much more than book knowledge about essential oils. From her own personal experience, she says her best selling essential oil is Bulgarian lavender and other best sellers are Helichrysum italicuum, frankincense and Rose Otto. I asked her what her favorite is, but Marge couldn’t limit it to one. “I couldn’t live without Rose Otto and Rose bliss bath. I also use a lot of sandalwood, a lot of frankincense, and a lot of neroli hydrosol, “she says.

Marge's enthusiasm for aromatherapy is contagious and she is passionate about what she does. Nature’s Gift evolved out of Marge's love for essential oils. That passion shows through in her careful selection of pure essential oils from the four corners of the world. “Our goal, “she says on her web page, “is to provide the finest quality pure and natural essential oils available today. I do not shop from ‘mass market’ suppliers, but rather from small distillers who either grow their crops themselves, or personally know and observe the farmers whose oils they sell.” She also says that “nothing artificial is ever added. "I spend a tremendous amount of time and effort seeking out the best suppliers to provide the highest possible quality ingredients for my blends,” she says.

Nature’s Gift sells wildcrafted and organic essential oils, offers information on their safe and effective use and also offers a full range of aromatherapy accessories like aromatherapy jewelry. Marge's daughter, Jennifer, says “we send out boxes full of joy and healing.” Even the name Nature’s Gift was chosen by Marge because it “just felt right for how I feel about the oils.” Although she says if she were renaming her company today, she’d choose something starting with the letter “A” for listing in all the directories that list alphabetically. “We are an online business and that might have made a difference the first few years,” says Marge.

It Works Because We Love It!

“I think our love for what we do comes through,” says Marge, who adds that she gives a way a lot of product when there’s a personal need, not to fundraisers, but on an individual level. “Yes, it is important to make money. We have to have it in order to do what we do,” says Marge, “but I think what we do is important. We really do sometimes make a difference in people’s lives,” she adds, “we aren’t just selling widgets or can openers, although I guess if you were starving to death a can opener might make a real difference, too!”

Marge says she does a “tiny” bit of wholesale and that’s mostly to hospitals, pharmacies and spas. “We sell to a lot of hospitals,” she says. “They buy the essential oils mostly.” She continues, “The hospitals have set up complimentary medicine departments and are using aromatherapy as part of the programs, which are run by nurse-aromatherapists. We supply the oils used in the training course many of the nurses have taken.”
Marge says her staff is “amazing.” “When we know someone is ordering for a special need, like an emotional healing, a physical crisis, or a death in the family, they will pour healing energy and prayer into the package as its being packed.”

If It Ain't Broke ...

Nature’s Gift is strictly a Web-based business. Marge says she tried a small retail shop in front of the building she’s in, but she said the area was “truly an aromatherapy desert.” “Had we depended on the store for survival, we’d have been out of business in six months!” she says. “We can accomplish a lot more with the shop closed and we needed the space for another workroom.” (You can learn some of Marge's tips on how NOT to open your retail store in the upcoming issue of the Handmade Beauty Business Magazine!)

Marge's Sage Advice

Her advice to other HBN members who are purchasing essential oils is, “Don’t cut corners on product. Buy the best you can find, not the cheapest. Sometimes, you have to go WAY out on a limb.” She adds that every time she’s made a purchase decision based on price she’s lived to regret it. “You have to follow your instinct and trust your gut,” says Marge. “You also need to be honest with the people you deal with. Let them know who you are. Remember that you are dealing with real people, not faceless customers.” Marge says through the years the vendors and customers she’s chatted with and met online have become truly close friends and that’s been a gift to her.

Marge offers some advice on pricing your handmade beauty products. “When you are first starting out, the temptation is to price your products at less than they are worth, because you think you HAVE to sell them,” says Marge. “If you are offering a quality product, then charge what it is worth,” she adds. “Remember all the ‘extra’ costs that you are going to have to pay, so don’t just price something based on what you paid for the ingredients. You have to cover rent, labeling, insurance, taxes and salaries. Even if EVERY penny you are making now is going straight back into the business that’s what you have to do. It’s what I did for years.”

HBN, HBN Members and the Future of Nature's Gift

“I’ve learned a lot from Donna Maria over the years,” Marge says. “And at times, other HBN members have inspired me and given me the courage to do something that I’ve been too afraid to do.” “I have to add that I LOVE seeing what other people are doing,” she adds, “even if it’s not something that interests me for Nature’s Gift.”

So while Marge tries to find someone to take over her business (anyone interested?) so she can semi-retire to do projects like finishing that book she’s writing. What else is on the horizon? Nature's Gift has outgrown its current space and that is "terrifying" to Marge. She says it was scary four years ago when she found the site she’s in and spent, she says, “way” too much money renovating it. So other than overcoming yet another fear (where's the rose/sandalwood blend??!), Marge plans to keep doing what she’s doing, and do it better year after year as she shares the healing power of essential oils with as many people as she possibly can..

You can enjoy some of your own aromatherapy inspiration at Nature's Gift.