We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erika Levine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erika, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I’m a little on the on the impulsive side – once I get an idea, there’s almost no way I won’t find a way to follow through. This whole thing started with candles, I guess it’s my gateway drug. I love, and I mean LOVE things that smell good and have ambiance. Naturally I was eyeballs deep in candles that I’d bought from stores for basically my entire adult life. I had taken a couple classes in candle making and thought to myself how much I really enjoyed it, and I bet if I tried, I could do it. That’s typically all it takes. LOL. I did some research on local rules and regs, what it took to start an LLC, etc, and spoke to a friend who is an accountant. She sent me the link to the paperwork’s need to fill out and that was it, the snowball was on its way down the hill. I got my EIN, submitted my applications for local licensing, got my business bank account set up, paid for a logo to be created, and I’m now a real business owner! I have financed this operation myself with no loan and knew that going in I would not take out a loan or credit card until I felt comfortable. I started with a relatively small sum I felt OK putting forward even it it ended up being a loss. Little step by little step I grew my tools and supplies as I tested and tested and tested again. Most people probably would have done things the other way around but hey, I like a challenge. During all my candle testing I also was studying on creating perfumes, room sprays, and reed diffusers and figured out that I had a knack for blending. I started with simple blends and moved up from there, but boy was I hooked! Things snowballed even more and by the time the next year rolled around, I had several products in progress and was looking to do a soft launch at my first event. I will say this – I was so uncertain about the best way to do
a “formal” launch and if my stuff was up to my own standards that I just never did anything official. For me, that worked out just fine as my expectations were only set for quality of product and if I felt it was the quality I wanted to be associated with, not for how well I would do from day 1 of selling. I was OK with a slow start or even if things didn’t pan out, simply because I was having so much fun learning and actually doing all the things. Not great business advice by any means, but it worked well for me. You can imagine my surprise when after my first couple markets, people were super excited with my few items I was selling! I knew I’d need to invest in a website, which I was really not looking forward to figuring out. Still haven’t mastered that but one thing at a time! It’s been a year and a half now, maybe more, and I definitely don’t claim to have it all figured out, but I got myself started and to me, that’s half the battle.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Venus & Vine is a culmination of ideas, wants, needs, and an outlet for me for so many things. A short background on me: I spent the majority of my life as an avid equestrian. Eventually that took its toll on a body that probably shouldn’t have ever been atop a horse in the first place, with how injury-prone and breakable I am. So as one could imagine, after so many broken bones and other non-related but sorta related surgeries to fix some spinal issues, I came to a point where I just had to one through too much and made too much progress to potentially fall off a horse again and then be worse than before. So I stopped, which broke my heart. I was sad for a while and didn’t realize how much I needed something for myself. An outlet, a source of expression and self-therapy, a way to connect with other like-minded folk. You know how it is. So I took an area that had been bubbling as an interest, starting with candles, and ran with it. It quickly developed into many other products that I realized I had a knack for. These other products, like room sprays, reed diffusers, perfumes, deodorant, lotions, cleansers, lip gloss, solid shampoo & conditioner bars, etc. really allowed me to get creative and expressive with things I have found to be positive motivators in my life. For example, I built Venus and Vine as kind of an honor to women and earth; as an honor to the ability to use as many elements as possible to facilitate your own dreams. I believe in the healing power of ourselves and nature and the beauty that earth grants us. So I incorporate crystals and some celestial elements into my products. I do not use any animal products in my line so every product is 100% Vegan and Cruelty-Free. I don’t want any customer left out. I’ll also say now, no, I don’t believe that a crystal has actual magic powers. I believe crystals have meaning, to be cultivated and manifested, if one is simply open to it. If one is open to using that stone as a representation of what they want, and focus their intentions in a positive way, one might be surprised what can be accomplished with just your own will. So what this has to do with my products is twofold: each scent has its own power, scent can take you to some amazing places, inspire you, empower you, heal you even. The stones are amplifiers to what is already there. Use them both and the experience is what makes Venus & Vine different, that beauty of possibility. What if!

I can’t say I really have many problems to solve for my customers, except making you and your home smell lovely or helping find a solid shampoo/conditioner bar that will help your hair, or a heel balm that helps your cracked heels, or deodorant that’s not dangerous actually works, a perfume that turns heads. These things I am lucky for, while they’re not solving the world’s problems I think they make daily life a little better for this person or that person. That’s plenty for me. I will say that these experiences are as unique and special for me just as much as my customers. At my in person events I have a scent bar where you can spray a sample of every scent offered in every product to see what speaks to you. Scent is so, so powerful and the memories it can invoke are just magical. Watching people relate a note to something in their past, tied to a memory or emotion, an experience, it’s so fun to experience with them. It literally appears in their face and I can share that with them, and it’s just so cool. But the overall goal is to provide people with enjoyable products that invigorate something within them. As for setting me apart, I have a very high standard which I suspect most people say, but my products typically speak for themselves. My room sprays, perfumes, and deodorant are my best sellers and the people that use them are hooked. If something isn’t right, Ill make it so. That doesn’t happen with bad quality, and I can tell you it’s not because of any great marketing – I’m openly the worst at advertising/marketing my brand. I just want people to enjoy things the way I would want to, so I make them to that top tier. I hope some of you will be open to trying us out!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Hands down, the best source for new customers for me is in-person markets/events. My most popular and interactive platform is my scent bar. I have a large portion of my display set up to smell every scent offered (and I have a LOT at each event, like minimum 40+). Some people find that having too many scents cloud their brand and make it too difficult for customers to find what they like. I find the opposite, and maybe that’s just how it works with my line, but I get so many customers that had zero intention of stopping at my table but did stop simply because of a lingering note on the air. People have literally followed their nose to my booth and told me as much countless times. It even happens with other vendors near me! Someone will spray something to give it a try and it catches the vendor, just like any other customer. Like I said, scent is powerful. Plentiful options, at least for me, are my golden ticket. Everyone is different and so are the memories and feelings attached to their sense of smell, so let’s have fun with it!

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I make everything I sell on my own. Except for the vessels themselves- I haven’t had the time to learn glassblowing (yet, ha!). Manufacturing and Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) are biggies to be aware of and use every time. It’s a very different thing to make things for other people without a factory to do it for you. It is a huge responsibility – one should always read, learn, and study in GMP, local laws and regs, make sure you have the right licensing or certification as needed. Decide if the cost is worth the outcome. Can you handle the cost and process (ie, time) that it takes to make things the RIGHT way, the safe way? Do you have a place to do it safely? Luckily for me I was able to convert a room in my house to be my lab, set up for safe GMP. Partially, I do it all because I still want that control, maybe selfishly, but I want and like to do it myself because it’s not only fun, but something I truly own. Now, don’t get me wrong, the work is vast. It’s been verging on impossible for quite some time and as I grow, it gets harder to manage by myself. I will eventually have someone manufacture for me when I become a bit more profitable. Manufacturing yourself requires a lot of research – not just in the things I mentioned already, but also in your vendors. What’s the quality of this supplier, how consistent are they with their products, what kind of product reassurance do they provide if something goes wrong with a vessel, will they stand by you? Will you be waiting for stock often, unable to manufacture your products because the ingredients are unavailable? So many to try and so many different brands of ingredients/vessels to test. Test, test, and keep testing in every way you can, and record everything!! Oh gosh, recording things is so important. When I started I did, of course, take notes, but not to the detail and organizational level I really needed. I wish I’d been able to see that better from the start but sometimes you have to experience it to really get it. Maybe this emphasis will help someone else who is just starting…if you think a generic note is enough, don’t do it! Write every details you can down, come up with an organization system to your “lab”, to your notes, and where you keep your supplies. “Write that down” is still the perfect quote’! I could have saved myself a lot of time and frustration and money if I had been more organized at the start. Lesson learned!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.venus-vine.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/venusandvineshop?igsh=a3dzOWFldjhobmln&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15iFJDW5pB/?mibextid=wwXIfr