We were lucky to catch up with Devin Fryer-Diaz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Devin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I started Classe’s Sisters with my sister about seven years ago. We came up with this business due to my son having skin issues. We thought that all of this medication that the doctors were telling me to rub on my baby was not healthy nor was it working. We thought a natural product would be better. We formulated an all-natural body butter to rub on him and it worked! After giving our mother a jar of our body butter, she told us we had a great product and that we should sell it. We came up with a name and started working on it. We really wanted to educate people about natural skincare.

Unfortunately, eight months into starting our business, my sister was killed by a drunk driver on Christmas morning. I was devastated. I let the business go. I didn’t know how to run a business alone. I didn’t think about the business until a year later. While making a personal batch of body butter, I thought about how badly she wanted this business to succeed. That’s when I realized that I could do it alone. I wanted to make sure her dream didn’t fade because she wasn’t with us anymore. So I started working on Classie’s Sisters feverishly. I have not let up and never will!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Having a family business and putting out this wonderful product meant everything to her. When we started, we had about 5 products. As of today, Classie’s Sisters sales over 40 different products! I took the first 6 months to perfect our recipes. While working on recipes, I thought about having a complete set of products. I was thinking, “ How am I making a natural moisturizer but not a soap?” So I went on the journey of learning soap making. It was harder than I thought, but I got it. Then all the products started flowing after that. I wanted to make Classie’s Sisters a household name. I then started making deodorant (which is a best seller), body oils, face masks, body scrubs and everything else that you would have in your bathroom! I put in a lot of hard work!

I have learned some much about the behind the scene of business also. Marketing, accounting, license and tons of software usage. I am not a tech-savvy person, that was the hardest part to learn! I’m still learning today.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I mostly use Etsy to sell my products. I really like that Etsy has a platform that caters to handmade sellers. They help you increase traffic to your store, help build email campaigns and a lot of other things. I also use Faire to sell wholesale and private label. I’m fairly new to it but I like it so far.

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

I love manufacturing my own products! This is the only time I can completely turn my brain off to the world. I’m so focused on my craft during this time. It’s my favorite part of the business. Especially soap making! It requires so much patience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.etsy.com/shop/Classiessisters
• Instagram: @classiessisters
• Facebook: Classie’s Sisters
• Twitter: @classiessisters
• Other: https://www.faire.com/brand/b_3rtvquam6s

Image Credits
Kenneth Cody @youngest_cody