We recently connected with Margaret O’Hara and have shared our conversation below.

Margaret, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I was sitting with my daughter one day, discussing creative ideas to fill a gap for the lack of luxury comfortable towel head wraps, rather than a bulky towel to wrap up your wet hair when out of the shower or pool. Most of us experience cold dripping wet hair after a shower, and just need to wrap it up, while we go for a coffee or put our daily skin care and/or make up on, before drying our hair. So after tossing situations around, we came up with the idea of a…. {1}multifunctional Head wrap. One that is lightweight, comfortable, super absorbent and glamorous, that make you feel fabulous whilst it part drys your hair while you are relaxing, doing your makeup etc all before getting dressed for the day or night.
ALSO to wear it out as a….{2} fashion statement and if in a hurry to wear on a….. {3}’bad hair day’. So it can be worn for wet of dry hair situations. Also great for travelling, on holiday, cruises or at your fav spa.
We also decided to have it made super comfortable for ladies with…..{4} hair loss to look and feel fabulous.
Also great for …..{5}older people and people with disabilities, where the bathroom floor is slippy when wet, this is a quick, easy to wrap up, turban style super absorbent towel wrap.

Margaret, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been in sales and marketing for 50 years, mainly for fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and health products. Since losing my husband of 48yrs marriage, I decided to keep busy doing what I have always done and keep creating, selling products of good style and beauty that have a useful purpose, as well as a ‘look good feel good’ product. I love good style, good quality and beautiful things especially with a little sparkle and glam.

So at the age of 74yrs I decided it was time to start a Business that I could mostly run from home and online.
I am so happy and proud of the product I have designed and produced. Mainly because it is a ‘USEFUL’ product that anyone can wear.
My brand is called SPARKLE & GLAM – I provide a useful, unique product for wet hair, dry hair, no hair, bad hair, stylish fashion and for great gifts.

If you are stuck for gift ideas, It’s a great useful gift, for the someone who has’ everything’ . It is a feel good look good product especially for ladies who have and are experiencing hair loss.

It is fun and fashionable, as TURBANS have been popular since the 1920’s, maybe even before that! I love teaming my turbans with my outfits as a fashion accessory. My Head wraps are very ‘lightweight’ comfortable and super absorbent, which cuts down your drying time with the blowdryer.

Microfibre towelling is a lovely soft, comfortable, and super absorbent fabric. I choose all my fabrics and have a very experienced italian couple, who do all the cutting and sewing. My customers love wearing them around their pools, and some are taking them on their ‘cruise’. I produce a variety of fabrics, – some are very glamorous, some pretty and sweet, some very colourful and some are more neutral.

I also have a super absorbent BODY WRAP for out of shower/pool which my customers tell me they love to sit around in. One lady says they are fabulous at the beach or pool, easy to ‘change’ underneath and also if you need to breast feed baby, as baby is kept cosy and warm with plenty of room under the body wrap and with minimal exposure.

Some of my other customers who have gone or are going through chemotherapy love my head wrap/turbans, as they tell me they are so comfortable, so pretty and glamorous and very very easy to put on their head, – this makes me very happy to know that they love them.

My Brand is called SPARKLE & GLAM as I believe that no matter what age you are or your circumstances in life, is that we do feel better with a little bit of sparkle, and glam in our lives.

I would like to encourage anybody to ‘Keep Moving” in your mind and spirit, no matter what age you are. If you have something you would like to achieve, don’t wait, just do it.
I am self taught on the internet since 10 yrs ago, and I love it, You can get on it and go anywhere in the world, find out how to do anything. You just have to have a positive attitude and go research anything.

I started my Sparkle & Glam business in August 2021, at the age of 74yrs and have learnt how to build my own website and a shop on Facebook and Instagram, and I have so much fun and pleasure from the results I get.
A home based business is wonderful, especially as you get older and are maybe not so mobile.

How did you build your audience on social media?

How I built my audience of Social Media.? Well I am of the ‘old school’ and my sales and marketing experience has been ‘PHYSICAL’ with face to face communication for 50 yrs. I didn’t even know how to switch on a computer 10 yrs ago.

Then I realised that to keep up with progress I had to learn how to use the internet. I realised that my LAPTOP IS MY LAPSHOP, and to get known and to introduce my product to an audience, then I had to learn as much as I could about being an ‘online’ business.
You have to present to a screen, to speak to people in a way that they will trust and like you and believe in what you say and are presenting to them. There is huge competition out there, you firstly have to believe yourself, that YOU CAN AND WILL DO IT.

There is heaps of helpful information, on articles relating to Facebook, Instagram, shopify, YouTube, free webinars etc etc. where you can learn from.
I started off with Facebook, as many people already followed me. Then I built a Business Facebook page and invited people to like my page. I posted regularly about my business and products and learnt to do VIDEOS (which are a must for gaining attention). Then I studied how to do an Instagram page.

Then after a few mistakes in trying to find a website that I could understand and keep up myself without having to pay out huge $$’s, I finally settled on one I felt comfortable with. It was quite frustrating and very time consuming but I just kept going and going , making mistakes, until it made sense and I could understand the’ HOW TO’. Then I achieved on how to build an Instagram shop business page. I still have heaps to learn but I am getting results. Then you have to be able to ‘connect’ them to each other. You must stay consistent, relevant, and real.

My advice is to love the journey of research and be determined to achieve your goal on the internet and remember that there is lots of help on there – YOU just have to keep looking and asking for the help.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Initially, my best source of letting clients know about my business has been, ‘self promotion’ by getting out there and advertising my product by wearing my product and by handing out business cards and flyers. I set up displays at surrounding country events, display my products, talk to people and sell them. I have had people refer my products to others and repeat business from buyers. I personally promote myself, my brand, my products, website and my social media. This is gradually building my online presence, and online sales. It is still early days. To keep costs down, I do all my own photography, videos etc. for my social media.

So my best source of new clients has been physical presentation and selling, and now Instagram, and Facebook is sending new clients to my website

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sparkleandglamheadwraps.au
• Instagram: https://instagram.com.au/sparkle_glam_headwraps
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sparklewithmargaretohara