Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sabrina Jones. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Sabrina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
After struggling with eczema since I was eight years old and told to refrain from using skincare products with perfumes and synthetic chemicals or else my skin condition may worsen, I missed out on experiencing what a lot of teenagers and young adults indulged in when it came to bath and body products. After becoming pregnant with my first child, I began experiencing more and more skin irritations that I had not seen since I was a kid and it seemed like the issues evolved into bigger ones I never had to deal with before.
Being pregnant, I made sure to adopt a healthier skin regimen that included pure, clean products and medicinal oils because I had researched during my pregnancy that what you put on your skin, your body absorbs into the bloodstream. Since I was nursing as a new mom and anxious about everything, I began buying clean and pure ingredients to start making homeopathic formulas at home to help with my issues of dry skin and scalp, thinning hair, and allergies. After using the formulas in shea butter for my skin and hair or diffusing oils for my allergies and seeing that they worked, I started using over-the-counter medicines less after 3 months to not at all in 6 months, I eventually felt confident to start using my homemade products on my husband and infant son. Once I saw the positive difference between my son’s dry skin and my husband’s own testimony of how his skin felt, I built up the courage to give my products out as gifts to friends and family for birthdays.
It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my youngest son, Cairo, that I was invited in November of 2015 by the West Broadway Coalition (WBC) to be one of 20 businesses to be a part of the Northside Holiday Boutique project at the RBC Plaza in Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. How was I discovered by WBC? My husband was thinking of starting a business because he writes grants and I went along with him to business start-up classes hosted by SCORE, Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON), and West Broadway Coalition (WBC). I decided to take the step to join my husband in the entrepreneurial journey and register a business name and make myself available for any vendor opportunities. The email came inviting me to be a vendor at the Holiday Boutique. I was in my third term of pregnancy with 1.5 months to go before expecting our second child. Contemplating the opportunity, I discussed it with my husband because I knew I could not do it alone. I would need his help and help from at least 2 other people with prep and staffing the boutique the days my products were on display. Standing nine hours a day for five days would not be ideal for me, especially not knowing the target audience, the amount of traffic, or even the amount of inventory I would need to get through 5 days of a sale.
My husband helped me to decide that if I am going to one day work for myself and quit a career that I have worked for 17 years at the time, this would be the best place and opportunity to test my product. I agreed to the Holiday boutique sale, and asked my niece Chayla Denson and a good friend, church member, and mentor Susan Myles to assist me at the boutique. I purchased job supplies and began making body butter and body scrubs and special gift sets for the holidays. For 5 days of sales, I had 500 units of inventory. I did not know if I was going to sell one item or all 500 but I kept an optimistic attitude that if I do sell one item, it is more than the day before and any leftover items will make great holiday gifts for family and friends!
A couple of days before the boutique opening, I was put on bed rest. Yup, for at least 2 weeks per OBGYN order. What am I going to do? Cancel? Or continue with the help that volunteered but without me? This was my first boutique, my first opportunity to sell my product in retail. I reached out to the store manager and WBC Boutique coordinator to let them know about my recent circumstance and that I would like to continue and be a part of the boutique with the backup staffing I had arranged. My husband took a week off work to stand in my place and SJC Body Love was back in business.
Opening day, my husband and niece gave me blow-by-blow details of the day’s events. It started out slow and I could hear my husband’s voice changing his tone from worried to upbeat in order to reduce my anxiety as I lay in the bed giving him instructions on how to explain how the butter works or how to display the product on the shelf better in order to catch the eye of a downtown shopper.
As my husband said he would call me after lunch with an update and hung up, I said a prayer. A prayer thanking God and asking him to remind me that not many are given this opportunity nor have the network or resources to get as far as I have so please help me to calm my nerves, focus on getting off bed rest and I sell one body butter, I’ve helped one more person today than the day before. Amen.
Noon came and went without a call. Then it was 4:30 pm, store closing and my husband text me. $200 items sold. What?! Thank you, Jesus! Now, what, lol. My husband finally had the courage to admit that he was so nervous from the beginning of this journey about me making any money because he saw the hard work, financial investment, and time I had spent getting everything ready. He apologized for not calling me back at noon but stated he was assisting customers and I couldn’t fault him for that. I may not have been there when my products were rung up by Mysnikol Miller, Boutique Manager but I surely remember how I felt when my husband said my products sold and are now in the hands of non-family members and friends who chose to buy my products for their skincare regimen.
Sabrina, 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?
There are 85 million Americans who suffer from an inflamed or irritated skin condition. That’s 1 in 3 adults who may avoid using products with perfumes and synthetic chemicals like myself. I am a strong believer that skincare should not come with compromises. In 2015 I founded SJC Body Love where it is our mission is to create simple, clean, and effective formulas that soothe the skin, ease stress, and are a joy to use. We simplify your skincare regimen with our clean, eco-friendly formulas made with light non-overpowering scents from medicinal oils. Our products contain 10 ingredients or less you can use from head to toe, Best of all, those with stressed and sensitive skin are our target market but all skin types can use SJC Body Love.
SJC Body Love is a mission-based company that donates 2% of sales to child welfare programming. Since my business began in 2015, we have been fortunate enough to donate to over 10 organizations in Minnesota.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I have been reading the EOS series to help me get my back office in order while I build my team and operations manual. Traction by Gino Wickman, How To Be A Great Boss, by Gino Wickman and Rene Boer, and The EOS Life by Gino Wickman. The EOS series has helped me keep my meetings focused on goals, and issues, forecasting and cash flow, and setting up strategies for building my team by putting the right people in the correct roles. Keeping focused on the ROCKS helps to keep the meetings moving and address my processes for my day-to-day operations.
I am also reading, We should all be Millionaires, by Rachael Rodgers. The book was recommended to me and given to me as a gift by an advisor of mine, Lynn Hargreaves. The book is such a reminder to keep with you when you need to be reminded of your worth. When you start to second guess why you started your journey or begin to measure your accomplishments against others and wonder if you are doing something wrong. The book is a reminder to be authentic, and step out on faith because you are worth it and you will not fail.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Every day being an entrepreneur is resilience. As I sit here contemplating this question and how to keep it a readers digest version and not a national geographic version. I have been self-funding my business through profits and owner investment since 2015. Prior to acquiring my current investor in 2021, I had the opportunity to open up my first brick-and-mortar in 2019. I had just moved furniture and displays into the store when our governor announced that all non-essential establishments would need to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak happening at the time.
I had just received a grant to purchase a POS system for the store along with job supplies for inventory. No one knew how long the pandemic was going to last and I needed to find a way to move inventory out of boxes and into the homes of my customers.
I moved all the furniture, displays, and inventory back home, invested in a new website that would accommodate direct-to-consumer and business-to-business sales, and invested the rest of my cash flow into rebranding so I create a marketing strategy for social media and promote my products at a target audience.
Sales were slow in the beginning, so I began partnering with other businesses with a subscription box to sell my products or promote my products. In addition, as a mission-based company, I began making homemade face masks for my son’s daycare which was remaining open for essential workers. I posted a photo of myself and my mother-in-law making the masks and immediately I received DM’s and comments asking, “how much”? “Can I buy one” or “I’ll take two”. Immediately I shifted and asked my Mother-in-law how many did she believe we could make in a week if we divided up the work and discovered, we could make 30 depending on supplies and demand. I began selling face masks and offering a free child mask to DotsAngels Child care in St. Paul for every handmade face mask purchased. Orders rolled in and helped to offset expenses my business acquired during the pandemic.
At the same time, I reevaluated products to remove them from my product line to save on costs, especially when the supply chain started to slow down. During this time, the murder of George Floyd happened, and multiple businesses were destroyed or burned down leaving residents without access to essential needs such as medicine, food, and skincare. Sales were very slow and down over 50% by the beginning of the 4th quarter of 2020. I was recovering from getting sick with anxiety and a bad case of vertigo that had symptoms similar to a stroke I was directed to take time off to rest. Wondering how my business was going to run or how I was going to make money while resting, I was shaken up and flustered but knew my health came first. This was the first time, I just let it all go. Thoughts of failing, thoughts of losing money, not being able to fulfill orders coming in, and thoughts of “what ifs”. I just slept, rested, and slept some more. After my doctor’s check-up and a clean bill of health 2 weeks later, I received a call from Target wanting to place a five-figure purchase order. But God! The products would be a part of a community food drive providing essential products to residents while they rebuilt their Lake Street store. In November of that same year, I received another purchase order for $20,000 from a church community program increasing my revenue and profits that year during a time when other businesses were closing their doors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sjcbodylove.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjcbodylove/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sjcbodylove
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-jones-0204265/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOsHB80mMsnlBGA6sDhX8aQ
- Other: Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/sjcbodylove/
Image Credits
Angela Knox, Angela Divine Photography