Tell us about your organization. How and when it was formed? What was your business concept? How has it evolved?
My business started in 1995 as a single retail bath and body shop in University Mall. I eventually launched my own line of bath and body products nationally in 1997. The products were all natural, no mineral oil, alcohol or lanolin. We were green before green was cool. We added a line of candles to the bath products in 1999 that were soy. Again, all natural and green and clean burning before green became so important. Over time we closed the mall stores and focused on shipping wholesale to the big box retailers and the mom and pop independent shops. We are now one of the largest privately held candle manufactures in the USA.
We have also launched our new spin off division For Every Home in the past year. www.foreveryhome.net
Women in Business Insights
How many women are in executive positions in your company?
Maybe 25%.
How do women approach job responsibilities (sales/mgmt/etc) differently than men?
I think women are great multi taskers because of juggling mother career roles. Women are also very creative thinkers I have found over the years.
What do you see as the benefit of having more women in these positions?
For me I really like having women because our target market for our products is primarily women. Women know what they want to buy so it is nice to have women help create the products.
What are some business tips you can share with our readers?
Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. You already have the no, try going for the yes. What is the worst thing that can happen? Nothing, so pick up the phone.
I would also say be a forward thinker, always work on things on your business that will move it forward for the long term. Don’t waste your time on minutia, work on the important big stuff. I am truly a Covey fan.
Personal Background
Where are you from? What brought you to Utah? Family?
Born and raised here. I am married with four grown daughters.
What's your education?
Any previous positions leading to this? I attended BYU. I worked at a bank and a law office before I started the business. Between my education and my work experience it made me pretty well rounded in the financial, legal and business environment.
Do you belong to any professional associations?
DSA, DSWA.
How did you get to this point in your career?
A lot of hard work, long hours, travel and sleep deprivation. It hasn’t been an easy road but it has sure been a fun ride.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I like to make assignments and let my team deliver the results, I don’t micro manage. However, I am not afraid to jump in at every level if the job isn’t being done to get our goals accomplished.
What do you want people to know about you?
That I am person who cares puts family and employees first. At least I want to be remembered for that. You don’t get the moments back so I have tried not to miss them and encouraged employees to do the same.
What did you give up for your career?
I have given up a lot of sleep over the years. I have sat on a lot of planes and in a lot of meetings. I have really tried to juggle it all but you do miss some stuff. I have always just tried to make sure my kids didn’t the short end of the stick first, I would sacrifice myself first. I have sat on many a redeye plane to not miss something for one of my kids. I have also stepped away from meetings to take their calls and missed meetings if one of the kids needed me.
What have you gained from being a business woman?
An ability to help other and give back. I have been very blessed with the success and growth of my business. I can now look at 200 families and know we are helping them financially.
What would you do differently? What would you recommend every woman do?
I don’t have a lot of regrets. I have learned a lot of lessons from mistakes. I call challenges opportunities to grow and nothing more. I would recommend women don’t give up on their dreams. You can be, do and have it all.
Personal Insights
What do you think is necessary for success?
How does success in the home compare to success in business?
They are both great. Because of the success in the business my children have been able to travel the world with me.
What are lessons you have learned that every woman should know?
It’s the fast that eat the slow, not the big that eat the small. Also, the crocodile that sleeps becomes a handbag.
What are your priorities in life & how do you achieve balance?
My family is by far my first priority. I try to always schedule time to be with them no matter how crazy it is at the office. We like going to lunch and concerts together. I always try to take care of them and myself. Taking time to eat right and exercise is important. It is hard to give to everyone else if you aren’t taking care of yourself.
The Last Words
How do you relax/renew yourself?
Reading, chick flicks and spending time with family.
Why did you get into this business? Does it take a certain type of “personality”?
It just turned into what it is over the years by always moving in a forward direct and going where the market was going, not where it was. I think it takes a persistent, passionate and hard working individual to stay in a business this fast moving.
Do you have any pet peeves? Any favorite causes?
Pet peeves…..time vampires. Tell me what time it is not how the clock works. Favorite causes our foundation I Think Pink. We give back through the foundation and supporting women’s issues and breast cancer.
Do you have a favorite quote or inspirational message?
Every day is a gift, every meal is a banquet and every challenge is an opportunity.
Additional transcript ----
K: Well the first thing is something you know I think in my last email to you; erin Hadfield, she had written this whole thing and I really don’t want to ignore her first impression; she said, she was recommending you for an interview and said “In brief…..she has raised 9 children….Becky could educate and encourage women about keeping an optimistic outlook…” She is your fan, she is your fan.
B: She got it a little bit twisted though; I started the first retail store for a place for my daughters to work, we started in a retail store and what happened after the retial store started taking off I realized that there was a real need for bath & body products in our area because it started with bath & body
K: So was that your store, Bath & Body?
B: It was “For Every Body” and it was in University Mall and it was bath & body so the name “For Every Body” and what happened is the store started really taking off so I developed a private label brand and that’s where we started in the kitchen. So there was the store before the kitchen. And I developed the private label line and then it just really took off and we opened a couple more stores and rolled it out nationally in 1998 and then added candles in 2000 and now candles have taken over and we kept the name “For Every Body” but we’re 98% candles and 2% bath and body now. We just kept the name because we’re 14 years old and that’s the name that we’re known by.
K: Right, that’s worth a lot. So what made you start a bath & body store; what gave you the background an experience to start something like that?
B: I started it because, the part about my daughter, I came home; we lived on one of the largest farms here in the valley; my husband was an apple farmer and I came home one day and my 12 year old daughter was on a tractor; and I’m like that’s ok for the boys but. My husband wanted our kids to learn the value of the dollar and hard work so I said, you know what, I’m gonna do something that the girls can do, and my vision for it was a place for my daughters to work and their friends so it would be a fun place for them. I really had no retail experience. I just went up there and on pure self confidence signed a lease and came up with the idea and I bought all the products that I sold in the store wholesale from the world trade centers and it was after the business started doing well that I realized, wow, that I could do a whole lot more with this. And that’s when I started doing the private label and my own brand. And that’s when it really took off.
K: So how did you develop your own product?
B: Well, I had enough chemistry in college just to be a little bit dangerous. Then as I got further into it I hired a cosmetic chemist out of San Francisco and I spent a couple of weeks at his lab working . And our claim to fame was everything was all natural back before natural was the cool thing to do. So if you go to Bath & Body Works or Victoria’s Secret or any of those, they’re so full of alcohol that the alcohol, you know, you put it on your hands and the alcohol dries your hands so you continually put it back on. So we didn’t have mineral oil, alcohol, or lanolin or anything synthetic in our bath & body and that was 14 years ago back before that was cool. And same thing with our candles, we do soy based candles back before green was cool. So we’ve been green for 14 years.
K: So what are soy based candles? What’s good about them?
B: It’s cleaner burning and doesn’t put out the soot that the parafin does.
K: So it doesn’t put out the black smoke?
B: Yeah
K: So did that work, did your daughters work there and their friends work there?
B: Uh huh, they’ve all over time worked there; I’ve always wanted them to pursue their own dreams so I didn’t want to force them to work there but when they were younger they have and, interestingly enough, they’re all at one point or another now working here. They’re all grown but do different things and they’ve come and gone between school and stuff like that.
K: You’ve got all of these different organizations-that was the main thing I wanted to talk to you about because you’ve covered so much in writing, unless there are other things that you’ve thought about since then. The new business, For Every Home – what is that?
B: We launched For Every Home in March of 2008. March 1 of 2008 was the official launch; we did a soft launch in 2007; the reason we did it; just because this business has been so successful , we’re now the largest privately held candle company in the country; and so it’s just given me so much freedom and flexibility with kids and grandkids and work time that I wanted to give that opportunity to other women. So it’s your basic party plan model kind of like Avon or Mary Kay and I can give you our catalog and a magazine we’ve been featured in that explains it all but yeah, so that business has just exploded; we expect it to be within 3 years the size For Every Body is in 14; so I’m really working two full time jobs somewhat.
K: And you still have time for your kids and grandkids? You look great, it must be working for you.
B: I’m not kidding, I told you we were in Puerto Rico and I got a fever of 103 and barely made it home on the flight and I went to the doctor and they thought it was
K: The swine flu or something?
B: Well, they checked me for all that; they checked me for everything so he just gave me antibiotics and said you probably picked up travelers bug but two days later, I still had a fever of 103 and it had been 5 days by this point. So I was just so sick, my husband took me to the ER and they ended up admitting me and I spent almost a week in the hospital.
K: Oh wow
B: Yeah, I spent a week in the hospital and I was in quarantine; they did a spinal tap, they did MRIs on everything; they thought it was bacterial meningitis but then when the culture came back, it wasn’t but by that point I had had the fever for so long I developed pneumonia and then I got an infection around my heart; but you know, I’ve gone at such a break neck pace for the last two years, since we launched the For Every Home business; doing two full time jobs and then we had a crummy economy so I’m living on airplanes; so I think it’s just absolute exhaustion
K: So what are you doing on the airplanes? Marketing basically or?
B: We have, because we are the largest privately held candle company in the country, we sell, the For Every Body side, we sell to all the big box stores, Walgreens & Kohls & Home Depot & Lowes & JoAnnes-all of those have corporate offices all over the country and I have to see those buyers every month
K: Really? Wow.
B: Yeah, yeah
K: I wouldn’t have imagined that; I would have imagined that once you have the relationship in place that
B: No, it’s continually and especially I’ve said that in a down economy we’ve had to work twice as hard just to stay the same because it becomes more competitive; you get 50% of your competitors going out of business but the ones that are hanging on are going to get more aggressive; and so we’ve had to work twice as hard and travel twice as much; before I went into the hospital, I had been home three weekends since Christmas; that’s how much we have travelled to keep the business going so. It’s just exhausting. So if that illness has taught me anything – I’m stepping back and slowing down, yeah
K: That’s interesting. I would imagine even the big box retailers are cutting back on what they’re ordering
B: Oh yeah, because the big boxes are one of the first to be hurt in a down economy and you’ve got to flatter the roots to make money
K: And you do that personally instead of hiring
B: Well, I’ve got a team but the issue is on those big ones, those relationships, I’m the one that started them so I’m the one they want to see and that makes the biggest impression. So yeah, I’ve hired a team around me and I’m starting to give more and more of that stuff to that team but this illness has made me really realize that I have to do that; I’ve got to take care of myself; I mean I’m only 49; I’ve got to take care of myself so I can be here when I’m 79, you know?
K: I’m going to 48 in a couple of months, I know what you mean
B: I know, where do the years go?
K: Absolutely. What about the I Think Pink.org; I usually wait until right before the interview to re-read everything and look at the websites because otherwise it gets muddled in my mind, but you have a lot of things out there. So I didn’t really get to read a lot about the I Think Pink
B: The way I Think Pink happened is that in 1998, I had an employee who, her aunt died of breast cancer and I lost a cousin at 33 to breast cancer so we decided we wanted to do something to make awareness to that cause. So we developed the Hope for a Cure candle; so it kind of started with the Hope for a Cure candle and we give that candle to all the hospitals in October and they give it to the women that get mammograms for breast cancer awareness month; so the women get the candle and you know, it just reminds them while it burns all year long, don’t forget to get the next mammogram. So that’s kind of all it was for a really long time and then I went down to get my own mammogram and I had a spot that was kind of scary and they called me back to do an ultrasound; and while I was sitting there in that panic mode when you don’t know what it is, I saw a woman that was younger then me that was completely bald from chemotherapy in that hospital gown and her husband was pushing her in, you know, for some tests and it just broke my heart; it absolutely broke my heart; and then my test came back clear and I was fine but I came back and told the sales & marketing team, I’m like, that just literally broke my heart, we need to do more. So we started the I Think Pink foundation. And we started doing the I Think Pink event where we wanted to do the I Think Pink.org website, and we collect stories; we want to put a name and a face to breast cancer, so we started collecting these stories and we awarded $10,000 to the person that we picked; we wanted to follow her ; so we followed her for a yea r but then what happened in the process of reading all those stories, we realized there’s so much more than just breast cancer, there’s the people that get left behind and there’s the survivors; so then we did the Living Home; any way we have a survivor candle and a surviving hope and living hope, those that live ; so we wanted to honor those that are left behind, those that survive as well as the person fighting. So we have sent a couple of women on cruises that have survived, and then the Living Hope, we are taking stories and we will award a scholarship to someone who has lost their mother to breast cancer; so the Think Pink Foundation puts on this event puts on this event every year and will honor those three people; it’s kind of our way of giving back; we just want to give back and so all proceeds from that candle go into this organization and then we’ve also got sponsors to help with it. No, we don’t make a penny off of any of it; it’s our way of giving back and just ; because as we started reading these stories, we got over 100 stories, and I’ll bet 80% of them are women under 35 and they tell you don’t even do a mammogram until you’re 40 so we’re like, no, you need to do your monthly exam and you need to not let this go because you’re under 40. You know, I have all these daughters so it’s like, this cause is near and dear to me. But yeah, it’s a big part of who we are.
K: When you’re young, you tend to put off those regular exams of any kind
B: Yeah, absolutely (discussed Jill Grammer’s experience)
K: Yeah I know Jill…her story’s very impressive
Contact information: For Every Home, I Think Pink.Org
K: You don’t really do marketing as such, like just locally, your marketing is the big retailers.
B: We still have a retail store here. So we do some marketing locally but really we’re kind of Utah’s hidden secret because we are such a big supplier to the big boxes
K: I saw that on the website that it said, you know, new retails or however that was phrased on there and then you have For Every Scrapbook as well? That was interesting, I didn’t know about that. So where is your retail store? Is it somewhere in this complex right here?
B: Right on Geneva Road, facing, you can go in there and see everything that we have. We’ve got home décor and candles and we have scrapbooking because my daughters all love scrapbooking so we added that, just – that’s pretty much so we can do it as a hobby, the scrapbooking won’t go any further than the little retail store here. Our business is candles and home décor and bath and body so
K: Is there anything that you just want to share that wasn’t covered?
B: No, nothing that I can think of. I’ll go grab a magazine and a catalog for you.
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