The grandkids and I started Bonsai trees this year. I’m trying to give them life memories. Hopefully, when THEY are old and grey, they will tell THEIR grandchildren about making Bonsai trees with their Papa. I also hope the trees live long enough for the Grandkids to show THEIR children.

Interestingly, we were contacted by the state of California health department.  Seems they passed a law requiring all companies that sell bath products in California provide them with a complete list of ingredients. They want to verify that there are no “cancer causing” or “toxic substances” in any of the products you sell. We DIDN’T have any of the listed chemicals in any of our products and we fell below the monetary threshold they established for reporting.  It would just have added another roadblock to doing business and made more work for us. One of the listed “chemicals” was coffee. Apparently coffee is illegal in California.

We wondered just where this came from as we have been in business for several years until I remembered we had a California politician (Who will remain nameless, NOT Arnold) who ordered a bunch of stuff and after it was delivered, claimed she never ordered it. Seeing as it WAS her credit card number and it WAS sent to the address she had on her website, she ended up paying for it.

We want to welcome a new customer,  Hazen Manor,  from Sherman, NY. Here is their website if you are interested in paying them a visit.  www. hazenmanor.com

The winners this month are:

Julia from Wisconsin

Linda from Kentucky

Miranda from Texas

Kim from New Jersey

Paula from Florida

The featured item this month is Shampoo with a touch of Olive Oil. This gave our 11year old granddaughter’s hair a nice shine. She liked it so much she wanted to take some home with her. She came up with a new scent blend (after much experimentation), Cinnamon/Pear. Now she is the only girl at school whose hair smells like pears with a hint of Cinnamon. We could custom blend a “Signature” scent for you also.

The “Create a Basket” option has been brought back due to popular demand and is available at www.akrongrove.com/basket.html. All the month of June, order 2 or more “Create a Baskets” and receive a 10% discount on your “Create a Basket” orders.

Stay safe this summer, use sunscreen (The single most important thing you can do to preserve a youthful complexion) and enjoy your friends and family.

Norbert Rug

Akron Grove Bath Products

www.akrongrove.com

]]> http://akrongrove.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/29/feed/ 0 akrongrove http://akrongrove.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/november-newsletter/ http://akrongrove.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/november-newsletter/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:26:20 +0000 akrongrove http://akrongrove.wordpress.com/?p=26 ]]> Ok, so a few of you might have been wondering just where we went this summer. Well it has been a rough couple of months for us. In June, I was diagnosed with cancer and went in for an operation in August. I was in for 4 days (vs the “overnight” they told me) and went back into the hospital a week later with a thrombosis. They told me I would be “back to normal in 2 weeks”. I wonder just what “normal” means to them. The external “plumbing” was hooked up for 3 weeks vs the 2 weeks I was told. The Thrombosis required me getting 2 shots a day which we did at home. I really don’t know how people without medical insurance can survive. The 30 days of injections cost $6,000.00 retail. Fortunately I did have prescription coverage and it cost us only $90.00. Of course, seeing as I had major surgery, I am off work. I am now receiving radiation treatments 5 times a week. I am now drawing NYS disability and will till the end of January. This disability is a joke! After they take out taxes, I get $150.00 a week for my medical co pays (Radiation is $125.00 a week), prescription Co-pays, food, insurance, utilities, Vehicle expenses, property taxes, etc. As you can see I’m living the life of luxury (sarcasm intended). I’m just wondering where the hell is MY bailout? The only bright light in this whole ordeal is they say it looks like they got it early and the prognosis is good. Enough venting, on to business.

Winners this month are:

Cindy from Texas

Martha from Florida

Geraldine from Arizona

Tammy from Washington

Sue from Maine

Congratulations to them all. Their prize has been sent out via the mail Saturday.

New Sales reps:

We have taken on 2 new sales reps, they are:

Anabelle Heckathorn from California

Joni Trevino from Texas

Anabelle has already made her first order.

New Scents:

We’ve gotten 3 new scents, Sugared Shortbread (A Bath & Body Works discontinued scent), Pumpkin Pie (This one was a problem for me. It necessitated a pie run last week it smelled so good), and Vanilla Mint This was also a problem. My wife made some soap with this and we had to go get some Spearmint leaf gum drops).

We’re doing a fund raiser for the Washington Hunt Elementary School PTA this weekend. We were one of their vendors last year and were one of their largest donors. 20% of all retail sales for the next month will be donated to them if the customer mentions them.

Here are some tips to help skin feel more comfortable during winter.:

1. Use a humidifier. Heated air tends to be dry and dries our the skin

2. Switch to an oil-based moisturizer and moisturize frequently. Moisturize daily. Cream moisturizers are best for normal to dry skin.

3. Hydrate! The drying effects of indoor heated air mandate you drink your full 8 glasses of water a day.

4. Don’t overdo skin cleansing. Once a day is sufficient. Too much cleansing removes the skin’s natural moisturizers.

5. Take short, lukewarm showers or baths and use non-irritating, non-detergent- based cleansers. Immediately after your shower or bath, apply a water-in-oil-type moisturizer and gently pat your skin dry.

6. Protect yourself from the wind by covering your face.

7. Protect your skin from the sun. Winter sun can be as dangerous as summer sun. Use a sunscreen of SPF 15 or greater.

8. Don’t Forget to Exfoliate: Keep a gentle body scrub and a less abrasive facial exfoliant in the shower and remember to use them both once or twice a week. This gets rid built-up dead skin cells and exposes a fresh layer of skin ready to suck up all the moisturizer you’re going to apply when you step out of the tub.

9. Stop Licking Your Lips: We’ve all been guilty of this assault on our kissers: When our lips feel dry, we lick them. Of course, this only leaves them more chapped. Keep a tube or jar of lip balm with you at all times, and apply every time you get the temptation to lick those dry lips.

10. Exercise: Exercise increases blood flow and thus the supply of oxygen and nutrients to your skin. These factors help skin look dewy and firm, undermining dry skin’s brittle stiffness.

Enjoy the holidays and visit us soon.

Don’t forget our gift certificates and our build a basket option for those people that are hard to find a gift for.

Norbert Rug

Akron Grove Bath Products

www.akrongrove.com

We finally started achieving links to other boards and search engines. We were out beating the bushes every chance we got. My wife noticed one of the local newscasters was pregnant so we sent her a “Baby Bootie” soap and a jar of our body butter for stretch marks ( We have been told it works wonders), this got us 2 mentions on the channel 2 morning show and a product showing. A google search for “bath products” showed we had achieved an 11th position out of 6.35 million pages. For now we have over 5000 hits since January and quite a few of our customers pay us a return visit.

Akron Grove Bath Products

www.akrongrove.com

Well the internet has been a wild ride. We started with 5 or 6 hits a week. Then I started internet marketing (STILL no training). I submitted the site to all the search engines I could find. This didn’t seem to help much as we still didn’t have many products (3 pages) and we were listed way back in no mans land. Then I tried to increase traffic by listing on the freebie sites. We give away 10 samples a month to those that sign the guest book. By samples we mean we usually send out a full size item not a sliver like most sites. This helped to increase hits and we slowly started to increase to 20 – 30 a day. Another thing I found works is posting to groups. We don’t “Spam” but every post I make has my sig “Webmaster, Akron Grove Bath Products, http://www.akrongrove.com”. This seemed acceptable to most of the groups.

To be continued

Akron Grove Bath Products

www.akrongrove.com

We finally started to develop a following. We then started cold calling the local gift shops and ANYONE we thought would carry our line. Most of the gift shops around here are tourist related and only operate during the summer and early fall. Still we managed to get into 7 shops. The catalog was starting to get too large and the original format of a notebook was scrapped. We were having too much trouble tracking the 10 we had made and the hassle of getting them back was just too much. We went to a “mini” catalog. That way we could print 4 pages on a single sheet of paper. I used Microsoft word for this (Still NO training). We ended up mailing out the catalog in both print and digital forms as I could burn it to a CD. We started pursuing the fund raising avenue and did manage to do fund raising for Niagara Hospice, volunteer fire companys, community bands, sports teams, dance schools and others. Our products had been sent to many states and even Australia. Still trying the craft show route but it seemed a waste of time as we just made our table at most of them. About this time, D’s Partner, B decided to split up the company and go her own way. Our vision and hers were never in sync but we wish her the best. We were looking to pursue more outlets when we decided to do the website. Remember still NO training in any computer courses. It took a while but I ended up giving D the site for Christmas 2003. I wrote it and paid for a year’s hosting.

To be continued

Akron Grove Bath Products

www.akrongrove.com

I guess this story should begin at the start. In November 2002 A friend of my wife, “B” (not her real name) received a gift if bath bombs from a relative. Being a shower person, B could not use them so she gave them to my wife. There was a URL on the tag so I went to see the site. They were $6.00 each. My Wife, “D” told B that she had just made bath fizzies with the grandchildren and they could make the bombs cheaper and sell them. This was the start of the business. They started with one item (Bath Bombs) and started selling them for $1.25 each. Soon after, they decided that one item was too limiting so they branched out into Bath Salts and Milk bath. As the as the sales increased, they added soap and other items. Our first sales brochure had 12 items and 8 scents (we thought we were really growing). We started giving “soaperware” parties and sales were good. Then we expanded the line and started doing Craft Shows. The Shows were not doing well, so we concentrated on one to one sales. One of our first big orders was for a bowling banquet. we cast minature bowling balls and pins and embedded them in a clear rectangular bar. About this time we also started getting into baby showers and must have made 300 Baby bootie soaps. We were still doing everything, brochures, manufacture, tags, packaging and R&D.

to be continued…

Akron Grove Bath Products

www.akrongrove.com