Sunday 14 December 2008

Come and see us and grab a bargain at the Bolton Christmas Market tday!

If you live local to us, why not come and see us at Bolton Christmas market today!

As well as showcasing our latest products and new packaging, we will be selling lots
of end of line stock at bargin prices, and you can enter our free prize drawer to
win one of our luxury Christmas gift baskets.

The market, sponsered by tasteofthenothwest ltd, is situated in the Victoria Square,
in from of the town hall. There will be lots of food and drink stalls to keep the
cold out so do come and pay us a visit!

Open today (Sunday) from 10 am-4.30 pm.

Thursday 3 July 2008

Green Day Prize Draw


I am pleased to announce the winners of our prize draw at the Green Day event held
at Samlesbury Hall in Lancashire on Sunday.
1st Prize: Ms Claire Montellier of Colne wins our ladies' basket
2nd Prize: Mr. Thomas Gillett of Nelson, wins the men's gift box
3rd Prize: Mr. Wayne Heaton of Padiham wins the car aromatherapy kit
4th Prize: Ms Andrea Wilson of Thornton Cleveleys wins our lavender & citronella
soy candle
5th Prize: Ms Lyndsey Meechan of Accrington wins a Spearmint Surprise bath bar.
The event was sponsored by Lancashire County Council and Lancashire Evening Telegraph
to raise awareness of green issues in the community.
Thanks to all those who participated in the prize draw and to Rachel MacClean of
The Little Green Shop for hosting the draw on our behalf.

Monday 18 February 2008

Radio Reverb reviews Esssentially Natural Products!

Jaynie Ralph, presenter of The Holistic Show, reviewed some of our products on her show on Saturday.
The show, which goes out weekly, deals with all aspects of holistic lifestyle and appeals to a wide audience, not just limited to the Brighton area.
Each month Jaynie takes an in-depth look at products in the natural and organic beauty products ranges and this week it was our turn.
If you missed the show on Saturday, it is repeated today at 2 p.m. and our bit is in the first part.
I hope to record the item and will put a link up here as soon as I can.
To listen, click on the title link and then follow the links to listen on the Radio Reverb site.

Saturday 26 January 2008

Happy Birthday to me - the support of friends and the slow rise to an educated public

I have just had the most enjoyable birthday party I can remember. Not the biggest, not the most significant in terms of my age, not the highest numbers attending.
This was an informal gathering of our friends from the village where we live, and only numbered nineteen in total, including some of our children and our two staunch helpers, Debbie and Ann.
My wife, Pia, cooked two simple main courses - a chilli with rice, and a homemade meat and potato pie for those who don't like spicy foods.
Plus a homemade cauliflower soup (spiced with caraway in acknowledgement of her Czech mother) and a tiramisu filled with a brandy cream that I can only describe as well, orgasmic.
So why, then, was tonight so special?
Firstly because of the intimacy and informality of the event, all those there being from our village, Irwell Vale, or its neighbourhood.
Secondly because of the way the evening ended.
It was our neighbour Andy's birthday today - mine is actually on Monday, the 28th.
Andy bought me a lovely bottle of 10-year-old Scotch malt, and I was pleased not only because I like whiskey, but also because we used to make a lovely peppermint soap using the container (a tubular cylinder) as the mould. I vowed to make the soap again as a wave of nostalgia for our experimental days took me. We used to call it Minty Big Boy. ok, perhaps not politically correct, but the soap was wonderful and lived up to its name.
Feeling guilty, I desperately hunted around for a reciprocal present for Andy - I couldn't give him whiskey as he's a connnoiseur - so I thought about the products we're offering on our winter sale.
A large, glowing stone candle - made of paraffin wax and filled with little phosphorescent stones that make the candle glow when lit.
A neon dream candle that glows when the candle is lit, courtesy of a little internal battery. This candle, too, made from paraffin wax.
A set of candles shaped and looking like real wine bottles, made of paraffin wax.
All these have to go in our winter sale - it's all good stuff but not the way we now try to live. It's stock we bought in to tempt customers not yet ready to go natural or organic but that doesn't really fit in with our brand image.
And Andy's remark?
'No, Dennis, I don't want that stuff. Just give me an organic, soya candle, that's all I need.'
And he meant it.
He's learned the difference between 'normal' wax candles and our new, environmentally-friendly soya ones.
So if you're still into 'normal' wax candles, made of paraffin wax, that's fine - we will be able to help you.
But if you've already realised the disadvantages of paraffin wax, industrially-produced soaps and skincare products, then there's lots on our 15% discount winter sale page that we hope will tempt you too.
The point of all this:
Education, or put another way, the road to awareness, in whatever sphere of life, is a long one and you will travel it at your own pace. So feel comfortable with your own beliefs but be open to others around you and you will travel far.

Friday 11 January 2008

Oh no! It's time for that January sale again!

Don't Miss The Winter Sale!
Sale! Sale! Sale! Starts today!

Or does it?
These days, starts the moment Santa Claus wipes Rudolf's nose and puts the snow mobile to bed and tucks Mrs. Claus in with one more large glass of sherry and another mince pie.
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Get your sleeping bags out and queue for two days - it's really worth it!
(Thank God for online shopping, I say).
Phew! Christmas is over! And I don't know about you, but sales just annoy me.
May be theres something different between men and women (Men are from Mars...)?
Thank God my wife's stopped leaving home to join the cues for the Next sale at 5.30 in the morning, enough kids in toe to push through the crowds to get - well, what exactly?
That not-to-be-missed bargain?
That must-have handbag or fashion accessory? or
Last season's stock that will be sold at last at an affordable price that will do nicely for her or the kids, thank you?
Or, even more frightening, the new excuse for us:
To buy next year's pile of Christmas presents, even before the Christmas dinner's chipolatas have been used up for the Boxing Day cold buffet?
So why, then, am I so worried that, despite my best intentions not to do it again this year, I'm still all set for putting up a January Sale on Essentially Natural, despite the fact that our quarterly stock take isn't finished and it costs so much in time and postage charges to send out the extra orders?
Well, here are some of my thoughts of what sales mean.
Which of them ring true for you - or for us, do you think?
1) Sales are for getting rid of old stock. The salesmen are standing at the door, suitcase in hand, and you know you've got to see them (or send them away, and there but for the grace of God...)
2) There's all that new stock already waiting from the suppliers (or aforementioned salesmen you felt sorry for before Christmas)
3) You just need to get rid of the stuff that didn't sell last season
4) If you sell stuff cheaper, then people will buy it
5) You've got to show the shop next door that your stuff's better and the way to do that is to lower your prices so people come in and buy
6) You desperately need the business, and everyone, but everyone, just loves a sale and will come pouring through the virtual doors
7) You love the sound of virtual cash desks ringing as the orders come pouring in, even if they're at rock-bottom prices and your profit margins are slashed
8) You've made such wonderful profits with obscene markups that you can actually afford to sell at such low prices in a go-for-it sale
9) You know that not only your repeat customers but also all those not-quite-ready-to-trust-you-before-buying prospects will just not be able to resist a bargain
10) The staff all just love running around trying to cope, even in a virtual shop
(Entries, please, to the comments box. The winner will receive...) :)
OK, so where does an ethical, even green, small business like Essentially Natural stand - in truth and honesty?
Which of these points should I admit to, and if I do, will you, my loyal readers, ever cross our virtual threshold and deign to buy from our humble website?
1) This one does have some truth in it. We always either have too much or too little on the shelves - you just can't predict what people will buy in this game. So yes, sales are a good way of keeping the shelves stocked up with absolutely fresh soaps and skincare products. As a rider, though, we only put stock that is still in perfect condition into a sale - anything else goes down as Clearance.
2) Related to this of course is the new soaps that are curing and ready to go n the shelves. And the new products like our aromatherapy soya candles, some of which aren't even online yet, that we have to find room for.
3) Again this one is true. Some of our products don't sell as well as others, despite the fact that they're just oh, so good, and the customers who do buy them love them and come back for more. So selling them off cheaper is a good way of drawing people's attention to something they may have otherwise not thought about. So why not have a browse around and buy some of our... or our... :)
4) This is not one I subscribe to. Yes, people will buy at dirt cheap prices, but then they won't buy again at the true price, so you're doing yourself out of business.
5) This is related to the last one, and pricing, especially on the internet, is becoming so keen that this is a temptation. But again I think it's false economy. Having said that, I do think that a 'loss leader' can work miracles, but it's not something I feel too comfortable about.
6) Yes, everyone loves a bargain. This is the EBay mentality. But even on EBay you can get very good quality stuff and even on EBay people are prepared to pay for quality. But to me, there's no point in getting lots of new customers looking for something cheap unless you know they're going to come back for more, so we have to ensure that our products are of high enough quality, or our incentives are enticing enough, to keep those customers coming back.
7) This is related to 6) and again is just false economy. Put another way, it's false marketing.
8) Even My wife has a cynical streak although she believes the best of everyone. 'Just think how much they must make the rest of the year!' she'll say. But that, loyal reader, is definitely not the case for us! :)
9) Again, true, but we have to be careful not to shoot ourselves in the foot. I love giving that extra something to a new customer, and often add something when I send the parcel out, just because it makes me feel good, or as a way of building a relationship with an almost anonymous customer. In a 'real' shop you'd be able to chat, smile, even flirt, and leave the customer feeling good as he or she walked out of the door. I think this is a much better way than advertising 'free gift with every purchase', because, nine times out of ten, the free gift won't be worth much anyway, unless you're buying from a multi-national with millions to spare on promotion - and then we're back to those obscene profits again. :)
10) The buzz of being busy - like bees in a hive - ah yes. I must admit, actually running a sale is fun. It's a challenge - have we made the right decisions as to what to put into the sale, should we be saving some stock back as back-end offers for a later date, or to sell at craft fairs to introduce new customers who may not be internet shoppers or may even not be on the net?
And there you have it, folks, my own thoughts.
And I really would be interested in your comments.
So, having poured my heart out, I'll have a last cup of coffee (erm, chamomile tea?) and sleep on it.
And on Monday, after the stock take, we'll get the sale up and running on the website.
Because everybody does it!
See you there... I hope. :)

Thursday 10 January 2008

What will 2008 bring?

On the day that the Government decided to renew its commitment to nuclear power,
I started to feel that nothing really ever changes. But then I found an interesting review of vegan ups and downs for 2007 (more ups than downs). Read the article here.
And then I wondered about how things have changed for us at Essentially Natural this year - we've now got a full range of vegan products, are recognised by the vegan society and are seen as a green company, and also as an ethical one.
It wasn't that long ago that green and vegan were dirty words, and I can only applaud the fact that society has moved forward in the last year.
But there are still issues that need to be ironed out: the vegan lobby must be careful not to become more fragmented than it already is, and the vegetarian movement itself must remain true to its own beliefs and not become swallowed up in the rush towards veganism.
Let me illustrate what I mean.
It was not only us that were confused when we attended the Incredible Veggie Show in London last June to find out that 'veggie', for this show at any rate, meant 'vegan'. Many of the public, too, were expecting vegetarian goods and services, and many of the customers we met there declared themselves only mildly interested in vegetarianism, not yet fully committed to giving up mean, let alone ready to take on veganism.
The show was organised by Viva!, an up-and-coming, go-for-it organisation that itself started as an offshoot of the Vegan Society, the original society for vegans; hence my earlier point about fragmentation.
I think we all agree that cruelty to animals is not to be tolerated. But it will take a long, long time before society gives up eating meat completely - how long I would hesitate to say. But I do believe that, at some point in the future, we will think it strange, if not barbaric, that the main staple of man's diet for protein was got by killing animals for so many thousands of years.
The point I'm trying to make is that before society can accept that raising dairy herds for milk or keeping bees for honey is exploitation the majority of people will, I feel, have to move through the stage of 'it's wrong to kill animals to eat'. And I wonder about the harm the seeming headlong rush towards veganism, backed up by some admittedly good scientific research, is doing.
I also have another concern, and that is the split between what I call 'ethical' and 'don't care' veganism. The need to find alternatives to animal biproducts can lead to a blindness towards the use of harmful chemicals or synthetics and the harm these do to the environment.
This is in no way intended to be vegan-bashing. We at Essentially Natural produce our vegan range not as a money-making ploy but because there is a need. But I feel it's up to those of us who really do care to sound a word of caution. We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater if the misuse of veganism may lead to the use of harmful chemicals in the production of synthetic alternatives to natural animal materials such as wool for instance.
On this point I must declare myself a traditionalist in that I believe that many manmade materials do not allow the skin to breathe. The benefits to the feet of wearing a good pair of shoes with leather soles and uppers cannot be denied.
It's a matter of choice, and people need to become educated before they can make choices. We must just be careful not to impose views on them that may be shortsighted at times, or for which society is not yet ready.
Comments please!

Wednesday 9 January 2008

What a good day!


Well, I've suddenly realised the secret of how to be productive at work.



Not to work!



OK, not quite true. But there's a lot in this positive thinking stuff whether it's called visualisation, manifesting, the law of attraction secret, or put simply Karma (what goes around comes around).



I've spent nearly the whole day away from the office - a very rare occurrence these days, coz I get so engrossed with the minutiae of the business - the admin, checking on orders and stock (even though someone else can do that), the technology that doesn't work, the writing of never-ending To Do lists...



And today...



I decided to play!



I had a great time with my production worker, Tony (OK I'll get a photo up there when I can get the digital camera charged up) experimenting and making soya votive candles in lovely frosted glass, using essential oil combinations, working out the proportions, leaving our formula behind and just... well... using our noses!



And the finished products not only look lovely and smell divine but when my wife got back from spending all our money at the shops the whole house was relaxed, calm, full of positive energy - all from the essential oils.



Well, OK, perhaps the fact that for once we worked in the kitchen rather than in the production workshop (I refuse to call it a factory as our stuff's all handmade) may have had something to do with it, but somehow I don't think so.



So, back into the office, answered a few emails, plagued my advertising manager Natasha with a few 'should I go with this one or not's', and then a long, well-deserved brandy and lemonade (my wife's favourite-of-the-moment drink and she just had to make one for me, too, to see if I liked it)... and...



There it was in my inbox - the email to say we've been accepted by Ethical Junction, a site that puts its money where its mouth is and positively goes out looking for those of us who put integrity and honesty above - well - alcohol? :)



They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but I've looked at some of the listings on Ethical Junction's website for things like financial advisers and marketers and plumbers and it is indeed nice to be accepted and advertised amongst them.


After a day like today, I really do believe there's hope for this cynical, godforsaken society of ours.



What do you think?