Founder, Country Bunny Bath and Body
www.jordanessentials.com/home.php

Nancy Bogart was a stay-at-home mom in Missouri with three boys under the age of five when she started cooking soaps and lotions in her kitchen instead of going back into catering.

Since then, the company she founded, Country Bunny Bath and Body, has been hopping…

In 2003, Country Bunny hit about $5 million in sales, and today the company offers about 225 soaps, lotions, body sprays, shower gels, scrubs and other products on its Web site and through in-home parties led by approximately 2000 sales reps nationwide. Nancy is also a member of the Ladies Who Launch Incubator in Springfield, Missouri.

Here Nancy talks with Ladies Who Launch about what it takes to succeed in direct sales, when it’s OK to be a quitter and how you can better your business by learning more about yourself.

Nevermind the Career

“I had gone to college (Missouri State University) and gotten a degree in hotel and restaurant management. I wanted to be a caterer. It didn’t occur to me at the time that the hours were going to be so bad. When I wanted to have a family, I decided to switch gears and stay at home.

“When I needed to go back to work, I didn’t want to go back to an industry where you had to work all kinds of crazy hours. I said, ‘I don’t want to punch a clock. If I want to take the kids to the park or visit them in day care, then I want to be able to do that.’

Wanting to Control Her Calendar

“Controlling your calendar is a huge reason people want to go into business for themselves. So I kind of went back to my roots of catering, though I used soap recipes instead of food recipes. I found a recipe for bar lotion that came from the pioneer women. That was the first thing I made where I said to myself, ‘I think we’ve got something here.’ We have sold 600,000 bars in six years. They’re hand-poured and made with natural ingredients. You get a seven-month supply of lotion for $7. There are 13 different fragrances.”

From Solo Operation to Big Sales Force

“Then a weird thing happened… here were women who said to me, ‘I want to do what you do. I need money, too. I want to stay at home, and I want to help you.’ That’s when we decided to do the direct-sales model. I had never thought of having a force of women selling my products throughout the U.S.

‘It was through word of mouth… it just spread. This sales force started with six women and their husbands agreeing to be our distributors. Now it’s grown to 2000. We’re in all 50 states, St. Thomas, Guam and Puerto Rico.”

Start-Up Funding

‘I started with $500. That’s what I had saved from the year before doing crafts at a fair.”

Greatest Challenge - Reinventing the Company

“There are different challenges at different stages. In the beginning, it was hard to keep up because were going so fast. Since 2003, our business has been stable… people think everything is always going to grow. We are definitely at the ‘reinvent-yourself’ stage, and I’m getting a kick out of it because it’s kind of like when we first started, except now we have more resources.

“In February we will be celebrating our 7th birthday and will launch several new products, programs and platforms for exciting growth in 2007 and into the future. We always have lots of surprises, so check out the web site in February 2007!”

Do You Have What It Takes to Succeed in Direct Sales?

“The people who ‘get it’ are the people who really want to take control of their lives. Number One, the person has to love the product. They also have a desire to run their own lives. A lot of our gals are very autonomous. They want to be the best they can be and be rewarded for it in proportion to what they do. It’s all about relationships, building relationships.”

Entrepreneurial Influences

“(The) Number One (entrepreneurial influence in my life) is my husband, Ron. He started his own business (in heating and air conditioning) and has been self-employed since he was 23. He takes care of everything inside the building; I take care of everything outside the building. He is our CEO and supports staff and systems, does accounts payable, billing, shipping and receiving. I take care of sales, marketing, training and new product development.”

Do You Want Feedback or a Fan Club?

“He’s a huge learner. He’s one of the few people who will give me (critical) feedback. He’ll say, ‘What do you want? Feedback? Or a fan club?’

“He’s been a role model for me, plus other women in the direct sales industry… Doris Christopher of Pampered Chef, Tammy VanHoy of Homemade Gourmet… people who have stepped in and stepped up. As a member in the DSA (Direct Sales Association), I’m able to ask them questions and they mentor me so that I don’t make the same mistakes.”

Recommended Reading

“‘ Living Your Strengths’ is a wonderful resource. We did this with our reps last year. Everyone read the book and took the strengths-based analysis. (Each book comes with an ID code that you can use to take an online personality test developed by the Gallup Organization.) For people who are starting their own business, it’s a great idea to know who you are.

“None of my strengths are solid - they’re all action based. I need to realize that sometimes you need to slow down and stop. You need to find out who’s going to balance you - who’s going to be different.”

Lesson Learned - Bend with the Wind

“As one of my reps says, ‘Strong winds make stronger trees.’ You gotta learn to bend. You cannot let things snap you in half. You have to be flexible. There have been a couple of times when I was like, ‘This is how it’s gotta be. This is what we’ve gotta do,’ and it’s been miserable.”

Words of Advice - Be a Quitter (Just This Once)

“Quit waiting for everything to be perfect. Just because I printed my lotion labels myself (in the beginning of my business) and hair sprayed them on (to keep them from smearing), I still sold a lot of lotion.”

Words of Advice - Put Your Mind to It and Show Some Moxie

“The battle is won and lost in your mind. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. It’s the people who say ‘How can I?’ instead of ‘I can’t’ who are going to find their way. When things are easy and you’re growing, you think you’re a genius. When things get tough, that’s when moxie kicks in.”

Favorite Distractions from Business

“I love photography… I do almost all the photography for our catalogs. We live on eight acres in Missouri. We have a big fire pit and we go down there with the kids and roast marshmallows or the kids go climb trees. We set up sanctuary on back porch… it’s just that recharging from being outside, hence the Country Bunny.”

Looking Last-Minute Gifts? Her Most Popular Products

“Our Salt, Butter and Wax gift set… that’s probably our bestselling three-piece collection. Oatmeal, Milk and Honey is our bestselling fragrance. We sell 10 times more of that than anything else. It’s a gender-neutral, warm, empowering fragrance that people love. You can purchase from our Web store or at home parties. We want people to be able to try before they buy, learn how to take care of themselves and get great value.”