Money Muse Monday Series Part 5: Shannon Henry | “I told myself everyday that one day I would be the President of my own company.”

AND WE ARE BACK!! After a brief holiday hiatus, we are back with another Money Muse Monday and I am sooooo excited!! If you are new to the series, this is the 5th time that we have the honor of peeking into the lives of real women working towards their dream despite (and often because of) their financial situations. As I mentioned to someone the other day, I believe that though I SAY I made this series for others, I feel like I needed it more than anyone. Each time I received an email back from one of the featured women, I felt amazingly motivated and knew that I wanted others to feel the same.

To get caught up on the entire series, check out the links at the end of this post.

Today, we continue the series by meeting Shannon Henry, owner and President of Simply Radiant Beauty, a Texas based all-natural & organic affordable skincare brand. Shannon shares with us how her creativity and deep rooted determined spirit guided her through trying times to lead her to the success she is experiencing today.

 

 

 

1. Tell us where you’re from and a little bit about yourself?

I grew up in urban Philadelphia in an area called Kensington. Our neighborhood consisted of clusters of row homes that surrounded our local church, Ascension of Our Lord. My parents along with every other family in our neighborhood were blue collar workers trying to make ends meet. Most families, like my own couldn’t afford to have a parent stay home to watch the kids, so both parents worked. As a child, if we wanted to get some penny candy from our local deli, you would go searching in the freshly layed tar streets for coins that the workers or passersby may have dropped before attempting to ask our parents. I guess you could say that money was TIGHT!!! From the time I was 5, I understood that to ask for money would cause my mom to cry and no one wanted to see that.
As soon as I was allowed to venture a few blocks away from our house, and I could earn a little money for doing chores, I began to go to the Ben Franklin Pretzel factory every day in the early summer mornings to buy pretzel and resell them in the neighborhood. I would drag my little sister along and sometimes even my cousin Leo, who was still in diapers. We would make him sing in his lil baby voice, “Fresh Pretzels, Already Fresh Pretzel”. Leo was so cute and little that people just couldn’t help themselves but want to buy at least a pretzel from us. Soon we were able to double up the number of pretzels we bought each morning and make more money. We always split a pretzel before we ventured out ‘cause we “needed our energy”.

It was that experience that shaped my attitude toward hard work and entrepreneurship today. I sold newspapers, babysat, sold pretzels and shoveled snow and worked with my mom at a local diner as a bus girl/dishwasher after school all the way to freshmen year in high school. Although my parents sacrificed to make sure we received a good Catholic education there was little if any money for the other things teenagers wanted to do, like going to a dance or playing sports. I knew that it was up to me to make my own money if I wanted something.

During high school, I was on the varsity cheerleading team, student council and I tutored the handicapped kids from the tiny school next to ours. Little Flower High School instilled many fundamental values that I incorporate into my life everyday – work hard, give back, be a good person and God will always be there for you.

2. 
What was the burning-in-your belly goal that you have set out achieve?

By the time I reached college, my belly was not only burning, it was on fire. I told myself everyday that one day I would be the President of my own company. I wanted to build something from the ground floor, to build friendships with people who wanted the same things as I did. The only problem with that goal at that time, was you needed money to make money. I worked 40+ hours a week at Sam’s club, took the bus 1.5 hours to school (St. Joseph’s University) and literally worked my butt off but I had nothing to show for it.

I used the college recruiting system and landed a job after graduation in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry. All the while still telling myself that I will own my own company some day. After working for various companies including Coca Cola, Valassis and Mattel, and meeting the love of my life, I decided it was time to take the plunge and start my own business.
What were and are some of the financial challenges you came across while
accomplishing this goal?

Every day was a challenge. There are so many elements to starting a business and each has their own costs that often times it becomes overwhelming. From legal start up costs, developing the products, to labels to buying ingredients and then the biggest challenge – getting people to notice you. You can have the best product or service in the world but you need customers to buy them.

I thought long and hard about each of the areas that would cost money, set a budget that I could afford and still pay my bills (which in this case was and still is today miniscule) then prioritized them based on what I could expect in return that would help me to get to the next level. I am very lucky that my husband agreed that I would quit my job and do this full time. This meant we would have to make a ton of changes to the way we lived but we both believed the sacrifice was well worth the potential upside. Don’t get me wrong! There are many a night, when we are both not able to sleep worrying over the bills and how we were going to pay them. And to be honest, sometimes we just couldn’t and had to deal with the creditors.

3. 
How have you addressed and conquered these challenges?

The first thing I did was created an Etsy account. I heard that Etsy was friendly to small businesses with handmade goods and the price was right within my budget. I used Social Media at first, since it if free. I had no idea what I was doing but read anything and everything I could to figure out how to gain followers. After 7 months, I had earned enough to build my own website which offered my more flexibility and customer friendly options. I have a few very important things going for me – my products are made with the best natural and organic ingredients, customers LOVE the products, and I love what I am doing! So far this has translated into a nice, steadily growing business.
4. 
What are some free or low cost resources that you would recommend to other women look into when pursuing a similar goal?


For anyone who wants to start a business, I would first ask them if this would be just a hobby or is this something you go to bed and wake up thinking about. If they are really serious and have the heart and drive, then the potential is enormous. I was not shy about asking successful Etsians how they were able to be so successful. You would be surprised at how people will go out of their way to help others or give advice if asked nicely. Learning the do’s and don’ts from successful people in your field is free but the return is so much greater!!

Use Social Media in a way that is informative about the category you are in and use it to responsibly to educate people about your products and services. Take pictures of your products, of the process to make your products of yourself. Getting personal (not overly personal) helps people connect with you.

Use Googleplus as often as you can – pictures of your products, use hashtags etc. Google gives preferential treatment (at least right now) to people who use this.

Try to find bloggers with like ideas and see how you can work together to help each other build your business.

I use a few paid resources that helps me save time everyday.
Hootsuite – this is a social media sharing platform that is $14 a month and allows you to create twitter, facebook, instagram and googleplus
Fiverr – Offers every type of help a new business could possibly need starting at $5 per service.

5. 
What are some of your personal inspirations or aspirations when times are 
rough?

Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed or tired and feel like giving up, I think about how I grew up, how my parents struggled and couldn’t get from point a to point b financially yet they never missed a day of work. I think of those women who are single moms, working 2 jobs to feed their children. I think about the younger girls who desperately need a positive role model today (especially given all the horrible influences that are overexposed to our kids). I look at my husband, who never gives up and laughs when I would fell like busting out in tears. I think of all these things and tell myself, ‘you are not a quitter!’ ‘ suck it up, tomorrow is another day’. And then somehow my funk gets lifted. Strange to say, but it is all in our heads. We have more in us than we would ever believe. But that’s exactly what we need to do! Believe in ourselves. Believe in what we are trying to accomplish. Thank God for what we have and move on.
6. Where can we follow/find more information about you?

You can find more about me and my company at www.YouAreSimplyRadiant.com or follow me on the following Social Media Platforms:

http://www.pinterest.com/simplyradiantbe/

https://twitter.com/simplyradiantb

https://plus.google.com/105897358655794606596/posts

http://instagram.com/SimplyRadiantBeauty

https://www.facebook.com/URsimplyradiant?ref=hl

SimplyRadiantBeauty.Tumblr.com