{"id":8391,"date":"2020-07-25T06:53:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T10:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=8391"},"modified":"2020-07-25T06:54:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-25T10:54:03","slug":"from-family-recipes-to-whole-foods-to-survival-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=8391","title":{"rendered":"From Family Recipes to Whole Foods to \u2018Survival Mode\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>As a little girl, Yolanda Owens would soak in warm bathtubs filled with collard greens, garlic and onions to help soothe her skin. \u201cI had eczema, and my grandmother would go out to her garden to find all kinds of vegetables and make up this remedy for me,\u201d Ms. Owens said.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n
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Today, Ms. Owens, 55, owner of the Atlanta-based Iwi Fresh<\/a>, produces and sells a line of preservative-free skin-care products, including Squash-It-Out Cleanser and 14 Carrot Glow Moisturizer, which are created from her own recipes that blend fruit, vegetables, herbs and essential oils.<\/p>\n

Iwi is Ms. Owens\u2019s abbreviation for \u201cit is what it is.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s no mystery behind my products,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are simple, raw ingredients like my grandmother\u2019s remedies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But a recipe she could not have anticipated needing was how to navigate a shutdown and a reimagining after the pandemic<\/a> was declared in March. With some creative thinking, she created a plan for that, too.<\/p>\n

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Yolanda Owens, courtesy of Iwi Fresh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ms. Owens spent nearly two decades working as a software and network engineer, but in 2003 she started her business after creating lotions as a hobby in college, selling to friends and family. She left behind a six-figure salary and her position as a senior manager at SunTrust Bank to focus on her fledgling company.<\/p>\n

Ms. Owens, a single mother with three young children, was also juggling child rearing. \u201cIt got crazy for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI decided that if I wanted to have a successful business, I was going to have to do it full time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She sold her house and her car, and moved her family into a smaller, rental home. To fund her business, she withdrew about $10,000 from her 401(k).<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Read on The New York Times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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 Ms. Owens turned her garage into a warehouse, and she juiced and mixed at home. \u201cI had a couple of friends who volunteered to help me out, and even my children were lending a hand,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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She spread the word though old-fashioned, grass-roots marketing efforts, setting up tables at community expos, art shows and exhibits as a vendor to demonstrate her products. She taught classes at local spas to introduce her wares and demonstrate to their employees how to use her products in facials and massages. In 2010, she opened the 2,500-square foot Iwi Fresh Farm-to-Skin Spa to offer massages, facials, manicures and hot shaves for men.<\/p>\n

Today, she operates a small farm and partners with a handful of local growers. \u201cOn Mondays, I go out and hand pick and harvest fruits and vegetables with my staff,\u201d she said. \u201cThen we come back to the kitchen at the spa where I juice and make the products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years ago, she got a big break: Her Instagram posts<\/a> (the company now has 28,700 followers) caught the attention of a Whole Foods buyer, who stopped by the spa to check it out. Soon, Iwi Fresh products were selling briskly from refrigerated shelves at a local Whole Foods store. Last year, Ms. Owens said, her company had revenues of $600,000.<\/p>\n

The popularity of the products did not go unnoticed by the Whole Foods local buying team. Ms. Owens was selected to become a regional vendor, pending the approval process. That effort, however, stopped when the pandemic hit. \u201cMy buyer told me to put it on hold for later rather than sooner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On March 19, Ms. Owens closed the doors of her spa because of the pandemic. \u201cIn my mind, I thought, \u2018We are going to be fine,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut that didn\u2019t happen. It kept getting worse and worse and worse. We had to go into survival mode.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ms. Owens took a proactive approach. She badgered the buyer at Whole Foods and asked what the company was doing to help small minority-owned businesses during the pandemic. It worked: Although the full rollout is still pending, she sells her products at three additional stores in the Atlanta area.<\/p>\n

She delayed until September the opening of a larger facility, Farm Oasis<\/a>, a 12,000-square-foot center that will offer wellness and beauty services.<\/p>\n

She laid off eight of her dozen employees, including aestheticians, nail technicians and massage therapists. \u201cThat hurt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then she swiftly began applying for more than 20 grants and loans offered by federal, state and local governments, corporations and city foundations, aimed at financial relief for small business owners affected by the coronavirus.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Iwi Fresh has received around $25,000 in local grants from Invest Atlanta<\/a> and Village Micro Fund<\/a>. Ms. Owens used the bulk of the funds to pay her employees for two weeks of back wages they were owed before she officially laid them off. She is still, however, on the hook for the $4,000 monthly rent on the spa. As for paying staffers still on the payroll, she is \u201cmaking it work with a little juggling.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the game is far from over. Ms. Owens and her skeleton crew set out to reshape their business model.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOne advantage a small-business owner has is the total freedom to change, adapt, pivot and completely rethink their businesses in order to suit them for now and the future,\u201d said David Sax, author of \u201cThe Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond The Startup Myth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial step for Ms. Owens and her team was to dust off the Iwi Fresh virtual storefront. \u201cWe had a website and an online presence, but there was a lesson learned in gearing things up,\u201d she said. \u201cWe took the e-commerce site for granted and had put more energy into our in-house spa services, so while we didn\u2019t have to start from scratch, there were glitches \u2014 technical issues that we hadn\u2019t expected.\u201d Now rebooted, online sales have been steadily climbing.<\/p>\n

Next, she rebranded. \u201cHow do we re-create as a no-touch service?\u201d she said. \u201cI had to think about what we really do \u2014 we provide self-care and wellness. We now have to give our customers what they were always getting hands on from a digital perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so, Ms. Owens started the Zero Waste Save Face campaign via the Instagram account. \u201cI host online self-care spa parties and tell people, for instance, how to save fruits or vegetables that may be too ripe to eat and make them into masks for their skin,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes our people feel that we\u2019re still there for them, and these are techniques they can do at home on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she and her team created pandemic-related promotions, including quarantine self-care home kits for curbside pickup and delivery. Finally, Ms. Owens offers virtual consultations with clients for $35 for a half-hour session, and is starting fee-based online courses on the elements of skin care.<\/p>\n

Georgia has permitted the opening of salons and spas; Ms. Owens held off until June 16, when she reopened. \u201cI care too much about my staff, clients and their families,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Owens is following state safety guidelines, including no walk-in appointments, an approved sanitation process on tools and equipment, temperature checks, gloves, face masks, and a customer medical questionnaire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Industry observers are guardedly confident that business and revenues will eventually bounce back. \u201cSkin-care, hair-care, and bath-and-body products appear to be benefiting from self-care and pampering trends, and a notable trend is the rise of do-it-yourself beauty care,\u201d according to a report from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company in early May.<\/p>\n

That bodes well for Iwi Fresh. Ms. Owens anticipates that her prices will likely increase, and she will employ fewer people in the months ahead. Her business model, too, will be different. \u201cMy focus will continue to shift to product retail sales and e-commerce sales from in-person spa services.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It is possible for small businesses to come out even stronger, said Scott Shigeoka, an entrepreneurship coach<\/a>. \u201cThere will be small operators like Iwi Fresh that walk away from this time with a more diverse customer base, stronger business model, new partnerships and resilience to future crises or pandemics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Ms. Owens, the survival instinct has not wavered since the early days of the pandemic. \u201cAs an entrepreneur, you can\u2019t choose giving up as an option,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to pivot. You have to make some changes. You have to adjust, but you can\u2019t quit. The key is to run as lean as possible without sacrificing quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But creativity will not get the job done without a dedicated customer base. \u201cDuring these times I received an incredible amount of support, love and compassion from our clients,\u201d Ms. Owens said. \u201cMy strength as an entrepreneur is faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future of the spa is still uncertain. \u201cIt is all about risk reduction,\u201d said Catherine Troisi, <\/strong>an infectious-disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston. \u201cYou are never going to get rid of all the health risk, so you want to do what you can. Physical distancing and masking as well as washing your hands, or hand sanitizer, are the three bedrocks that we have for prevention right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At Iwi Fresh, you can minimize contact with some services, \u201cbut a facial, that\u2019s going to be hard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There are things Ms. Owens can do to reassure the clientele such as temperature checks and signs reminding people how to properly wear a mask, Ms. Troisi said. \u201cThe question is whether clients are going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n