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HBN Success Spotlight on
Carrie Duncan of Pixie Vision Botanicals
April 28, 2003 Member
Success Spotlights are one of the benefits of HBN membership. To learn more
about this and other HBN member benefits, click here. Introduction
To Pixie Vision Botanicals
 Carrie
Duncan of Pixie Vision Botanicals in Soquel, California, runs her handmade
beauty business part-time at the moment, but has high hopes of taking it
full-time. Prior to starting Pixie Vision, Carrie worked as a freelance
graphic designer providing Web design, graphics art and animation services
to her clients. While she continues this work currently, she is taking steps
to phase it out and concentrate fully on Pixie Vision in the future.
Starting
Small With Big Ideas!
Pixie Vision
Botanicals started 4 years ago as an annual holiday gift passion.
Carrie made handmade beauty goodies for friends and family and
received such encouraging responses that she decided to participate in
holiday craft shows. This allowed her to start small, and as she improved her recipes and ideas, her business began to grow. Carrie recently launched
her Web site and looks forward to enjoying 100% of her sales online. The
Pixie Vision line includes handmade
soap, bath salts, bath teas, massage oils, after bath spritzes and eye and
dream pillows. To launch her line, Carrie used money
saved from her successful craft shows and
some small lines of credit she obtained specifically for Pixie Vision. Her
background as a professional designer has allowed her to save thousands of
dollars on a professionally designed Web site and on labels, brochures and
packaging materials.
The Details Of Running A Business & Looking
To The Future Pixie Vision's
best selling products
are its dream pillows. Carrie says this is because the hand-stenciling on
them makes them really nice gifts. Of course, her handmade soaps are big
sellers as well.
Carrie's overarching goal is to earn a level of income
from Pixie Vision that will allow her to
support myself as well as enjoy other goals in life. So far, she's doing
great, pointing out that she loves making her products and seeing the
delighted
reactions of happy customers. Of course, Carrie says, she takes the
bitter with the sweet, recognizing the huge challenge of "getting the
word out about what Pixie Vision is and why our products are
worth purchasing." In fact, getting the word out is such a challenge
that Carrie points out that the best advice she can give to a new handmade
beauty business is to "learn everything possible about marketing!"
Another important detail is to make sure the labeling on your products is
just as lovely as the products themselves.
Benefits of HBN
Membership
Carrie is excited to be participating in HBN, and as
one of our newest members is looking forward to using HBN to spread the word
about Pixie Vision. She's also looking forward to networking
with others who share her love of handmade toiletries and other interests.
Carrie and Pixie Vision Botanicals
can be contacted
at pixie@pixie-vision.com and through
her Web site.
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