My husband last night pointed something out to me that I hadn't really noticed. He was processing orders, and said... "Did you realize that in about 90 orders, Aromaleigh will have hit the #100,000 mark?
Times flown by so quickly, that I didn't even notice! I'm not one to brag about stats, followers, orders shipped, number of friends, or anything like that. But this milestone is something that I just can't keep quiet about... 100,000 orders!
That's a lot of orders. And actually, I'm not sure of the exact number other than that it's 100,000 through Yahoo store, which we started with at the end of 1999- about 18 months after starting online sales. Prior to that we used a different host and shopping cart.
I'm trying to picture how many shipments that is and the only way I can possible picture it in my head is like this... the new Yankee stadium has a little over 50,000 seats. Have you ever been to a baseball game at a full stadium?
Here's the nosebleed seats we had at a Yankees game this past summer... this was a sold out game. Now double that photo and then multiply it times two. Or just put two packages on each seat...
Realizing this put my mind at work over the last 11 years, remembering... when did things really get busy? For the first 3 years, I was still working as an art director in Rochester, freelancing for different agencies. We'd ship 10-15 orders a day at most! In 2001, I made a complete break from art direction to focus solely on Aromaleigh. That's when things started gaining momentum. Mentally, I was in a great place. Once all of my attention was on Aromaleigh, things started to shift.
Ironically, things didn't go gangbusters until the beginning of May of 2002, the month that my son, Connor was born. I woke up one morning, waddled out to my laptop on the couch, and logged in to my inbox. There were over 50 orders in it. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but at the time- it was overwhelming. I was really bewildered and initially thought it must be a yahoo site glitch. But it wasn't...
I checked my site stats, and saw that I was getting tons of hits from the customer forums at HSN and QVC, and clicking on a referral link, was taken to a thread where Aromaleigh products were being discussed! Did you know, that back then I didn't even have the words "mineral makeup" on my website? We had Pure Powder, Illuminator, Pure Blush and Pure Eyes Frost and Matte shadows. We also had Colorwash, for lips. I referred to these items as "Natural Makeup". The women there were discussing that they had found a new place to get really affordable mineral makeup, in pretty colors and great pricing. At the time, brands like Bare Escentuals and Jane Iredale were how you purchased mineral makeup. An alternative source- a small company that you coudl actually interact with, was unheard of!
Let's take a trip back in time, shall we? Internetarchive.org is an amazing resource that catalogues websites and archives them. In March of 2002, this is what Aromaleigh.com looked like... in the cosmetics department (most images are broken links because image data is deleted from a server once the product is deleted). Back then, I had never even heard of Bare Escentuals and had no idea that the natural makeup I was formulating was actually the begining of giant wave... mineral makeup. The FDA website offered many guidelines and good manufacturing practices for formulating cosmetics, but with no mention of "mineral" makeup. Just everything one would need to know about acceptable and safe ingredients, allowable percentages, product claims and the correct way to label your products. I had started offering cosmetics by customer request about 18 months before, with my first cosmetic product, Colorwash. Soon, customers wanted healthy face powder, eyeshadows and blush. But I never heard anything about mineral makeup. Once I realized what I was creating, Aromaleigh Mineral Cosmetics was the buzzword.
Somehow, I kept the momentum going. My son was born almost 7 weeks early, and I was suddenly a single mom with a preemie. I knew about the single mom part ahead of time... I had been planning for it for months! But I wasn't expecting a preemie... for a few weeks I juggled the NICU with Aromaleigh, back and forth several times a day.
It was now June of 2002 and I was processing more orders than I ever imagined I would. I hired another full time employee, and we worked continously packing jars, samples, orders. Repeat! At this time I frustratingly discovered that in New York, single mothers don't have custody of their child. You have to petition the family court for custody. I did this, and also petitioned the court to allow me to relocate to South Carolina, where my family had moved. I soon was in the middle a a long, drawn-out custody battle. The rest of the year was a blur of sleeplessness, court appearances, and Aromaleigh moving forward faster than I could keep up.
On December 25, 2002, Connor and I moved to South Carolina. Aromaleigh was closed for about a month (our longest '"time out" in history) as we got settled and set up shop again. I stopped offering Aromaleigh pet products, as my book, Holistic Aromatherapy for Animals, had just been published by Findhorn Press. I also discontinued all of my Aromatherapy Bath & Body products, other than natural fragrances and skincare. It was clear what my customers wanted... and that was MINERAL MAKEUP!
It will be 7 years in South Carolina this December. I'm ceased being a single Mom in 2007, and now work beside my husband as we raise our two boys. I never dreamed that I'd live South of the Mason Dixon line, and I never imagined what this journey would be like. Last year was our ten year anniversary, and I'm presently watching as we bear down on 100,000 orders and honestly- it's very surreal! A big company might look at that number and laugh, but when you're a small company with a few employees- it feels very monumental.
So, I wanted to share this milestone with you, along with some Aromaleigh history...
And, to let you know that I have a very special contest drawing that pertains to the 100,000... that I will be drafting later today and posting tomorrow!
Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive for all of these years, to everyone who has come to Aromaleigh to try our products, and stuck around... to all of you who spread word about us to your friends, family and strangers on the street...
Without you, this milestone would be something I'd only be looking at from very far away, with binoculars.
I'm deeply grateful to be where I'm sitting today and I just wanted to express my thanks. (and... Go Yankees... you know where I'll be tonight... yep, watching the Phillies- my favorite childhood team- battle it out against the family-favorite Yankees. In my Grandfather's memory, and many long Summer afternoons spent with him watching games, I'm rooting for NY)
xoxo
Miss K
