24 - Tania Reuben of Pure Natural Diva

After growing up in a pretty unconventional environment, Tania left behind her ‘natural roots’.   However, after becoming a mom she started to become more aware of the bad product in so many of our beauty product.  She started getting more interested in the topic and decided to start a blog (after everyone kept asking her the same questions).  From there, that passion and hobby became a bit time-consuming.  She decided to officially turn it either info a full-time business or settle on a hobby.

She decided to take her wealth of knowledge and just make her own company from it, by making her own natural beauty line.

What was your first step in starting a skincare line?  Research.  She’s super big on research and decided to find out first if this was something she could do herself or if she needed to find someone else to do it for her.  Once she decided she could do it on her own, she made a contingency plan that if she couldn’t do it herself, she would bring on someone else.

What’s been your strategy for moving online vs. in retail?  Her product is very tangible, but she has really made a point of becoming passionate about building her audience and makes that more of her focus.  She’s certainly open to the stores that are out there.  Her real focus is on building Pure Natural Diva Loyalists.

How do you get over the tangible issue if you’re strictly selling online?  She does a lot of shows and adds people to the VIP list.  So at least those people have been able to try and experience the products.  Also creating a sampling program so people can order the samples and experience them before purchasing a full bottle, has helped to bring more exposure and trials of her products.

What has been a big marketing win?  Most of her money and effort has been via shows.  When it comes to her PR and social media, it hasn’t been as direct.  If she does a blogger push, sales come in after.  However, they’re not coming in from a direct place, so it’s harder to figure out which review is creating the conversion.  She has been able to notice that when there’s been activity,, there have been conversions.

How have you been able to get celebrities to endorse your product?  She set out this year with a focus on celebrity outreach.  She participates in a group called The Artesian Group.  There is an organizer that offers several celebrity gifting opportunities.  However, she’s also been able to use her own contacts because her husband is a writer.  It was simply just an ask.

She loves to call her product ‘green from the inside out’.  It’s definitely an in-your-face green product.   She’s all about making this an experience whether you’re looking for a natural product or something that actually works (beauty-wise, etc).

What was a moment when you knew you were exactly where you were supposed to be entrepreneur wise?  After doing a few shows, she did find another show in NY, which was one of the biggest shows for perfume in the country.  Even though nothing was quite ready, she decided she should do this show.  She only had the info from the focus groups she had done, and just from people she had smell the products.

So she went to this show, absolutely knowing what was about to happen.  However, a reporter from Women’s Wear Daily came over to tell her that she was going to be featured in the magazine.

If you knew someone wanting to jump into the entrepreneur game, what would you tell them?  Tania is a very careful person and researcher, so her advice would be really around analyzing and making sure you’re getting into the right thing.  Also, know you’re ready to take on the commitment, and that you’re ready for the time and resource commitment.

What's one thing in your business that you can't live without? She has an iPhone 5, and does all of her product shots on her phone and a DIY camera set-up.  She also loves her Square reader; it just becomes a mobile cash register.  She also suggests Asana.com for project management.

More About Tania:  ‘Safe Scents’ advocate, Tania Reuben is passionate about educating the dangers of scent toxins. The founder of the eco-savvy lifestyle site PureNaturalDiva.com, Tania is a trusted source in the green lifestyle movement. Her latest endeavor is Pure Natural Diva Botanicals (www.PNDbotanicals.com) a line of botanical natural perfumes, elegantly organic body and skin care backed by the Pure Natural Diva reputation. Pure Natural Diva has been featured in WWD, Bella NYC, ABC NEWS, CBS NEWS, and Martha Stewart.