Gearing up for Battle

This whole thing - starting a business, becoming a manufacturer, raising money, balancing it with a day job, overseeing back and front end of all operations... it's war, I tell you. WAR!

At times, it was war with the accountant.

At times, it was war with the bank - or the fact that it was showing no love.

At times, I cannot lie, my husband.

At times, every vendor.

At times, the friends and family who gave the seed money to help kick it off.

And much of the time, it's war with yourself. At least it is for me.

This is where we are in the story...

We were taking meetings with investors (and luckily, the fabulously amazing SoHo space where we did our launch event, Meet, was generous enough to let us crash in their chic all-white conference room, equipped with humungo flat-screen and Knoll furnishing for good measure).

For this kind of presentation, you need to be nipped, tucked, perfectly prepped. Our friend Phillippe, who works with Calliope Studies, who did all of our branding, is a mad genius with the camera and video equip.

He helped us put together a "sizzle reel," a few minute video that really reflects the brand's image - a mix of press, blog event footage, broacast media, and collateral. It was a hit, I must say. See for yourself here.

Also a hit: our business plans, thicker than my quickly growing waistline (all of the stress, I cannot lie, drove me to chocolate).

But one fact remained: In a down economy, getting money is no easy feat.

We had no site and press. We had to get something up on the web - we were looking really stupid. So we did manage to get up a one pager to tide us over until we were ready to ship.

We were in a holding pattern with our delivery - STILL!

And so it went.

Here are the details - the ugly business of the beauty world!

More juice soon!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix