The Accidental Entreprenuer

I never had any formal business training. By that I mean; no MBA , not a single business class during my undergraduate years and no advanced statistics classes after high school.

I call myself an “Accidental Entrepreneur” and never achieving an MBA has always made me feel a bit insecure, to say the least.

So it was very interesting to recently to hear Frank Rimalovski speak, Executive Director at the Entrepreneurial Institute at New York University.  I was invited by my tennis partner and librarian Sarah Lester, to the Maplewood Ideas Festival, at her library.

Sarah is not the introverted, bookish, Dewey Decimal System librarian. Seriously..,if she was, we wouldn't be tennis partners.  Her festival is extremely innovative, utilizing the library to inspire residents, bring people together and find the resources within her own community.

I didn’t expect much out of the hour, but Frank (a “local”) was truly frank. He spoke in real language, shared truthful statistics about new ventures and reconfirmed that my logical approach was just fine.

I finally realized that the high power MBA degree, was not a substitute for life lessons and an intuitive business sense.

In his PowerPoint, Frank played a game with the attendees. He showed slides with three characteristics of three different companies and we had to guess the corporation. In each slide he highlighted the functional, emotional and social justifications of these businesses (See my graphic above?). Of course in unison all the attendees like a chorus immediately identified the fairytale start-up stories. “Facebook”, “Apple” and “Amazon”.

When I came home that evening it didn't take me but a few minutes to make my own graphic to reconfirm that what I am doing is still relevant, useful and valuable. I admit my product was a bit pre-mature, but those simple boxes explain why Ellen Lange Retexturizing Peel continues to be a success.

A long time ago, I began my fairytale with this …

“Like you, I did not see significant improvements by just slathering expensive products on my face. I realized the need for multi-step treatments that would deliver professional results at home.  So while working as a skin care specialist alongside my father and brothers in their plastic surgery practice, I created Retexturizing Peel to rejuvenate skin, diminish fine lines, even skin tone and control breakouts.”

I write this blog so others too can appreciate the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur in the beauty business.  I am self-diagnosed as "classic" and “accidental” entrepreneur, creating peel kits with passion and love.