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Watch this at Tampa Bay Online
By: TBO com
Monica Stewart, left, Jennifer Dutkowsky and Trista Page have formed a support network among themselves. As small business owners in Palma Ceia, the three use each other for business advice and emotional support. Credit: Tribune photo by JAMIE PILARCZYK
Women facing challenges together
Published: April 29, 2009
PALMA CEIA - Monica Stewart was feeling the weight of owning a new business; worrying about the economy and her fledging women's contemporary clothing and accessory shop.
She opened the shop, Sweet Emotion, in 2007. It shares a Palma Ceia retail plaza on MacDill Avenue with Yoko's Japanese Restaurant.
Stewart knocked on doors of other women-owned businesses in the neighborhood but couldn't get past polite greetings to find a support network.
"December was bad. January sucked. I felt exhausted. I felt like I didn't have a hope and a prayer," said Stewart, 28.
She was determined to make it work. So when she saw Jennifer Dutkowsky move in to the corner of the plaza, Stewart walked through the doors at WHYNOT Boutique and introduced herself. Soon after, Trista Page, owner of Indigo Bee on Bay to Bay Boulevard, joined the mix after she was introduced by mutual friends.
"After meeting with them, I felt like I had new ideas because we talked and shared," Stewart said. "Since then, things have gotten better."
Dutkowsky, who sells eco-friendly clothing and gifts, opened WHYNOT in November. With a master's degree in history, Dutkowsky has benefited from Page and Stewart's mentorship in business.
"Every day is a challenge; it's stressful," said Dutkowsky, 27. "But I don't regret it. I get to meet great people."
The technique of banding together is what independent businesses need to be doing, said Maryann Ferenc, president of the Tampa Independent Business Alliance and co-proprietor of Mise En Place restaurant.
"They are right on. That's how independent businesses manage," Ferenc said. "There is a creative spirit that is always looking at how it can be done, not if it can be done. It's inspiring to be around other small businesses."
The three women refer customers to each others' shops, bounce around ideas and rely on one other for emotional support. They even cross-promote items, such as Page making special soap scents for Dutkowsky's boutique. As businesses targeting similar customers, they say their shops complement each other rather than compete.
"I adore them immensely," said Page, 38. "I wish I would have had the guts to do what they are doing at their age."
Page, or Crazy Soap Lady as her family calls her, has three children and a "very helpful husband," Chris. She began her wholesale soap business in October 2006 and when pregnant with her youngest child, now 9 months old, decided to start the retail store. It opened in November.
"The drive is to be successful, but sometimes you just have to hang on," said Page. "We've found the best way is to rely on each other."
For information on the Tampa Independent Business Alliance, contact Maryann Ferenc at (813) 253-6473, ext. 23, or go to www.tiba tampa.org.
Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++INDIGO BEE ON NATIONAL TV! Check out the link below for a glimpse into the shop in South Tampa!
Indigo Bee had a small blurb in the City Times on Friday, October 31st:
Dollars and scents
Trista Page knows some people may not have money these days for a new car, lots of trendy clothes or a new sofa. But, she figures, they still like to shop.
Page, who opened a specialty soapmaking business out of her home last year, has taken over a small retail space at 3205 W Bay to Bay Blvd. The store, called Indigo Bee, will offer not only her signature soaps but a range of lotions, creams and bath products that can be formulated to order.
Shoppers will be able to combine their favorite product with any of 100 scents and a variety of colors.
"(People) buy my stuff because of the way it smells," Page said. "I came up with this as a way to offer every scent I could think of in really high-quality products. This way, anybody can be satisfied."
Page understands the problems in the economy pretty well (she used to work in the mortgage industry) but thinks that people will splurge on something small, even when they are holding tight to their wallets.
"It's a really tiny thing that can make people feel really good," she said.
Indigo Bee is expected to open in mid November. Hours will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Prices range from $6 for custom soap to $18 to $26 for custom lotions and other products.
By Sharon Ginn, Times Correspondent
In print: Friday, October 31, 2008
Full Article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/article880816.ece
Channel 10 WTSP filmed a story on Indigo Bee in October 2007.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=64384
Tampa, Florida — Like most moms, Trista Page does a lot of cooking in her south Tampa kitchen, but you wouldn't want to eat what she's mixing up today.
About a year ago, she was growing tired of her full time job as a mortgage broker and wanted to explore her artistic side.
- Trista Page, “Indigo Bee”:
- "Burn out is pretty high in the mortgage industry, and I've been doing it for so long and just needed a break. Wanted to do something different."
So, she founded a company called Indigo Bee and started making soaps and body lotion.
The work isn't easy, in part, because she works with lye. It's caustic and poisonous, so she doesn't work when her children are in the kitchen.
She does a lot of her creating at night, after her daughters are asleep.
- Trista Page:
- "It's very analytical, which I love, but it's also very creative, because you can develop this thing and look at all of your things and say, 'I made this. This is mine.'"
And making soaps and bath products gives her the time to watch her children grow up.
She advises anyone who wants to work for themselves to find something they love, and stay with it.
- Trista Page:
- "There were many times when I wanted to give up. After my first batch of soap, I wanted to give up. It was pretty bad. Don't give up, and don't talk yourself out of something you want to do."
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A business plan with a pleasing aroma
By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF Front Porch
Published September 21, 2007
St. Pete Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/21/Citytimes/A_business_plan_with_.shtml
Trista Page is a 36-year-old mother of two who has a degree in finance and likes to compete in triathlons.
But her friends, family and husband think of her in a different way: "They all call me 'the crazy soap lady,'" she said with a laugh. "I've even had T-shirts printed up."
Last fall, Page launched her all-natural line of scented handmade soaps, lotions, body scrubs, soy candles and fragrant reed diffusers from the kitchen of her Ballast Point home.
She named it Indigo Bee and put her products in hip aqua and brown packaging.
She typically works late at night or on weekends turning out small batches of scented soaps in aromas that can make a heart sing: cedar-sage, rosemary mint, lavender, magnolia and vanilla mocha latte, to name a few. Right now her house smells like the soap scent of the fall: pumpkin pie.
"Scent really goes back to our childhoods," she said. "I call it scent memory."
Page was born in St. Petersburg and grew up on a farm in Plant City.
"We lived in the middle of the country with lots of property and trees, and the scents I remember are orange blossom, night-blooming jasmine and freshly mowed grass," she said.
"My mom was always cooking so I also love cinnamon, clove and vanilla."
She sells mostly from her Web site, www.indigobeesoap.com, and by word of mouth to friends and friends of friends, plus a growing cadre of bay area day spas that contract for their own exclusive lines of fragrant products.
Pagegot the idea for Indigo Bee while visiting the Natural Health Studio Spa in Temple Terrace. The owner is a friend of hers. "They sell beautiful handmade soaps, and while I was getting a massage, I started thinking, 'I could learn how to do this,'" Page said. It wasn't the first time Page dreamed of launching her own line of natural beauty products. The idea took root in 1993 when a finance course at the University of South Florida required her to develop a solid business plan. The idea was good; the business plan was a bust. The professor gave her a B and told her if the plan was real, she would be bankrupt in five years. Live and learn. She went on to a career in banking, ultimately as a treasury manager for AmSouth Bank. "I loved the job but didn't love working at a bank," said Page, who has been a mortgage broker for eight years. She calls that her day job. Making soaps, lotions and other scented products consumes the rest of her time. "I go to bed at 10 and get up at 6 and then go all day," Page said. "I don't sit down. I also have a very helpful husband." Her husband, Chris Page, 37, is co-owner of Top-Notch Painting. They have two daughters, Keeley, 6, and Josey, 1. Page's dream is to have her own office and inventory space in a warehouse her husband is building around the Port of Tampa. She doesn't keep a lot of inventory on hand, partly because she believes consumers want fresh products, but also because she doesn't have room in her kitchen. She thinks she hit on a great idea at a great time, when people want to know what's in the products they're using and want their homes to smell good. Her products evolve and change with seasons and consumer tastes. What's she making this fall in her kitchen? When she's done with the pumpkin pie soap, she's got something called "Open Sleigh Ride" on the menu: It smells like pine trees and peppermint and snowy nights. For $6 a pop, you can soap yourself up in a scented memory. As for Page, well, she might be onto something big. "I want to be the next Bath & Body Works and known as a company that started in South Tampa," she said. "I'm really passionate about this."
