# 6 A New Venture

I'm contemplating starting my own small business and would welcome any suggestions, comments and recommendations you might like to give me. I have an opportunity to manufacture and locally distribute a small line of all natural personal body products - a women's line of products and a men's line of products. I am looking for input on what you feel about this type of product.

Unlike many commercially made products, these items would truly be as close to 100% natural as possible and would include: Bath & Body Bar Soap, Beauty Soap, Body Splash, Body Powder, Shower Gel, Shampoo, Conditioner, Hand & Body Lotion, Night Time Moisturizing Cream, Cologne and Herbal Deodorant. For men: Pre-Shave Conditioning Oil, Shaving Soap, After Shave, Cologne and an Herbal Shower Bar Soap. Each product line would have its own proprietary scent - giving each line a "mix and match" fragrance factor.

My primary questions are:
1.) Would you be interested in such products? Or, do you think there are many people you know who might be interested in such products? (I'm not looking for names, I'm looking for numbers and seeking demographic info.)
2.) These types of products are expensive to make - especially in a cottage industry environment - the resulting sales price is normally going to be quite a bit higher than what you can obtain at WalMart or your local drugstore. Keeping in mind that many of those other products have parabens and other dangerous, dubious chemicals and synthetic ingredients, would you and/or those you know be willing to pay more money in order to eliminate the possible dangers of exposing yourself and family members to these questionable ingredients?
3.) Natural products are "green" and environmentally friendly. Would this influence your decision to purchase them?
4.) These products and the marketing thereof, will be taking a "back to basics" approach, without adopting "old wives' tales" and folk lore. Emphasis will be put on "purity," "simplicity," "organic ingredients" (when available), and modern holistics. How do you feel about this approach? Do you think it would make you and/or your friends more or less interested in these products?
5.) Any other relative comments you'd care to share.

Looking forward to getting some input on the subject...........Thank you in advance!

# 5 - E-Commerce

As fascinating as blogging is.......

I'm really looking forward to learning how to put together a web site! I'm contemplating starting my own little cottage industry and a web site would need to play a big part.

More later.

# 4 - Where I live

* I live in Michigan City, Indiana - population about 35,000 - on the tip of Lake Michigan, about halfway between South Bend (home of the Fighting Irish) and Chicago (da' Bears) - and, there is also the Indianapolis Colts. It's all SO emotionally upsetting sometimes, ya know?

It might sound strange to some of you, but Michigan City is a resort town! Yep! We have one of the country's last working lighthouses (above) and beautiful Lake Michigan during the summer - with the sailboats, racing boats and cruisers dotting the sparkling blue/green waters of one of the world's largest inland lakes. In the winter time, the lake freezes over for hundreds of feet along the shore. But the ice is deceiving. Because of the lake's ever-moving tide, there is always moving water under the ice shelf - causing the shelf to be VERY unstable and dangerous to walk on. The lake can be dangerous in the summer time too though. Because the lake is so large, it is subject to rip tides, similar to those found along sea shores. Each year, at least half a dozen swimmers and/or kayakers disappear due to the rip currents along Lake Michigan's shore.

In fact, "Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes wholly within the borders of the United States; the others are shared with Canada. It has a surface area of 22,400 square miles (bigger than Massachusetts and Vermont put together), making it the largest lake entirely within one country by surface area, and the fifth largest lake in the world. It is 307 miles long by 118 miles wide with a shoreline 1,640 miles long. The lake's average depth is 279 feet, while its greatest depth is 923 feet." (http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/atlas/index.html) Legend says there are hundreds of "sunken ships" hiding on the bottom of the lake - anyone ever heard of The Edmund Fitzgerald (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald)?

We're also home to Mt. Baldy - one of the country's only "living" dunes - moving an average of 4 feet per year, nicknamed the "singing sands" because of the noise the silica sand makes as it is blown around by the lake shore winds. http://www.nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/mt-baldy.htm

* Indiana is known for its beautiful fall foliage. In the fall, Parke County, Indiana has a Covered Bridge Festival Tour that is HUGE.

http://www.coveredbridges.com/



* We're also pretty proud of Door Prairie Barn, an eight-sided barn built in 1878 by M. J. Ridgway, a breeder horses - of Clydesdale stock brought here from Scotland and Norman Draft horses from France. The stalls were built in a pie shape, around a round central core. Straw and hay, kept in the loft, could then be funneled down the center of the barn and easily transferred to individual stalls.

http://www.laportecountyhistory.org/jan04.htm


* Our county seat is located nearby in La Porte, Indiana. This is a picture of our courthouse, built in 1833 (before Indiana was even a state), at a price of $3,975. It was built from "well-burnt brick" that was made on the site.

* Have you ever heard of Belle Gunness? Purported to have killed as many as 40 men, she came to La Porte and set up housekeeping in 1900 - only to become our very own legendary female serial killer! http://www.laportecountyhistory.org/belleg1.htm

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!!!


Welcome to my "neck"of the woods!!!!
(click here)

# 3 - OK, yeah - I have a "thing" for cats...

These are my babies. The black one is Rocky, 10 years old and the other one is Harley Earl, 3 yrs old. Both are rescues. Both think they're human. Unfortunately, I've never been able to teach them how to do human things - clean house, do the dishes, etc......

I found Rocky in the parking lot of the place I worked about 10 years ago. We speculate that he "rode the rail into town" on one of the other cars parked on the lot. He was really tiny and sick. He fit in the palm of my hand and spent the first week I had him in the intensive care unit of my vet's office. He was my "$500 monster kitty!" He's named after the movie character of the same name - he has no concept of the word "no." But I swear he understands every word I say....

Harley was a shelter adoption. He and his brother were found huddled next to their dead mother along side of the rode, after a night of pouring rain and thunderstorms. His brother was black and white and marked like a tuxedo. When I spotted him, he came right out and reached his paw through the cage at me. The shelter folks said this was very unusual for him because his brother was usually the dominate one of the two. So - I figured it was a sign and brought him home that day. (I actually felt bad about leaving his brother there alone and called the next day to say I'd take him too, but he had been adopted already.) The shelter named him Harley because he came in the same day as a new Harley Davidson bike had been donated to the shelter for auction to raise money. I'm not a big fan of motorcycles.....but I didn't change his name right away. I like to let my babies "name themselves." About a week after he came home with me, I was watching TV and he was sitting on the end of the bed. A car advertisement came on and said, "Hi! My name is Harley Earl..." and when he heard his name, that cat's head whipped around and looked at the TV set so fast I thought his head would fly off! Well, that was that. He became "Harley Earl." He, too, is smart as a whip! Although he remains traumatized from his kitten ordeal - as soon as it start to rain, he dives under the bed and won't come out until it stops raining. Poor little guy.

# 2 - For No Reason Whatsoever -

And now, for no reason whatsoever, I would like you to watch the following video clips....or do you see a theme forming?

# 1 - WELCOME!

Boston University Blog #1

(CLICK ON PLAY TO HEAR MY PERSONALIZED GREETING!)

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!!

My name is Annetta and I am a long distance learning student at Boston University.





This blog is part of an assignment I have for the E-Commerce course I am taking. I have never created a blog site before. In fact, I have never "blogged" before. I have always had the impression that it was primarily utilized by people who liked to whine and complain...
Or by those who think so highly of themselves that they INSIST on forcing their views and opinions onto the rest of us...

I now understand - thanks to higher education.....


that although I may have to be drug there kicking and screaming...
and FORCED into accepting IT...

..... "blogging" is part of the brave new world I must learn to accept as reality!