Nadine Thompson never imagined she’d become a star in the world of “network marketing” – that odd hybrid between socializing and sales that Tupperware and Mary Kay Cosmetics have used to get into countless American households.
A social worker with a master’s degree from Smith College, a former professor and dean of multicultural affairs at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Thompson hadn’t even set out to be an entrepreneur.
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Then one day in 1999, Daniel Wolf, an artist, art dealer and close friend of Thompson’s husband, Bob, came back from vacation with a moisturizing cream made by a natural healer. Wolf had bought the formula, even though he didn’t know what he was going to do with it.
“I said to Daniel, ‘Only rich white men buy [things] they don’t know what to do with,” Thompson recalled before a group of about 150 people, mostly women, at the Community College of Rhode Island Providence campus on June 8.
Thompson offered to help Wolf. She had an idea. And such has been the success of that idea – and their execution of it – that their company, Warm Spirit Inc., based in Exeter, N.H., did $15 million in sales last year. Last month, Black Enterprise magazine named it “Emerging Company of the Year.”
Thompson was the keynote speaker at “Emerging Women in Business,” a conference co-sponsored by the R.I. Coalition for Minority Investment and the Center for Women & Enterprise to help women entrepreneurs, especially women of color, develop their business savvy, connect with important resources and network with one another.
Along with Thompson’s address, the event included educational and promotional booths, a “speed-networking” session and workshops on how to plan and start a business, “financing 101” (in English and Spanish), how to move a home-based business into a storefront, branding and ways to promote a business through everything from business cards to Web sites.
Thompson’s role was both to motivate and to share her wisdom.
“The whole idea of having your own business and being an entrepreneur is really an exciting one,” she said. But looking back at her own experience, she added: “I had no idea how much work it was going to take to lead this company and to get us to this point.”
The key to surviving the grueling life of a startup business owner, she said, is to “do something that you love doing.” She loves her life, she said, even though she never rests.
As for the secret to business success, Thompson offered yet another nugget: “Create products people will like and enjoy.” If that seems simple and obvious, her story illustrates how much thought she and Wolf have put into applying that basic tenet.
Thompson’s idea for the herbal cream was to market it to African-American women in particular. As a black woman herself, and as a social worker, “I had encountered too many black women who didn’t feel good about themselves and struggled day to day,” she said.
The cream could provide the simple pleasures of having soft, smooth, nice-smelling skin, and the herbal formula reminded Thompson, who was born in Trinidad (but raised in Toronto), of old-time remedies and cosmetics. Building on the basic concept, she and Wolf developed a line of skin toners, shampoos, soaps, cleansers, moisturizers and other items.
They chose the direct sales/network marketing business model, Thompson said, because they wanted to empower people in the community, and that model – which involves selling to one’s friends, making new connections, hosting social gatherings, etc. – lent itself well to doing that.
They sold $84,000 worth in their first year, with a small network of “consultants,” as Thompson calls the sales team, who earned about $50 a month each. Now, she said, Warm Spirit has more than 24,000 consultants, mostly black women, and the best ones make as much as $20,000 or $30,000 a month. The company also has a strong network of suppliers, relying on smaller vendors that make the cosmetics in limited batches, with no preservatives.
“The reason we’re here,” Thompson said, “is not that there’s some great miracle out there. It’s really some basic things.” Persistence is a big part of it, she said. You also have to “know your customer” – really know the person’s wishes and needs, listen to what she has to say.
Innovation is also crucial, Thompson said – not just in products and concepts, but also in making the most of limited resources. Warm Spirit has forged great partnerships, she said, such as one to promote the film “G,” an African-American take on “The Great Gatsby,” that included a new “G” product line and giveaways at the film’s premiere.
Lastly, Thompson urged entrepreneurs to trust their intuition.
“Often women doubt their intuition or think they have to give up their intuition in order to make business decisions,” she said. Yet intuition can be a great guide, she said.
As a “very intuitive” person, she’s relied on it heavily in making day-to-day decisions.
And looking back, she said, “I’ve always found my intuition was right.” n
