What Absolutely Natural's Sea Turtle Awareness Month Means to Us

Several months ago, I mentioned that we had partnered with the Brevard Zoo and started donating a portion of our spa revenues to help build a much needed sea turtle rehab program. We are patrons of the zoo and one of our goals is to help finish the rehab environment in 2012.

More recently we have joined with the Sea Turtle Preservation Society to help with their good work. Headquartered in our home county of Brevard, Florida, the society’s purpose is to educate the public about marine turtles. STPS reaches thousands of people each year through public presentations, exhibits at area events, and by turtle watches during the sea turtle nesting season.

The goal is to help maintain the current sea turtle population and to prevent a potentially irreversible decline in that population and there are several programs important to that end. One of the most crucial is to reduce disturbances and harassment of nesting sea turtles by educating the public about how devastating beach lighting, habitat destruction and nighttime beach activities can be for the turtles.

The Society also has teams for rescuing distressed hatchlings and adult sea turtles and transporting them to proper rehab facilities. This is where Absolutely Natural’s work with the Brevard Zoo could help this process immensely as the closest facility is currently in St Augustine (nearly a 3 hour drive away). STPS also performs monthly beach cleanup working with Keep Brevard Beautiful, Adopt-A-Beach program.

How we're working to make a difference:

• We raised more than $2000 with our initial donations in part through sign ups on our Facebook page. We have brought this incentive back for the entire month of August. Already a fan? Great, let your friends and family know! Each new fan means we'll donate $1 extra dollar towards these great causes. Let's get those numbers up!
  
  
• We are also sponsoring STPS’s Turtle Krawl 5k Run on September 17th in Nance Park in Indialantic, Florida. It is one of their major fundraisers and some of Absolutely Natural’s personnel are going to run in the event while the rest of us will man a booth.
  
  
• For the month of August, we are offering special Sea Turtle Tote Bags for sale, both individually and with kits of our products. We will donate a percentage of the sales of these totes and kits to the Brevard Zoo and the Sea Turtle Preservation Society.
  
  
• We are also putting stickers on our mail order boxes as well as info about sea turtles on all of our new Absolutely Natural spa labels. Thousands of people a month will see the labels on these products that are distributed all over the world.

We are happy and proud to be a small part of this noble cause … to protect this majestic animal and hopefully see their population grow every year.

Best regards

Charley

Our Amazing Fans & Friends

It is a rare thing to find a company that can truly inspire people and even more rare to have such accessibility to these same people. Every day, Charley personally answers the phones along with the rest of his staff. They answer emails, pop onto Facebook and welcome visitors to their Melbourne, Florida location. But what makes this most significant? They listen.

Absolutely Natural is the company they are today, in part, because of the impressive vision, passion and personality of Charley and his staff. But, what inspire them every day are their fans and friends who share their experiences, ideas and accolades. I can still remember one of my first meetings with them. They handed me a full stack of printed testimonials and were able to recite numerous stories by heart. They know life-long clients by name and can tell you details about their families and careers. No joke.

It is this same group of people, their fans and friends, who are now showing their support for such a great cause, raising nearly $900 as of today! In helping sea turtles survive, we help other sea creatures as well. This recent push to have our friends and fans show their support on Facebook has been inspiring to us and we’re so close to reaching our goal and then some.

I wanted to reach out and say thank you for making it all possible. You are a critical part of what makes Absolutely Natural such an amazing company. We are looking forward to more fun projects to come, but for now… thank you and ONWARD!

Absolutely Natural and Facebook? But Why?

Many of you may have noticed that we’ve been reaching out to our fans a lot on Facebook lately. While we know not everyone wants a Facebook account, we know there are over 500 million people throughout the world on there, and we figure a good slice of our fans are among those 500 million.

Why do we like Facebook?
Facebook gives us an opportunity to interact with our fans in a way that email and blogs haven’t been able to do. We get to include our fans in some of our day-to-day decisions, helping us decide on a new fragrance, suggesting new products and more!

Let’s face it, we’re a small, but growing company and we love how it feels so much like a family. We want to include our fans in that family, and no matter how far you live from our offices in Melbourne, Florida, it feels like you’re right here with us.

What is Fan Friday?
For a limited time (until May 1st) we’re offering Facebook fan specials. These are only available for a handful of hours across as many lunch hours as possible each Friday. Again, because we’re a small company, and we’re only on-site for so many hours ourselves, we run these specials from 11 am to 4:00 pm EST.

It’s our way to say thank you for supporting us and sharing how much you enjoy Absolutely Natural with your friends and family.

We hope that you’ll enjoy spending time with us online, swing on by and say hello won’t ya?
Our Facebook Page

The Turtles Need Our Help

We are fortunate enough to live, work and play in Brevard County Florida, one of the worlds most important nesting grounds for sea turtles. From the first of May through the early fall, sea turtles climb the beach to the dunes where they build nests to lay their hundreds of eggs.

The hatchlings emerge (usually in the summer) and frantically head toward the water. It is an amazing phenomenon to watch and my kids and I saw it right before our eyes about 20 years ago on one warm summer night at our beach. I have been a huge fan and supporter of sea turtles ever since. As you may be aware, these majestic creatures are struggling to survive and thrive.

Recently we partnered with the Brevard Zoo and becoming patrons supporting their important work as they build their sea turtle rehab program. In addition, with the start of our newest Absolutely Natural spa line, we have dedicated space on each label to help raise awareness of sea turtles. These bottles are distributed worldwide to resorts fronting the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

Of course, our products are reef-friendly and the recent scientific study of our sunblocks proves that our sunscreens biodegrade in as little as 14 days. Incredible when you consider chemical sunscreens can take months and months to biodegrade and are thought to be one of the main causes of our precious coral reefs dying off at an alarming rate.

We invite you to join us in supporting these magnificent turtles. To learn how you can help make a difference in sea turtle survival, visit:

Sea Turtle Conservancy
The Sea Turtle Conservancy, formerly known as the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, is the world's oldest sea turtle research and conservation group. Sea Turtle Conservancy's research programs have yielded much of what is now known about sea turtles and the threats they face, and the organization is applying this knowledge to carry out the world's most successful sea turtle protection and recovery programs.

Sea Turtle Preservation Society
The society's goal is to help maintain the current sea turtle population and to prevent a potentially irreversible decline in that population.

The Narture Conservency
The Nature Conservancy protects Earth's most important natural places — for you and future generations — through great science and smart partnerships.

Florida Wildlife Federation
The "Goal" of the Federation is to be the leader in promoting, through education and political action, the conservation, restoration, sound management, and wise and ethical use of Florida's natural resources, to the end that present and future Floridians may live, work and pursue traditional outdoor activities in an outstanding natural environment.

Florida Marine Turtle Program
FWC helps to protect and conserve marine turtles and their habitat through the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation - Imperiled Species Management Section (ISM), the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) and the the Division of Law Enforcement (LE).

Giving Thanks

This year has been a whirlwind and personally it is hard for me to believe that Thanksgiving is here and before you know it, the first of the year.

And, even in this hectic business and holiday cycle, it is important to take a step back, evaluate what is happening and be thankful for the really important things in life.

As the owner of Absolutely Natural, my biggest thanks go to our loyal customers. You are the reason we set our standards so high and never compromise on quality. The thousands of letter we get are proof positive our insistence on being the best is working.

One of my biggest thrills is talking to our customers some of whom I have “known” for almost 20 years. I recently had the privilege of meeting Maureen Hafner who has been a favorite of mine since 1999, when she found our products in Waikiki Beach. We attended the I-Spa show in Washington D.C. and Maureen and her husband came by and we had a lovely visit. It was great putting a face to the voice.

I am so thankful for our dedicated staff and all the hard work they put in to make these wonderful products. They know how much I appreciate them one and all. Lindsey who is our project manager and Vice President of the company; Danny who heads our production area and soon to be in sales; Todd, national sales manager; Anita, Matt, Chris and Evan in production; Ben who is in inventory control plus all of our sub contractors.

A special thanks to Bob Hamner, formula developer extraordinaire and Suzanne Clements, who has made all of us look better with her incredible talents in photography, graphic design, copy writing and a million other things.

I am also thankful for our great list of retailers who have made our product known worldwide. As of last count we are in nearly 300 resorts.

We are also grateful to the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way so we can live a free life and take advantage of our opportunities. To the brave soldiers and sailors and our air force and all branches of service, we thank you and feel blessed to have you.

Here’s to a great holiday season.

Best regards,

Charley

Practically the entire Absolutely Natural team just returned from a harried, hectic, incredibly busy, incredibly productive and all around fantastic convention in Lexington, Kentucky where we introduced a new line of products to several thousand people. The new line is a private label called Envy Organics.

Joining me were Lindsey Pushman, Todd Anderson, Danny Richards, Bob Hamner and Suzanne Clements. We worked as a team demonstrating and explaining the benefits of the new line on thousands of attendees. It was amazing to see our booth swamped 5-10 people deep. As one group moved onto the event store, another group filled in right behind to learn about the new line.

Lindsey and Suzanne were eventually moved to the event store to help answer questions and explain the new line to those who may have missed our booth. In these three days, I saw the most frenzied buying that I have ever witnessed this side of a 75% off shoe sale at Macy’s New York store!

We, aka the “Envy Team”, became quite recognizable over these three days and we truly enjoyed meeting this new group, taking their questions and getting to hear what made them so excited about this new line.

One of the most frequently asked questions directed to me was, How was it that I am so passionate about Absolutely Natural? I think a few of them silently added, Especially for your age!

That’s the easiest question I’ve ever had asked of me. There are so many reasons I love my job and my company. One of the biggest reasons is the young people that work with me. I feed off their enthusiasm and energy. The average age of our employees in our Melbourne office and factory is 27 years old. They are passionate, eager to learn and have great, innovative ideas. It’s infectious and one of the reasons the company is growing so quickly.

Another reason is our products and how they help people. It is a joy to answer the phone and talk with our sales personnel across the world. They almost always are calling to tell yet another story about how our sunscreens or aloes saved someone’s vacation.

Being able to develop unique formulas working with only the best raw materials and the most gifted formulators and cosmetic chemists definitely heightens the passion. I could never sell something I don’t believe in and am product to sell our world class products.

The biggest reason, of course, is the customers. For almost 20 years now we have had a special relationship with our clients. There are some that I know well. Maureen from Virginia; Karla from Chicago; Shan from Nebraska; John and Jamie from Oklahoma; Hillary from New York and I could go on and on. I’ve talked to customers and recommended products for them after their babies were born … those “babies” are now in college.

There are always problems / challenges running a small business but there are so many things to be passionate about.

Suzanne Clements Star of Space Coast Addy Awards

Movies have their Oscar. Television has the Emmy. Music the Grammy.

Have you heard of the Addy? It is the reward given to people of the advertising and marketing industries. Maybe not as well known as the big three above but equally important to the 100's of thousands in the industry and the millions of people who are educated, informed, entertained and encouraged to buy products from the business owners who benefit from their creativity. Like Absolutely Natural.

I was privileged to attend the 2010 AAF Space Coast Addy Awards last night at the Melbourne Beach Hilton in Melbourne Florida. Our design artist (and so much more!) cleaned up. Suzanne Clements, who has her fingerprint on just about everything we have done the past two years, picked up six gold medals, 5 silver medals and the Best of Show Award in Electronics for a web site she did!

Suzanne is the one woman dynamo (doing business as Suzanne Clements Graphic Design, LLC)who has revamped our web site, created our brochures, collateral material, posters, logos, new packaging design, mail outs and more.

Five of Suzanne's medals came from Absolutely Natural entries. We won gold for packaging (facials sample pack), brochures (our new sun care brochure) and catalog (our spa wholesale catalog). We were awarded silver medals in packaging (our new Organic bottles) and for our 2009 year end mailer. What an outstanding job.

Suzanne also won gold medals for her web site work with a Sea Turtle book, a catalog for the same project and her website work with Makoto's restaurant.

The evening was exciting, the crowd large and prestigious and the event was very well done including a hilarious ongoing video skit by one of the anchors of Chanel 6 News.

But the highlight, of course, was the win after win announced for Suzanne, who was absolutely shocked by all the accolades. I wasn't surprised at all but I have to admit I relished in every moment that our brochures, catalogs, bottles etc were flashed on the screen with "Gold Medal" beside them! Suzanne was the star of the show and we are lucky to have her. Well done, Suzanne!

Best regards,
Charley

Customer Service: A Lost Art?

Customer service has become a luxury as of late in a world where so many of our interactions are digital and automated.The last time I tried to contact my local cable company to update my service I spent a frustrating afternoon attempting to get through their phone system to a human being. Once I did, I was immediately cut off before finishing my sentence and transferred over to yet another automated system. That is not service. And all too often, even the day-to-day human interactions are less than stellar. A cashier hands me my change, I say "Thank you." and they say "No problem." Where's their gratitude for my business? Shouldn't they be thanking me? How would handling my business be a problem for them?

That said, here at Absolutely Natural, we appreciate each and every one of our supporters. We constantly receive rave reviews from our customers for the way we handle orders, shipping, disputes and the way we treat our clients and do business.

Our phone system does have one of those automated mail box features, but we chose purposely not to use it. From 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. EST the phone is answered by a human. Yes, a human. The rest of the time it is an old fashioned answering machine extolling you to leave a message; the message is then returned by a human. Yes, human - one of us here at the main office. You get personal, one-on-one interaction with the very same people who develop the products you use. Who else can say that?

Beyond our daily personal interactions with our customers, we ship products the same day we get an order (next day if we get it after 3pm). We make sure you get all you ask for and take full responsibility for any problems ... even when it's not our fault.

I could go on and on but for 18 years we have had a simple philosophy ... we service our customers! Want to know more. Call us; I might even answer the phone and we'll answer all of your questions and take care of all of your needs.

Best regards,
Charley

Growing the Absoutely Natural Line

For the first ten years of our existence, we had:

• Two tanning oils
• A rehydrating aloe
• A pure aloe
  
• Four sunscreens
  

And we did very well with those eight products. We have never been and will never be driven to create new products just to get shelf space in a store. In my opinion, this leads to superfluous products that really do nothing for the consumer but cause confusion. Instead, I make superior products that do exactly what we claim using only the best raw materials and our own special blending processes so they can really be natural.

Our Growing Product Line...
Our micro-focused line started to expand several years ago when we began selling our formulas to the spas at our luxury resorts. As a result of studying what people need, we set out to put our unique touch on the products; that is natural, organic and pure.

This led to the Organic products that have proven to be extremely popular at the resorts and today we have more than 200 formulas in our catalogue. Everything from salt scrubs, sugar scrubs, tropical gels, personal care, body butters, crèmes, massage oils, bath & body oils and bath salts. We even have products built especially for the Tattoo industry with our Tattoo Stay Nu line of healing crème, sunscreen serums and moisturizers.

What's to Come...
And, we are not done by any means. We are planning or are already in the development stage for:

• Daily use sunscreen for the face that will be added to our Facials line
• Complete men’s line including shaving crèmes and lotions, after shave balms, shower gels, lotions and more
• Organic sunscreens for spas with a special zinc/titanium blend
• New formulas and fragrances for our shampoo, shower gels, hair conditioners
• Selection of our spa formulas, scrubs, salts, butters, crèmes, for retail
• Chemical free bug repellents
• Natural self tanners
• Lip moist crème in several flavors

What Would You Like to See?
If you have any suggestions or something you’d like us to develop, please email me.

Thanks for 18 years of support … we’re looking forward to serving you for many more years to come.

Charley Richards

Now that you have met some of our team, I'll tell you a bit more about our company. We actually started in a garage in the 90's with a lofty goal of making the world's only 100% natural suncare. I know that a lot of companies claim to be all natural and will have buzzwords like "Natural", "Organic", "Biodegradable" on the front of their label, but a quick perusal of the back of the label proves they are certainly not natural.

At any rate, it took almost two years but we succeeded and sold our first bottle in 1992 at resorts in Hawaii and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I am happy to report that we have outgrown the garage and now 17 plus years later we are in 100's of resorts in Hawaii, Florida, Mexico, the Caribbean, California, Spain and many, many more ares.

Our facility is now in a 10,000 square foot building we built in 2003 in Melbourne, Florida and our equipment and processes are top notch. If you are ever in Melbourne feel free to come and take a factory tour; we welcome visitors.

Though the favorite part of our business is the one-on-one interaction with our customers, we are no longer a little ma and pa shop. We have among our customer base some of the greatest hotel companies in the world including Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, Marriott and the Sandals Resorts. From 8 formulas in 1992 we now boast more than 200 in our suncare, facials and spa lines with more being developed every month.

One thing we haven't changed is our commitment to quality. Every formulation and production decision is easily made ... use the best raw materials in our innovative formulas, always make sure there are positive benefits for our customers and never use any ingredient just for marketing purposes.

Our team is young and dedicated and we will be around for many decades to come.