Female Founders: Faith Freeman of Primal Elements on The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
I think the most important thing to consider is capital. Be sure to shop for capital even when you don’t need it. Being properly capitalized will help alleviate some of the stresses small business owners don’t recognize. We were positioned for strong growth and had to learn this while we were growing.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Faith Freeman of Primal Elements in Huntington Beach, California.
Primal Elements started in 1993 the kitchen of Faith Freeman’s Mother. She had been making custom soap for her own store and realized that her customers wanted to experience her scent blends before taking them home — so the idea of cutting fresh sliced soap was born. Other stores asked if they could carry the Primal Elements line, and the company has grown into an international brand carried in 1000’s of retail doors.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My pleasure; thank you for inviting me. I had opened a small bath and body store in Southern California with my husband Scott. We began making soap at home to bring to our store. We had the idea that people needed interaction with one another and shoppers simply did not want to pluck an item off the shelf; so that’s when we came up with the idea for fresh sliced soap. This allowed us to meet and talk with our customers learn about what they liked and what was not so appealing to them. Having a hands-on experience also kept the customer in the store longer, allowed them to look at more product, and perhaps create a larger sale. After a year or two, other store owners found our store and asked if it was possible to purchase our soaps for their own stores. Of course, we were excited about this opportunity and began selling soap to retailers across the country. This was exciting and challenging at the same time as I was spending less time in the store and more at home making soap. The soap business was doing such amazing business we decided that this was really the direction we should be taking so we closed the store in 1996 and began focusing on manufacturing. For many years the bulk of our business was selling to the gift and specialty channel of business, but over time, as the business grew, we were lucky enough (and worked hard enough) to get into larger chain and grocery stores. This really was a turning point for the business as we were able to grow and solidify our position as the industry leader in our space. We are very fortunate to have a very strong team supporting us and amazing customers that have been fans of the brand for nearly 30 years!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When we were trying to get the word out about our soaps, we would have our kindergarten aged son Mitchell (now the President of the company) stand outside the front of our store with a tray of soap samples to give away to people passing by. Angry people would come into the store shaking their fists at us and we couldn’t understand why. As luck would have it, since we were just next door to a fabulous bakery people thought that those colorful, fragrant samples were something to eat so they were popping them in their mouths. Our joke became this; “it’s the soap you wished your mom washed your mouth out with”. I suppose the lesson from this is to be very clear when you hand out samples as people will put anything in their mouths.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
This may sound like a cliché answer, but it means so much to us. My mother was our biggest cheerleader and support system. She believed so strongly in us and in our dream for this crazy idea of selling hand-crafted soaps that she mortgaged her paid in full home to give us the money to start. Our store was doing well and the wholesale business was growing but no bank would consider lending money to a startup like ours. We hit the brick wall over and over so having my mom step up and take that leap of faith was the inspiration for us to fight to be successful.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Honestly, I am surprised by this low percentage. I suppose I am fortunate enough to be in an industry that has so many gifted women founders. The women around me in both my personal and business life is built on a foundation of very strong women. I have not had much personal experience where a woman, at least in my circle has been unable to achieve what she sets out to do. I think if a woman feels held back, she should look deeply inside and see what her own internal fears are to make the next step to success. There is no better time than today for women to move forward and take-charge whatever path they chose in their journey.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
As human beings it is imperative that we are kind and considerate to each other. Always remember where your own success and strength came from and use that to help others who may need to learn from your experience.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
I believe anybody that wants to be a founder should be one. The walls are continuing to break down. Nobody should live a life with regret, so if there is a dream to be a founder, to create something amazing — do it!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
This is a fun question. I’m often told that my life is so glamourous as a founder. I get to travel and see great places and meet amazing people. What that translates to is lots of time at an airport; overnight stays at hotels where I am usually prepping for a meeting the next day while eating a sandwich from a tray on the bed. Now that’s what I call glamour.
I once had an employee tell me that he couldn’t believe that I come to work every day, every place he worked at in the past the “bosses” never came in. The truth is the work is hard; it takes time and patience to run a successful operation.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I’m not sure everyone is cut out to be a founder. Entrepreneurship is challenging. There is a high level of risk involved and not all people are cut out for the stresses and challenges that can be placed on the founders’ shoulders. We need a great team around us as founders and entrepreneurs so for me I hope there are still those individuals that chose the path of seeking a ‘regular job’ to support us. We could not be successful without those people around us.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I think the most important thing to consider is capital. Be sure to shop for capital even when you don’t need it. Being properly capitalized will help alleviate some of the stresses small business owners don’t recognize. We were positioned for strong growth and had to learn this while we were growing.
Have the proper processes in place to take the temperature of your business. Using key performance indicators will really help. For us this helps us monitor purchasing raw materials vs. the orders we have to produce.
Smart hard-working people are essential for a business to succeed. We were very lucky when we first started our manufacturing business to work with Goodwill Industries. Their programs brought us a team of six hearing impaired workers to help us in our soap production. Not only did we employ hard working people, we felt so good about the experience. We still get visits from our original crew some 25 years later.
Additionally, having a strong mentor or sounding board will be a big help. The ability to bounce ideas off of others is very helpful when decisions have to be made. The experience a seasoned mentor brings can be invaluable.
Never be afraid to cut a bad sku. What is mean by this is that sometimes as a business owner you fall in love with your product. Don’t do this! If something isn’t working get rid of it. Just because you think it’s amazing — it may not be. All reports said licorice scented soap would be all the rage; trust me it was not.
Finally, I wish somebody would have told me that this would have been one of the most rewarding things I would ever do! We are so proud that we are able to make all of our products in Huntington Beach, CA our home town and employ a great team of people. Had I known this I would have done it sooner.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I like to believe I have and continue to do my part to make this world a better place. I believe success brings an obligation to contribute. Our company focuses on a few charitable organizations where we can do our best work such as The Children’s Hunger Fund.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Thank you for that compliment; but I doubt I am a person of great influence. I am a small business founder that loves coming to work every day. I simply want people to be kind and respect one another. This is something so simple and it costs nothing. This will benefit the most amount of people.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I truly appreciate this question. There are so many amazing people with fantastic stories that would make for a great breakfast or lunch meeting. I think for me, maybe because I am getting older I would like to meet with the next generation of female entrepreneurs share my knowledge of almost 30 years with them, and in turn they would share their knowledge with me.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Faith Freeman of Primal Elements on The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.