Giveaway!

Today's interview and giveaway features Michelle from Reviyve. She runs her own business, offering a great variety of skin and health care products on several websites and recently opened a shop on Etsy . Today she is offering readers the chance to try some of her products through a giveaway.

Enjoy meeting Michelle and enter below for your chance to win.

Tell us about yourself.

I am Michelle Howard from Westchester County, New York. I am married with 3 children of my own, a step daughter, and a cat that thinks she's human. I am President and co-owner of Reviyve LLC a personal care e-commerce business presenting my clients with alternatives to healthy living. I currently manage two e-commerce stores that offer stress relief & pain management products and handcrafted skin care products as well as other private labeled natural skin care products. In the near future I'll be offering Kathy Ireland Essentials, a new Dead Sea Cosmetics line that is totally paraben and sodium laurel sulfate free. In addition to my sales efforts, I write a monthly ezine for both of my sites.

My husband is a motivational speaker and conducts regular blog talk radio interviews with small business owners that need assistance with promoting their businesses. You can find him on blogtalkradio.com and his show is The Coach K of Life Show. In addition to his speaking career, Karriem manages an e-gourmet coffee store, http://premiumcoffeebyrv.com.

How did you get your start?

Oh boy I think I covered what I have to offer and now a little about why my husband and I started our business.

We started our business with the initial goal of being able to work from home full time so we could spend more time with our children and work our own schedule. My youngest son Christopher is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and epilepsy so he was my biggest determining factor. I want to some day leave a legacy for my children and ensure their financial well being. If I depend on my day to job to do it, then it's just a dream. Instead, I've turned my dream into goals that will eventually become a reality.

As time goes on I discover that I really do like helping people so I guess you can say that's one of my goals as well.

What inspires your work? Describe your creative process and tell us about your favorite materials to work with.

I do not create my own products. There are so many great artisans available so why reinvent the wheel. Besides, marketing and researching, which is my field of expertise, is very time consuming. I have someone else to hand craft my skin care/bath & body line, Blended Naturals but I am fully aware of the ingredients that formulate them. My role consists of designing my packaging, labels, websites, brochures; assembling sampler sets, gift baskets and promoting my products at events, shows, parties and in the near future I'll be contacting spas and alternative health providers in my local area. I am also heavily into the design and marketing of my skin care line and I consume my own products daily because I have sensitive skin and other products on the market have not been so kind to me. Besides, one can be more passionate about what they have to offer when they consume them.

For my stress and pain relief line, I look for items that will assist my customers with addressing their pain and stress safely...hence, alternative products. I have personally used a number of the items on my site to ensure their quality and effectiveness. I spend time researching these items and then I offer them to my customers along with tons of information about a variety of stress and pain related issues.

What are your goals for your business? Is this a full or part time job?

It is my goal to run my business full time out of my home. Once all of my debt has been eliminated, I will purchase my own home and create a home office to work from. While this is currently a part time gig (says my finances), I expound a lot of energy into it and I work many many hours coming up with useful content to share with my website visitors, blog readers and ezine subscribers.

What are your favorite hobbies?

Writing, Reading, Shopping, Watching Movies

What brought you to Etsy? Do you sell anywhere else?

While I do sell on my own websites, I decided to try Etsy out in order to get more exposure for skin care line, Blended Naturals.

Where can we find you online?

Where can't you find me?! LOL Ok, here's where you can locate me and my goodies:

http://www.deadseastorebyrv.com - Dead Sea and Natural Skin Care, Bath & Body Products
http://www.stressreliefbyrv.com - Stress & Alternative Pain Relief Products
http://www.deadseastorebyrv.blogspotcom - Fresh Radiant Skin Blog
http://www.stressreliefbyrv.blogspot.com - Stress and Alternative Pain Relief Blog
http://www.10steps2success.blogspot.com - Work from Home Success Blog
http://onlineshoppingmall.ning.com/profile/Reviyve
http://twitter.com/reviyve
http://www.linkedin.com/in/reviyve
http://www.facebook.com/Reviyve
http://onlineshoppingmall.ning.com/profile/Reviyve
http://sistapreneurs.ning.com/profile/MichelleHowardSmith
http://beautiesonthego.ning.com/profile/Michelle
http://wozone.ning.com/profile/Michelle624

What is your favorite item in your shop?

In my natural skin care shop, my favorite items are the Organic Shower Gel (favorite essential oils to scent with are relaxation and honey almond) and my customer's favorite: The Brown Sugar Scrub & Combination Facial Mask.

In my stress and pain relief shop, I don't have a favorite item but more so of a favorite line which is the Magnetic Therapy line. I LOVE these products. I had a double foot surgery in Nov, 2008 and the magnets are phenomenal at alleviating pain and swelling.

What is the most valuable thing you have learned from your business and creating your products?

The most valuable thing that I have learned thus far is that being successful is not just about making sales but it also includes building relationships and meeting interesting people along the way. Will everyone like and want to buy my products? Nope but there are many who do and those are the individuals I am seeking to connect with.

Lastly, I'd like to add that running your own business is HARD work and there are many times when I feel discouraged. When you experience discouragement, my suggestion is to go back to ground zero which is remembering why you started your business in the first place.

Anything else you would like us to know about you?

Yes, are you surprised? :-) I invite anyone who is interested in skin care, beauty in general or ways to live stress and pain free without the side effects caused by traditional medicine, to subscribe to one of my monthly ezines. You won't be disappointed. I do not spam but I do feature many guest writers as well as write my own unique articles with information from research conducted as well as my personal experience. I also tend to write with a comical twist at times. You can subscribe at:

http://www.stressreliefbyrv.com/newsletters/subscribe - Stress Less Ezine

OR

http://www.deadseastorebyrv.com/subscribe - Skin Naturale Ezine

Michelle is giving away a full size jar of Organic Sweet Orange Sugar Scrub along with A Sampler Gift Set :

Here's how to enter:

First you MUST visit either Reviyve on Etsy, http://www.deadseastorebyrv.com or http://www.stressreliefbyrv.com and leave a comment with your favorite item. Please be sure to include your email address in your comments or have it visible in your blogger profile. You want to know if you won, right?

For additional entries you can do any or all of the following, leaving ONE comment for EACH:

~Visit my shop, Oceanside Creations, and share your favorite item- 1 additional entry (leave 1 comment)

~Become a follower of this blog or let me know if you already do- 1 additional entry leave one comment

~Follow Oceanside Creations on Twitter AND tweet about this giveaway including @OceansideJewlry in your tweet - 1 additional entry (leave a comment letting me know)

~Blog about this giveaway with a link to your post- 2 additional entries (leave 2 comments) Include a picture of the prize for a 3rd entry and leave a 3rd comment

~Become a fan of Oceanside Creations on Facebook- 1 additional entry (leave one comment)

~Add Oceanside Creations to your blog roll- 1 additional entry (leave 1 comment with a link to your blog)

~Make a purchase from Reviyve or Oceanside Creations between now and midnight July 31 -5 additional entries ~ Leave 5 comments telling me what you bought

That's a lot of chances to enter this fabulous giveaway!

Good Luck!

Giveaway runs through Friday, July 31 at midnight EST. Our winner will be chosen on Saturday morning, August 1st via the random.org widget in the right sidebar and will be announced right here on this blog. Winner will be e-mailed and have 48 hours to claim their prize by responding to the email. If winner does not claim their prize within 48 hours a new winner will be chosen. When leaving comments please be sure your e-mail address is available for me to contact you. All photos are courtesy of Michelle.
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