If you know my boss (Manuela Valenti) you will know she’s not only a kind beautiful woman, but that she’s determined and works really hard for what she wants and believes in. I’ve never met a person with so much business sense in my life who can create successful businesses out of practically nothing. Almost 2 years ago she started making her own organic soaps after years, many years of dealing with skin irritation caused by commercial and not too good homemade soaps. You would think that someone that takes such good care of herself, a fashion model wouldn’t have skin problems, but yet she’s lived with it for her entire life. She has a super sensitive skin that reacts not in a good way to many detergents, soaps, and even lotions, the reason why she wanted to research not only her condition but find a more permanent solution to her problem since after years of doctors, lotions and potions she wasn’t able to find anything that would relieve her discomfort.
A few months before she even attempted at making her first batch of soaps, she went into what I call “research mode” which is her just burying her head into books and any piece of information the internet can offer about the subject. She would spend days and weeks just reading, taking notes in silence with an outburst of laugh or a surprised “oh!” once in a while in the middle of a completely silent studio. I knew she got what she was looking for after I heard the first excited “Yes!”
With the same excitement she went ahead and got all the ingredients to start the adventure. By that time she had already collected a couple of baskets of lavender flowers she grows in her own organic garden and said she was going to make a soap with her favorite combination of scents, lavender & almond. After a few weeks of total secret her new soap came out and she was finally happy the soap was up to her expectations, the was incredible!
She started making the soap for her and her family, but soon she found out the soaps not only were coming out better and better she was also getting requests, and her new small business started out. She sold a few dozen soaps directly from her main art website, the business started booming, stores around the US were interested in selling her products and about a month ago she decided she wanted to separate the business completely from Manuela Valenti Studio as to reach a more global market and have a unique brand, so that’s how ByValenti® came out and that’s how I stepped in. I wish I could have this background whenever we create a new website for any business! I find it fascinating how the idea of a business starts and how it evolves over time.
ByValenti® online opened about 3 weeks ago and its already a hit with a few sold out products in just a few days after opening!
The website was built using WordPress in its entirety and it’s fully customized to the needs of the business. The website features a fully customized e-commerce and blog combined with tons of capabilities. A robust shopping cart capable of calculating real time shipping charges and accept different methods of payment. We’ve added a wonderful translation service by http://www.nothing2hide.net/to allow people from all over the world to access the website without worrying about the language barrier since the website main feature is to sell these products globally. Shoppers don’t need to register to purchase which I particularly think is a great feature since many are already tired of having to remember their IDs and passwords for every online store they shop to, not mentioning this increases tremendously the level of security for customers are there is no storage of any information whatsoever.
Since this has being such an incredible experience and the results have been more than what me and Ms. Valenti expected and since we are getting so many requests from artists and photographers for affordable e-commerce websites from where to sell on a more larger scale, we’ve decided to offer a similar package, so stay tuned as in the next few days we will be promoting our new WP-e-commerce web-blogs for artists & photographers.
Meanwhile stop by the site and enjoy the growing variety of fabulous organic handmade soaps, I know you will love them!
Love!
