Charmed and Company Creations Interview

Many of you may know I have been working on my Direct Sales List page. While researching and looking for more representatives on direct sales groups on Facebook. My post was seen by a very special Representative by the name of Vickie Musselman. For those of you that don't know Vickie. She is the founder and owner of Charmed and Company Creations. She has agreed to let me interview her for Just As I Am-Dee.

First of all, thank you, Vickie for doing this interview I know that you are a busy woman and I appreciate you taking the time for this.

Vickie can you start by telling us about yourself? 

 I am from here and have lived in Richmond and the surrounding areas all of my life. I'm 58 years old. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Dan for nearly 30 years. We have two adult children, and 4 grandsons ranging in age from 19 to 7. I have worked in retail jobs, and I have worked in Direct Sales jobs. Over the years I have been a teacher's aide to physically handicapped students, wrote classified ads for a small local weekly newspaper, worked in a Bank, as an office manager for an insurance company, as the secretary/assistant to the outside sales coordinator of a major floral supply company, and in a law office. I also owned and operated a brick and mortar floral shop for 5 years before deciding that I would prefer to be at home fulltime again. That is when I looked into Direct Sales. I sold Mary Kay, Home Interiors, and Avon over a period of several years. Three years ago, I joined Facebook and started seeing all of these online businesses being advertised. I joined a few, using my previous retail and office management skills to apply to being a good leader of recruits as they signed under me for these businesses. I enjoy reading, being creative with floral arrangements and jewelry designs, and my family which includes two dogs and a cat as well as the human members.


When did you start Charmed and Company Creations?

Charmed and Company Creations was founded officially in January of 2014.The company is home based out of Richmond, Indiana.

Brand new, congratulations Vickie. We would all like to know why you decide to start your own company?

I had been with another European Charm Company, and loved the products and was building a great team of Reps when the company made a change to a $15 per month website charge for Reps as well as having to buy $30 of merchandise to become a Rep instead of their previously free signups. I stayed to see this great new website, and once it was launched, I was disappointed in the sparse amount of merchandise offered, as well as in the website appearance itself. I saw them go from over 700 Reps to just over 350 literally overnight when they launched these changes! I decided that I could offer free signups for Reps, a decent compensation plan, and by using one website for all Reps to sell through...could keep it free for the Reps.

That is quite a drop in representatives in a short time. So how did you accomplish these goals you set?

I researched, lined up vendors, placed orders for product, and began formulating ideas for a website while looking for someone to put together the website very inexpensively for me. My son had created his own websites for his own two businesses through a free website company, and they were so well done. I asked him if he could help me out with this one, and he graciously said that he would. I thought it would take us about 2 weeks...and it ended up taking us about 6 weeks to get it all together, tweak it, and finally launch on March 29, 2014. But as of this writing we are at 16,076 views on the website just since it launched in March of 2014. We have had marketing experts tell us this is unheard of and remarkable. We are so grateful and blessed.

I also started advertising in as many Facebook groups as I could find about this new company, and saying we were hiring in the United States and Canada. People began to sign up...and we were on our way! We now also hire in most countries around the world. If shipping isn't an issue for Reps or customers, we will hire Reps from there.

What made you decide to specialize in charms?

I didn't decide to specialize in just charms. I wanted to be very different from the other companies out there. So I decided to offer a big variety to appeal to a bigger section of the marketplace. So we do offer snake chain starter bracelet bases, beads, charms, spacers, dangles to create your own bracelets; but we also offer our signature Jump Start Bracelets. These are bracelets with 6 to 8 beads, spacers and maybe a dangle which can be worn right away and which the customer can add to as they can afford to or want to. We offer completed bracelets which are full and are for those who don't want to create their own or maybe want to purchase as gifts.

We also offer floating lockets, back plates, and charms. These are the same thing as the National Big Name companies are offering from many of the same vendors!  We offer both alloy metal as well as Stainless Steel lockets and chains. We have over 430 floating charm styles to choose from...which is much more than the big name companies are offering. We are also priced WELL below what they are and all of our lockets come with a chain instead of separately for customer convenience and value. For instance, our lockets with chain are $24.95 and $27.95 per set for the same item that would cost $40 for the locket and another $12 to $15 for the chain at those national name companies. For the same things from the same vendors!!! Why pay more when you don't have to?

We offer scarves, scarf jewelry, a line of trendy necklace and earring sets, bracelets with themes such as western cowgirl, etc. 

I apologize,  I just noticed that you had a very large variety of charms. Of which you have some special selections that you'd like to tell us about?

 We are very proud to offer a line of cause jewelry. These are necklaces and earrings, bracelets or keychains representing awareness for Breast Cancer, Epilepsy, Autism, Diabetes (and there are more causes to follow). For every piece of jewelry sold in this line, we make a $2 donation to that particular cause for research. These have been extremely popular. It's wonderful to feel like we are making a difference and giving back. We hope to help be part of a cure in our lifetime. We also offer military items in the same styles as the cause line for Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force as well as Sheriff, Police, Firefighter, EMT/EMS, Nurses, Teachers, School Bus Drivers, etc. These are very popular.

What brought you to making your business direct sales?

I decided to become a Direct Sales Company at the outset. I wanted to build a company that would have a way for many people to be spreading the word, and getting sales, but which would also serve as a way for others to start their own small business and earn money in the form of commissions and downline sales commissions as well. People have responded overwhelmingly to this, and we are at over 300 Reps as of this writing. I am very blessed to have the finest group of Reps and having built it to over 300 just since January of 2014, for a start up home based business/company is remarkable, we think... as well as humbling.

What image are you trying to portray with Charmed and Company Creations?

 The company image I want to project for Charmed and Company Creations is that we are a company offering people an opportunity to own their own business for FREE!!  We want to offer quality merchandise, at the lowest prices among our competitors, and we want to be a company that gives back such as with our cause jewelry line and donations to those causes. We are a company founded by a woman, for women and sold primarily by women. We truly believe that the sky is the limit, and are excited about the future with this company and it's Reps.

Can you tell us what difficulties you had to overcome to get to this point?

 There are always many difficulties with owning a business and with starting a company they are just bigger and affect more people. I had difficulties with knowing what to do about a website. I reached out to my son and did some research as to the various options, costs, companies, etc. and chose the one we are with now. There are difficulties with a free sign up platform because you get people who are not necessarily committed to the company or products. They didn't have to invest anything into the business, and they are sometimes quick to leave if they do not see overnight profits fall into their checkbooks. I call these people the serial joiners. They join everything that comes along because it's free, but they don't stay long enough or work hard enough at doing the hard work that it takes to build a business. So that's always difficult. To overcome that, I mentor my Reps. We have an exclusive closed Facebook Group for signed up Reps only. I interact personally with all of the Reps there. I answer questions, give motivation and encouragement. We have recognition of accomplishments, and information is given to them for and about their businesses. That personal interaction with the founder of the company sets us apart from so many other companies out there. I maintain a personal connection and relationship with all of our Reps. I work hard to let them know that I am here for them and will help them strategize so they can be successful. Their success is my success. I strive hard to be a good leader, and I don't ask them to do things that I am not doing or willing to try to do myself. We are in this thing together. We have had some difficulty with a few vendors and receipt of merchandise in a timely manner. To overcome this, I have worked with a few vendors on better priorities and I have switched to other vendors when necessary in order to receive items quicker so we can ship them out quickly to our customers.

I love that you are so hands on with your representatives. Those that start a Direct Sales business are always more successful with guidance and support. With your attention to this detail I'm sure that all your Representatives and you will become very successful. 

Please tell us what is your motivation? 

I have the determination to get through because this is a dream and a passion of mine...to have my own business. To make a difference, and to build this up and to help others replicate that for themselves and their families.

What new goals are you wanting to get to in Charmed and Company Creations now? 

New goals for Charmed and Company Creations are to continue to offer fresh merchandise for customers, to give great customer service, and I have a personal goal of over 1,000 Reps within a year to eighteen months. That may or may not happen in that timeframe, but it will come. There are also plans to expand into other product areas. I am still looking into those at this time. 

What advise do you have for new business owners?

 For new business owners, I would say to be prepared to work harder than you ever thought you would need to! Long hours and if an online company, lots of emails and messaging between yourself, the Reps, customers, etc. You need a good marketing plan. In today's online business arena, it is important to concentrate on Analytics and Conversions from viewers to sales. Keep going. Don't quit. You can only fail or lose if you give up or quit. Be unstoppable. Be determined, and focus on your passion and the reason why you started your business in the first place. If it's just for the money alone, you would be better off to go out into the regular workforce and get a job. Building a business takes time, patience, endurance, guts, a willingness to experience rejections, being teachable, trainable, and being real. It is not for the faint of heart.

Anything else you would like to add Vickie before we say goodbye?

Like Jello...there is always room for more. So I hope that people will come check us out. Look over our website and decide to join us as a Rep.

Our Facebook page link is: www.facebook.com/CharmedandCompanyCreations

 Our website link is: www.charmedandcompanycreations.com

I wanted to let you know that Charmed and Company Creations is going to make some changes in the requirements as of August 1, 2014. There will be a one time $15 fee to become a Rep for all new incoming Reps. All Reps will earn 30% plus up to 10% downline sales. ALSO Reps will now earn $5 for each Rep that they recruit (starting Aug. 1st with these changes). There will also be a minimal $15 per month in sales requirement starting August 1st.These changes are new, and we're doing it to generate income and participation from every Rep. They will also be getting their own affiliate website with Back Office to track their sales, progress, etc. when these new changes take effect.