We love celebrating the success of our members! Success always leads to more success, so we shout it from the rooftops every chance we get. Today, we've got a big one, and right here in the Indie Business Network's adopted home state! Here's the quick back story. Maggie Ghanem was tired of turning away smaller companies that could not buy ingredients by the truckload. So, she decided to do something about it, and in 2011, Formulator Sample Shop was born. Maggie leased space to grow the company for the first four years, and earlier this year, she broke ground on a new warehouse of her own in Lincolnton, North Carolina!
Maggie expects to open by spring 2015, but for now, she's busy supervising the build-out and the millions of other details that accompany a project of this size. We asked her to share a bit of her journey to inspire and encourage you to pursue your dreams, no matter how grand. Here is some of what she shared.
What is the Formulator Sample Shop?
Maggie:
Formulator Sample Shop is a supplier of specialty ingredients for the personal care and cosmetic industries. We offer a wide range of products including the Leucidal Liquid Line, Extracts, Powders, Oils and Blends. We are a sister company to Active Micro Technologies, which means we always have Leucidal Liquid, PhytoCide Elderberry OS as well as their other great products in stock!
While most specialty ingredient suppliers who have minimum order dollar amount, we do not, so we can serve Makers and Indie Entrepreneur manufacturers. We offer them formulation and business advice as well.
IBN: Why did you decide to own your own buildings, when you could have kept renting?
Maggie:
We decided to expand our facility for numerous reasons. We wanted to add on more product offerings to fit our customers' changing needs. We needed more space to do that. We looked at the numbers and decided that owning would allow us to improve our service. Real property ownership increases the value of the business too, and that will come in handy if we ever decide to sell.
Here are a few pictures of our construction in progress!
IBN: How long do you expect it to take from start to finish?
Maggie:
We started building in September 2014 and we hope to open by the end of January. You never really know with new construction. Weather and inspection delays could set things back. In the meantime, we are happy to be continuing as usual in our current space, processing and shipping orders as usual.
IBN: What has been the hardest part of this project so far?
Maggie:
Building a new building is as hard as you make it, really. As long as you have open communication channels with your contractors, it's generally a smooth process. Everyone just does what they are supposed to do. You work on minor hiccups as they arise and keep going forward. The hardest part is Mother Nature. Since you can't do anything about that, you just roll with it. It's nothing to be taken lightly though. Make sure you have the resources you need — both time and money — to make building expansion work. Advance research will save you a lot of anxiety.
IBN: When is your open date? Can we come for a launch party?
Maggie:
We are dreaming of launch day! We will definitely look into hosting a party in the spring of 2015 when we have everything set up. For now, we are just working on construction and making sure the offices and warehouses are set up properly. We'll let you know about the party after we plan it!
IBN: Congratulations Maggie! We will check back with you in the spring and hope to celebrate with you in person!
Meet Maggie!
Visit Maggie's website here and like her on Facebook.
