Temple home-based champion

Vermont Business Magazine, Jun 01, 2005 by Herrington, Kate

America's first pioneers may be gone their soap-making skills are not a lost art at the company known as "Jean elizabeth" in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. For her entrepreneurial accomplishments and contributions to the business community, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) has named Jean Elizabeth Temple, founder of jean elizabeth, the 2005 Home-Based Business Champion of the Year

Initially launched in 1992 with handmade soaps, Temple's company now carries a fine of all-natural products including soaps, body and facial care products, aromatherapy oils, several outdoor products including natural insect repellent, as well as solid perfumes in a beeswax base. As a certified therapeutic herbalist, Temple also offers one-on-one herbal consultations and makes herbal teas, tinctures and capsules. www.bestofvermontnaturally.com

"Jean Temple took a simple idea and, with persistence and entrepreneurial grit, developed a business that changed the course of her life," said SBA's New England Regional Administrator Charlie Summers.

In 1992, Temple and her husband were living "off the grid" in a oneroom, 14 by 20 foot house in the mountains outside Concord, VT. Looking for ways to supplement their income, Temple tried her hand at home-made soaps. After several false starts, she perfected her technique and began selling soap at craft fairs in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Her reputation took root as a maker of fragrant, all-vegetable, phbalanced, highquality soaps and her business began to grow. Increased product demand required additional space for inventory and forced the couple to surrender more of their personal living space. They had to sleep beneath the curing racks and moved the kitchen pantry under the bed.

In 1994, Temple's dream of expanding both manufacturing and living space became manifest when she acquired a fiveyear contract to supply 4,000 bars of soap yearly to a local inn. With that contract, she secured an SBA Microloan through Northern Community Investment Corporation and built a spacious basement which expanded her business space and created more living space as well.

In 1996, a New York broker convinced Temple to showcase her products at a trade show in Tokyo. To pay the hefty entry fee, she reluctantly obtained a signature loan from Northern Vermont Development Association and sent an array of products to Japan. Nine months later, Temple was Surprised to receive a phone call from Felissimo, Japan's 2nd largest mail order catalog company.

"Felissimo placed an order for 7,200 half-ounce containers of solid perfume," Temple said. Within three months, Felissimo placed a second order and for the last nine years, the Japanese company has continued to place substantial orders for jean elizabeth's solid perfumes. "The income we earned from that one customer built and paid for our entire house, which is just under 3,000 square feet," Temple affirmed.

Jean Elizabeth and husband Curt, the company's unofficial part-time assistant, operate out of the basement and reside in the spacious accommodations of their home upstairs. The basement shelves are neatly stacked with a variety of herbs including jars of slippery elm bark, colt's foot, bilberry and more. Temple grows her own comfrey but purchases all remaining organic herbs from various distributors. The basement also houses a production area, shipping room and administrative offices.

When she's not operating her business, Temple frequently contributes personal time as a volunteer speaker and business counselor. She has spoken at numerous business conferences through organizations like the Women's Rural Entrepreneurial Network (WREN), the Technical Assistance Providers Association of Vermont (TAPA) and Senator Leahy's Annual Women's Economic Opportunity Conference. She has also spoken before the Vermont State Legislature on behalf of funding for the Vermont Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

Additionally, Temple offers free counseling advice to entrepreneurs referred by the Northeast Regional Library in St. Johnsbury and the SBDC. She has also given public soap-making demonstrations at Brownington's Old Stone House Museum and does so annually at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury. Temple is a current member of the advisory board for the Vermont Women's Business Center in Montpelier.

Jean Elizabeth Temple will be honored by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) at a special ceremony presented by the Vermont Business Magazine. The event will take place on the shores of Lake Champlain at the Burlington Waterfront Park, June 8, 2005, 4 to 7 pm.