Small Business Owner Gets Creative
HARRIS: All right. President Obama makes it clear, he is focused on helping small business as he pushes his jobs agenda. We've been following small business owners in the NEWSROOM for months now. Today, let's update you on one who hoped coming clean would lead to big bucks. Here's our Brooke Baldwin.</s>DAWN DALLAIRE, CEO, CLEARLY FUN SOAP, INC.: It began with a goldfish in a bag. And this is the original bar. It's still our most popular to this day.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dawn Dallaire's story starts with a goldfish, a bag and a bright idea to sell novelty soaps. It's an idea this 47-year-old entrepreneur has been poring over since she started this small business in her garage six years ago. Early on, Dawn got a phone call that changed everything: a massive order from a major retailer.</s>DALLAIRE: All of a sudden now, we have tractor-trailers pulling in our neighborhood, and so that became an issue. So, then we took the leap and got our first building.</s>BALDWIN: By 2008, Dawn was raking in revenue of more than a million dollars a year. Somehow this single mother managed a staff of two dozen, made guest appearances on network TV, and local newspapers headlined her success as Georgia's small businessperson of the year. And then the recession hit. One of her biggest clients, Linens- n-Things, went bankrupt. (on camera): In two weeks' time, you're submitting a manuscript to your book, you're Georgia's small businessperson of the year, and then, wham! The bottom drops out.</s>DALLAIRE: Yes, exactly. Exactly. And it was almost -- it was like, if I could do the book over, it would be twice this thick because of the lessons that I've learned over this last year.</s>BALDWIN (voice-over): They're lessons this award-winning entrepreneur feels compelled to share. Lesson number one, keep your business lean and mean. Dawn cut the employees who weren't making the grade and kept the most passionate people. She also chopped her salary in half. (on camera): There was a chunk of time where you weren't getting paid.</s>DALLAIRE: I didn't get paid for seven -- I added it up last night. I didn't get paid for seven months.</s>BALDWIN: Seven months.</s>DALLAIRE: And at that time, I was the sole breadwinner. It was the hardest thing that I've ever done.</s>BALDWIN (voice-over): Two, keep your inventory in check.</s>DALLAIRE: We won't order the inventory on speculation. And we will wait until we have a purchase order in hand.</s>BALDWIN: Three, maximize your selling potential online. Four, don't ignore smaller orders.</s>DALLAIRE: The mom and pops are our tried and true, and they're your backbone of your business. They keep you going between the other orders.</s>HARRIS: So, boy, got to love the soap. Got to love it. We're going to get -- that's me on the soap. Wow. Dawn, good to see you.</s>DALLAIRE: Thank you.</s>HARRIS: Welcome. Did you feel like the president was talking to you last night when he was talking about small businesses like yours being the engine leading us out of this recovery?</s>DALLAIRE: Yes, and I listened intently to see what he had to say. And some of the things I liked, some of the things I still have concerns about.</s>HARRIS: Yes.</s>DALLAIRE: But, yes, I think he's got some things that I actually appreciated hearing.</s>HARRIS: What concerns you?</s>DALLAIRE: Well, it concerns me that they're taking the stimulus money and, you know, putting it into government, making more government jobs instead of in the private sector.</s>HARRIS: What do you think about taking the idea of taking money that's been returned from the TARP program and making that available essentially to community banks to make that money available to small businesses?</s>DALLAIRE: As long as they'll let go of it, that's great, you know? They're not -- they've not been real good about letting go of it.</s>HARRIS: Well, tell me about the relationship with your bank, because it's key to small businesses.</s>DALLAIRE: Well...</s>HARRIS: I'm not asking you to bash -- well, maybe I am.</s>DALLAIRE: No. Let's just say they don't answer the phone when I call.</s>HARRIS: What is that? How do you explain that?</s>DALLAIRE: Well, you know, my company has taken a very big hit. I got a front-row seat to the downturn in the economy. Linen & Things was my largest customer, and they filed bankruptcy and owed me hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so, that sent my business on a tailspin. And then we tried to recover from that and we've had to make tough choices. We had to regroup. I've had to take on a business partner. I've had to make some tough choices.</s>HARRIS: How is your business today?</s>DALLAIRE: We still struggle. You know, payroll, making payroll is still an issue. Like most small businesses, we struggle from day to day. I got back from Chicago yesterday. I did a trade show there, and I have to say, I did feel like there was a little upturn.</s>HARRIS: Really? What did you sense there?</s>DALLAIRE: Well, it just seemed like the aisles were -- there was a lot of people there, a lot of buyers there. I think we're all still cautious, the retailers and the manufacturers are still very cautious, but I could sense a little bit of optimism there.</s>HARRIS: What was the key decision that you made during the downturn, when things were looking a little bleak, that has made the difference, at least so far in your business still being here and surviving?</s>DALLAIRE: Well, we had to -- well, the day that I found out that Linens & Things filed bankruptcy, I had to let 14 people go that day.</s>HARRIS: Whoa.</s>DALLAIRE: And we've not been able to hire them back yet. And also, we've had to go back and renegotiate our rent. We've had to go back and -- just, we're lean and mean now, so, you know, we're better able to cope with this.</s>HARRIS: Yes. So give me your Web site, because I want folks to be aware of where you are and how they can find you.</s>DALLAIRE: OK. Well, we actually have two. We have clearlyfunsoap.com and then we have shopfunsoap.com. So, if you want to go to purchase some items, go to shopfunsoap.com. I'm sorry.</s>HARRIS: Well, hang on. Just hold it up there.</s>DALLAIRE: OK.</s>HARRIS: There you go.</s>DALLAIRE: Or you can go to clearlyfunsoap.com and it will redirect you to here.</s>HARRIS: What have you learned about yourself as a businesswoman?</s>DALLAIRE: Ooh. Well, one thing about it, you find out what you're made of when you go through what I've gone through with this business. I'm a survivor, as most business owners are.</s>HARRIS: Stronger for it?</s>DALLAIRE: Oh, absolutely. It's not for the faint of heart, so...</s>HARRIS: Dawn, terrific. Thank you. And how about this? You got that, Ron? Take that shot. How creative is this woman?</s>DALLAIRE: I thought you might like that.</s>HARRIS: That's your boy right there, on soap. Rub-a-dub-dub. Smelling good. Thank you, Dawn. Appreciate it. Best of luck in the future.</s>DALLAIRE: Thank you for having me.</s>HARRIS: The Southern Plains bracing for a winter storm. Chad is in the Severe Weather Center checking that, the latest conditions. We're back in a moment.