Wish to persuade LimeLife by Alcone Co-Founders Michele Homosexual and Madison Mallardi to do one thing? Inform them to not do it.
Living proof: when Homosexual and Mallardi determined to generate a brand new hybrid mannequin underneath one compensation plan through which LimeLife’s Magnificence Guides might construct their companies with or with out recruiting, naysayers warned in opposition to it. However the Co-Founders charged forward.
Making an Affect
LimeLife by Alcone lately obtained the Bravo Affect Award which honors the achievements of firms that take a holistic, measured and incremental strategy to progress, innovation and operational integrity and excellence. Their story clearly embodies these values.
Plunging forward into the sudden and refusing to slot in is a part of Limelife by Alcone’s DNA. It’s additionally Homosexual’s life story. Initially a microbiology main in school, she grew to become a trainer after which a stay-at-home mother.
“I don’t assume like a businessperson,” she shared. “I lean into the eagerness after which the outcomes present. The wellness of our subject is a precedence moderately than demanding efficiency from our Magnificence Guides. It’s what’s created this rise to the highest.”
Having began in 1952 promoting stage make-up to Broadway performers, Alcone finally grew right into a nationwide chief in skilled make-up for the tv, movie and theatrical industries. In 2015, Homosexual and her niece Mallardi launched LimeLife by Alcone to distribute cosmetics and pure skincare merchandise as a direct promoting firm.
“We’ve a really completely different mind-set about merchandise,” Homosexual defined. “We are inclined to have professional-grade formulation and merchandise which have much more pigmentation in order that they’re simpler to make use of. With regards to our skincare, we’re searching for the very best elements and—most significantly—they must be protected for ladies to make use of.”
Constructing Fempires
Secure, high-quality merchandise are simply a part of LimeLife’s mission. The corporate additionally values empowering individuals by creating entrepreneurship in a nurturing, collaborative setting. That is the place the Fempire Fund is available in. An funding fund which supplies capital, teaching and sources to 4 feminine enterprise house owners, the Fempire Fund additionally connects these enterprise house owners with the corporate’s worldwide community of Magnificence Guides.
Companies chosen for the portfolio meet three or extra of the next standards:
- Owned and led by a lady;
- Present services or products that assist elevate girls’s confidence or revenue incomes potential;
- Has a sustainable aggressive benefit;
- Has income streams and is on a path to profitability;
- Proprietor has a compelling story and synergies with LimeLife’s distributor community.
Homosexual and Mallardi had been impressed to launch the Fempire Fund after their very own expertise in search of funding as feminine enterprise house owners. Though LimeLife generated an exceptional $87 million in gross sales throughout its first three years, the Co-Founders had hassle discovering funding for the corporate. “I did analysis and noticed that lower than three % of girls are capable of get capital, regardless that feminine CEOs outperform their male counterparts,” Homosexual shared.
The fund will shut and pay out to Magnificence Guides in 2024, and the Co-Founders are contemplating extending the thought past LimeLife and doubtlessly partnering with different direct promoting firms.
Brighter Days Forward
It wouldn’t be the primary time LimeLife had prolonged a hand to a supposed “competitor.” Homosexual lately offered a team-building program for Scout & Cellar, a direct gross sales firm dedicated to creating and delivering high-quality wine. She had met Scout & Cellar Founder and CEO Sarah Shadonix and Epicure CEO Amelia Warren on a DSN podcast.
“Afterward, I reached out to them and stated do you need to get collectively and speak?” Homosexual remembered. “Now we meet each quarter for a number of hours. We’re all the time taking a look at methods to assist and assist one another develop.”
As a result of the three girls’s respective firms characterize cosmetics, wine and meals, these conferences have change into often known as “Lips, Sips and Dips.”
Collectively, Homosexual and Mallardi have grown an organization that continues to spend money on its Magnificence Guides by way of intensive onboarding, teaching and coaching. They envision an thrilling future, and never only for LimeLife.
“The standard profession mannequin simply doesn’t work for therefore many ladies,” Homosexual stated. “Quarantine confirmed you don’t must go to an workplace to do your job. We’re going to see an enormous shift, and direct promoting goes to be on the forefront of it.”
Congratulations to Homosexual, Mallardi and the complete LimeLife by Alcone crew on their Bravo Affect Award.
From the June 2023 challenge of Direct Promoting Information journal.
