Archive for Sunday, July 19, 2009

Steamboat-Springs based Little Moon Essentials is growing now that it has moved into a larger space on U.S. Highway 40 in west Steamboat. Pictured is owner Laura Lamun, middle, along with her "production angels," from right, Charlotte Rentfleish, Courtney Anderson, Alison Giese and Catie Jasper. "Production angels" Nora Roland and Anita Hartley are not pictured.

Photo by Matt Stensland

Steamboat-Springs based Little Moon Essentials is growing now that it has moved into a larger space on U.S. Highway 40 in west Steamboat. Pictured is owner Laura Lamun, middle, along with her "production angels," from right, Charlotte Rentfleish, Courtney Anderson, Alison Giese and Catie Jasper. "Production angels" Nora Roland and Anita Hartley are not pictured.

Little Moon Essentials moves to US 40 location

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Courtney Anderson fills a bottle of Relax bath salt.

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Courtney Anderson levels off a bottle of bath salt at Little Moon Essentials.

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Charlotte Rentfleish works on packaging for Little Moon Essentials products.

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The new space for Little Moon Essentials will include a retail front.

— Laura Lamun's move into a new factory allowed her to use feng shui to arrange the business just how she wanted.

Lamun, who owns and operates Little Moon Essentials, created a grid for each room and the building. There's a money corner, a helpful people corner and a love corner in each area, for example. Lamun and her staff members painted the corresponding colors on the walls: purple for money, red for love and silver for helpful people.

They've built a fitting space for Little Moon, which sells bath salts, oils, salves and other natural body products. The Steamboat Springs company moved from a building on Downhill Drive to the former Victory Motors building on western U.S. Highway 40.

"It's going to be a whole new exciting thing here," Lamun said. "It's awesome."

Little Moon's location includes an office for Lamun, a production area, a shipping area, a storage area, a retail store and a treatment room for massages and aromatherapy.

"Fifteen years I've been in business, and I've never had an office, so this is : fantastic for me," Lamun said.

She started Little Moon in 1994 and had been in the Downhill Drive space since 2005. Lamun has six women working for her and usually expands her staff for the holidays.

"This place is just amazing," said Catie Jasper, who has worked at Little Moon Essentials for two years. "We've all come together really big time. It's just this huge expansion of beauty."

Courtney Anderson also has worked for Lamun for two years. She said she was happy that the new spot was divided rather than just one big room, as the previous factory was.

"The production area, I think, feels more like a production area," Anderson said. "The other place felt so much like a warehouse."

Another perk: The old Victory Motors building has two bathrooms. The women, sometimes eight or nine of them, shared one at their shop's former home.

Smells of herbs, spices, oils and salts hang in the air at Little Moon. Swirls of silver shine on the walls, not far from painted blue waves and purple sheens.

"That's our favorite color," Lamun said about the purple, which also shines vibrantly in her hair.

Her factory is 82 percent larger than the previous spot on Downhill Drive. Lamun and her employees have 4,000 square feet instead of 2,200.

Chapman Geer is the landlord, and Lamun couldn't praise him enough. She said he gave her a deal on rent. And, of course, he let them add their personal decorative touches.

"He's the whole reason we're over here," she said.

The rent easily is $1,500 less than what it should be, Lamun said, and she's paying only $500 more a month than she was.

She thinks the new offerings will make up the difference. Lamun hasn't started running the treatment room yet. She plans to bring in a couple of massage therapists and also will perform aromatherapy. The new retail front also should create a revenue stream, Lamun said.

She said she was slightly nervous about expanding during a recession. But she saw the "for rent" sign on the building and knew it would be Little Moon's home. She figured out she could rent the building in March, took possession May 1 and moved in June 20.

"I think if you're afraid and you're retracting right now, you're not going to put out good energy," Lamun said.

The move has been great for morale, she said. Lamun realized two years ago that Little Moon Essentials had outgrown its space.

"We just needed a change. : We needed something to believe in as a team," she said. "We got this place, and it just turned everybody back on."

The added privacy and space have been a blessing for the company, Lamun said.

"This factory solved all the problems we didn't even know we had," she said.

Comments

cj0329 (Chad James) says...

Good for you, Laura! Another entrepreneur making it happen ON HER OWN....no government assistance required!

July 19, 2009 at 6:29 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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