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“Every good story begins with a grandmother” Jenefer Palmer, founder of Malibu-based skin and body care brand ossia,Tell you entrepreneur. The story of how her business was born is that her own grandmother turned to the ocean in search of healing after an accident tore ligaments in her foot and left her bedridden. It starts from there. After dreaming that the ocean and seaweed would heal her, Jenefer’s grandmother offered to give her a ride every day to the beach near her home in Beechhurst, New York. asked her husband. Jennefer said her condition improved in just a few months and her daily swimming became a habit for the rest of her life.
Image credit: Courtesy of OSEA. Jenefer Palmer, left. Melissa Palmer, yes.
“So I grew up with a deep understanding of the ocean as a source of healing,” Jennefer explains. “That influenced me in the early 1980s when I became a spa director and was looking for wellness-based products because that was my whole focus. I got it.”
Jennefer was unable to find any products that contained “good ocean-based” ingredients. So, “out of necessity,” she launched her own line, her OSEA, in 1996. OSEA is pronounced O-see-ya, and the letters stand for the “core elements of health”: ocean, sun, earth, and atmosphere. Prioritize scientifically backed “naturally derived” ingredients. The company chose her, Jennefer added.
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“every day [I get] It is such an honor to pass on all the wisdom of the women in my family. ”
The company also selected her daughter, Melissa Palmer, who was a teenager at the time. In the early days, Melissa helped her mother launch her QuickBooks for this young company, and has remained involved ever since (though she briefly left to focus on her hula hoop business), and is now at OSEA. serves as CEO. “every day [I get] It is such an incredible honor and opportunity to pass on all the wisdom of the women in my family,” says Melissa.
OSEA started in the Palmer family’s living room and then moved to the garage. For her first 12 years, the mother-daughter team handled all aspects of the business, including shipping, packaging, and sales. At that time, OSEA products were sold almost exclusively in hotels and spas.
Melissa calls her mother a “visionary” when it comes to the brand’s ingredients and product effectiveness, and Jenefer said her daughter has an “incredible business mind” and is an asset to the company. They are good at communicating their message and incorporating wellness into every aspect, highlighting their complementary strengths. This allowed OSEA to enjoy nearly three decades of profitable growth.
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“Our product hasn’t changed since the ’90s. It took a while for the market to catch up with us.”
“Our products haven’t changed since the ’90s,” says Melissa. “It took a while for the market to catch up with us. When we first launched, it wasn’t even called ‘clean beauty.’ We were definitely the weirdos on the fringes talking about natural and sustainable packaging and products and explaining why. ”
Some of the products launched in the 90s still remain in the top 10 of OSEA’s bestseller list today. Additionally, the company’s glass bottles and packaging remain the same as when they first launched, a detail that people used to object to but now love, Jennefer said. While OSEA’s slow and steady approach to growth has paid off for decades (Melissa jokingly made possible “25 years of overnight success”), the company has taken a more aggressive approach in recent years. Utilizing growth strategies.
Melissa experienced first-hand the power of direct-to-consumer (DTC) and social media marketing when her “obsession” with hula hoops led her to start her own hula hoop business. So she returned to her OSEA in 2016 and “started” her next stage of growth. Over the past eight years, the company has grown 7,600%, expanded to 3,000 stores with retailers including Ulta and Blue Mercury, and achieved an “even split” between DTC and retail, Melissa said. says. OSEA’s celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham, Sophia Bush, Brie Larson, Kelly Ripa and more.
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“I now understand the meaning of the term ‘omnichannel.'”
“I really understood what the term ‘omnichannel’ meant,” says Melissa. Gone are the days when the mother-daughter pair did everything. OSEA currently boasts a team of 80 people.
Naturally, there were some obstacles to faster growth. “One of the biggest challenges I faced over the past five years was the fact that the company was expanding so rapidly. [and] It is built on a system started in the 90s. [We] We had to make significant changes to our processes and manufacturing to keep up with our growth,” says Melissa. OSEA says he was bootstrapped until three years ago, so it was difficult to see competitors come in with significant capital. The company “has given a small raise to give us a little more cushion.”
Melissa says OSEA has ambitious international expansion plans, including entering Australia and New Zealand with Mecca Cosmetics later this year. Additionally, the Palmers are excited to further focus on OSEA’s brand awareness, marketing and the growing community they have built as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary.
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“There’s so much trust and freedom in each other and what we’re doing.”
They also look forward to the ongoing rewards that come with a family-owned business.
“You brought this being into the world,” Jennefer says. He has the privilege of actually seeing Melissa every day, not just when he gets home for Thanksgiving. [but] I find her to be a dynamic and incredibly powerful businesswoman. And to see her in her world is truly a beautiful thing. ”
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Melissa credits the mother-daughter relationship with making their business partnership at OSEA successful.
“There’s so much trust and freedom about each other and what we’re doing,” she says. “We understand each other completely and understand each other’s strengths to the point where we can be completely free. It’s the ultimate complementary skill set and balance as a team. It would have been difficult for me to take the risk.” [we’ve taken]. ”
This article is part of an ongoing Women Entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges, and successes of running a business as a woman.