@shunt2011
Thanks for the advice. I’ve watched a lot of youtube videos already, but perhaps I haven’t seen the right ones. The ones that I have watched where there are 2 or more colors look very tedious to make. Here’s the thing about trying to make money from soap sales that is worth while, without a factory or being hyper efficient, it is hard to make any meaningful amount of sales to justify doing it full time. At $12 per hour wage, every minute is $0.20. So I spend 10 minutes on one bar of soap. That is $2 of just labor. Say I spend on average another $0.75 - $1 for materials of melt and pour soap and fragrance and coloring. That brings me to $3 approx, if I’m efficient. Say I sell to the store at $4 wholesale and they sell it at $8 retail. My net profit is now $1 if I’m lucky. Not counting the time it takes to drive to the store or to ship it out.
My opinion, and it maybe false, is that 90% or more of soap makers don’t make any amount of money per annum that is meaningful. How I personally define meaningful is gross sales of $80k p.a. Where I expect half of that to be labor and cost of good sold. Which leaves $40k as profit. Which would equal to a low paying while collar job, depending on where one lives.
As far as not knowing a lot of stuff, everyone needs to start somewhere. I’ve been doing this since December last year. So in 4 months, I’ve managed to sell into 8 stores local to me. It is decent, but for sure not long term viable. I’ve made about $800 in sales so far. For sure not viable long term. 80k divided by 12 months is approx $6,700 per month. I’m no where near that.
Asking questions is to me doing research. It is one of many different methods to find answers. I have done google search, and I have watched youtube. You can see from my initial post, I obviously understand how to replicate the sample soap in question doing it the slow way. The slow way is for sure not economically viable. I spoke to a lady on the street the other day who thought $8 soap was too expensive and it should be $4. I told her, it is super difficult for handmade soap to be priced that low in a shop environment. Given that at $4 retail, the store takes $2, so there is only $2 left.
I hear you about spending a year researching before selling your first product. For sure that is one way to do it. I’ve read opinions from other very successful people in other industries say don’t wait until it is perfect, get the minimum viable product first, launch it, and the refine as you go.
I also had a regional big box store express some initial interest in my soap. Their buyer said I’d have to lower my retail price point to $5. Which means I would only get paid $2.50 wholesale. The talks have stalled because I wasn’t sure I could make it and earn a profit at $2.50 wholesale. I’m one person and I’m too small and I’m not efficient enough (yet).
Nevertheless I appreciate your input!!!
@weaversPort
Definitely not pissed off. Thanks
I appreciate your input!
For sure I understood this type of 2 color soap looked like it was time consuming to make. Which adds labor cost. I was hoping to figure out a way to ‘outsmart’ the labor intensiveness of it. Call it problem solving. Here’s a type of soap I like. I have a problem with what I can reasonably charge a retail price for, because I’m human and not a machine in a factory. However the factory made products have set an expectations of what things cost, so how to do I figure out how to make it more efficiently as a human?
@earlene
About the swirl, I’ve looked into this and I have experimented with suspension melt and pour. I do like the results. I do have a problem with the ingredients that is typical. It has chemicals that enough consumers (not all) find problematic. So it is problematic to use suspension melt and pour. For example, when I pitch to shops, 1-2 out of 4 will ask is it all natural?
Thanks for your input, I appreciate it!
@cmzaha
Thanks for the story and feedback, it is insightful and I definitely appreciate it.
TO ALL
In summary, I figured it was time consuming to make the soap that I referenced. But I liked it a lot. And if I could figure out how to make it fast, then I would make it, because it then makes economical sense to “me”. Problem solving is what humans do, right? In my house I have a 3d printer. It makes almost anything that I can design first on the computer, isn’t that amazing? I have a paper cutter called the Silhouette Cameo, it makes beautiful boxes for my soaps. The precision in which it can cut is beyond my scissors skills. Isn’t that amazing? I can talk to all of you via the internet, I have no idea who you are or where you live, isn’t that amazing? Following that logic, wouldn’t it be amazing if I or we could figure out how to make 2 color soaps fast? That would be a game changer!