Canadian Association of Professional Soap & Cosmetic Crafters

I am really, really excited to announce that we now have a Business Association for Canadians who make and sell soaps, lotions and other personal care products.

The website is http://www.canadianprofessionalsoapmakers.com/. We already have our first vendor member and we are thrilled. It looks like we are going to have merchant services similar to Square but at a better rate so stay tuned for that.

This association has been set up to raise the bar for those of us who sell our products. We will be working with Health Canada to insure that we are always on top of any changes coming down the pipe that will affect us.

For the first 25 who sign up as Professional Members you will automatically get upgraded to a 2 year membership and we are already planning our first conference which we hope will occur next year but since we are just in the throes of starting up we don't have anything concrete there for you.

We want to encourage sellers to go beyond minimum requirements and go to Best Practices. These are exciting times for Canadians and has been in the works for a couple of years now, probably 3 already.

So let's get this party started, join today and have your voice heard in the development of our industry, one that we are proud of today and will be even more proud of tomorrow.

Thanks Lindy. I just checked out this website and look forward to it developing further. I'm not quite 'there' in terms of being a member but I am aiming for it by next year.

Excellent CaraCara

This weekend only - sign up for the Association and receive 50% the Cosmetic Notifications Workshop...

Also anyone signing up for 2013 will automatically be getting an upgrade to 2 years membership...

Thanks for the update on the info

This isn't a branch off of the HSCG is it? Looks like it's totally independent of any other groups? Is there a reason to not work together with the HSCG? They already have a lot in progress even in Canada so I'm not sure I'd want to be a member of both groups.

It is totally independent and has a totally different mandate. I'm a member of both because they are compatible, at least for me. Mind you I was involved in helping promote the HSMG here in Canada when they finally got the insurance for us and I absolutely support them too.

The association is to promote the business end of hand-crafted products and raise the bar so to speak. Just like with aromatherapists there is an association for those who are certified and trained but there are also professional associations. For me I'm a member of HSMG, the Association plus my local Chamber of Commerce. I did drop my Women in Business membership as I didn't feel I was getting as much out of that one as I was hoping to. Each of these serve different purposes in my business and how my business is perceived by other businesses.

My biggest pet peeve right now is that other businesses see those of us who are selling wholesale as just being crafters who make these cute products but we're not really professional now are we? That image must change. We are very skilled in what we do, we have taken the time to truly learn about each ingredient that goes into the product and we deserve to be seen as the experts we are at that level....