A Guide Through Selling Handmade Soap

Guide through selling handmade soap

1) Knowledge

The first step towards making and selling your own handmade soap is knowledge. You must be able to inform your future customers well. They do expect you to be able to answer every question they have, how odd they may seem at some times. Anywhere from ‘Can I eat that’, to ‘Can I use that on my newborn baby’. Also, you can not make the right and safe choices without knowing what you’re doing. Our skin is our biggest organ and needs to be treated with care and respect.
Not knowing, and therefore providing wrong information will hurt both your clients and your business.

You’ve done, and continue to do, loads of research. Internet connects people all over the world and makes it easier than ever to share information and to learn. The search function on this forum and search sites such as Google is your best friend!
Did you think of taking a soaping class or meeting a fellow soaper to soap together and learn from each other?

You know the process of making soap inside out; everything there reasonable is to know about the saponification process or in case of Melt & Pour, how your premade base was produced. Of course that means you are familiar with different soaping processes and the most used terms.

You know what soap is chemically and molecularly. Understanding the working of your soaps gives you a certain insight in your product and helps you answer questions.

You know the different properties, benefits and potential disadvantages of all the oils in both ‘normal’ and saponified state. Naturally this goes for any other additive you are using in your soap; from herbs, to liquids and coloring.

You’re acquainted with and know how to balance the soap properties; hardness, cleansing, bubbly/creamy lather and conditioning and are able to come up with your own recipes using a soap calculator such as www.soapcalc.net or by the use of SAP values.

You have developed your own recipe (or multiple recipes) totally adapted to the preferences of you and your future customers. Developing your own recipe will make your product different from what is out there and will be your unique selling point.

You, your family and friends have tested the soap you have developed thoroughly. They have given you their honest opinions and you’ve perhaps made some additional changes to improve your soap based on their constructive criticism. You have let some pieces of soap lay around in different places over time; and you have watched and reacted on how the soap behaves.
This is the only way to be able to guarantee your clients your soap is safe to use in general and of high quality.
Even after you launched your business, you cannot just introduce new products without a testing period.

You know everything there is to know about hygiene procedures and how to produce soap with the utmost care for hygiene, both personal and production wise. The quality of your product and customer relations depends on it.

You know about the different skin types and what ingredients are most suitable to use in each case. Also, you have basic knowledge of the most common skin problems such as acne, diaper rash and eczema, and you can advise your future customers what/what not to use. Also, you know when you have to recommend your clients to go see their physician.

2) Experience and Skill

We all learn a lot by doing; you will encounter situations and problems you never realized even existed. Also you need to actually do things to require a certain level of handiness and routine.

You have made numerous batches of different soaps. You have experienced the differences between your multiple batches and were able to choose the ones you liked most.

You have done a fair deal of experimenting. Of course it is fun, but it’s also important to find some things out for yourself and be able to base conclusions on the finished product. In the end it will provide you with more insight than just learning of other soaper’s experiences.

You managed to grow as a soap maker by overcoming the problems you encountered during the making of your soaps. You know how to handle common problems.

You have learned to make soap ‘A’ based on recipe ‘A’ and can predict the outcome to the highest extend possible. Do realize that no matter how experienced you are and how much knowledge you have gained, not every batch will turn out as you wanted.

You have learned to make soap ‘A’ based on recipe ‘A’ with a minimum amount of time and energy. Because you know what to do and what works best for you, you have formed a routine.

You have learned to produce with consistency. You can always provide your costumers with the same product and quality time after time. Of course looks vary from batch to batch.

You feel completely comfortable with making soap. After all, we all benefit from doing something that feels good and brings us peace of mind.

3) Law & Regulations

Not following the law will cause serious trouble and you’ll face the realistic possibility of getting sued or fined. Whenever you are selling something with the objective to make profit; you’ll have to register as and meet the standards of a business.

You’re familiar with and able to meet the needs of the law and regulations of your country/state.
If you want to claim your soap does anything beyond cleaning; you have to meet FDA regulations.
When you’re based in Europe, you need to have each of your products officially safety assessed.

You’ll take every precaution regarding your safety, that of your products and that of the lives surrounding you; may it be your employees, husband, children or pets. We are working with potentially dangerous substances that cannot be handled recklessly.

You properly label and package your products, by indentifying the manufacturer + contact information, listing your ingredients by their botanical name in order of appearance in your formula (INCI), weight of the product and appropriate warnings.

You’re properly insured; you’ve checked different policies from different insurance companies and chose what suited you best.

You have estimated your annual self employment taxes and are familiar with the tax details of your country/state.

4) Business

Sure by now you are capable of producing a perfect product; but that doesn’t have to say anything about your skills to run a business! Running a business can be daunting, but when you have taken your time to look into every aspect of it, and have asked people with experience in this field for their advise; there is no reason why you wouldn’t be able to become your own boss.

You have created a business plan. The business plan will help you turn your visions to reality. It will define your objectives, point out strengths and weaknesses and you’ll be able to share your visions with other people, including experts and banks.
There are a lot of good business templates out there on the internet for free. Take a look ate several of them, and if necessary, combine them.
Creating a business plan for the first time is difficult and will be very time-consuming. Take it step by step, use your brain, let people close to you read it and ask the advise from an expert when you feel you’re ready. Your business plan should include:
-An analysis of the market and it’s trends; as well as consumer trends
-An analysis of your customers; anywhere from age and income to how many hours they spend on the internet.
-An analysis of your competition.
-How and where you want to position your business
-An analysis of your business’s strengths and weaknesses
-Your objectives over a length of time.
-A financial plan.
-An overview of your product range.
-Marketing plan, cause those soaps aint gonna sell themselves!
Keep it all clear and very realistic; don’t use posh language.

Look into different business types; each one has it’s own specific character and differences, such as tax advantages and personal liability. Choose the one that suits your needs the best and register your new business.

You are sure of having access to the amount of money you calculated you are going to need to start as well as to come through the first time, either by assets of by borrowing. You can’t expect to have an income from your soap business right from the start.

Calculate the wholesale and/or retail price of each product; including costs of your monthly expenses such as soaping space, renting a shop or keeping up your web shop, equipment, packaging, light, electricity, gas, insurance, the cost of your raw materials and your own man-hours.

You have all the equipment needed to make a professional end product.

Also, next to the skill of soap making, you have mastered the basic skills you think you need to succeed in business. You could think of taking a accountancy/marketing course or a training in people skills.

I do not want to discourage anyone making or selling soap; but it is important to recognize for both experienced and new soapers there’s more to selling soap than making a good product.
Getting into sales will be a hard and long process, and even when you’ve managed to make it happen; don’t expect this to form your sole income.
If anyone has a suggestion or remark, please let me know!

thanks for this post. i will refer back to it again and again.

Informative, well thought out, comprehensive, thought provoking and eloquently stated. Thanks, Dagmar.

Thank you for sharing this dagmar - very much appreciated and a great reference tool.

(ORB - love your pic!)

Tanya

Excellent info!

Thanks girls! lol, 2 years ago I though 'd be in business within a year. Boy was I wrong; back then it seemed a lot more simple than it turned out to be!

After a lot of thought, the big business route probably isn't going to be the way for me. I have owned my own business before, twice. And both times it started with something I absolutely loved doing and the business end of it turned it into drudgery... the need to"produce" took the fun out of just doing. I really don't need the pressure, or the money. (Not that we're wealthy, but I just don't need to sell soap to eat.)

What I would like to see happen though, is that I would like to sell a little here and there just to support my habit. If I could subsidize the costs of my equipment and supplies so that I could play with it and experiment with wild abandon, and give it freely as gifts, and not have to feel guilty about spending all that money out of our budget, that would be quite enough for me.
Anybody else out there taking that approach, just selling enough to pay for "your fix"?

oldragbagger said:

What I would like to see happen though, is that I would like to sell a little here and there just to support my habit. If I could subsidize the costs of my equipment and supplies so that I could play with it and experiment with wild abandon, and give it freely as gifts, and not have to feel guilty about spending all that money out of our budget, that would be quite enough for me.
Anybody else out there taking that approach, just selling enough to pay for "your fix"?

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I say Amen!

Hey Oldragbagger,
From what I know that shoudn't really be a problem; as long as you don't sell soap to make a profit, you're allowed to sell as a hobby.
So you could make a calculation of what each of your soaps costs and make sure you calcultate everything from molds to gass.
When can show you break even, you're fine.

That's awesome!!! That's what I'm talkin about :wink:

..

You put alot of time and effort in your guide. Whether I ever sell or not, I really appreciate that fact.

As oldragbagger mentioned, it would be nice to just break even to help my "fix!"

Thanks!

Jude

artisan soaps said:

So if I'm saving money on fruit/books etc, then I can spend that on oils (trying to convince myself here - please feel free to enable) and while I'll never break even, it all helps

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Consider yourself enabled, Artisan. It all makes perfect sense to me! :wink:

dagmar88 said:

Hey Oldragbagger,
From what I know that shoudn't really be a problem; as long as you don't sell soap to make a profit, you're allowed to sell as a hobby.
So you could make a calculation of what each of your soaps costs and make sure you calcultate everything from molds to gass.
When can show you break even, you're fine.

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Not so in the US. If you sell 1 bar of soap you must collect sales tax & have your biz set up to meet your state standards.

I appreciate your guide dagmar. It's a lot to think about and I'm overwhelmed so I try not to think too much about selling. I'd love to (in the future). Right now I'm making soap and I'm about to ship it to willing testers just to see what they think and that will give me a good idea I think and keep working on it until I feel I'm ready for the next step.

Soap making is so relaxing and I love it. If only I had more room in my house! (how much would it cost to add a second floor?? )

Rosey said:

Soap making is so relaxing and I love it. If only I had more room in my house! (how much would it cost to add a second floor?? )

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I can't be sure about this Rosey, but I think it would be cheaper to buy soap!!