So you think you want to sell soap?

[Aline]

But the plan made you think and look at things and investigate and research. Just because you don't follow the plan doesn't mean that creating it didn't teach you valuable lessons, skills, and impart information you used in your new plan.

Absolutely, I'm not against making business plans

If you had a business plan and planned to distribute island-wide how is it that you didn't know how? You can't plan something you don't know. These are the flaws a business plan finds. I am however glad you didn't want to and it worked out......

Because I had never tried producing large quantities before! Which is exactly my point: there are always going to be things you don't know in advance. I did research equipment, fulfilment companies etc but without a mentor who had traveled the same path there were issues that I could never have predicted.

Respectfully, yes you could have planned it. This is why you need to revise your business plan yearly to change with you.

I really could not have anticipated or planned that I would have been selling a wide variety of products online in my initial business plan. Etsy didn't exist back then and the only business model I was aware of was scaling a product line to sell wholesale. I take your point about revising your business plan yearly but I have found the whole journey to be more flowing than that in reality.

I think a business plan is a useful exercise, but in my experience nothing is cut and dried with small businesses, and amazing things happen when you are open to the unexpected

 

[fuzz-juzz]

Seven, yes, that's the one. They moved out to new premises.

 

[HoneyLady]

It's interesting to see how we all agree, even though we all see it differently. Dorymae hates writing business plans -- I love them. I loathe running the numbers, but (thank GOD!!) DH enjoys that, and has run several businesses. A GOOD business plan can make or break you with banks, building owners, the state, etc.

If you are going into partnership, I cannot recommend enough that you get a legal partnership agreement drawn up, separate from, and along with all the other stuff. I've seen a partnership where one partner died suddenly, quite young, and the spouse of the deceased got all the business assets, including $20 K in cash of the other partner, because there was not a partnership agreement in place. If 2 spouses are partners, and there is a divorce, it's even uglier. Drawing it up is a pain, but worth it. Sometimes getting a lawyer early on, prevents needing lawyers later on. Like a smallpox vaccine. roblem:

I am the sort to read everything I can lay my hands on before I start, and that has served me well, but you are never ready for EVERY thing. Keep learning, keep asking, keep posting, and NEVER be ashamed to admit what you don't know. Only be ashamed if you never make the effort to learn.

I have a friend that opened a winery, and offered me words of wisdom re the winery, but I think it applies to ALL small businesses! :wink:

Do you know to make a small fortune in the (hand crafted soaping and toiletries) __________ business?

Start with a large fortune in the (hand crafted soaping and toiletries) _____
business!

~HoneyLady~

 

[Relle]

I am the sort to read everything I can lay my hands on before I start, and that has served me well, but you are never ready for EVERY thing. Keep learning, keep asking, keep posting, and NEVER be ashamed to admit what you don't know. Only be ashamed if you never make the effort to learn.
~HoneyLady~

I agree wholeheartedly - I don't know, what it is, that I don't know and if you don't learn something new every day you have wasted your time.

 

[Jaccart789]

This is good information, regardless of whether one decides to go into bath & body or baking cookies. I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but it may also be a good idea to decide if it is best to have a sole proprietorship or a partnership. If it's the latter, then serious thought should be given about whom one wishes to work with.

Lastly, though it is based on what I've read from an accounting handout, one's business is it's own entity. This means that one's personal money & the businesses money should be seperatly accounted for. Please enlighten me if I'm incorrect on something. Thank you, Dorymae, for the thread.

LunaSkye...Absolutely the money must be separate! My husband has 3 successful medical practices, and one of his previous partners was taking money and using it to fund his lifestyle. The CPA figured this out and said it looks bad to the IRS... can cause all kinds of problems, even if its technically his money.

 

[rogue]

So is it totally wrong of me to have my underlying plan to be to cover all my costs of supplies, insurances etc so I can just make more soap to sell? I know I'm going to not quit my job to do just cosmetics & soap. Paying off med school loans till I die. This keeps me sane & not killing my clients, staff, BF, parents, boss.....

 

[Dorymae]

So is it totally wrong of me to have my underlying plan to be to cover all my costs of supplies, insurances etc so I can just make more soap to sell? I know I'm going to not quit my job to do just cosmetics & soap. Paying off med school loans till I die. This keeps me sane & not killing my clients, staff, BF, parents, boss.....

That is not your plan, that is what you want to achieve. Your plan is how you will do that. How will you make enough to cover the cost of supplies, insurance and ensure you can make and sell more soap? That is your plan.

 

[cmzaha]

Corporations are their own entity and have to be dealt with different than simple partnerships. Corporations own the money not you which is why you would have to keep all seperate.

 

[not_ally]

In the process of forming an ayurvedic hair care products line w/my sister and another friend, and the process of hashing out all the details involved in drawing up a business plan has been critical. In addition to making ourselves hold our feet to the fire w/r/t all the dry, dusty and paradoxically terrifying details of business planning, it has been unexpectedly illuminating because it makes us address how we want to go about things, sometimes that is v., v. different.

Eg, we will be getting ALL the product from a source who is a family friend of my dad's ("x") although we will repackage/market, etc. From the beginning I have assumed that we will not go forward without an exclusive US distribution contract (she is in India) because her product will be critical to this business; lose it (or have it be easy for competitors to access on an unlimited basis) and things will pretty much be a sad, savings account draining bust. Turns out today my sister (touchy feely new age type) thinks we should "have open hearts and trust in "x" and the universe." Me and our other partner, both lawyers, were horrified. It is a deal-breaker for us, good thing we figured it out now.

Rogue, how on earth will you have time to make and, even worse, sell soap, most docs I know (incldg my other sister) work so much that they would kill themselves before taking on a part time project selling something

 

[rogue]

@not_ally I do addiction med. 9-5. No call. But I'm an emotional dishrag when I come home. I sit in between clients playing with soapcalc, creating new fo combos in my head, & mixing nail colour batches (also in my head). I've got a TON of testers with my nurses & counselors. I have 4 different offices I go to

 

[CanaDawn]

In the process of forming an ayurvedic hair care products line w/my sister and another friend, and the process of hashing out all the details involved in drawing up a business plan has been critical. In addition to making ourselves hold our feet to the fire w/r/t all the dry, dusty and paradoxically terrifying details of business planning, it has been unexpectedly illuminating because it makes us address how we want to go about things, sometimes that is v., v. different.

VERY good insight. I've seen partnerships fall apart, taking the personal relationship with them, because these things were never opened to discussion or observation before there was a lot of money riding on the outcomes.

 

[not_ally]

There is *so* much to think about w/partnerships, LLCs, whatever the corp. form is (we have not decided on that yet ourselves) when there is more than 1 person involved. It is not humanly possible to anticipate/contract around every future problem, but it sure helps to at least think hard, talk about, and address - in writing - the ones that you can.

For example, "x", our supplier in my previous post, could verbally guarantee exclusivity with all the good will and sincerity in the world. And then might get run over by a car tomorrow. Her husband does not know us from Adam, who knows what he could decide. The wrong way, and our business would be pretty much dead.

Similarly, one of the three of us could die, and unless our partnership/LLC interests (haven't decided on this yet) are addressed the consequences could be a big, big mess depending on who inherited the decedent's interest in the company. Anyway, this is just *one* issue, there are so many more, and a business plan really does help you to identify them and makes you deal with them, even when you don't want to.

I can feel all the "this is why I hate lawyers" vibes radiating as people read this, me too! But you have to deal with it ....

Rogue, bless your heart, you are doing good, necessary work. I am really glad you have a 9-5, that is a little better than the alternative, even if you are shuttling b/w places. Rock on with your soapy self.

 

[CanaDawn]

I can feel all the "this is why I hate lawyers" vibes radiating as people read this, me too! But you have to deal with it ....

lol, actually, I don't hate 'em. sure there are some that are just after the most money, but I have dealt with a few very respectable ones who really did want to protect their clients. It's different if the lawyer is "comin' to git ya" but if you do a little interviewing, there are plenty of decent people who work in the field of law!

(Better to meet them at this end of the possible problems than at the far side of them, I think!)

 

[reinbeau]

This is a very useful thread. I know I am not going to be a fulltime soaper for a living. I love it, it's a neat hobby that fits in with my other hobbies, gardening and beekeeping. All of which I make a few pesos on - and will continue to grow as I get older, all of it together with my Pilates instruction will pay the bills, but I'll never make a killing on any of it.

 

[not_ally]

Anne, sounds like you do what you love, love what you do, and it is working out. You are a wise woman.