As HouseofWool stated much more clearly than I in my previous post: make sure that sell price covers a couple of different recipes.
Handmade items are "properly" priced by many variables:
Gas/Electric
Water
A percent of your mortgage/lease for the area which you soap in
Insurance
Supplies (Oil, Lye, Fragrance, Color)
Packaging
Labor
Booth fee or website fee
...and a lot of minutia that I probably overlooked...
You also have to consider what the average consumer is willing to pay for a bar of soap, unless you're going the "luxury route" and are looking for a specific buyer. In NYC, you may get $10 for a 5 oz soap...while in rural areas, you would be lucky to get $5. You have to know your market. Let's be honest, most consumers do not know the difference between a commercial detergent bar and the benefits of a handmade soap. They know they can get a 3 oz Dove bar "with 1/4 moisturizing lotion"
mad
at the grocery store for $2 or so...so they can't see why they should pay $6 for yours. :? So on top of educating them about your product, you have to take what they are willing to pay into consideration...
If it's costing you $5 a bar to manufacture, and you want to wholesale that for $10 and retail it for $15...you've probably just priced yourself out of the market for most soap consumers, and I would say you need to reevaluate your recipe and where you are buying your ingredients. :shock:
Most handmade soaps cost anywhere from 80 cents to $2 to produce in small-ish batches (up to 10 lb or so batches).
If you price yourself far below the competition, people are going to question the QUALITY of your bar (as would I). Everybody wants a deal...they want A+ quality for C- prices...so we have to decide which is more important ethically for ourselves - price or quality (or a blend of both) - and proceed accordingly. My 6.5 oz bars made with Olive/Coconut/Palm/Castor (and some butter or Coconut Milk, depending on recipe) and EOs are $6 on my website. I've seen 4 oz bars for $12 on Etsy made with "cheap" oils (soybean, corn, peanut) and FOs...or better yet, the MP bars made from Michael's base and colors selling for $5 for 4oz. How and If they are selling it is up for debate...but there's a buyer for everything, I guess.
It is more important to me to have a high quality product that is available to a variety of people, than to have a luxury product that will only suit a few...so I do not make as much of a profit as I could. I would rather them come back for more than to make a one time $12 purchase.
Yes, it is a business, but it is also my hobby. I still make a profit with my pricing that I am content with, even though I do not figure labor into my cost. I work out of my home, and would be making the soap (though no where near as much!) whether I had this business or not. If I had to rent a space for manufacture or retail, I would definitely price my products accordingly, and probably cut my bars smaller while keeping the price the same...for example, instead of getting 24 bars (x $6ea = $144) out of a 12lb batch, I would get at least 36 (x $6ea = $216) or 48 (x $6ea = $288 ). But for now, I'm content with my pricing and profit.