ideas whirling in my head...need info

[mommanessy247]

i'm thinkin' home made soaps & possibly, eventually being able to expand to other personal care essentials & i'd love to do a home based small business & even have a name for it & i dream of starting out with internet/mail sales with the ultimate goal of having a small store in town but...
thats all long term big dream goals...how could i start up something like this to where i can progressively expand with time, depending on success of course.
is soap making a thriving business venture in this economy? with such a large customer base & all the ideas i've got to be able to produce products for everyone - women, men, kids...the possibilities seem endless & the sky the limit! my god i see how easy it is to get excited about this but i dont want to jump into this blindly without knowing what pitfalls there may be with something like this.
as far as a soap base method, i've looked at both CP & M&P & i've decided that M&P would be best for me as i have small children & do not quite like the idea of messing with the chemicals involved with CP.

can anyone provide me with info on how to start up something small but expandable or tell me what sites i can go to to get the info i need?

how hard or expensive is it to start up a site for an internet sales set up?

am i missing anything?

 

[Hazel]

Have you started making MP soap and personal care products? The first thing you need to do is to develop your products. This will take time and experimentation. Get feedback from friends and family.

Check out SoapQueen for creative ideas with MP soap and other bath/body products.

http://www.soapqueen.com/

Find out who your target audience will be and what they want. I suggest you read the General Business forum and the Shopping Recommendations forum. You'll find a lot of useful info on them which will start to answer some of your questions.

Here's a good starting point to read.

http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17621

SCORE is a nonprofit organization which helps people develop their businesses.

http://www.score.org/about-score

There's a lot involved but these should help you get started. Good luck!

 

[mommanessy247]

nothing has been officially started or made yet. i'm in the brainstorming process right now. just trying to sort out all the ideas & get as much info as i can on what i'll need to do this before i actually jump into it.
i like to know what i'm gonna potentially be getting myself into before i do anything...
you've given me several places to start, & thats very much appreciated...thx.

 

[Hazel]

You're welcome.

I really recommend you read the forums and plan out what you want to do. It's very easy to spend a lot of money which is unnecessary when starting out. For example, you don't want to be like me and have a huge quanity of FOs which you don't like or don't work well in soap. So it's good that you're thinking everything through and considering different ideas.

By reading the forums, you can find suggestions for the best places to buy MP base. (I can't answer this because I don't buy MP anymore.) Which fragrances smell the best and won't fade, etc. You might want to ask family and friends which fragrances they like and then use their favorites to base your purchases on.

I forgot to mention - you could sign up for SoapQueen's newletter to receive tutorials (if you haven't already).

Here's the link to SoapQueenTV in case you didn't know about it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/soapqueentv



I'm sorry if I'm telling you things you already know.

 

[Tabitha]

http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17621

 

[mommanessy247]

i'm so excited at the ideas i'm coming up with & as i said i see how easy it would be to just go nuts. i dont wanna do that & by doing as much research as i can i hope to figure out what i wanna do & how i wanna start up something like this. its an investment i'm sure, so it'd be wise to do it smart 7 have everything thought out carefully.

 

[soapbuddy]

I would go to your local city hall or chamber of commerce to see what rules and regs are needed for a home based business like yours. I would also check out liability insurance. If it's under 5K, check out RLI (it's online) or check out the Soapmaker Guild.

 

[llineb]

yep, yep and yep to the above! I started with M&P and did this solo for 3 years then went on to CP. This forum is a HUGE resource so use it. You will need to develope a safe product before you sell. Helpful hints I wish I knew when i started...

all Fragrance oils have a skin SAFE % and each oil is different so you will need to check these before soaping that oil..Wholesale supplies plus has a conversion chart to transfer % to tsp
start out making Loaf soaps(I spent soooo much money on individual soap molds of all shapes and sizes and now only do loaf soaps). you will get 8 1inch slices and can embed soap shapes or layer or swirl...lots of possibilities!...Soap Queen has lots of videos of making loaf soaps.
Buy M&P in bulk like a 25lb block
color with micas or the liquid neons are good from TKBtrading.com
once you have tested your product(and have bought your liabilty insure-mine is $400/yr) and are ready to sell..do local craft shows to get customers interested..get them to sign up for emails and you can notify them of your next show or have one from your home.
If business picks up you can open an ETSY store and sell from the internet

Finally..have FUN! Most of us don't do it for the money but do it because we LOVE it. You can't always count on having the time to devote to your business when you have kids so you really should be making soap b/c you like too and if it makes you a little money than it's a bonus.

Also a great book to get used is..."Melt and Mold Soap Crafting" by Westerman.

Hope this helps!

 

[naturalbathing]

hi,

I'm sort of in the same boat as you, although I have narrowed down suppliers and what products I've decided to make etc and everything has been tried and tested.

One thing I think should be mentioned is that wherever you may be there is sure to be some cosmetic legislation that you have to abide by if you plan on selling your products. For the UK we have to obtain a cosmetic safety assessment to cover all the different types of products we make and then we have to abide by the UK and EU regulations regarding labelling etc. I'm not sure if you knew about this but its certainly something to look into.

If you do decide to go ahead with it then good luck

 

[Guest]

Very good post

Very good post. Made me realize I was totally wrong about this issue. I figure that one learns something new everyday. Mrs Right learned her lesson! Nice, informative website by the way.

 

[dieSpinne]

Spam much, Michaelkors?

 

[Hazel]

Jack -

Thanks for the laugh.

 

[saltydog]

Spam much, Michaelkors?

Lol, what?

 

[Hazel]

Val -

I removed the spammy link already. :wink:

 

[saltydog]

Val -

I removed the spammy link already. :wink:

Sorry, I should have known. I'm not worldly in the work of you mods!
Good job, Hazel :wink:
Edited to say- Or should I say WITCH Hazel?! very cute.

 

[Hazel]

Val -

I removed the spammy link already. :wink:

Sorry, I should have known. I'm not worldly in the work of you mods!
Good job, Hazel :wink:
Edited to say- Or should I say WITCH Hazel?! very cute.

Thanks! 'Tis the season. :wink:

I have to say the Witch Hazel was added by someone else. I had joked about being called it and was pleasantly surprised when I saw it.