Selling your handmade soaps and skin care products

I am asked that question a lot. I suppose there are better people to ask, given that I sell supplies and not finished soap and skin care products at SoapCrafters.com. However, that being said, I deal with people who sell their homemade soaps and skin care products all the the time, so I do know a little about it.

This morning a new soap maker emailed me and asked that question. She has been making soaps for Christmas presents and now she wants to do it ‘for real’ and get her freshly manicured toes into business for herself. So, I shared with her what our customers at SoapCrafters.com have shared with me.

I think the first thing you really need to do is to connect with others who make soaps and lotions at home and have already started selling their homemade goods.  The Internet is the best way to hook up with these soapers.

If you are on Facebook, we have started a new Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soapcrafters/117333044956790
and a group for soapers:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soapcrafters/117333044956790#!/group.php?gid=102818496429626&ref=ts
once those get going, there will be discussions about this.

For right now, we have an email chat list where hundreds of soapers are subscribed, just ask a question on there on how to get started:
http://www.soapcrafters.com/soap_maker_mailing_list

Soon, we will have a huge forum running on meltandpour.com, but it isn’t ready yet.

Most people start selling just by accident.  They start making gifts, as the girl who emailed me this morning did, and their friends and family start begging for more.  They also tell their friends and then they want to buy too.  Most people in a home soap business didn’t intend to go into business, the demand for their homemade soaps and lotions pretty much just put them into business.

Most towns have a Farmer’s Market these days or at least a Flea Market, so go get yourself a booth there and start giving out little samples and start selling there.  You can build up a great customer base by having booths in those places.  Make sure you show up every weekend, so people can depend on you being there.  If you have a website, make sure you hand out small business cards with your website address on them.  Put hanging tags on your items so there is a better chance of people saving the information.  If it is on a label on a bar of soap, it will naturally get thrown away when they open the soap up to use.  Make sure your phone number and website address is on all your labels of your products!  If your happy customer can’t make it to the Farmer’s Market when they need more, they will give you a call or visit your website to buy next time.

Listen to your customers!  If you keep hearing the same thing over and over again from them about what they want, then you start making it for them.  Be careful not to get into the big ego of what you want your business to be.  It is your customers who are going to determine that, not you.  If your customers keep telling you that they want a rose scented lotion, then you are going to make that if you want to be successful.

When I started SoapCrafters.com all those years ago, I laugh now at what I thought the company was going to be.  I thought it was going to be only natural herbs, essential oils, and some vegetable oils.  If you look at it now, you can see that those items are just a small part of what we sell.  Our customers demanded melt and pour soap, fragrances, colorants, containers and premade bases.  So, I gave them what they wanted to buy, and we went on to win a couple of awards in Utah for being in the top 100 fastest growing corporations.  In 2003, we were the thirteenth fastest growing company!  Give them what they want and they will make you a successful business person.  I am continually developing new products like our Soap Noodles shredded soaps to make soap easy to make, our Super Concentrate shampoo bases that is the foundation for many successful business’s products, and lately our line of pure and natural body creams and lotions.

Other ways you can start your company is by asking hotels, bed & breakfasts, gift shops, and small stores to buy your product for resale.  Make sure you can create your products inexpensive enough for them to add a 50% mark-up to it. Sometimes you will have to put your products in the store on consignment, which means you will get paid when they sell it.  Consignment can work out nicely, but other times it is sort of a nightmare of paperwork and keeping track of stock and damaged or stolen goods.

If you sell dog shampoo, then go to dog shows, grooming salons, or even volunteer at the local humane society.  Try to get them to carry your products.  If you sell soap, shampoo and conditioner, then approach the local beauticians and tell them you’ll design products just for their shop with their name on it!

One important thing to always keep in mind, is you have to make your products inexpensively so that you can make money after all this work.  Buy the largest sizes of your ingredients that you can.  Make things by scratch if you can. If you are buying mail order, place large orders instead of a lot of little orders in order to save on shipping costs.  Make your own labels and business cards on your home computer instead of using a printing service.

Packaging is what sells products!  Really doll up your goods and it will totally pay off!  People buy by the look of an item if they are unfamiliar with it.  Shoppers like bright colors and heavenly scents.  So, get your artistic creativity juices flowing.  You are going to need to be an artist!

Pricing is the weirdest thing on earth, seriously.  People will buy something all day long for $19.95 and they will pass over the exact same product priced at $11.95.  You would be wise to develop your products with prices like $9.95 and $19.95.  People were brainwashed by advertising many, many years ago that the value was $19.95 or $9.95 and now the 99th monkey has kicked in and this is how you’re going to sell a lot of stuff.  Sure, $19.95 is only five cents away from $20, but trust me, use $19.95, if you want big sales.  Use $20 if you want to sit all day and sell hardly anything.  If you’re selling wholesale to stores, this pricing isn’t going to necessarily work for the stores.  This is retail, on the shelf pricing I’m talking about.  So have your suggested retail prices at $19.95 and smaller stuff at $9.95, and deal with the store’s pricing the best you can and still end with a .95 on the end.

I could go on and on, but I’d like you soapers who sell your goods to add some ideas on how you do it! Please use the comment button to share your experience with those who are just starting out.

Lip Balms

Lip Balm addiction.  So where do you stand on the issue?

One of my favorite sites to visit is Lip Balm Anonymous which is dedicated to spreading the strength and hope that you too can quit lip balm.  It cracks me up.  But then, I am pusher.  I sell everything you need to keep the costs down for you and your lip balm junkie friends.

We sell flavors, bee’s wax, the empty tubes, shea butter, almond oil, and all sorts of goodies you can stuff in those tubes.  I used to sell a flavoring oil that smelled just like a rose, but it didn’t catch on.  I thought flower scented lip balms was a great idea, but apparently I was decades ahead of my balm pushing time.  In case you’re wondering, cherry is the flavor of the year.

So, is it addictive?  My Rabbi was strung out on putting Vaseline on his lips instead of lip balm.  He had it stashed all over the house while insisting he did not have a problem.  He was never far from his stash, though!  He had it tucked away in his closet, stuff in a drawer, everywhere.  He had not gotten as far as hiding it in the toilet though.  But then, I haven’t spoken to him in a while.

If you want to cash in on all that Chapstick and Burt’s Balm fortune, you can make your own and become a pusher too!

Here is the recipe for Powerfully Cool Lip Balms:

1 Tablespoon Bee’s Wax
1 Tablespoon Shea Butter
1-1/2 Tablespoons Avocado Oil
1/4 Teaspoon Mint Flavoring
This lip balm is delightfully cold on the lips, very refreshing!

Melt Bee’s Wax and Shea Butter on the stove. Make sure it gets to over 180 degrees Fahrenheit, keep it at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. Take off the heat, mix in avocado oil. Mix well, then mix in the Soap Crafters Mint flavoring . Pour into 7 Soap Crafters Lip Balm tubes or Lip Blam jars.

For easier pouring, use a rubber band to hold all the tubes together. Then they stand upright easily. Use a Soap Crafters Pipette to fill them. Keep filling until they are a little overfilled. This gives each lip balm a rounded top and not a sunken in one. After a couple of hours they will be cool, put on caps and clean up to label. They are ready to use!

Soon, people will be hooked and lining up at your door demanding more.  You will have lots left over for your own lip use, plus lots of extra cash to throw around and look like a big shot.  It is win-win!  And it is perfectly legal!  Well, for now….

I was asked recently by a new lip balm and lotion maker about business requirements.  I thought I’d pass along to you a bit of the conversation because it effects everyone in the USA who sells their products.

Hello
I have been making and selling solid cocoa butter lotion bars since
November. Tons of them, as well as lip balms and chapsticks.
I have been asked a couple times recently if I have to worry about the
legalities of selling these types of products. Are there are FDA
standards or licenses I have to have?

Homemade Beauty Products

The answer to that can be very complex, but in a nutshell: Sort of.

The Food and Drug Administration in the USA will have jurisdiction over you if you sell across the state line. If you are selling your items just within your own state then they do not have control over what you do and do not do. It is, however, a VERY good idea to follow their recommendations because they have you and your customer’s interests at heart. They want things clean, products to be clean and safe and labeled properly. So even if you do just sell within your own state, you should follow their regulations the best that you can.

The FDA does not issue licenses. It is a voluntarily thing for the most part. They have laws and they expect you are following them. If you do something wrong and they find out about it, they will pay you a visit. If you are working from your home, you have the legal right to tell them they cannot enter your property. If you are working from a public place, then you do have to let them in and comply with their requests.

The worst case scenario is you are doing something improperly. They will tell you what that is and what you need to do to comply. If you do not comply, they can and most certainly will confiscate your paperwork, products, labels, brochures, etc. And that’s about it.

There are some things which are exempt from the Food and Drug Administration’s control in the USA. Soap is one of those things. That is why sometimes you’ll see soap for sale and it doesn’t have any ingredients listed on the label (breaking and FDA rule?). It is because soap is exempt from their regulation. Typical pet care products are also exempt, such as pet shampoos. But! And this is a big but for soap makers, if you tell people your soap will have any effect on any medical condition like acne, weight loss, cure cancer, then they will instantly determine you are not selling soap, but you are selling drugs. They do control drugs. You cannot say your soap is going to treat any medical condition and you cannot have any literature in your company that says anything like that. So, it is a good idea to read their regulations and follow them. You can find their cosmetic laws at fda.gov.

But, the FDA is not the only thing to be concerned about in business. You need to have your proper local and state licenses to operate a business. There are some states who have their own cosmetic laws. You should probably ask your local business license office if your state is one of those states. Usually your local or state business license office will be able to point you in the right direction so you can obtain that information.

Lastly, there is something called ‘product liability insurance’. This is insurance in case someone has claimed to be injured by the products you make. Sooner or later, you should have this insurance. Some times there is a rider for home owner’s insurance you can get to cover your homemade goods. Ask your insurance agent about this. When you are first starting out, it is tough to do all that.

I think most people sort of get their feet wet and start out really small in their own kitchen and then see if they can sell their products. Once they see they can make a real business out of it, they start following more rules and regulations, getting their licenses and eventually adding the proper insurances. We all just do what we can. It would be ideal to be able to do it all first, but most people are not able to until they get going so they take some risks in the beginning. Which, doesn’t make it right, but it is the reality of small business startups.

Pet Products Cleaning up in Bad Economy

There is one industry that is really flourishing right now and that is the Pet Products industry.  For some odd reason, now that times are tough, the tough are spoiling their pets like crazy!  People are spending record amounts for their pet care, toys and all sorts of things.  They are not being cheap about it either, they want only the best in everything for their ‘babies’, also known as dogs, cats, birds, horses, and fish.  I suppose little ferrets and rodents are in there somewhere too.

So what does this have to do with us soap makers?  Dog shampoo, that’s what.  I have spent some time developing and testing an all natural shampoo to pamper those pooches.  Monty’s All Natural Dog Shampoo is a blend of our natural cleaning agent “Super Concentrate“, aloe vera, glycerin, our humectant which is derived from fruit which rehydrates the skin and hair, vitamin E and a blend of pure essential oils which have a reputation for skin care but fleas, flies and ticks hate them.

In our testing, it has been reported so far that some dogs even like the scent of the essential oil blend.  Better yet, it lathers well, it has no burning because it is pH balanced for a dog’s skin, it leaves the coat shiny and beautiful, plus it actually reduces itching because of its gentleness on their skin.

“Dog Shampoo, big deal,” you say?  It is a big deal because our dog shampoo is ready to use.  All you need to do is bottle it up, put your company label on and sell it to your local pet shops, grocery stores, veterinarians, dog grooming salons, dog clubs, feed stores and any other place that is selling pet care products.  And you make a huge profit!

This is the very best in shampoo for your pet customers.  The pH of a dog’s skin is much different than human skin.  When you wash him or her with people shampoo or dish soap, it makes your dog itch or even burn their sensitive skin. This is why we adjust the pH of the shampoo to be the ideal point for a dog care product.  Our Super Concentrate, one of the ingredients in Monty’s All Natural Dog Shampoo, is a very gentle surfactant (derived from coconut oils) which cleans great but is still easy on the natural oils of the skin and hair.  There are no artificial colorants in Monty’s Dog Shampoo.  It has a natural amber appearance from the fruit derived humectant in it.  There are no fragrances either!  Fragrance tends to irritate a dog’s skin so we leave that out and give it a completely natural scent with pure essential oils.  We chose the essential oils which have a reputation for chasing away flies, fleas and ticks, but still blend nicely together to make a wonderful scent.

There is a lot of cash to be made in this industry of pet care products.  Dog Shampoo prices are greatly varying right now, but people will opt to purchase the highest quality for their pets, spending at least twenty dollars for a large bottle.

To give you an idea on how much you can make selling your own dog care products:
Our 5-gallon size of Monty’s Dog Shampoo is $199.95.  This gives you 640 ounces of product at only 31 cents per ounce.
The suggested retail price (what you sell it for) for this dog shampoo is $9.95 for an 8 ounce bottle, which translates to $1.24 per ounce.
This means  profit on every bottle is $7.44! Of course, you need to subtract the amount you spend on packaging materials like a bottle, cap, label and maybe a ribbon to dress it up.  But still, it is a real profit center for you.  The best part is, people and dogs love this shampoo and will love you for introducing them to it.  You can’t beat that!

Here are a couple of news reports which talk about this boom in pet products that is going on right now:
A video news report at Businessweek , and a video plus article at ZooToo .  If you want to dig deeper, just do a google search on the bad economy and pet care products.  There are a lot of articles out there talking about this boom in business.

Because of all these reports of the great business that is being done in the pet industry, I decided to develop
Monty’s All Natural Dog Shampoo so that our customers at SoapCrafters.com can expand their lines of soap products.  I know our customers only want the best in quality in products, so I designed this pet product with our customers and your customers in mind.

You can see Monty’s All Natural Dog Shampoo here.