Teach Soap

Hi there!

I'm new to this soapmaking business and looking for ways to get market my products once I get up and running. My plan is to spend the next two or so months trying to get the basics down for soap and fizzies. I've ordered some molds that make guest sized soaps and I'm thinking of talking to people I know and asking them to take part in a focus group type of thing.

Here's how I see it working... They would each be given a small bar or two (different bases, scents, colors) and a fizzie to try for two-three weeks. Along with the soaps I will provide a comment card specific to each product that basically asks them to rate it on a scale from 1-5 based on feel, fragrance, results, packaging, etc and ask if they would purchase it and how much they would pay for it.

I can see it doing two things - 1) I will get good feedback about the products and get an idea for what would sell here without having to make huge batches of large bars and 2) it gets the product into people's hands free to them. I've bounced the idea off of some people and I already have several people who are interested in participating.

I live in an incredibly dry, hot area that gets very little rain and doesn't have much in the way of winter. Water is hard a lots of people have skin issues. I've been using goat's milk and olive oil soap for a couple of years now and have just decided that since I'm not the only one with problems, why not try to help out others, do something fun that I enjoy and maybe make a bit of money doing it. There definitely a market for it here and as far as I know there's nothing else made locally, which I think could be a real selling point.

So...What do you guys think? Have any of you tried this? Any reason you can think of to NOT go this route?

First, I think your idea of focus groups (or Testers as I call them) is wonderful. I rely on mine to help me decide which products people like and which they don't.

However, if you're new to soapmaking, I would certainally allow longer than 2 months to get started. It took me much longer than that to finally come up with some tried and true recipes that were reliable, consistent and cost productive. Additionally, you're proably going to want time to really know your soaps - how does a certain react with a certain recipie, what does it smell like in 3 months or 6, etc. You don't say if you're doing cphp, ohp, or cp but all soaps do better with a good long cure (I cure my cphp no less than 4 weeks even though it can be used within minutes after cutting) Many many things to consider here. Much less the business aspect of all of it (licensing, website (I've changed mine 6 times in 2 months and am working on yet another revision, marketing, etc.). I don't know what the average start up time is and perhaps I'm just slow because I work full time doing something else and have a multitude of other activities, but I would suggest re-thinking having your business up and running in 2 months.

Just my opinion, I'm hopeful others can give better insight.

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Sunkawakan
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Finally open!
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Testers do work. Just make sure you have a good formula down first and enough cure time so that you know how the soap behaves over time. Whether you give your soap to testers to get feedback, or to sell, you will need insurance. Good luck.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Thanks for the feedback, ladies. Maybe I'm being a bit too ambitious with 2 months.

I think I'm going to have to stick to MP soaps because I can't get the sodium hydroxide shipped overseas (not that I've found yet) and there also doesn't seem to be anywhere locally. I've got one more place I'm going to try hopefully today. MP soaps don't have to cure 4-6 weeks like CP soaps, do they? I understand that this is a separate issue from giving them enough cure time to see how they behave over the long term...

MP can be used as soon as it cools off. It does not need to cure like CP.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

lotusflowersoap - I just want to let you know that I AM NOT trying to discourage you. IMO I think you should go for it if its something you've really thought through. Understand also, there is a learning curve and your thinking process may or may not change. But, any decision should be made with as much knowledge as possible and certainally one that could either be financially lucrative or disasterous. But you won't know until you start the journey. You may get 3 months into this and say forget it - or you may get 1 month into it and think - ok, so far so good - seem to be on the right track, I'll keep going. Tweaking is part of the fun and keeps anything from getting boring.

Have you tried googling or asking on forums where you might be able to get lye where you live? If you really want to do this then don't give up! The point is to enjoy it and have fun, chances are it will morph into a business of some sort though it may not be the one you thought you were going to have in the beginning.

Just my opinion.

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Sunkawakan
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Sunkawakan, thanks for the input. I do appreciate it. Around here there are virtually no resources, but I know a guy who runs a commercial soap company and they import sodium hydroxide. The smallest amount they would sell me is 1/2 a metric ton! LOL. I finally did find a place that will ship overseas - it's called Essential Depot www.edepot.com! I was really excited about it.

I actually have a friend who lives here from South Africa whose family owns a very successful hand crafted soap business there. He's been a good source of information as well and has told me what some of their struggles were with the business. I've owned my own business before and I know there are ups and downs and that it's not all peaches and rainbows all the time. I'm going to just focus on basic soaps for now (nothing fancy at this point), and try to perfect a few good recipes and see where it goes from there. I already make and scent my own laundry soap, so I have just a bit of experience, and that's how I got the bug to try to do more and make a business out of it.

Again, that's for the thoughts - I didn't take them as discouraging at all, just realistic and I appreciate it!

Your plan to use a standardized input form and a scale for ranking the user satisfaction with the product is an excellent idea. I need to do something like this as well. I started this as more a hobby than anything and it slowly grew to a point where I was spending a lot of money on the ingredients and needed to subsidize my habit. So I created a website and have started marketing but I'm sorely lacking in the user feedback area. I've been too relaxed about getting feedback. The problem with just sending samples to friends and asking them to get back to me is that they don't reply with enough meaningful feedback or in a timely fashion. The other problem with using friends or family is that they don't want to offend you. But if they have a fixed scale with which to respond, they might be more apt to be honest. Let me know how it goes!

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Heather Shoemaker