Considering starting a business

[hatenik_the_barbarian]

I've been making my own soap for two years and am getting good enough at it to start selling my first bar and working on making a lot more varieties to sell. A few people around me like it, and I guess starting a little shop on Etsy wouldn't hurt anything. If the soap doesn't sell, I'll just have a few years' stock for my own use, lol.

I would make a pretty off-the-wall brand that names soaps after awesome things like certain gladiator tv shows, certain starship captains, and particular real-life space vehicles, even great beers and would be made from appropriate ingredients to go with the names. I can't promise vegan-friendly in all the soaps, because raw honey and goat's milk do GREAT things for skin, but they would be handmade in small batches to ensure quality.

Nerdfitness, to my understanding, is all about trying new things, but I'm hardly gonna jump in blind. Do nice post-workout scrubs or wake-you-up soap bars sound good to this crowd? (My way of seeing if there's a market somewhere on the internet for this. This is definitely one of the most varied groups I know.)

Thanks for your time, and if I launch the little shop, I'll post about it for any interested parties.

[sumdawgtwigg]

I'm all about buying from small business. So, if you do decide to open a etsy shop, I'll be sure to get a bar or two. Good luck!

[Oogiem]

I've been making my own soap for two years and am getting good enough at it to start selling my first bar and working on making a lot more varieties to sell. A few people around me like it, and I guess starting a little shop on Etsy wouldn't hurt anything. If the soap doesn't sell, I'll just have a few years' stock for my own use, lol.

I'd suggest doing some market research. There are literally hundreds of Etsy and other small shops making hand made soaps of nearly every variety. So investigate them, the size of bars, the prices, the ingredients and names etc.

Be wary of using trademarked names in the names of your soap lest you run afoul of lawyers.

Be sure you can explain in 2 minutes (the "elevator speech") why your soaps are so much better than all the others or who they will appeal to.

Label them well with all ingredients, esp any oils or fragrances you use as many people will be sensitive or allergic to things and ned to know before buying your product. Don't ship or store different types together, for the really sensitive even packaging a bar in a wrapper that was stored with bars that have stuff you are sensitive to will cause bad reactions

FWIW I am never a buyer of soaps like that. I am extremely fragrance sensitive and even essential oils in many soaps will set off an allergic reaction resulting in me needing benadryl and worse so I am not your target market, unless you can make one that is really hypo allergenic.

Plan fo ra fair wage for your time and track it accurately.

Don't forget to price in the cost of supplies that will wear out, molds or other stuff that lasts for a long time but will have to be replaced eventually.

Good Luck!

[Zima]

Definitely do it, and definitely keep us updated on how it's going!

I love the idea of people running small businesses, and buying unique products from them rather than generic things from large chains. A gladiator-themed soap to use after working out sounds awesome. You could use ingredients that somehow relate to some kind of ancient warriors and write up a really epic sounding snippet about it. "It was believed that <ingredient> was blessed by the Gods of Whatever and aided warriors in recovery from battle" or whatnot. I'd buy it.

[Ryan Sannar]

I'd be down.

[Emcognito]

If you could somehow make a soap that would make other people not smell (perfumes, colognes and AXE most especially included), there would be a huge market for that. ;-)

[khenning]

Here's my two cents for what it's worth (probably not even worth two cents). If I'm you, I go to local farmers markets or fairs and start selling there. Once you have a name established with the locals then bring it online. I think you'd have more success getting off the ground that way. Of course it would take more time and effort having to go to all of those places. But that's the approach I would take.

[---]

If you could somehow make a soap that would make other people not smell (perfumes, colognes and AXE most especially included), there would be a huge market for that. ;-)

Oh, you don't need soap for that. You just take a sharp knife, restrain the offender, and...

What?

[hatenik_the_barbarian]

Thanks for the support, y'all!

I did some reading about selling soap a long time ago, just to see. I'll have to dig up my old stuff and find new reading for it. If all these frilly, foofy soaps sell on Etsy, I'm reasonably sure my brand might be able to sell a little too, HUGE buyer's market though it is. The original bar I'm ready to start selling actually has no added fragrance or color. What you see is exactly what I put in it.

I also have every intention of writing cool descriptions of each soap and possibly a different themed label for each one (I also love graphic design). Everyone's supportive advice is appreciated and taken under consideration. Severely sensitive skin is not a foreign concept to me, and I do plan on making at least one variety usable by people who need that. But, there's a LOT of varieties I plan on developing, too. Excited to get started, but once I do, I'll probably go straight to Etsy or try to make an arrangement on Amazon. Buying up slots at farmers' markets and craft fairs isn't cheap, and that kind of thing would have to wait until I've got at least 10 lbs of soap to sell and a car to tote my stuff with. If this ends up even remotely successful, I'll consider getting local grocery stores to sell my bars (I know of another local soaper who does this too, she's a very nice lady with a goat farm) and eventually hit the market/fair scene.

[Zima]

I agree, selling online is likely the best way to get started. Since you're a graphic design guy, you could also make your own site and open up shop there in addition to places like Etsy. It would certainly add credibility, too, when someone sees the product on amazon and sees a link to a well designed page that explains the product and maybe even has your story there. By story I mean something like http://mattresslot.com/mattress_lot/Our_Story.html . Just an idea.

Anyway, keep us posted on how it goes!

[hatenik_the_barbarian]

Since you're a graphic design guy

I'm a woman, lol. The site you linked looks really nice! I'll probably end up making something a little like my portfolio site, http://www.katenikarcher.com/, where the host site appears to have functions I can add for selling stuff. We've got our wedding info site through the same host, http://dustankatenik.weebly.com/. However! I may end up with Dreamweaver in the near future, with a clever fiance who's sort of into web design. I dunno. When I level up to getting a dedicated site for selling my stuff, I'll get something figured out for it. There will be links when I've got 'em.