Fresholi | Melting Pot Café

Hi, we are Lisa and Andy, we are in the middle of setting up a small craft business making bath products which we hope to expand in the future.

Hi Lisa and Andy. That was a brief intro, so what ya make? I is nosey. ::) :mwaha:
Welcome to the forum. Needless to say, we love pics, lots and lots of pics.

Eire

Hya Lisa, nice to meet you. Youll find we are a very friendly bunch on here but do love pics.

So how long have ou been thinking of setting up your crafting business , is it just going to be b&b products or are crafty in all sorts of ways. Yes Im nosey too  :mwaha:

We will post a picure of ourselves when we work out how to do it . We are in the North east of England and want to start off a small business selling soaps and all manner of bath products at craft fairs, school summer fetes and anywhere else where people gather !!!

Sounds great, it can be very rewarding. Its lovely when you create things and people love them so much they buy.

Re the pics if you want one by your name go to profile and it will let you upload there.

Re pics of stuff you make or the dog or a sunset if you upload them to something like photobucket then copy and paste the 3rd link under each pic you will be able to put them in your posts.

Looking forward to seeing some of your lovelies.

The more you post on here the more boards open up to you so feel free to ask questions and share generally. :buttrf:

A lot of hard work, but worth it. Is it melt and pour that you make? I make cp and cphp. Can't wait to see some of your pics. ;D I love pics. How long have you beem making soap?

Eire

Ha !  complete newbies, just starting out at the moment but its something were really interested in. Everyone on here so far seems kind and i'm sure we'll be asking loads of questions over the next few weeks, hope ypu dont get sick of us !

The idea is to start with M & P and maybe move to CP once we gain a bit of experience. Still trying to work out how to put pics on, bare with me, i'll get it right in the end

Hello both, welcome aboard.

Lis, there is loads of info both on here in the forum and in resources. As mentioned, soap queen has loads too.
I'm a pretty upfont kinda person, I can only say it as I see it, possibly a lack of tact or social skills. ;D So, here's my 'but'.
There is an old saying, 'any fool can make soap, it's a whole other ball game making good soap'. I can think of many soapers off the top of my head (as many here can) that don't put the time, energy and resources into learning. It will be spotted a mile away (many miles away).
You need to have all cosmetics safety assessed, including soaps. You need to become familiar with current EU cosmetic regulations and comply with those. You need to have insurance and public liability, inform trading standards, register your business, the list goes on. You need to know ALL your overheads, have some kind of business plan, know your target market and how to reach them. You need to test, test, test, get loads of people to test and give honest reliable feedback, tweak your formula accordingly. It takes a lot of time, money and committment to make a good product, one that is worth asking someone to pay their hard earned money for. Keep reading and learning, it is a wonderful fun craft, rewarding, challenging at times, but it's something one either has a passion for or not. Get practicing and enjoy the learning process. :)

Eire

Eire I just pmd Lisa saying something very similar. Great minds think alike.

Seriously though Lisa it can be an incredibly rewarding business but you needs loads of research and testing and everything Eire has said. It can also be incredibly competitive.

Really looking forward to your exploits in the soap making world :buttrf:

Hi Lisa and Andy!  :hi:

This is a good place to hang out, learn stuff, ask Qs or just chat.

Did anyone mention we love pics?  :mwaha:

Welcome - here is a good place to start for sure but I agree with the others, the time, money and effort to get something that's worthy to sell is huge.  For example, I started making my body butters over a year ago and only started selling them fairly recently, I'm still perfecting my lip balm recipe 6 months later - I refuse to sell anything I don't 100% believe in; I wouldn't want to be asked for money for products that I don't believe have been fully tested and that person doesn't believe in them 1,000% so why would or even could I ask any of my customers to do that?

Crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run - there's a huge difference between making things for yourself at home and making things to sell to others. 

Whilst you're learning, ask as many questions are you like and read back on the threads here because it's a huge resource for info (I still read back myself) ... we're more than happy to help along the road. 

Lisa & Andy, hello!!!

 I made my first soap a month ago and decided this was it, how I was going to make my living!  I had no clue!  I then discovered these boards, and I have learned SSSSOOOO much here already.  It's definitely not as simple as making a soap and selling it.  You need to learn learn learn first, and practice and test and everything everyone else has said.

But don't let that put you off, I've still got those dreams, they'll just take a bit longer.

Hi to you both  ;)

Hi both and welcome aboard.  I am sure you both will have lots of fun experimenting and lots grumbles and groans (or even giggles) at the total flops.  It will be wonderful to hear about your exciting new adventure as you go along the way and yes...  as pic queen (that would be Honey) has already pointed out, we do love to see pics.  I hope you find the boards useful and I very much look forward to chatting with you more  :buttrf: :buttrf:

Hi Guys ! Hope you enjoy it here.

Actually everyone on here is wrong, learning, practicing and reading about soap is not enough, you have to be completely obsessed with soapmaking, never think about anything but soap, never do anything but make soap, dream about soap, talk about soap until all your friend's eyes glaze over and they put their fingers in there ears when you start talking, have enough different ingredients and a head full over ideas and even if you lived 6 lifetimes you would never use all those things you couldn't resist buyiing snd never have time to make all the ideas you have. You will stuff your children with strange food because you like the shape of the container, you will come on here for a quick look and suddenly it is 3.ooam - and this is all just for starters!

Oh. My. God.  Loretta - that just about sums it up!!! Just read that out to my hubs and he said that it's all soooooooooooo true!

Brilliant!!!!  :mwaha:

 :mwaha: I totally agree, soap making takes over your every waking moment

Welcome from another new board member............this is a great board with loads of supportive friendly soapers you will learn loads from here!!!! LOL Loretta how funny I so remember buying my poor kids umpteen jellys (readymade type) because I loved the containers.............they made cute candle molds!!!!!!!

Hello everyone, nice to hear from you all
As for making a living from soap making I fully expect to take over the world by next tuesday !!! does anyone think i am being over ambitious?. We may start buying things in from Ancient wisdom as they do some fabulous looking loaves and we can learn as we go along but at least we'll be testing the market as we go.
Loads of fun to be had from experimenting in the meantime and thats probably the most enjoyable part anyway. As we progress i'll put some pics up and any help along the way with recipes would be much appreciated
Lisa

This is totally my opinion but lots of people buy in from AW.  Nothing special about their products at all - nothing that says "buy me".  They're cheap and cheerful but that's it.  And to make a good profit, you are going to have to sell truck loads. 

It really depends on what you want your business to be - what is your market, who will you be selling to? Do you want to start your business selling soaps like that.. is that what your brand will be? If it so, no problem.  But if you wish to place yourself in any other market, starting selling AW type soaps won't cut it because you'll have branded yourself already without realising it.  You won't get the type of customers who'll pay a premium for a quality handmade product buying AW soaps.  If you're not going for that market no problem though.  Check out your local markets and see what's selling - where is the gap? What could your niche be?

Do you have a business plan or a focus for your business? Is there a particular market you want to focus on? Remember, whatever you do you'll have to be fully certified and insured. 

Thanks for all the information everyone, all very much appreciated. Sadly my mam died on Sunday so i wont be on the boards for a short while, i will reply to you all when i can, Thankyou
Andy

 (:hug:)

Sorry to hear that. Take care of yourselves.

Sorry to hear that, Andy. Come back when you are ready.

Eire

Sympathies Andy.

We'll see you both later when you're ready.

So sorry to hear that, please accept my deepest condolences. Look forward to seeing you on here again when you feel ready.

so sorry to hear about your mum.

Oh I am so sorry  :buttrf:  We'll be here whenever you are ready but take care of yourselves in the meantime  (:hug:)

I'm sorry to hear about your mum  (:hug:)

ello ello, nice to met you.

 :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: