HOW TO START A SOAP MAKING BUSINESS ( FOR BEGINNERS)
Do you enjoy making soap? Fancy starting a business making cold processed soap? Find out how you can start a soap making business in 2020.
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Preplanning to start a soap making business
It is really important that you scope out your competition on places like Etsy, Made in Britain, shopify, even facebook with the shopify link to your shop.
Make sure your soap will stand out and the competition will be fierce. You need to have something that is unique for your soap.
Here are some examples of unique soaps:
Zebra stripes! So much fun to make. The tops got messed up when my makeshift cover caved in, but I still love them. from r/soapmaking
Tried my first landscape soap this week. It came out almost exactly how I wanted it to. (: from r/soapmaking
It doesn’t have to be the design that is unique, it could also be who you are planning to sell to for instance all fragrance free and allergy reduced soap for children or babies.
Regulations and Taxes
Make sure you follow the regulations when it comes to making soap and selling it.
The Soap guild has plenty of information about legislation in the USA.
Here are some frequently asked questions on the FDA website too for cosmetics and soap.
Be Careful how you describe what your soap does or you could claim it is a cosmetic.
If you are in Canada here is the legislation you should have a look at too.
If you are making soap in the UK it can be a whole other ball game soap is classed as a cosmetic rather than a detergent. It will be covered by a lot of stringent rules. But that is not to say you can be a small scale producer even in the UK it just means you need to make sure you follow all the legislation including having your recipes certified by a chemist, having your batches signed off and so forth.
Make sure you have any insurance that maybe required as well.
And finally don’t forget to register for taxes once you get things up and running.
What’s an Angel policy
If you used any branded products when you made your soap for example a recipe then check the Angel policy.
The company will still own the copyright to designs or recipes.
Best to check what the Angel policy is and what you can use the recipe for instance for.
Angel policies will normally be on the companies website.
Create unique soaps and create a brand
So you have decided on what you are going to sell and you are going to create unique soaps.
So, now you need to think about branding for things like:
Website
Social media
Packaging
Labels
That will include things like the colour combo’s you are going to use for any logo that you want to have the type of lettering you are going to use. Are you going to have a tagline for your soap?
Determine your pricing
Determining pricing of your products doesn’t just depend on the costs of ingredients it also needs to reflect the time it takes to make the products.
If you are going for complex soap or fancy ingredients make sure to factor all the costs in.
That includes packaging and shipping costs too.
Selling your products
If you plan to sell online consider sending out samples so your customers can see and smell your soaps when you sell them soap.
For instance samples for newly released product lines or just as a thank you with their order.
Make sure your soap is staged well and that the photography is clear – blurry photos just won’t cut it.
Again see how your competition is doing things.
Which soaps are selling the most, how are they displayed and what are the extras they are giving consumers like free samples?
Check out this post on where to sell your products.
Social media
Don’t just throw up a website and expect orders.
Sites like Etsy help drive customers to your shop but they won’t necessarily help if you have your own website you need to utilise social media.
Because you are selling soaps the best way to is to use social media that is more visual like:
Also consider showing your customers how you make your soap or a tour of your soap making base on
Youtube
Start a soap making Business some resources:
Most of all make sure you enjoy making soap because you will be making a lot of soap day in day out to sell hopefully.
Soap Making related posts:
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I hope you enjoyed this run through for how to start a soap making business.
One final thought just because lots of people are producing soap as a business doesn’t necessarily mean you should.
If you have a unique idea that can make you stand out then go for it.