subject: Start A Business In Soap Making [print this page] Taking a bath is a wonderful everyday experience. You get a chance to pamper yourself and take a halt from the topsy-turvy activities you engage yourself with. Of course, your bathroom experience won't be complete without these slimy, fragrant thing called soaps. But what if you take this experience into greater heights by making money out of it? Why don't you start a business in soap making?
Just like any business, you need to know the essentials to succeed in soap making. You have to know the ingredients for different types of soaps, the tools for making and packaging them, the skills and training required to make good quality soaps that sell, and the best part that can make or break your business-marketing.
So talk about the ingredients first. Normally, basic soaps have three essential components-essential oils, water, and lye or sodium hydroxide. The proportions of these vary, and manufacturers add more ingredients to make their product unique. As you start a business in soap making, you need to know the basics, and then upgrade your products so that they become different and probably work better than the rest of the soaps available in the market.
You also have to think about where you will purchase your supplies and how much you will buy. It is best to buy your ingredients in large volumes so that you get discounts from manufacturers. Research about which manufacturers can be trusted in terms of the quality and price they offer. As a start, you can buy small amounts of ingredients first for testing purposes, and once you are sure that their products are of highest qualities, you can then decide to order from them.
You would also need tools such as pretty molders, cutters, and large mixers and mixing bowls for your business. In the same way, you can contact dealers and direct manufacturers for special discounts.
You already know your ingredients and where you will purchase them, but what about your soap recipe? Here comes your training in soap making. It is best for you to attend seminars that offer free training in soap making. You will gain your basic knowledge here, and then you can enhance your skills by trying and testing combinations of ingredients at home.
After you have honed your skills and have come up with the perfect product, it's time for you to test your product. Let your family and friends try your soaps to determine whether they will develop some skin reactions. Remember that soaps are alkaline, but they shouldn't be too strong that they can damage your skin. You can modify your products through this testing period, and thus you will come up with the best.
After you are sure that your soaps can be sold, it's now time for you to check for legal issues that concerns business. You may be required to get a license so you can sell your product.
Once you are fully authorized, it's time to do your product costing and marketing. There are cheap ways to market your soaps such as the use of fan pages and social networking sites in the internet. Word-of-mouth is also effective but a low-priced method of advertising. It also helps to take pictures of your products (and be creative in your presentation) so that you can post it in your blog site, web site, fan page, or in business sites like eBay.
