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Making Soap & Skin Care ProductsOne business idea that will never be outdated is soap making. In any kind of economy, in every part of the world, people need to be able to clean their bodies, their hair, their clothing, their dishes, pots and pans, their homes.
Soaps for the Human Body If you decide to go into the soap-making business, be sure to give some careful thought to the specific kinds of soap you want to offer. There are many kinds of soaps and cleaners in the world. Different kinds of grime need different formulas, for one thing. Simple dirt may easily be removed with any face or body soap, while a painter or mechanic may need something different to get their hands or clothing clean. And then you must also deal with our human perceptions. We tend to think that a beauty soap must be very different from a hard-working hand soap. In reality, the same formula may do a great job of cleaning real grime and making the skin soft and beautiful. But you will be selling against the tide of human perceptions to try and market your one soap as both a super cleaning agent for dirty hands and a gentle facial soap. It will be better to market two soaps (even if both share the same basic formula) each with its own fragrance and color and packaging, than to try and "prove" something that potential buyers are reluctant to believe. You will find, when marketing any product, that it often pays better to aim at a very specific market or need. If you can develop a product that effectively answers a specific need, you will be able to achieve more with your advertising. Along these lines, you may also want to give serious thought to specializing in just one or two great selling products rather than devote acres of storage and many thousands of dollars trying to sell many products that never really take off. Making soap is not rocket science, but it can become so, if you're not careful. You will need to make sure that your soap is an effective cleansing agent that does not harm human skin. If your product fails to clean human skin or hair, for example, you will not have a good repeat market, and without repeat sales, you will always be paying a large percentage of your profits on ads designed to bring in brand new customers. (Some portion of sales income must always be spent on expanding your market anyway, but why waste money trying to replace all the customers you've already had?) On the other hand, if your soap cleans very well, but harms the skin or hair, then you will soon be making headlines, and then you will be up on charges, and completely out of business. Some small percentage of your potential market will have very sensitive skin, anyway, so you need to be careful about offering a product that generates more trouble for you than profits. The same basic principle applies to products designed to clean the house, the car, or family clothing. The product needs to do whatever you say it will do. And it must not ruin colors, finishes, or the people who use it. There are standards and required notifications for just about any product that comes into frequent contact with human beings and their home or workspace. This means that there are also federal agencies in place that regulate such products. For a quick review of how many agencies are out there, visit www.standards.gov and review the list for yourself. Keep in mind that any government list of agencies is probably missing a few, and that new ones are being formed all the time. At the very least, you will want to be in good standing with the FDA, if you make body soap, shampoo, or other skin care products. Simple soap, as defined by the FDA, is not regulated in the same way as other cosmetic or cleansing products. To quote the FDA, "Soap is a category that needs
special explanation. That's because the regulatory definition of "soap"
is different from the way in which people commonly use the word.
Products that meet the definition of "soap" are exempt from the
provisions of the FD&C Act because -- even though Section 201(i)(1) of
the act includes "articles...for cleansing" in the definition of a
cosmetic -- Section 201(i)(2) excludes soap from the definition of a
cosmetic. Before you get overly excited about the good news, do make sure you read through the FDA guidelines for yourself. Never take my word, or anyone else's word for what the law or the government requires of you as a manufacturer, serve provider or business owner. Having said all of that, you will be pleased to learn that many others have walked this path before you, and many people are out there already, making and selling soap products from their home. This means that books on designing, formulating and making soaps for body and hair are readily available. It also means that many websites offer help in the formulation and manufacture of soap. Charts, for example, on the correct pH balance for soap, and even online interactive calculators, pH strips that you can buy, fragrances, glycerin, oils, professionally designed molds, and more are relatively easy to find. By using Google, Yahoo, or Live search, you can simply type in the words for the specific information, supply or equipment you want, and get a listing of more websites than you would ever want to visit. You can even buy basic soap, already made, and simply add the fragrances and color you want, along with any other special additives, and save yourself the time and trouble of formulating your own. Dial Corp, for example sells soap pellets in bulk, for serious soap makers or finishers. Likewise, various glycerin gels, bars and tubs or slabs can be purchased online or by mail order. Care must be taken, when buying any soap-making supplies online, to be sure you are getting a wholesale product. If you buy from a supplier who bought from a supplier who got their inventory from another supplier, who bought their stock from yet another supplier... you will be wasting your money. It may make little difference, at first, when you are just wanting to try your hand at something new. But once you get into business to make a living from soap, you must buy well in order to earn a decent profit. People will only pay so much for soap, even a very fine soap. Especially in today's market.
Marketing Marketing soap is another important part of the soap business. Let's face it, you will not be able to successfully compete on price with the common soaps you find in most supermarkets. Some of these soaps start with foreign labor, which makes very good business sense to the corporation and also provides jobs for needy workers. And all the nationally marketed soaps are produced in huge quantities that only another large company could match. So they pretty well control the low-priced market. You can't compete on price, so you will need to specialize in something better. Hand-made soap is a good concept to build on. Health-conscious soap is another. High quality soap is a popular selling point. Various specialized oils or other ingredients can also be used to set your product apart. In other words, you must use your small business size and your ability to make unique soaps as your primary marketing tool. What kinds of soaps do people want? Is there any room in the market for another soap? If you were to buy ads in newspapers or magazines, what kind of soap would get the attention of readers? What kind of soap would you, your family or your acquaintances be willing to buy? Are their specific kinds of new soap that people are actually looking for right now? If you really want to make good money in soap, these are the very kinds of questions you want to be asking yourself and other people you know. And you need to record your answers, and the answers you may get from others. No matter how trivial the question, the answer, the reasoning or idea, write them all down for later review. I'll tell you you the kinds of soap I know that have a ready market in any part of the world. Hand soap for various industries and work. Farmers, printers, mechanics, gardeners, woodworkers, painters, any group of workers whose the hands get covered in stains, paints, ink, old grease and oil, and clays or other hard-to-remove grime is a market for a good hand soap. Don't worry about the products already out there. All any effective soap needs is someone ready to sell it. Give out free samples to repair shops, farmers, or even door-to-door, along with a printed or personal pitch about why your soap is the best, and you will open up a new market for yourself. Another market is ready every fall and winter for bath soap that will prevent dry skin. Inside air at home, work and school dries out when the furnace is going. Skin also dries out, not only because of the dry air but because many of us fail to drink as much water as we should in colder weather (and the liquids we do drink are often diuretic, either from caffeine or citrus, etc. in the drinks). Soaps with added oil can help to keep skin from drying out so much. Soaps for Dogs, Cats and Horses? And don't forget pets. Soap for dogs could make a great market. Take a look at what's already out there. Walk through local supermarkets and pet stores, do some research on the Internet. Scan local newspapers or thumb through the pages of pet and animal magazines to see what's being marketed already. Don't be discouraged if you see a lot of ads or notice that some of the businesses already in the market are quite large and well-known. This simply verifies that the idea is a good one. Rather than try to start big, just start locally, and build a good reputation for your product. Give out free "sample-sized" bars to vets, pet stores, feed stores, and other local retailers. Let people try your product free of charge. This can prove to be the cheapest and most effective advertising possible. Make sure the packaging is simple but effective. Be sure, for example, to make your business name and contact information easy to read (and make it water proof!). Simple brown paper, printed with an ordinary "black toner" laser printer will do the job. After you begin generating income from local sales, you can begin to expand to other nearby communities through tiny ads in weekly papers and through the sample method with more pet hospitals and various retailers. Gradually add more advertising, working your way up to quality magazines. Website Marketing And don't forget the internet. A simple website or even a single web page can make it easy for potential customers to get a lot more information and to buy your product online. But a web site or page is just about useless with good print ads that will point to it. Yes, you can always buy online ads, but they are only effective as long as you keep paying the piper. A magazine ad, on the other hand, keeps advertising, in some cases for years after the ad is actually run.
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