Make Mine a Hobby!

I have gotten very discouraged while making my business plan. You see, I am unemployed and there just isn't enough money to really start a business right now. So for now my soap making obsession will just be a hobby. You know the old saying, "It takes money to make money." By the time I am ready to transition from a hobby to a business, then I will be more experienced and have an idea of what people want.

I will continue to post what is happening in my crafty world here. I have so many ideas rolling around in my head! Gel candles, aquarium soaps, natural buckwheat heating/cooling pads, gift sets, lotions, body sprays, sugar and salt scrubs. I just need some cash to get me started. Time to work on the household budget and see where I can shave a few dollars.

Who wants to test some soap for me?

I have two soaps ready to test. The first one is called Simple Castile. It is a fragrance free Vegan-friendly with no additives.

The other is called Cafe au Lait. It is a goat's milk soap made with coffee for color and coffee grounds for exfoliation. There are no added fragrances.

If you are interested in becoming a product tester, please register here: http://ping.fm/RHopy I will send a free sample size soap (about 1 ounce). All I ask is that you try the soap as a facial soap, hand soap and as a body soap and then fill out an online survey to let me know how you liked it. Those who fill out the survey will continue to be eligible to test new products as they become available. Future product ideas include more soap (of course), lotion, bath fizzes, and liquid soap.

P.S. Feel free to forward the link to any friends you think might be interested.

Next Steps: A Business Plan

I haven't been making any new soap this week. I have been researching what it will take to get a business started and how much it will cost. First I need to decide how the business will be organized. Will I be a sole proprietorship, or a corporation? A sole proprietorship will require me to register a fictitious name unless I use my name as my business name. If I choose a corporation I don't need to worry about a fictitious name; however, there are multiple types of corporation to choose from, each with its own benefits and drawback. For a small business like what I'm trying to be the most common corporation type is a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC). If I choose to become a corporation, this is the one that I will most likely choose. Next is registering the LLC with both the state and the city, getting a resale certificate and a Federal Tax ID number. All this can be done fairly quickly and easily, but it does take some time and of course money.
This brings me to the rest of what I have been doing for the last few days. I need to put together a business plan. Even if I never need to take it to a bank or an investor, I need to have one for myself so that I can have a written plan of what I want to accomplish and how to get there. It can be revised as needed along the way, but it will give me a place to keep track of short term and long term goals, what costs I foresee coming up and how I am meeting my goals as time goes on.
There are many questions that need to be answered. What is my mission statement? What are my company values? How much money will it take to get started? When do I need the money? Where will the money come from? What products will I be selling? How much will each one cost me to make? How will I price them? Where will I sell them? Do I want to have wholesale accounts or just sell them retail myself? What about economy or premium product lines? Do I need product liability insurance? Is there a plan for expansion? I still haven't answered all of these questions and I'm sure that I am leaving out many other topics that I will need to consider. But I am starting to get an idea of how much money I'll need for the first year. It's a much larger number than I would have thought, but then again part of writing the business plan is looking your business square in the face to see what needs to be done.