Deciding where to sell your products can be a tricky process. Options include selling at community markets, online via Etsy or Facebook, or inside retail shops. Where to sell will depend on your personality, skills, budget and the time you have available. With so many options, choosing the right outlet can have a huge effect on the success of your business. Because of this, it’s important to thoroughly research each market before making a decision. It’s also important to remember that you can sell your products more than one way!
[Read more…]
Search Results for: wholesale
Writing an Introduction Letter to Buyers: Ask for the Sale
Recently, I spoke on the Indie Business Radio Podcast about business. Donna Maria, the host and founder of Indie Business Network (yes! they have insurance for small home crafters; check them out here!) invited audience members to ask questions. One of the questions that came up was, “How do I work with stores?”
The primary job of a CEO in a small and growing business is sales, sales, sales. You would be surprised how many ‘problems’ go away with enough cash flowing in. It’s way more fun to figure out how to fill all the orders than standing around figuring out what to do with excess inventory.
The only way to get sales is to ask. In my answer (hit the ‘triangle button below’ to hear my live answer on the show), I outlined how to pitch to stores. Note that Donna Maria makes these monthly “Indie Business Network Access Q+A Coaching Calls” available to members to listen to – or call in and ask questions live. One of the listeners followed up with some questions – and if she’s having these questions, that means other small business owners are having these questions. Read on to find her questions and, how I answered them!
Chatting with Zahida of Handmade in Florida
Zahida of Handmade in Florida creates stunning cold process soap featuring signature swirls and gorgeous colors. With numerous soap challenge wins under her belt, Zahida has popularized several soaping techniques including the “Butterfly Swirl.” Her passion for creating and eye for design shines through in her blog and YouTube videos.
Before diving into soap, Zahida worked in corporate management and was an active member of the aviation industry, serving on several boards including the Pass Bureau Association. Zahida took a break from the corporate world after the birth of her son, and began soaping shortly after. Read on to learn more about Zahida, her business, and what inspires her to create such gorgeous soap!
Run Toward Something Great
I recently attended a gathering of some of the top brand mavens in Washington state. With Seattle incubating some of the coolest, most hip brands in business, there were some heavy hitters at the table. I squeaked in because I knew the organizer. It was a heady dinner. The format was loose and easy; we shared a bit about ourselves, talked about what we wanted to do in the next year with our businesses and then answered a random question (think Table Topics, only geared 1100% towards vulnerability and business).
The whole chat started out like the Table Topics game… except much more intense! Photo from TableTopics.com.
A Goal Without a Plan + Contest
A goal without a plan is just a wish. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Look back over the last year and take stock over where you are today in your personal and professional life. Are you where you hoped you would be? Did you meet the goals you set for yourself?
My beloved treadmill desk! Such a great way to work toward my fitness goals for 2014.
My friend Carol Frazy from TheFitSchool.com has a useful exercise that she does when she coaches individuals in her running and nutrition programs. She even has downloadable sheets that you can use to make your own plans using this formula.
Guest Post: Perfectly Preserved + a body butter recipe
Lotions and butters are some of the most popular bath and body products, but they’re also products that can raise the most questions. Questions such as “Do I need a preservative for my product?” “Which preservative do I use?” and “Are preservatives safe?” are some of the most common ones we see, and we hope this thorough guest post by formulation guru and fellow crafter Susan Barclay-Nichols will help clear up some confusion.
Susan is an expert in cosmetic chemistry, and in this post she gets down to the nitty-gritty of which preservatives work best in which products, their usage rates and their ingredients. It’s a one-stop-shop for everything preservative related! Read on to learn about the wide world of preservatives and how you can safely use them in your products.
A-M Note: If you’re concerned about parabens and the safety of preservatives in bath and body products, we’ve found these following resources to be helpful explanations: Parabens Puzzlement, More to the Parabens Puzzlement and Debate Over Parabens – Truth and Research. Borrowing from the blogs: “The FDA supports the use of Parabens as does the European Union….and under regimented testing by the cosmetics directive of the European Union they too, found no direct correlation of Parabens and cancer.”
Keep in mind, the type of preservative you choose is up to you, and I’m glad that there are effective options for everyone out there who wants to responsibly use a full spectrum preservative. All Bramble Berry preservatives have been approved for use in body products. Now onto the guide! – A.M.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
You’ll notice there are actually two areas of contamination in the product. The first is the great big green spot on the left side, but did you notice the brown-y orange streak to the right hand side of that on the side of the jug? Yep, there’s a little more contamination for you!
I made this lotion without preservatives to show you how quickly things can go off. I made this sixteen days ago. (It might have gone off earlier. This was the first chance I had to check it, to be honest!) I did all the things I generally do – I heated and held both phases, I made sure all my equipment and workshop was clean – but I left out the preservatives. I covered it tightly with Press & Seal in this jug after it had cooled to room temperature. It’s been cold in the workshop – below 10˚C – which is quite chilly considering a fridge should be kept at 0˚C to 4˚C, and room temperature is 18˚C to 22˚C. It is also quite damp back there as we’ve had a bunch of rain since Halloween – just about every day – which is normal for this time of year.
Bramble Business Series: How to set up an Etsy Shop
Over the years, I’ve heard many customers ask how to setup a blog, an e-commerce shop and build a solid online business presence. As our world becomes increasingly digitized, these type of questions are becoming more common. To help you gain a following (and ultimately sell more goods),we’re introducing our Bramble Business Basics series. I hope these posts — which will cover topics such as marketing online, communicating with customers through a blog and developing a Twitter following — will help you build a solid foundation for your e-commerce business.
This post will give you an overview on how to set up an Etsy shop, which is an excellent way to break into the handcrafted online good market. Etsy is an online marketplace that sells handmade goods, vintage items and supplies. You can sell in handmade products and digital goods, and you can choose to offer coupons and sales as well. According to the Etsy blog, $100.9 million worth of goods were sold by Etsy sellers in July 2013. That’s means more than 4 million items were sold, and almost 3 million new items listed — and that’s just in one month! You can quickly see how having an Etsy shop opens you up to a wide world of potential customers. At any one time, we try to have a wide variety of cold process and melt & pour soaps in our own Etsy shop from tutorials on this blog.
ONE: Register
The first step in setting up a shop on Etsy is to register for an account. This is simple process, and looks the same as most website sign-ups. To start this process, click here. Remember that setting up an Etsy account does not mean you’ve set up a shop. This account is the first step in setting up an online storefront. To learn more about setting up shop, read on!
TWO: Selling
To get starting on selling your products on Etsy, make sure you have registered for your account and are signed in. Once you’ve done that, find the button at the top of the Etsy page that says Sell. Look over the page and when you are ready click the button at the top of the page that says ‘Open Up an Etsy Shop.’
THREE: Language and Currency
Once you’ve decided to open your first Etsy shop, it will ask you about your preferred language and currency. Go ahead and choose which ones work the best for you. Remember that whichever language you chose will be your shop’s default and you won’t be able to change it at a later point. Also, be sure to pick the correct country for your business as some Etsy seller tools are only available for certain countries.
FOUR: Set Up Shop
Once you’ve picked the correct settings (language and currency) for your shop you will be asked what you hope to accomplish by opening up your shop. This will let Etsy know what kind of tools and business you are looking to create. For the sake and easy of this tutorial I’ve picked the option that many soapers are hoping to achieve, ‘Quit my day job and sell full time’.
FIVE: Pick Your Shop Name
This is one of my favorite parts. If you already have a business or website name, you can use that here. But, if this is your first time opening up a shop you have a world of possibilities before you. Be sure to do some quick web searches before you decide on a name to make sure that nobody else has chosen the name you want for your business. You want to be able to have future and potential growth in your business so pick something that will allow you to grow. Also remember that you will want to take a look at the name you are choosing as it is written (it can only be one word for Etsy, without any spaces) and you will want to make sure it looks right. For instance soapqueen.com makes sense when you look at it, and you wouldn’t want to end up with something like penisland.net (a pen website) and have it read funny to your potential customers.This will be your permanent shop name and you won’t be able to change it later. Pick something that can represent your business and your soap. If you need other soapers to bounce some ideas off of, check out the Teach Soap Forums.
SIX: Branding & Look
Now it’s time to customize your shop. Banners for your shop must run at a 760 x 100 pixel image size, be sure to create an image that fits within those parameters. A great free online tool for this is Pixlr. Pixlr allow you to size your images online and save them to your desktop for free. Be sure to include a shop announcement in your store. This helps to welcome buyers, promote products and sales and draw the shopper in. The last part of this you will need to work on is the shop title. Give a short description of the kind of products you offer. Be descriptive, be precise.
SEVEN: List Items
Now it is time to start listing your items. To start listing individual soaps, bath bombs, lotions and more, click here (make sure you are logged into your store account). The best advice I have for you here is to have great picture, that is going to be the first thing that draw a customer in your shop. You want to have good lighting, good backdrops and clear photography. To learn more about how to photograph your products, check out this blog post.
This is an individual product listing. It gives the name of the product, the price, the quantity and details about it (materials, ingredients, etc). The more information you list on a product the more likely a customer is to buy it. You will want to include a full ingredient list so that potential customers will know exactly what they are getting. One thing to remember about listing an item on Etsy is a listing fee. To list an item on Etsy, it costs $0.20 (twenty cents) when the listing is published. A listing will last for four months or until the item is sold. If after four months the item has not been sold, then the listing will expire. This is something important to remember when adding products to your Etsy shop.
EIGHT: Get Paid!
Once you’ve set your shop up, you need to decide how you want to get paid. The more options you offer, the more customers can purchase from you. Payment methods range anywhere from credit & debit cards to Paypal to bank transfers and even the brand new Etsy Gift Cards.
NINE: Billing
You are almost done! Depending on which country you live in, you may need a credit card to open shop. These cards can either be a Visa, MasterCard, American Express or even Discover. The reason that Etsy asks you to keep a credit card on file is for means of identity verification. They want to make sure that you are who you say you are!
You are done! You have now successfully opened up your very first Etsy shop. Share it with your friends and family, attach it to your e-mail signature, and put it on your business cards.
Features of Etsy:
- Coupons. You can now offer coupons in your Etsy stores, and there are three distinct ways to do so: Percent Discount, Free Shipping and Fixed Dollar Amount Discount. To add a coupon code to your shop, make sure it has been set to public and go to the “Your Shop” Tab. Under this tab, you will find a coupon codes button which will walk you through on creating your own coupons.
- Etsy Gift cards This is a new feature of Etsy. It allows anybody to buy an Etsy gift card so that they can shop anywhere on Etsy’s website, including your shop. When setting up your shop. They come in $25, $50, $100 and $250 amounts and can be used on any product or digital download on Etsy.
- Digital Goods. Are you selling a PDF to go with your project? Or even cute custom labels that you worked on to go with that special holiday set? Etsy now offers a way to sell these items as well. To list a digital item for sell start by going to your shop as you woulds normally do when selling a physical item. Describe the item and use the drop down menus to identify the type of product it is. Once you’ve finished that, you will have a chance to select the item type of the product, make sure that the Digital File option (below) is selected.
Once you’ve selected the item type it is time to upload your file to your Etsy shop. At this time, you can upload only five digital files per listing. Make sure that your file is within the maximum size (20 MB). Once you’ve uploaded your files, start listing your digital good as you would with any other product, give it a good description, well-done photographs and a catchy name. For tips on photographing your products, there’s a blog post here and here. Photography sells your products online. People can’t touch or smell your creations so make sure your photography is luscious and appealing.
- Etsy Wholesale. Are you a wholesaler? Etsy is starting to run a beta wholesale program for those that are interested. You will have a chance to have a private marketplace where buyers can discover hard-to-find and unique products from artists and designers. If you are interested in finding out more information about this new feature of Etsy, click here.
Tips & Tricks
- Setting up a Shipping Profile. Shipping profiles are optional ways to save a specific set of shipping information which you can apply to ANY item listing during the editing or listing process. To add or edit a shipping profile, go to ‘Your Shop’ and click on the ‘Shipping & Payment’ information. From there you will find an option that says ‘Shipping Profiles’. From there you can edit this information. Make sure that your shop is open to the public, as that is a prerequisite for working with this option. This is a great option along with copying items to save time when listing new products. The more time you save, the more time you have to produce your products!
- Copying Items. Do you have more than one item that you want to feature? Are the details of each product the same? This little tip will actually save you a lot of time when listing items in your shop. Copying a listing (item) can actually save you time if you have many similar type of products or if you use similar (or exact) information in your listing descriptions. Instead of retyping the information from scratch for each listing, you can actually copy a similar active or sold product and edit to reflect the changes. To copy a listing, head to shop. Once there, click on ‘Listing.’ Click on the active tab. Once there, click on the listing or product and click the copy link. That’s it! This is an easy trick to make listing your products much easier and faster. Just make sure to change the product name and details that need changing before posting it live in your shop.
Have you set up you business on Etsy? We’d love to hear from you the tips and tricks that you learned to make it easier.
Fundraiser Kit + Craft Show Tips Galore
Was I the only one that raised money for school activities with car washes and bake sales? I spent weekend after weekend, washing cars for donation or begging people to pre-order my homemade chocolate chip shortbread cookies. My poor folks were somehow cajoled along to every car wash and my mom didn’t even mind when I stole all the ingredients for the cakes, pies and cookies from my her kitchen (thanks for that donation, Mom!). As all parents of school-age children know, those fundraisers still go on (with even more bells and whistles; sell cards! sell candy! sell magazines! sell gummy bears! sell cookie dough! And, more. So. Much. More.) So, why shouldn’t there be a DIY Soapy Fundraiser?
We’ve put together all the supplies you and your kiddos need to create some awesome, easy bars of soap that you can sell at craft shows, farmer’s markets, and yes, through good old fashioned order sheets (we’ve all seen them when we’re filling out another magazine, jewelry or, candle order form for the adorable 9 year old in front of us) going door to door or desk to desk if your parent works in an office.
The kit includes:
Soap | Fragrance Oils (4 oz) | Embeddable Toys |
|
|
|
Molds | Colorants | Soaping Tools |
|
|
|
You will be able to make around 400 bars of soap, 100 of them with happy animals in them. Using this kit you can make soap that costs about 94¢ in materials and can be sold for $3 to $5 dollars each, leaving you with a healthy fundraising margin and a lot of creative fun. Individually, these items would cost more than $460, so you are saving about $100 when you buy the kit.
You may not know this but I started selling soap at craft shows and farmer’s markets when I was 18 years old. Yeah, that’s me, circa 15-17 years ago. If you’re thinking of selling your soapy wares at a Farmer’s Market or Craft Show to raise money, I’ve got some tips and tricks that I’ve accumulated after a decade of soapmaking.
(1) Let the signage do the talking for you. Clearly mark everything. Do not assume that people will understand that your awesome, gorgeous artistic soap is actually soap.
(2) Stand. Be interested. Smile. Stay off the phone. No texting, surfing the net or talking. Pay attention to the person in front of you.
(3) Everyone loves a deal; bundle your wares. Example: Buy 1 bar for $5 or 5 for $20.
(4) Have items clearly priced. Make it clear if your prices include tax. I really like the big pricing for this craft show set up. It is obvious what the price is for each ‘set’ of products.
(5) Create a compelling, inviting set up. This Pinterest board has some great ideas for set ups. If you’re outside, remember that the sun can melt your soap if it’s too hot or bleach o some of your colors, so think about creative shade solutions or ask the organizer to put you in a position that doesn’t put you in direct sunlight. Drape a tablecloth over your set up to hide your boxes. Need inspiration? This Flickr group, “Show Me Your Booths” has lots of good ideas too.
(6) Let your buyers be a part of your journey. Offer an email sign up with updates about the fundraiser/your trip. They’ve invested in you by buying your soap. Many of them will want to hear how your trip/your game/your project turned out.
(7) Have lots of change. When you are selling soap for $4 or $5, you will need more $1 dollar bills than you could possibly imagine.
(8) Prepare snacks for you. Assume you will not get a break. Granola bars, fruit roll ups, bottled water etc… will be your friend.
(9) Research the venue ahead of time for your sake, and the customers. Find the ATM machine so you can direct customers to it. Find the bathroom so you can dash off to it once in a while. Figure out where the best place to load and unload your goods.
(10) Your soap in the bathroom, with a sign. Once you know your location, put your soap (on a draining soap dish!) in the bathroom with a sign, “Like this soap? Come find us in Booth XYZ”
(11) Optional: Buy the downloadable e-book, “How to Be a Craft Show Genius.”
(12) Prepare to succeed by alerting the cavalry. Email your friends, your parent’s friends, your 2nd grade trombone teacher and your dog’s pet sitter. Tell them where you will be, where the craft show is, what the hours are and **why** it’s important that they come and support you.
(13) Take everything you will need and more for a siege on your booth. This blog post has an amazing list of supplies you will want in your booth. This includes things like a receipt book, cash box, tape and more.
(14) Prepare responses to some common questions. Example: “You made this?! Wow!” Your answer should engage the customer. Do not give just a one word “Yup!” Something like, “Yes, I got together with 3 friends who are traveling to Guatemala on a mission trip with our school and we made these over three weekends. This one is my favorite. Which one do you like the best?”
(15) Spruce yourself up. Look nice and professional. Ladies, wear flats. If you’re outdoors, wear sunscreen. Whatever you wear, you want it to be so easy on the eyes that people are looking at your wares … not what you’re wearing.
(16) Use downtime wisely. Spruce up your booth. Rearrange soap. Make sure pricing is clear. Fill in any holes.
(17) Smile, smile, smile. You love this! When you’re selling your goods, remember the ‘why’. You are doing this to raise money for cancer, to raise money to go help others in another country, to go with your friends to band camp – remember what it is and keep it in your head and your heart to get you through the slow moments, or when someone doesn’t buy your product and you’re crushed. You can do this because your cause, your ‘why’, is bigger than that.
Every single blog post I’ve ever written about selling (to date) is below for you to read through if you want more tips and tricks!
Business Insurance for the Handcrafted Industry
Dealing with Unhappy Customers
Selling Your Soap, More Wholesale Advice
So You Want to Sell Your Soap: Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3
Thinking About Opening A Store
Gettin’ On My Soapbox, Sell, Sell Sell
Where do you buy your supplies?
Can You Teach Me How To Make This?
Why Does Your Soap Cost So Much?
Want even more business advice? Browse the “Business Musings” section on Soap Queen to read interviews will fellow soapy business owners, learn about social media best practices and more.
Fair Ivy 2013: Sneak Peek!
Monday was the deadline for the Fair Ivy 2013 Contest and we are energized by all of the creative bath and body products that came in. I’ve had so much fun opening up the packages and being able to smell, feel and try out all the fabulous handmade items. We’re in the middle of choosing which items we’ll be sending along to Fair Ivy (and we’re announcing them next week!) but we didn’t think it was fair to keep all of this eye candy to ourselves.
Fair Ivy 2013
If you are a long time reader of the Soap Queen blog, you might remember when we hosted a contest for Fair Ivy a few years ago. It was an absolute blast for everyone involved and we’ve decided to bring it back again and this year have doubled the fun. What is Fair Ivy? Fair Ivy is a premium subscription service that carefully selects the handmade gifts for women and they want to include YOUR handmade products with a theme of fancy soap and packaging that appeal to women.
What to Enter
- Anything in the bath and body department; lotions, soaps (melt & pour and cold process), scrubs, candles or creams that fit in with the theme of fancy soaps and packaging. If you have any questions please email contest(at)brambleberry(dot)com or leave a comment below.
Happy New Year! Yearly Wrap-Up
“Here’s a toast to the future, a toast to the past, and a toast to our friends, far and near. May the future be pleasant, the past a bright dream; may our friends remain faithful and dear.”
This year, like all of them, has seemingly flown by. Having a toddler in the house definitely adds to the surreal feeling of time being extremely fleeting. Some of the highlights were: [Read more…]
Product Labeling Change: Physical Address Petition Filed
Earlier this year, the HSMG (Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild) filed a Citizen Petition with the FDA to allow the change of the current regulation that requires a street address on cosmetic products, to be changed to allow a PO Box as the place of business on a cosmetic label. Their argument focused on the personal risk associated with putting a home address on the label and the fact that a PO Box should be sufficient. I strongly urge all of you to comment with a clear, concise, short and professional note to the FDA why this change should be made. You can comment on this petition here.
UPDATE 9/19/2017: The FTC has updated regulations concerning business name and address. The NEW regulation says the street address may be omitted if it is listed in a readily accessible, widely published, and publicly available resource. Read more here.
Interview with Evelyn of EvieSoap
I recently bought some amazing soap from EvieSoap’s shop on Etsy. I had a hard time choosing which bar to buy, but ultimately went with Balance, a mixture of Ocean Rain, Vetiver and Bergamot that is wonderfully calming yet fresh. Upon receiving my order, I was delighted to see a few extras tucked in! Lindsay, a mix of Sweet Meyer Lemon and Lemongrass, is earthy and sweet, and Urban Antidote is a refreshing and invigorating blend of Lavender, Rosemary and Peppermint. With such a talent for creating unique and colorful fragrance/essential oil blends and such nice extra touches with my order (including a hand written thank you note), I had to get to know the artisan behind EvieSoap!
Business Insurance for the Handcrafted Industry
You have home owners insurance. You have car insurance. Should you get business liability insurance? Having business liability insurance is not mandated by law. If you wish to run a craft business without insurance, there is no governing agency that will force you to buy insurance. Your bank, should you ever get a loan, will ask you for insurance (they’d like to ensure they get repaid on their loans no matter what happens with your business). Buying insurance is a prudent choice to protect your family’s assets should anything go wrong in your handcrafted soap and toiletry business.
We live in a litigious society. People can sue or claim damages for anything and everything. If someone slips in the shower using your salt scrub, they could claim it was the fault of your scrub. If someone uses your soap and decides that the rash they developed the next day was from your soap, they can claim damages. They might not win a possible lawsuit but dealing with the issue would take valuable time away from you and your business. Additionally, any legal fees could be costly and put you and your family assets at risk. Finally, if your house were to (knock on wood, throw salt over your shoulder, turn around 3 times) burn or have fire damage, your business property might not be covered under your home owners insurance. [Read more…]