jgcurtis1961

I'm not sure why the insurance company would care what percentage of your sales are in soap. It doesn't make any sence to me. I didn't ask anymore questions after recieving the e-mail saying 50% of your sales have to be soap if you are a member of the Soap Guild. I'm not even sure if I took that statement right. Maybe she did just meant that in order to join the soap guild 50 % of your products need to be soap. :undecided I just wanted to make sure everyone else was aware that it might be a possibility that they would not be covered. It's better to check with the insurance company yourselves to make sure you definately will be covered in the event you might actually need to use the insurance.

Hi, I have my insurance through the Indie Beauty Network. I was going to go with the Soap Guild but I e-mailed Madison Vanleeuwen at Stratus Insurance. She is the contact given for any questions about the insurance. She sent me this in reply. "We have put this program together for members of both the Soap Guild and the Indie Beauty Network. The coverage is the exact same for both associations, but 50% of your sales have to be soap if you are a member of the Soap Guild. Your products beyond soap will be covered under this policy". She referred me to the Indie Beauty Network since 50% of my sales are not soap. I don't know what percentage of your products are soap but I thought I'd let you know just in case 1/2 of the products you sell aren't soaps. HTH

Thanks, I'll change the font. I think you are all right about the font being hard to read. I've never been very good at writing. I really like your ideas on the wording. It sound much more appealing. I'll probabally change the wording. Sockmonkey do you mind if I use your wording in my brochures?

Yes, I do have a website. I am going to add the website address to the brochures. I am also going to list my products and put an order form in the brochures. I'm not quite sure how to handle the shipping on the brochures though since I currently use real time shipping on my website ,not flat rate shipping. Do you have any suggesrions on how to charge for shipping? Another question I have is should I include photos of my products in the brochures or should I just list them?

I'm trying to make brochures to take with me at the craft show and send to the radio station for the adds they will be running. I have to have this to the station by the 20th. This is what I have written in the About Us. section of my brochure. What do you all think of this? I don't want to sound unprofessional. What are your opinions of what I've written and do any of you have suggestions about what I might add or for that matter take out. About us Pumpkin Creek Candle Co. is a small home based business. It is owned and operated by Gina Curtis. It started out as a hobby in 2005. Gina enjoyed making candles in her spare time. She began by using her candles in her own home. Soon after she started making hand crafted soaps. Gina wanted a product that didn’t contain the chemicals typically found in many of the soaps available in stores. Over the last 2 years she has given her candles and soaps to family and friends. Some of those people have asked her about purchasing more from her. It was at this time that she started to think about making a business out of a hobby that she loved and Pumpkin Creek Candle Co. was formed. Pumpkin Creek Candle Co. now offers candles, soaps, air fresheners, and bath and body products ,including lotions, shower gel, and body sprays. Please take a few minutes to browse the products we have available.

WOW I didn't know they made a cd that tells you how to set everything up at a craft show. I'm definately getting that one. I also went and read the links with the tips....they have some great information. I went ahead and signed up for that show, so I'll update everyone later on with how everything went. The show is next month.

Thanks! I think I am going to go ahead and do it. I am currently getting my website all set up ,and will have it listed on all of my candles, so they would always have that option for reordering. I have a little under a month to get ready. Now I have to figure out how to set up my display...and how much I'll need to bring with me to the show since I've never done this before. I'll probabally be asking everyone for alot of advice between now and then.

I was thinking of entering a 2 day Show that is done once a year in the area. It is put on by the local radio station and they have an announcer there during the whole two day event. You get a two minute spot on the radio during the event and 25 adds on the radio. Plus I would also get an add in the paper. When I first looked into it I found out that the booth fees were WAY over what I could afford ($265.00 for a 10x10 booth for a Saturday and Sunday). I put the idea out of my head since I couldn't see spending that much for my first show but the radio station that puts the show on called me this morning and offered me a booth for $150.00 ($125.00 if I don't need electricity) since I'm a home based business. I'm debating if I should do this show or not....I'm scared to DEATH being as I've never done anything like this before. I wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to set my booth up or even what I would say in my adds., or even what I would say on the radio when they come over and talk to me, lol. I've been to the event many times and its always packed. What are everyone's experiences with the farm ranch type home shows? Would the $150.00 booth fees be to much to pay? What does everyone think? Should I go for it especially since I need to get my name out there? I'm just starting out selling after testing for FOREVER and need to get my name out there somewhere. Thanks everyone!

We are working on getting my website up and running and signed up for mals premium because we also wanted real time shipping through the usps. We were having a hard time getting it to work and finally figured out you have to sign up for an account through the usps but then you have to call them to have the account activated before the real time shipping will work. Once they activated it it worked like a charm. We didn't try getting it set up for ups or fedex. Hth

Thanks I'll give those a try.

Hi, I have a question for all of you soapers out there. My son has awful problems with acne and we've tried the perscription treatments as far as all of the stuff you wash with and it hasn't helped. I've also done a search on here but can't find what I want to know. I currently make all of our soap at home with melt and pour bases and have quite a few oils and butters at home because I like to add things to our soaps. I am wondering if some of you could give me some suggestions on what I might add to my melt and pour base that might be good for a facial bar for him. The bases I currently have at home are goats milk, oatmeal, and just the plain white (all SFIC brand). I have the following oils and butters at home right now. Aloe Butter, Avocado Butter, Illipe Butter,Mowrah Butter,Sal Butter,Shea Butter, Baobab Oil, Evening Primrose Oil, Rosehip Oil , Perilla Seed Oil, Borage Oil, and Jojoba Oil. Would any of these be good in a facial bar for him? If not do any of you have any suggestions of oils I might order that would possibally help? Thanks!

I have to chime in here. I'm by no means an expert being as So far the only melt and pour soaps I have made are for my families own personal use, but my soaps also last about a month. I use wisteria lanes base and add all kinds of oils and butters to it. If my soaps had only lasted a week when I first started making them I probably wouldn't have kept making them.

I live in Nebraska....you are right I think that would be an awful lot to have to do. Prairie, I think you are right! I called them this morning and got this woman on the phone who sounded like the dry eyes guy....she wasn't really helpful. She thought I was crazy for not wanting to register my business name. (Registering is something I may do later, but at this point I just want to get it off the ground). She said the state law states that you MAY register your name...So from what I understand it is optional. Is there anything I need to do other then just register for the sales tax number, like get a business lisence. I think I'm stressing and making this harder then it should be.

Hi everyone, I am so frustrated at how complicated it is to start a business. I have tested for almost a year and a half and am to the point where I'm ready to sell so I decided to take the plunge. I got my business name figured out with the help of several people on the board. I sent in the application for a sales tax number to the state a couple of weeks ago. When I found out how complicated it was going to be just to keep track of all of the inventory and stuff for taxes I almost chickened out right then but I sent the application for the sales tax number in anyway. But now I found out that I have to register for a trade name with the state of Nebraska to use a business name. The filing fee is $100.00..how outragious is that? Then I have to file a notice in the local paper stating that I applied for the trade name with the state and send that back to the secretary of State. I'm wondering what else is going to pop up and bite me in the behind that I wasn't aware of. I cannot believe how complicated this is! Geesh I just want to be able to do something I love doing without it being such a hassle. I thought selling some of my candles and soaps at craft fairs might at least help me pay for some of my supplies and the insurance I have to have to even be able to give my candles away to friends and family. I'm trying to breath deep now.....sorry I just needed to vent and needed some encouragement. Thanks for listening everyone.

They are still offering the discount. I placed an order last week and they didn't apply the discount so I e-mailed them and they refunded the discount amount to me. They just haven't gotten all of the discount stuff moved over to the site. When you place an order mention the discount in the comments section and they will apply the discount to your order. HTH

OH WOW those look GREAT!! Thank-You for sharing how you do that with me... I'll definately try doing it that way.

CBarber03 Thanks!! Thats what I was wondering. I am using my vacume sealer to seal the bags because it has a sealer thing on it but am finding it hard to get the bags very snug because of the way the vacume sealer is made... Did you use an impulse sealer and if you did was it hard to make a snug bag? I'm wondering if it would be wise for me to invest in an impulse sealer or it it wouldn't be much different then what I'm using now.

Thanks...I'm looking through all of the forums that I can find about shrinkwrapping. I think that I have WAY to much film left around the tart. What I'm trying to figure out is if I make a little bag out of my film or how I do it. I've been trying to find a source for smaller shrink wrap tubing but no luck so far. It worked great for my soaps that are a rectangle shape I think there is just going to be a learning curve there for me but I'll get it figured out. Does anyone know a source for small shrink wrap bags or 3" tubing?

Hi, I'm trying to figure out how to go about shrinkwrapping tarts and votives. I ordered some 4" shrinkwrap tubing and tried to shrinkwrap some tarts today. I put my tart into the shrinkwrap tubing and sealed both ends and hit it with a heat gun. They turned out absolutely horrible! Is there a trick to this or am I using the wrong stuff to shrinkwrap with? Where can I get smaller shrinkwrap tubing? Thanks everyone for your help?

Pumpkin Creek Candle Company it is. Thanks Prairie Annie for suggesting it.

OOOOO love, love, love your site Prairie!

hmmmm sent ya a pm not sure why you didn't get it.

Hi Prairie, I currently only make candles. I do melt and pour and shampoos for my families use only. I've wanted to start dabbling a little more in bath and body especially cold pour soaps but the whole working with lye thing worries me but WOW there are some awesome soaps out there. I pm'd ya!

Awww shoot that figures!! Well hmmm back to the drawing board. I also liked Panhandle Candles because I live in the panhandle but there is a Panhandle Candles in Texas. Another idea was The Candle Shack but I thought that was to close to Sugar Shack candles which everyone out here raves about. How does prairie breeze candles sound? I'm just throwing stuff out here. Or Country Bumpkin Scentsations or Aromas?...Would it be wrong to even use Country Bumpkin in any way for my candle business? My son suggested firefly candles or Northern lights but again I found a Northern Lights and a firefly candles in Austrailia, lol. I would have never thought coming up with a name could be this hard.

Thanks for the link...