Wildcrafter

I have a facebook business page. I have definitely gotten business from it and consider it well worth having.

Yeah, crazy. I even called them several times about it and they kept saying they are shipping as soon as they can. If it was one time, that would be one thing. But they were consistent with that shipping time every time I would order. So...I told them they lost a very good customer.

sks has good product and prices, but their shipping time sucks. I stopped ordering from them last year after they started to consistently take about 2 1/2 weeks before shipping. No one I have ever ordered from has ever taken that long. It doesn't matter if they are across the country from me. I regularly order across the country and no one else takes that long. Plus, my orders started getting screwed up and I would have to wait another 2 1/2 weeks before getting replacements.

I just paid my taxes for 2009, did my income/expenses and yep, I kept the roof over our head while my husband has been laid off work since April. Product sales were down most of the year, but teaching workshops were way up and made all the difference. So far this year, workshops are filling, online orders are coming in, I'm delivering products locally. Praise Jesus for that! By the way, when I'm figuring out cost for products, I figure in $25 per hour for my labor.

Write more articles. Hire employees instead of doing it all myself.

And that is why I gave up candlemaking and am sticking with soap and herbal remedies. Wicking is such a PITA and it just wasn't worth the money, in my opinion.

I use the crystal clear labels from onlinelabels and use a laser printer. I've never had a bubble problem. I just go from the middle on out.

I'd love to see pictures of that!

Not different forums having different opinions. Different people within the forums. I've seen threads where it sounded like people are thinking curing means saponification.

I use olive oil, palm and coconut oils as my base. Other fixed oils and things get thrown in depending on the particular soap I'm making. You can look on my website and see them. Not thrilled with the pictures in my store, but that's another subject.

Not meaning any disrespect or trouble, if this woman's soap is HP, then the soap is fully saponified in an hour in the oven or crock pot if that's what she uses and the mold is simply to give the soap it's shape. I think there is a difference in opinion between the definition of "cure" and "saponification" on many soap forums. I can make someone soap in the morning and it is perfectly saponified, meaning no free lye in the soap and ready to give to them in the evening. That is fresh to order. Soft is one thing, saponified is another.

Even CP soap logs will be softer when cut months after being made because of the nature of the lack of oxygen hitting the soap in the inside portion of the logs causing the soap to stay softer. A log will act differently than a cut bar. I don't, in my experience, think it has anything to do with the soap not being cured.

If you're going to try and keep the roof over your head by selling your soaps, one thing to think about is what makes you different from all the others who have a soap/bath and body website. I plugged "soap companies" into google and found this: 1 of about 22,500,000. That's 22 MILLION soap companies on the internet from that search alone. What's your special niche? What will make people want to buy your soap from the 22 plus million other soap companies that all seem to look the same and have the same products especially in this economy? I'm not at all trying to deter you from going for, go for it!, but getting yourself in the top few companies of the search engine will be to your benefit. I have found that being diversified is the best way to keep the roof over our head, bills paid and food on the table in our home, especially since my husband has been laid off since April and I am the primary breadwinner. And I'm doing it by having a blog, a biz facebook page, doing fairs, farmers markets, teaching medicinal herbs, working the web to keep my name in front, having specials and lots of other ways. It's hard and stressful work, but I can honestly say that I love my job. It's kept me going and off the streets through death, divorce, moving, remarriage, layoffs and so much more. You can do it as well. Just know that you have to keep on it all the time to make it work.

I sell my soap cut to order by the inch. They do not get shop worn as they sell so fast. Displaying soap in a log is a good marketing tool. It has brought countless people to my booths at farmers market and fairs. I sell my soap for $6 per inch or 3 for $17. My soap is HP. I've never had a problem not being able to cut the bars. Even with my CP soap logs that have been sitting for 6 months - no problem cutting to order. My husband made me a soap cutter that looks like a miter box. Easy as pie. Perfect cuts every time.

What did you end up doing?

I have no idea. My website gal set it up for me. I just post stuff.

I have a facebook page. I have people on it from all over the country and I don't know half of them. That's pretty cool. I've been so busy in production that I haven't had time to update. I have a blog from my website as well.

I learned very early on in the game to never do consignment. The shop keeper has no real investment in having your products be displayed well, kept in good shape and selling. Wholesale is the way to go. You sell to them, they sell the products for whatever they want and pay taxes and have the responsibility to make sure the products sell.

I wipe everything down with rubbing alcohol. Never have had a mold problem in all the years I've been making creams.

So.....I'm going to be doing this on purpose. One of my girlfriends saw this at a fair: Square soaps with a hole drilled through the middle. A long piece of twine went through it and tied off at the end. Then another square soap about and inch and a half up the rope, tied off. And so on until you have as many soaps on a rope as you want. 2, 3, 4 or however many. People can hang them in their bathroom and cut off a square whenever they need a new bar. Different colors and scents can be used for each bar. I'm going to do this for my holiday fairs. Cool, huh?

I love that whole grubby look of products.

Good for you for taking it back. I hope you can find what you need at a good price!

I use an HP. It's older - 3 years, but it works well still. When you do a control P to print labels, click on properties and a screen will come up. You can choose the type of paper you are using in your printer. That changes the way the printer prints out that particular paper. You may want to try that and see if it helps. I'm sorry you're having problems!

How much do you sell the firestarters for?

Wow, wow, wow! Very beautiful presentation and packaging. You have been hard at work!