A Soap A Day Project: Day 6

Monday was more inspiration from home decor!

Labels - one of my many tasks!

Running a small business means you have to basically do everything from designing and producing product to answering the phone and emails, taking orders, shipping, packaging, sales, marketing, and one of my favorites, label design!

I usually start with my logo and a rough color pallet. For the most part I like to keep it simple and let the products shine through, especially when I am doing a clear packaging so you can see the product without too much distraction. An exception are my bar soap labels which are a little fancier since I mostly use recycled paper boxes that hide the soap.

Here is the new square label for the Cardamom Vanilla Marshmallow Cream Soap! (And the old for comparison.) I added some more color to it as you can see - I am on a teal thing lately! All of the information is much larger and clearer. These didn't take too long since I had the old label to work from but my new lip balm labels for instance took 2+ hours to design! Usually the first label in a series of products takes the longest, then it is just a matter of changing color and tweaking text.

new

 

old

The ingredients and my company info will go on a smaller label on the backside. Soap labeling must have the company name, the word "soap", and the weight on the front. The company address can go on the back and I always include my ingredient list.

You may have purchased soap that did not have ingredients and this is perfectly legal but I like to include it so my customers know exactly what the are purchasing. The rule is only for soap -  I won't get into the details, but as soon as you say that your soap is good for anything other than cleaning, like that it is moisturizing for instance,  it is then considered a cosmetic and must be labeled differently. A lot of my soap falls under this category. The FDA defines soap as:

• the bulk of the nonvolatile matter in the product consists of an alkali salt of fatty acids and the product's detergent properties are due to the alkali-fatty acid compounds, and
• the product is labeled, sold, and represented solely as soap

Next is the Chocolate Marshmallow Cream Soap labels and then I can take pictures and get these listed! Look for them June 13th at naiadsoaparts.com!

The 2 hour lip balm label! I'm slow! :)

A Soap A Day Project: Day 5

I took Saturday off and found it hard to get the energy to take a picture of yesterdays soap! Mondays are always a bit of a drag for me! I was pressed for time after my helper left and production was complete, but I did get to visit one of the shops I had on my list and I left my business card and a price list. The clerk had no control over ordering and said she would send the info to the owner of the store but she was nice in the brief chat I had with her. I had to fight hard to make contact but I did it and feel a little bit better about going around to more shops! Here is the soap for Sunday. I was inspired by my shower curtain of all things! :)~

Big Cartel Meet Up San Diego

Hello all of you San Diego Friends! Do any of you have a shop on Big Cartel?

There is a meet up at Extraordinary Desserts this Thursday June 14th at 6pm. Ana of We Love Citrus coordinated the event and there will be Swag Bags that I put a little something in! Join other Big Cartel Shop owners for a night of Sweets and Networking!

Swag for the event

As always you can see what we are up to on Big cartel here: naiadsoaparts.bigcartel.com

A Soap A Day Project: Day 4

Today is all about facing some fears. My BIG plan for the day was to go around town visiting some boutiques to get a feel for what they are selling, what people are buying, and to target potential retailers. This soap I made yesterday was all about me (little blue dot) breaking out of the fears and distractions. I sit in a comfortable little place all cozy, filled with soap to make and scrubs to whip up but unless I want to become a soap hoarder, I have to break free and sell, sell, sell.

After a night of hanging out with friends I got up late, made a list of boutiques I want to visit and then, made a bird bath, read a little, watched some TV, and took a picture of this soap but did not go around town as I had planned.

I realized that I have a big fear of talking to people. My hubby and I had a really great talk about this today and I realized that I am so afraid that people won't like me that I either don't talk to them, or I am totally fake when I do. (Just a side note, my husband is the smartest person I know and he is a wonderful person to talk to for advice so I may give him cred a lot.) Ok, so I either don't talk, OR I try to make witty remarks to get a laugh, or I interrupt people to draw attention to myself, or I just talk about myself at length with no gaps. Again, that may not be the consensus that others get from me, but in my own head that is what I do. I have thought long and hard about where this behavior comes from but that is another story. So, you can imagine my mind set having to go into an already nervous situation like talking about my products or casually mentioning that I have some "product that I think would be a great fit for your store". I am a wreck! I don't think I am alone in this. I am sure most people would have fears about it.

I have regrouped and the plan is to attack it Monday when there will be better parking if I have to go back to get samples and promotional materials, and I will feel less intimidated in shops teaming with customers and employees who have more pressing things to attend to than someone trying to pimp a product.

My mantra for this task:
Just be yourself
You have awesome products
You are ok with rejection

If anyone has had and experience, good or bad, approaching retailers please share! I want to know how you did it and what fears, if any,  you may have had and how you overcame them!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 3

Loving the neon green with the dark peach color combo!

I tried a new technique with this one and it isn't what I visualized in my head but that is ok! I am not sure what I was thinking with the strips in the background. Sometimes I just don't know when to stop and have to learn to let things be! The technique I used on the first two would have been better so I will switch back to that and keep this in the back of my mind for when it is needed.

This just reminds me that I have to focus on what I am good at! I strayed last night and tried making some bath bombs and I was having a hard time with the press I was using. (The recipe was fabulous though!) Mind you, I am going to get it right eventually and add them to my line eventually but I can keep the project close and bring it out when I get a marketing strategy in full swing! I have a little adventure to find some local retailers I am embarking on tomorrow and I will tell you all about it!

Do any of you have a technique for approaching Local Retailers that you would like to share?

In the mean time I am trying to do one thing a day to promote my business and am trying to get better at my customer service! Those of you who get an email back a week or two later know what I am talking about!

A side note - there is a reason I have suddenly started stressing about my business but I will tell that story later. :)

So far these posts have gotten a great response! I hope to keep em' coming!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 2

 

These circles are so small that the were about the size of my finger tip!

I already almost failed! This soap, supposed to be finished yesterday, got finished this morning because I really had to get to bed last night. I was just too tired! I did stay awake for another hour reading one of my Dresden novels. When I closed my eyes I wondered if I could have kept going with the soap and was just lazy, or if stopping was the right thing to do to give myself time to wind down. We can't always work at 100%, 100% of the time. You will probably be more productive working at 100% in short bursts and then giving yourself sufficient time to recover.