Starting Your Own Handmade Soap Wholesale Business

Now that you have mastered the art of soap making, it is time to start selling your soap. You can start with a wholesale or retail business but wholesale might be advisable for starters because there are lesser people to deal with. Starting your own handmade soap wholesale business should not be difficult and you can still earn a profit this way.

Soaps are a daily necessity for everyone and handmade soaps have the edge in the market because people can choose which type or kind of soap is good for them. If you can sell them at $5.00 on retail then you can sell them faster at $3.00 to $4.00 on wholesale and still make a handsome profit depending on your costs.

1.       Make your business legit. If you are seriously thinking of selling your soaps then you should have your business registered and secure a business license or permit. Have your business cards ready because people would surely like to know how and where to get in touch with you.

2.       Advertise your business. Even if you are going to sell your soaps on wholesale it is still best to advertise by giving out fliers or postcards with photos of your products professionally taken and laid out. These printed ads will help promote your soaps and give your probable customers a glimpse of your homemade soaps.

3.       Price your soaps properly. Calculate the costs of all the ingredients you used for making a batch of your soaps including all other costs such as electricity and water. A basic sample computation goes this way: Total costs for a batch divided by the number of bars produced to get your cost per bar. From your cost per bar you can now determine how much you will price your soap at wholesale.

4.       Save money in packaging. Selling your soap on wholesale may lessen your costs because usually those who buy on wholesale are the ones who do the packaging before they sell these soaps on retail. However, if you need to package your soaps you can use your calling cards as tags or labels and attach them to your soap bars with different colored ribbons.

5.       Contact resellers. Do not limit yourself to selling your soaps to family and friends, craft fairs or walk-in customers even if you can make a sizable income from this. Go to resellers to whom you can sell on wholesale or you can go to soap stores who can carry your line of soaps on consignment. In this way you lessen your marketing costs and even if you sell at a lower price you get almost the same income based on the quantity you sell at one time.

6.       Know your customers. Look for areas or places where people flock to get natural organic items. This crowd will cater to natural organic soaps and soap products and it will not be hard to sell to them because your homemade soaps are exactly what they are looking for.

7.       Go online. Nowadays doing business online is the in thing and the cheapest way of setting up a business. You only need a domain name, an internet service provider and a simple website design which will display your soap products and you are on your way to answering your customers' needs. Get a free PayPal account and you will be able to transact and accept credit card payments.

8.       Be honest and prompt. Be sure that you are always honest in your dealings with your customers and that you deliver the items requested on time. Even though how good your products are if your customers feel that they are being short changed by you or if you do not deliver on time then they will not continue to deal with you. Remember that reorders are the life of your business.

Although handmade soaps are more expensive than commercial soaps and are considered a luxury, people nowadays are staying away from the traditional soaps that we know of. Selling your soaps on wholesale will allow your customers to also apply their crafting skills to package these soaps as gifts to family and friends or as souvenir items during events like weddings or birthdays. Allowing your customers to enjoy your soaps by allowing them to buy them at cheaper but with quality prices will surely bring success to your business sooner than you expect.