It's the little details

You wouldn't know it from my flakey ways, but I can be a very detailed person. Yes I'm easily distracted, so when I'm making my soaps, I forget to spray with rubbing alcohol, or don't pull out all my scents and colours beforehand so I'm left scrambling. When it comes to making soaps though,  it is the little details that I really enjoy. Thanks to my sister for giving me a PJ Soaps Custom Mini Tool Kit, it has allowed me to make my melt and pour soaps more interesting. I loved detailing the spider in its web, a time consuming process with much cursing involved while trying to fill in the web, but in the end it was well worth it.

Marching to a Different Drummer

As I mentioned in the last post, my sister was the one who convinced me to start this soaping business. I’ve always held a 9 to 5 job after completing university, that was what our parents taught us to do:  find a job, preferably unionized, work hard, don’t take risks and that should be a good life. But what sort of a life is that? Mediocre if you ask me.

Running a business is hard work! I’ve done the easy part already, that is making some soaps and taking pictures and posting them on a website, but there’s so much more to it. Thanks to my domain host, Yola (and I’m not getting anything extra by saying how wonderful they are), I’ve learned how to get my site indexed by search engines, how to use Google Analytics and so much more. And all this is just the start of things, I need to find local craft fairs to sell my wares to, become part of the soaping community and learn to perfect my soapmaking skills (which will never happen as nothing is ever perfect). One of the hardest things for me to learn will be how to be a salesperson. Don’t get me wrong, I like people and they like me, but I prefer to be the one listening as opposed to talking and so I’ll have to learn to talk up my products. Any suggestions?

So, I think my drummer may not have changed, but he’s certainly picked up the beat to something more happy.

A new start

After some thought and hard work, but mostly an enthusiastic boost from my sister, I decided to start my own business. I wouldn't have thought of soaping for a business, but when my sister showed me how much fun it was, who could resist? The molds, the colours, the scents, the endless combinations! I've always heard of people who loved their jobs and thought that was just some fairytale, but now that I've started this, I can see how it can be a reality.