# I am the proud owner of a domain!



## TeresaT

I have decided to call my business "Howling Hounds Soap Studio."  I was going to call it "Barking Dogs Soap;" however, there is a not-for-profit in Canada with that name.  Although I could have still sold in the U.S. under "Barking Dogs Soap," I felt it wouldn't be right for me morally. 

It hasn't been a year yet.  I am no way ready to sell soap.  I don't have any soap to sell even if I was; however, I have a company name.  I have a logo in mind.  I am working on a business plan.  I am clearing out my garage, storage shed and spare bedroom of junk to be able to have a real soap facility.  Once I get the garage cleaned out, I'm going to contact the FDA for guidance and help with actually setting up a FDA approved facility.  I want to adhere to guidelines that I don't really need to, to ensure full compliance before I have to.  (I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me.)

Here's a screenshot of my domain.  I'm excited.  I'm terrified.  This crap is real!


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## Muskette

Congratulations! How exciting!


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## Earthen_Step

Congrats!  Are you building your own site?  If so what tool suit?  Exciting times, keep us posted on your progress.


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## penelopejane

Congratulations. I hope it goes well for you.


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## kchaystack

Congrats.  I went ahead and bought BareBearSoap.com and .net  I might never sell, but I figured it would not hurt.


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## TeresaT

I bought the domain via Go Daddy and I'm going to use something called "Online Store" to build it.  I don't know if that's a commercial product or just a go daddy product, but that's what I ended up with.  I know nothing about web building or domains.  Someone told me to go to go daddy to get a website so that's what I did.  Apparently, you can't actually buy a domain name flat out.  You can only "rent" it. Although Jarred assured me I owned it, I was only paying a registration fee.  Whatever.


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## TBandCW

Awesome name and congrats for you!  Sounds like you're going about everything the right way, slow and steady wins the race!


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## snappyllama

Congratulations on your site and business plans!


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## Steve85569

:clap:
Getting ready "just in case". Good job!


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## TeresaT

*I have a logo to go with my domain*

A friend of mine (Justin Cooley), who did art work for his brother's first book (Trevor H. Cooley) and does story boards for his other brother's films (Jared Cooley) did my logo.  I cannot draw or use computers (except to cut and paste words) worth spit.  I told him what I wanted and gave him a (horrible) sketch of my idea.  After a few trials and errors, he finally got my vision on paper.   He turned my favorite photos of my dogs into my logo.  This was no easy task. Two of the dogs were sleeping, so he had to give them eyes.  All four of them were close up head shots.  One is a black dog.   I'm very pleased with the logo.   Here it is and the photos of the dogs that are the inspiration for the name of the company and the logo and the reason I get up every day.  Animals improve your sanity.  Or save it.  Yeah, some crap like that.


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## dibbles

Congratulations Teresa! Props for getting yourself prepared and thinking ahead!


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## TBandCW

Nice logo!  As for the dogs......awww, too cute!


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## KristaY

Howling Hounds...I LOVE that! I'd stop to shop just to see what Howling Hounds was all about. Congrats and best of luck with it!


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## TeresaT

I'm probably going to abandon the website and go with Facebook and maybe Etsy.  I've started a Facebook page and posted bits and pieces of one of the threads regarding EDTA.  Since this is a public forum (and the majority of what I posted is my own words) I didn't think that would be taboo.  However, I did post makemineirish's original question and DeeAnna's very wonderful compliment of my post.    Please take a look at the page (if you want to) when you have time.  If I cannot post things from SMF, let me know and I won't do it again.  (I gotta read all of those rules threads.)   Although, as the "owner" of my own words, I'm sure I can cut' n' paste anything I've ever posted on this site.  And I hereby give anyone and everyone my permission to do the same.  

https://www.facebook.com/HowlingHoundsSoap

Thanks.


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## shunt2011

It tells me it's not found with your link.


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## TeresaT

shunt2011 said:


> It tells me it's not found with your link.



Thanks, Shunt.  I was looking at my timeline when I copies the url.  I deleted that part of the link and trued it.  It worked for me.  This page is a work in progress.  I started it Friday and have been working on it all weekend.  I've git to take nice photos of all the soaps.  I didn't realize just how difficult that was actually going to be...


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## The Efficacious Gentleman

If you copy anything from anywhere, public or not, please do link back to it


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## TeresaT

Thanks, TEG!  I'll fix that now.  

ETA:  Done!  I double checked and I did it correctly.  When you click on it, it does work and takes you right to the thread.  Thank you for the tip on netiquette.   It is much appreciated.  I am delving into the complete unknown.


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## cmzaha

Hope you do not get upset with me, but I mention on a smallish soap label your "Soap Studio" is not going to show up and the doggies heads will not work real well either for printing labels. Brown doggie on the left bottom looks like it is just floating...Sorry I know you did not ask for critique. Like the name but I really think you need to have Soap Studio more prominent


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## TeresaT

cmzaha said:


> Hope you do not get upset with me, but I mention on a smallish soap label your "Soap Studio" is not going to show up and the doggies heads will not work real well either for printing labels. Brown doggie on the left bottom looks like it is just floating...Sorry I know you did not ask for critique. Like the name but I really think you need to have Soap Studio more prominent



Not upset at all.  I appreciate the critique.  Honestly, they all look like they're floating heads.   You should have seen some of the drafts!  :lolno:  Major cringe worthy.    I did notice the logo gets completely lost when it is small.  I put it on the bottle for the blend swap and you need a magnifying glass to see it.  For right now, it's good enough to get me started and has more sentimental significance than any brand appeal.  I only had a few photographs of the dogs from my iPhone.  I'm going to have to (much later in the game) get some professional photos done of the dogs so I can incorporate them into a jazzed up logo.  But I didn't want to put money into something that may be a huge failure.  Once I see how this is panning out and if it will be a viable business when I'm ready to retire, I'll hand it over to a design company to do something with it.  We've got some incredible design outfits in Chattanooga.  But with incredible design comes incredible fees.  Thanks again for the feedback.  It's much appreciated.


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## Dahila

it does not link Teresa


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## Zany_in_CO

I love your logo, Teresa. Good luck with the business plans. It's fun to watch you grow.


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## WeaversPort

That's wonderful!! I love the story of the name (and getting to see pictures of the original inspiration!) 

I'm going to echo Carolyn on that the pooches disappeared in the logo. You might want to consider a stylized black and white outline of the dogs howling next to the company name. 

I'm so excited on your behalf!


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## SunRiseArts

My son gifted me a domain for mothers day.  My site will be called:  soapsbysunrise


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## debbism

Looks wonderful!!!


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## TeresaT

Oh wow!  This is old and so am I!!  I forgot about it.  I ended up letting the URL go because I didn't want to pay the money each year to rent it.  Even though Go Daddy said I owned the URL, I had to pay them some kind of registration fee every year.  That sounds like rent to me.  I do have a Facebook page, which I have not updated in months because I just don't have the time.  Or a camera.  If I ever get a decent camera, I can take photos of my soaps and post them there.  But too much is going on at work (and life in general) to focus on soap or anything related to it.  If I can stay awake past 7:30 most nights, I'm doing really well.   Thanks for the kind words, everyone.  I do appreciate it.


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## WeaversPort

TeresaT said:


> Oh wow!  This is old and so am I!!  I forgot about it.  I ended up letting the URL go because I didn't want to pay the money each year to rent it.  Even though Go Daddy said I owned the URL, I had to pay them some kind of registration fee every year.  That sounds like rent to me.  I do have a Facebook page, which I have not updated in months because I just don't have the time.  Or a camera.  If I ever get a decent camera, I can take photos of my soaps and post them there.  But too much is going on at work (and life in general) to focus on soap or anything related to it.  If I can stay awake past 7:30 most nights, I'm doing really well.   Thanks for the kind words, everyone.  I do appreciate it.



It is rent in many ways. You can pay a bunch in advance, or a little over time, but you do pay! 

All of my soap pictures are done via my cell phone. I have camera fantasies, but as my ex used to say "the best camera is the one you use". Since I'm not printing and submitting my pictures to magazines or something, the resolution and quality from my Android is good enough for me. 

All of that aside - if you have a lot going on and/or feeling burned out adding one more spinning plate sounds awful. Soap will be there when you're ready. It sounds like knitting is giving you a better zone right now, and that's important.


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