2017 Goals: what are yours?

[SoapyGoats]

What are your 2017 goals for your soap/ soap businesses?

Having trouble coming up with any for myself so could use some inspiration. Need to push myself some this coming year!

 

[TBandCW]

Great question! My goal is to make as much as I can in our off season. Last off season there wasn't enough $$$ to make product, but this year will be different. So I will be a soap/body product making machine and hubby will be making candles. Hopefully it will make our lives a little easier this year. It was exhausting having to make product as you go.

Oh yeah, and finally take a much needed vacation!!!

 

[Soapsense]

To be more organized. I am always behind on paperwork etc. I also want to make more product this winter, as my real job ramps up for the summer, and I just don't have time then. This is year was exhausting.

 

[Steve85569]

Just to keep learning here.
I have no delusions of becoming as talented as some of the soapers here but I do want to keep learning and improving the craft.
Share what I have learned here.

And many thanks to those that have been teaching me ( you know who you are).

 

[TeresaT]

Reduce my spending. That's first and foremost on my list. I've really got to stop spending money on nothing. Then, I want to start making large batches (5#) of soap once a week. After discovering how amazing my 16 month old soap is, I really want to have well-cured soaps lying around the house for gifting next Christmas. Plus, I've got about 85 different FOs I've got to use. (Goes back to that spending thing...)

 

[shunt2011]

Mine too is to reduce spending. I had a great year and hope to have a better one next year. I also want to cut down on the number of scents available and I want to downsize my volume and all the extras that I have. Planning on selling a lot of it.

 

[moonbeam]

My biggest one really is to get a worthwhile 3rd year-round Farmers market or to find some way of filling in the 3 month period when I have only 2 markets. I'm workin on it!

 

[BattleGnome]

I'm another for the spending thing, and using up scents and extra supplies, and generally decluttering, as well as having more long cure soaps around....

Other than what others have already said, I want to refine and pick out a go to recipe. I also want to revisit my first ever recipe, a Bastille. I have a few bars left of my first ever soap and when I used one a few months ago it was kind of nice. Knowing what I know now about soap I would like to take the time to analyze it and see how a year and a half of learning has changed my perception of things. Lastly I hope to start a website (already have the domain), I'd like to have an easy for me to find record of my soaps and I always end up loosing notebooks.

 

[Relle]

For those of you posting in this section please read the rules for posting, as I have deleted 3 posts above, because of rule violations.
http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=53474

 

[Susie]

It would be awesome if this were in the Lye Based Forum rather than the Business Forum, because while I do not have a business right now, all my goals pertain to getting to that point:

1. Find at least one more business interested in buying soap wholesale before getting the business license and tax ID number.
2. Work on swirls and colorants to be able to offer more than "naturally colored" soaps.
3. Get Soapmaker 3 software and start using it to track everything. Is there another software geared towards soapmaking that any of you like? I am both math challenged and technology challenged, but I can learn technology.
4. Get my cost/bar of ingredients down to where I can make a small profit, or at least break even. I know, I have to pay myself for my work, so the ingredients need to be purchased more wholesale than I am now.
5. Get/make myself some dedicated soaping/curing space somewhere in this house.
6. To take a deep breath before I freak myself out...again. :shock:

 

[Relle]

This is where the OP posted it, as it's related to their business goals, it is a business discussion.
While you might not have a business right now, you can take all the information in, that people are discussing and work out what you need to do.

 

[Susie]

I am soaking it all in. Reading everything in every thread. I just felt guilty for posting here when I don't have a business yet.

 

[Relle]

You are posting within the rules, no probs.

 

[houseofwool]

This year I want to finally stay ahead on inventory. We have grown so quickly that it is nearly impossible to not run out occasionally! It is an awful position to be in.

I am also trying to go plan free, so I need time to finalize a new vegetarian recipe.

 

[CTAnton]

1. Make 1 pound test batches instead of 2 pounds....2 pounds is a lot of soap..especially if you don't like it!
2. make an attempt at standardizing my soap sizes so I can package them in boxes(never liked cigar bands due to cleanliness issues at retailers)
3. Learn at least some rudimentary computer skills to make my own labels
4. Make a batch a soap a week and follow it through..the unmolding, stamping, the planing.
5. Get my basement area organized to make soap and get out of the kitchen!