How do I do it?

[madpiano]

ok, I have many plans for my little business this year and I am slowly putting down on paper all the steps needed to reach goal. But I am stuck on one of my goals / plans. I would like to approach a small national chain of shops to see if they would stock my soaps. How do I do that? I checked their website, but for some reason it doesn't want to display any contact information, looks like the link to anything but the shopping pages is broken. But assuming I find the contact details for their HQ, how do I approach them? Letter, email, phone? What do you think is best? Should I have a definite plan in my head, or make it up as I go along? I mean, I would have to have completely different prices and plans depending entirely on how many soaps they would order. A couple of hundred or is it going to be over 1000?
I am quite scared of approaching them, as I don't want to mess it up...

 

[soapbuddy]

Do you have everything else in place to ramp up your production? As far as finding a contact list, do a WHOIS lookup on the website. Sometimes you can find that contact info there.

 

[madpiano]

no, nothing yet in place. If they place an order for 1000 bars I'd well and truly panic! But I think I can get it to work, it really depends on how quick they would want to have them. Dad said he'd help out with money, so I could order larger moulds and the initial supplies, but of course I wouldn't order them before I know. Otherwise I am ready for it, mentally at least....

 

[carebear]

you need (read it again: NEED) to get payment up front. at least 50%. better 100%.

 

[soapbuddy]

no, nothing yet in place. If they place an order for 1000 bars I'd well and truly panic! But I think I can get it to work, it really depends on how quick they would want to have them. Dad said he'd help out with money, so I could order larger moulds and the initial supplies, but of course I wouldn't order them before I know. Otherwise I am ready for it, mentally at least....

How many bars are you able to make now? I don't think your customer would be willing to wait til you recieve your order of your molds and wait some more for the bars to cure. I also agree with carebear; you need to get at least 50% up front.

Do you have a business license? Liability insurance? Any permits that might be needed for your area?

 

[madpiano]

Business License, Insurance and Certificates are all set up and ready. That's not a problem.

Thanks for the hint with the 50% up front, if I would get that, I wouldn't even need dad's help. It really is a case that I cannot ramp up production until I have the order and I guess it will be difficult to get the order if I haven't already got production in place. Kind of a catch22. Maybe I look into it later in the year instead.

 

[dandelion]

I have one wholesale account and still concider my production at a hobbyist level. I can make about 100 bars a month because I soap when i want to. I supply this account with 50 bars about every two weeks. The primary requireement of this retail establishment was that I be able to supply them in a timely manner.

It got a little hairy around christmas wehn I sold out from individual sales and this one account, now what i am going to try to do is ramp up production, create an inventory of of 300-500 cured bars before I would even consider seeking another wholesale account.

 

[Tabitha]

I would start with smaller wholesale orders & work your way up. The more you do, the more efficient you will become.

 

[tlaborn]

@dandelion-How did you end up with that wholesale account? Did you go store to store, did you put up flyers? I really would like to know because I think its cool to have a business account with another company.

Also just starting with on whole account with a business is a good practice for BIG companies like walmart!!

 

[supersoaper3000]

I agree with Tabitha. Jumping right into mass production is very difficult, as one mistake can ruin hundreds of dollars worth of materials. Not to question your talent at soap making (I love your website btw) but when you are running full speed it is really easy to do. I just do M&P so I can't even fathom having to deal with a long curing process and trying to land some big accounts for the first time. If I need to I can make it on demand, but you can't do that with CP.

I hope to grow into mass production (being able to meet any size order) over the next couple of years, and I have some experience in doing so. But it is a total pandora's box of crazy. I have personally trashed batches of soap worth several hundred dollars a couple of times. With big orders you need to have a big safety net to allow for the unexpected. That is pretty much the only thing that holds me back right now, I couldn't afford to replace really big batches of soap without taking money from someplace else (ie show fees or advertising) and potentially hobbling my business.

With that said, if you want to start some major distribution trade shows will offer you the greatest exposure to retailers who are looking for new products. I am doing my first one this coming April, a smallish show for regional retailers with a focus on local hand crafted items. It was under $200 for a two day show. That (for me) is a good starting point.

Beyond that you need to relentlessly search for companies that you think would be interested in your products and ruthlessly pursue them. You will need to hammer at them over and over again before you even get your foot in the door. And even after you speak with someone it will probably fall on you to keep the momentum going. Personally I hate soliciting retailers, people are so much more excited about my soaps when they approach me to buy it than when I approach them to sell it. But if you want to grow you gotta do it. You will almost never make a sale from a single conversation, it always takes several (with you doing the follow up every time). You need to be able to endure a lot of rejection before you get what you are after.


I hope some of this is helpful for you and best of luck in your endeavors!

 

[agriffin]

Great advice, SS3K. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[madpiano]

SSK3 thank you so much for that advice. Really appreciated. One of the reasons I wanted to approach that particular chain is, that they are small. They might have many shops, but are quite specialized and all the shops are small, I wouldn't expect them to sell articles in massively large quantities, although I may well be surprised and then it wouldn't be good for me.

I think I start with local gift shops first....walk before I run...