I believe soap making is like any new endeavor, you need a few years to know what you don't know. You get the big picture ideas, and then start to slowly master details.
It took me about 3 years to teach myself geology and gold prospecting to have a good handle on what to look for in a gold mining property. I cataloged and researched every single gold/silver/copper mine in 6 counties in Arizona. After that, I went square mile by square mile and cataloged another 2000 mines that exist nowhere on paper or gov't registry. That included almost every weekend in the field as well. Once I had that down, another two years to figure out which areas are still harboring good gold and which areas are harboring good gold that won't take $5-$10 million to get out of the ground.
It took about 2 weeks at the end of those five years to realize when most of the mines were running in this state, you didn't have a lot of choice in employment. I call them "starvation" mines. You mined your own dirt, worked in someone else's mine, or starved. People ask why I gave it up. You want a mine you can pull $50K a year out of, consistently? Got a half dozen of them. Got 1 for sure that's worth between $90 and $100K a year too. They come with: no medical insurance, no dental insurance, no 401k, nothing but what you dig out yourself, and they'll tear up your body and vehicles at the same time.[
I can honestly say what I sold in the beginning I would not sell today. While they were not bad back then, I would not consider them as nice as what I now make.
