What to do???? What to do...

[Cal43]

Someone asked me if I can join them to sell soap in October. This gives me lots of time to perfect a recipe. But the option are ...1. Come sell my own soap 2. Sell her some of my soap 3. Let her sell my soap and she gets a commission. She is saying about 300 or so soaps.

I would love to go and sell my own soap, but I’ll have to see what the future holds. The other option for me is to sell it to her. Now my question on this one is... how much is reasonable to sell her my soap so I get something and she can make a profit also?

What to do, what to do?????????

 

[jcandleattic]

Someone asked me if I can join them to sell soap in October. This gives me lots of time to perfect a recipe. But the option are ...1. Come sell my own soap 2. Sell her some of my soap 3. Let her sell my soap and she gets a commission. She is saying about 300 or so soaps.

I would love to go and sell my own soap, but I’ll have to see what the future holds. The other option for me is to sell it to her. Now my question on this one is... how much is reasonable to sell her my soap so I get something and she can make a profit also?

What to do, what to do?????????

I would sell it to her wholesale if you are ready to sell by then.

You would have to figure your costs, including time and then go from there.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

how does that work if you sell somebody your soap wholesale--do they tell you what they want and then you have to make the scents, swirls? or does it typically go that they just buy what you have? I think the option of them selling and getting a commission sounds good too

 

[Lin19687]

I think you better make sure you are making quality soaps and have them fully tested before you even think about selling.
You just started less then 5 months ago.
Wait till next year and see where you are at that point.

Someone else had a post like this before, can't remember where

 

[Relle]

Your very new at this, having only been making soap for a short while
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/hello-everyone.72826/
I suggest you read the - are you ready to sell your soap thread and see where you are in the scheme of things. You probably need to test your soap a lot longer before you attempt to sell to see if you have any issues with it.

 

[shunt2011]

^^^^ this exactly. If you haven’t perfected a recipe I wouldn’t recommend selling it.

 

[Cal43]

Thanks everyone, your perspective is well taken. I have a lot to thonk about.

 

[melinda48]

I am considering having a local shop sell some of my soap. It is nice soap and I have been well-pleased with how it performs. I am not sure of how to figure mark-up for wholesale or wonder if any of you consign. I hesitate to consign as that just allows product to sit on shelves indefinitely with no obligation on the part of the shop owner to promote the product. Do I figure on having her keystone or....I currently sell my 5oz. bars for $7 and believe I need to get $5 to be happy. If the shop pays me five, they could retail at 7 or 8. Does that provide enough margin for the shop owner? Do you do returns/exchanges?

Funny, my husband has worked in retail for a number of years but not with handcrafted products. Advice is most appreciated. Thanks!

 

[amd]

I only do consignment if I get the bigger portion of the sale and I don't have to pay rent. (Example, I have soaps in two salons, one salon takes 25%, the other takes 40%, neither one charges me space fee.)

For wholesale, I figure my cost per bar, round to the next dollar/half dollar (e.g. 80 cent cost rounds up to $1, $1.27 cost rounds up to $1.50) and take that times two. I also only do 18 bars or more per batch for wholesale, so the rounding and times two is plenty enough to cover my labor. I do discount slightly if I don't have to label (one of my breweries does their own labeling). I suggest they sell x2, and they find that soaps do quite well at that price point. So If I charge them $3 per bar, they sell at $6 per bar. Two breweries follow that, the third charges slightly more, but they pay more for their labels too and need to make that back. Either way, it doesn't matter to me what they sell for - they could sell it for $1 over what I charge them, I don't care - they decide their own profit margin.

Now, here's a question: Are you making these soaps just for them or selling them whatever random soaps you already have made? In the latter case, I would charge differently than wholesale. I would price as consignment, they buy from you for 60-75% and sell at 100%. So if you would sell the soap at $7 per bar, they would buy it from you for $4.20 - $5.25. Of course, they can price it however they want to. If they buy it from you for $5.25 and want to (or even can) sell it for $8 that's their right as they now own the soap. However if it's a true consignment, then you need set the retail price based on what both you and the store want to get paid for soap.