Product Evolution

I love the way one idea can turn into something else, or how one product can evolve or spin off over time. There are just so many ways I feel as though my business just leads me places, that if I just listen to it and to my customers that all the ideas I need are right there at mu finger tips, waiting to be discovered.

A few years ago I met Alyson who owns The Maid's Quarters Bed & Breakfast. She really liked my soaps but they were too big for a weekend stay at her establishment. So we talked and worked out that she needed soaps about 1 once in size. Off to the drawing board I went (really it was off to home depot I went). I found some smaller PVC that I could use as a mold, and once I worked out some kinks (like capping it, keeping out air bubbles, and ultimately removing sticky soap from a small tube), figured out what thickness would produce the perfect sized soap. Mini soaps were born and I now make them in the six fragrances she wants to use in her establishment. This has also turned into my most popular soap for wedding and shower favors. Just this year I found the perfect glassine bags and off the soaps went to the Bethlehem Visitor's Center to be sold as guest soaps, and to the Knitter's Edge to pair with the mini washcloth kit they offered. I even had tiny little crates made that would hold one of each soap. These mini samplers have become a best seller and are hard to keep in stock.

My soap has always been round, so I think I got asked if I made a shaving soap almost every show. In the beginning I didn't, and it quickly became apparent that I needed to. Shaving soap became shaving mugs (made by my friend Bebe), then it was shaving brushes (made by my friend Ed) and now it has turned into two fragrances of shaving soap, plus soon an exclusive fragrance for another local wood turner, Brad, who makes complete kits (brush, razor, mug, stand). 

Ugly bars of soap started out as what I used in my shower. Then there were too many and they were trash for a time. I then realized they usually had a good half, and that if I cut them, I could use the good half in samplers. So for a time I used the good half and threw out the rest. I kept having customers come in to tell me they just used my soap to freshen their drawers and closets. I felt like they were spending a lot of dough for a drawer freshener, and that each sale that wasn't being used on someones skin was work that wouldn't be turned into a repeat customer, that soap wouldn't need to be replaced for a long time. So the extra soap that I was throwing out, began to be ground up and put into muslin bags to be sold as sachets. Then customers came by telling me they used the bags when they traveled as their soap. The cotton bags made a great washcloth and the soap inside lasted for about a week, a typical vacation,. That way they didn't have to use bad hotel soap or travel with wet bars of soap. This became part of my marketing of my sachets/travel soaps. Low and behold, the demand for the sachets stated to out weigh supply, and my line of air fresheners was born.

So next time you have an idea, a desire, or a special order, let me know. I never know where it will ultimately lead me.