A handmade soap business is a great way to use your craft skills and creativity to make extra money. Starting a home handmade soap business is easy, once you know the process and materials needed.
Skills Required: Soap-making skills, safety practices, creativity.
The skills required for starting a home handmade soap business are easy to learn. Most people who start their own part time business already know the process for making soap and just want to share their creative efforts.
If you need to learn the process, take a soap-making class from your local community center. You could also read books from your local library or purchase soap-making books from the bookstore. You will need to know how to make recipes, as well as how to implement safety standards in handling certain materials.
If you are new to soap-making, practice a few times to get the process down before you begin selling your product. Once you are fluent in the process, the rest is simply packaging and selling your new, clean soap products.
Startup Expenses: $150 – $1,000
Most people who start their own handmade soap business use equipment and materials in their own kitchens. Soap can easily be made in the kitchen or garage, and the tools needed are simply pans for melting and mixing ingredients, stirring tools, and molds into which to pour your soap mixes.
Here is a basic setup of a part-time soap business:
- Scale (to nearest gram or 1/10 ounce) $30 – $100
- 8 – 12 qt stainless steel pot set $25 – $50
- Hand blender $20 – $50
- Measuring, mixing, and cutting utensils $20 – $35
- Plastic or wooden soap molds $20 – $50
- Safety equipment (goggles, gloves, etc) $20 – $50
Additional startup expenses will be the marketing you need to do in order to acquire customers, both online and offline. You may need to buy printed marketing materials, as well as rent booths at farmers’ markets or other craft fairs. Handing out free samples might be another way to entice new customers.
Monthly Revenue: $200 – $1,000 per month
Monthly revenue from your home-based handmade soap business depends, of course, on how much soap you sell and how much you market your products. Once you have all the equipment, each bar of soap costs very little to make. You could sell your soaps for $3 to $5 dollars each and make a tidy profit on each one.
You might try to acquire regular customer accounts, such as retail shops and boutique stores, who sell your product. You can even market and sell your soap products online through your own website or handmade marketplaces, such as Etsy. Many home handmade soap business owners sell their products at craft fairs and farmers’ markets just on the weekends.
Monthly Expenses: $50 – $500
Your regular expenses will be the supplies and ingredients needed to make your recipes, as well as continual marketing materials. Depending on how much soap you sell, you may buy few supplies each month, or even up to a few hundred dollars worth of ingredients.
Overhead consists of regular marketing and your own electricity consumption.
Starting a home handmade soap business doesn’t need to be difficult. Make yourself an expert at making good soaps with quality ingredients, and use your creativity to manufacture and package your soaps. With the right product, your hobby can turn into a part time business can help you earn a great extra income each month.
