Undertaking My Web Site! And New Men's Soaps

I've been working on our wholesale web site trying to get it posted and up. Previously my son has done it but with his full time job and working on our retail site www.soapier.com I think he has enough on his plate to do. Besides I like doing the web site.

Here's the problem, I don't know html but the site was made from a Frontpage friendly template. So you would think all would be easy, with a WYSIWYG type of program it would be just insert the changes and viola!! Wrong, but it's not all bad. I'm really enjoying learning it. Microsoft has a wonderful community discussion board that when things go wrong I can just go and ask. Unfortunately sometimes they are speaking in a language I don't know. Thus a trip to the library for Html for Dummies.

So with trying to get orders out and getting soaps made I'm squeezing in some time to learn and get this up and running.

But for now here's a preview of some new soaps we have

We did a new line of men's soaps

Healthy Competition!

I had an incident happen to me recently. I created a soap with a very popular smell (very unsoap like fragrance) due to many requests from my retail customers. The idea of the fragrance got my creative juices going and I came up with a pretty funky bar. Now because I do google alerts I had done one on that soap and low and behold another soap lady was making the same thing, with a different take on the design. If I hadn't had a google alert on that soap I would never of heard of her or her soap company. Anyway, then a week later I notice I got an order from her for one bar of that soap.

What?????

Now the only reason she would want to buy one bar of my soap is to compare. So I called her on it and spoke with her on the phone and told her I knew who she was and why did you need one of my bars when she had her own? She said she just wanted to smell it. Right! Well I had a choice of refunding her money or sending it out and I figured if I refunded the money she would get someone else to buy it for her so off it went to her.

So now she's claiming she has the best, she was the first etc etc.

I knew what she was doing when she ordered the soap, something that a lot of business experts tell you to do. Check out your competition, order their products, see how they do it etc etc.

Now I'm talking to you small business owners like myself whether you have a gift shop, do craft fairs, or sell on-line.

I'm not an expert but I think it's WRONG!!

Don't do it because what you are doing is being desperate and trying to take away their customers to be yours. Somehow that just doesn't sit right with me. Why would I want to take your customers? Would I think your customers will be better than the ones I develop myself?

Now I do believe there is plenty of business for all of us but and here's the big BUT you must be creative. You really don't have to steal away any customers from your competition, just give your customers what they want. Don't tell me they want what your competition is selling cause that's not true. They might be buying that but is that the only thing they will ever buy?

What do your customers want? They want to walk into a store or your booth and feel good. They want to see creative things, things that make them smile. Today they want items with a fair value price. They want to see things done creatively that they don't think they can do themselves. They want to see displays done up that tells a story.

Now, tell the truth, do you try and get the same products that your competition has to sell in your store? You think that they are selling a ton of it and you want some of that action. That's a no no.

Think creatively and find different products that sets you apart from the rest. "but Linda there is just so many products out there" Well that might be true, but if they go to the Atlanta show to do there shopping then you go to New York. Not enough different stuff in New York then go to LA. Also you have tons of different artists on line at Etsy.com or wholesalecrafts.com that are looking for wholesale buyers and they aren't at any trade shows. Find some new and different stuff and bring your style into your store and then you will have designed a store that no one can copy. Put your stamp of design on it. Give your customers good customer service, wonderful products and forget about what the other guy is selling and doing. Do your own thing!

"But Linda I'm not creative" Not true, everyone is creative, maybe not in the same ways but we all are. God created the world, we are in his image thus we are creative.

We all work hard at our businesses, we all deserve to be successful, leave your fellow store owner, business owner alone, concentrate on you, not them.

In regards to my business I also had an email from another soapmaker who loved my designs hope she could one day do the same quality of work and to her I gave her my phone # and told her to call me any time, I was willing to help her on her journey.

New Policies

Sometimes we have to take a hard look at the numbers and do the right thing for the business. My hope has always been that those who buy from me wholesale would be able to make a nice profit from selling my soap. I still have that desire, but a visit with the accountant, a hard look at the numbers has forced me to reconsider some of our policies. New policies will take effect on Monday October 19, 09

Minimum orders
I have always had a minimum order requirement posted on our site and for the last few years it's been $150 for new accounts and $100 for reorders. Many times I've received orders for less than and just let them go thru, we won't be able to do that in the future.


I always thought that volume selling was the way for First In Line Soap to make money and so I created a program that allowed our customers (you) to get a free loaf with every 5 loafs ordered. Plus my fear for the retail stores in this economy and how I could help was also what prompted the Customer's Come First Program. The program was a success but did not generate enough sales for us to continue with it , so it's being discontinued.

One of the things I'm most proud of is our offer to you of our signs, labels and wrapping paper. I believe that these help you market the soaps. I think we are unusual in this offer and of course I think our label and sign designs are definitely creative. So I had a choice of either increasing our prices for the loafs or start charging for the extras. I thought hard about this and decided that keeping the cost of the loafs the same at $29. was in your best interest for your profit margin. So on the shopping cart you will have the ability to buy the labels, signs and wrappers.

Private Labeling On our web site you will be given the choice for private labeling with an additional cost above the price of our regular labels.

Jumble Bubble loafs, with each loaf we make there is always some extra soap left over that needs a home and that was the intention of the Jumble Bubble. For these loafs we have to pick a fragrance and come up with a design that would be appealing to your customers and you make a tidy profit. Well these loafs are getting to be more work than our regular line of soaps. Time is money so they say and with that we have to increase the price of them to $22. each. My goal is to make them before hand, have pictures of them and then once someone buys it it's gone and then we make more. When you buy the one pictured that's what you will get.

Turn Around Time
Please order with consideration to our turnaround time. We have a two week turnaround time and during the holiday season it can be up to 3 weeks.

Time Management!

What a waste of time!

Searching for items, spending minutes, hours looking for them. Repeating the same things over and over again when you can do it just once. Running errands without a list to find out you forgot something and have to go out again. How much time do you waste? I'm afraid to even know.

Time wasting costs time... but it can also cost money. Being organized... THAT saves you time to do the things that are productive, and it can also make you money!

Time is like your bank account filled with money (I wish) and you get to choose how you will spend it. So lets say you have lots of money and decide to go out and buy an expensive steak dinner. Once you've spent that money it's gone. Now you could have gone to the store bought a great steak, cooked it for you and your friends and spent way less money. You have that choice. The same is true about time.

Your time bank account has lots of resources, but if you are like me you might be spending it foolishly.

I forgot a valuable lesson about this that I learned along time ago when my kids were little.

The moment came for my son (he's the oldest) to start to learn how to tie his own shoes. The thought of teaching him to tie his shoes would arise when we were ready to go out. I had a choice on those occasions to teach him to tie his own shoes or just do it myself. I opted to do it myself because I rationalized that it would take less time. That was true for that particular moment but then I realized if I added up all my shoe tying for him it was a heck of lot more effort than teaching him how to.

That experience happened about 33 years ago and last night I remembered that lesson and realized I was doing the same thing again with my meds. Time wasting.

Each morning and evening I open the bottles and pick out the pills and re-close the bottles and then look at each pill in my hand to make sure I got them all and then I swallow. This happens twice a day 7 days a week. Once I have the bottle opened it would take a bit more time to pick out seven pills drop them in a seven day pill box and then close bottle and repeat till I was done for the whole week. My estimation is it would take me maybe 5 minutes more on one morning of the seven days. Then all I would have to do each of those other 6 days is open the one marked for the day and swallow.

The above example is just one illustration about my time wasting.

So what to do? I have made many attempts to organize my life with to do lists. I love them, love making them, love crossing off what I've done. There are some problems with this though. I usually use a small note book that I thought would be helpful if I carried it around with me in my pocketbook. My goal was to do the list each morning (I'm too tired at night to think straight) The problem with this was half the time I couldn't find the notebook, ( a time waster). The other problem was if I didn't accomplish what I set out to do I gave up.

So I was stuck, wasting time. Well after realizing how I was wasting time on my pill intakes I decided I needed to analysis my other time wasters. I needed to come up with a type of system that would:

1. keep me on track for goals
2. figure out how to be a better time spender

So my little to do list page for my 6 day work week (God rested on the 7th day) will be on a clip board in my workroom that stays put so I don't loose it. On it I list the to do's and then what did I do. I call this The Boss. You know that guy who looks over your shoulder making sure he's getting his money worth out of you, the paper has now become my boss, the one I have to answer to.


What will this do?

My hope is that I can see what I've accomplished (hooray) and what I haven't (boo hoo). For the not done I'll ask myself the important questions of why? What happened that kept me from doing all that I wanted to do. I might not be doing things (like soap wrapping) in a productive way and then I can search out better ways to do it.

My purpose in this is not to beat myself up for not getting things done but to improve my life and how I function. I'm excited and really looking forward to being the best I can be.

My worksheet is crude but feel free to use it if you are so inclined to go on the journey of reducing time wasting. You can see it here

Of course keep in mind you and I also have to be realistic in what we can and can't do, you understand that, right? I'm not asking of myself to have a to do list that would take a great time spender a week to accomplish but I want to do it in one day.

So What's The Plan!

We all have plans, for our business, our home, our marriage, our children, our life. But the secret to the success of the plan is sticking to it. Now I'm not saying that you can't change your mind when you realize that one plan isn't working so you opt to go to plan b but what I am talking about is the creative mind needing to be reined in and put on focus. Creative minds love to create and that includes new and exciting ideas for our life, our businesses. But as interesting and exciting as these new ideas may be they are keeping us (some times) from sticking to the plan.

I have proof that my personality has a problem sticking to the plans. "The Path, Creating Your Mission Statement For Work And For Life" By Laurie Beth Jones (1998) has an exercise in the book that asks you to close your eyes and picture if you were an object what would that be? Me.... I saw a compass with a magnet real close to it. You know what happens to the arrow when it's close to the magnet, the arrow can't stay pointed in one spot. That object I envisioned was spot on for me. So then she asks what would you like the object to be and I want to be the arrow pointed in one direction. Now I keep the image of that arrow in the forefront of my mind to help me stay focused on my plan, sometimes it works then other times my creative mind wins.

I believe creative minds have problems staying focused. We love to create, whether it's a piece of decorative soap, collages, art, screenplays, jewelry, store displays, fancy dinners, a beautiful home or even drama in our lives, we love to create and are always looking to do that. So when the impulse to create comes up that urge in me is so strong that the plan goes out the window. Until I realize that I got off track.

Creative minds see a problem (mine, lack of enough funds) and then create a possible solution to that. I did that this past weekend. I signed up for a flea market to sell my soaps. This is not in my plan for my business. It might of been 10 years ago but today it's not in my plan. But I did it anyway. Did diverting from my plan work out? Did I make money? Did I have fun? Was I happy with my decision? The answer to all 5 questions was no. I was signed up for Saturday and Sunday and on Saturday it dawned on me that the flea market was never in my plan so I didn't return back on Sunday. What I realized what happened is that all used energy, time and money for the flea market took me away from working on my plan to grow my business.

The plans for my business:

• To learn all there is in becoming an on-line presence for both my retail and wholesale web sites and through that media the company becomes profitable.

• To grow the business so it can afford to give me a comfortable salary which will allow me to do the things I love to do.

• The business will continue to satisfy my craving for creating as soap making does.
  

What my plan does not include is;

• Craft Fairs

• Flea Markets

• Trade Shows

• Home Parties

• Direct Mail
• 
  
• Peddling in the streets (just kidding)

My point in this is.....if I don't focus on the plan I get easily distracted and drawn into other things that aren't moving me and my business forward. Like the flea market. Fears well up money isn't coming in and I think I've got to do something. I don't think" lets keep working on the site and getting us known on the web", no I think flea market. Cost $10 for the booth it can't hurt. The cost was way more than $10 considering all things.

How do I keep that focus. Well I'm printing a picture of an arrow that I can put on my bathroom mirror, my refrigerator,use as bookmark and anywhere else I can think of to help me reign in my creative mind. Focus minds are successful and that's my goal so I'll keep you up to date on my progress.

Positive Thinking And Owning A Business

Your life is about what your thoughts say about you and that is true of your business. Have you ever heard of the idea that if you have a dog, it's behavior is a reflection of who you are? That's so true also of your business. So when things start to go bad I can very well blame the economy (thus thinking I'm powerless over the forces that be) but I choose not to do that. Yeah the economy is horrible, yes sales are way down, yes I get very depressed over the whole money issue but there are businesses surviving and doing well even in this economy.

Problem solving is a great tool. It's looking at the solution and not the problem and I do believe that all problems have the perfect solution. I started my problem solving with my business with myself and my attitude towards who I am and what that means for my business.

One of the main issues with failing businesses in my opinion is the attitude of the owner. We need to ask ourselves what does our belief systems say about us and our business and success. If you have a healthy belief system in who you are and in your abilities to run a business, deal with success, people and money then you should very well be on your way to a profitable business. I know that's a blanket statement and I'm assuming you have done your homework and know that the product or products you sell has a market and your pricing is right.

I bring to my business my ideas of who I am and my capabilities as a person and business owner. Here's where my business starts to reflect who I am, it can't help itself to do that because of what I believe to be true about myself.

I can think up all positive thinking affirmations but my belief system says "NO, that's a lie, this is the truth" But actually most times our belief systems are the lie especially if it's a negative thought pattern about who you are. In my opinion no amount of forcing positive thinking affirmations will take root unless the lying belief system is uncovered and eradicated.

Are you struggling with your business? If so then ask yourself the hard question what do you believe about you and your business. Be honest with yourself, write it down, journal about it. Then if you realize there are some thoughts that need to be changed I recommend reading Norman Vincent Peales books. He has a common sense approach to this problem.

Here's some beliefs that might be hindering your success.

You're not good enough
You're stupid
You're lazy
You're not good with numbers
No one in your family did well in business
You don't have the time
The economy's bad
You're too young
You're too old

You get the idea. With a paper and pen find a quiet place, close your eyes and just ask yourself "what do I believe about myself and my business" then start writing.

Would love to hear back from you! You can email me at Linda@firstinlinesoap.com