Creating Success In This Economy!

My purpose for this post is not so much that you should know some of our important financial decisions here at Firstinlinesoap.com, but as encouragement for us all to do whatever it takes to stay in business in this economy.

It's been awhile since I've posted and things have changed here at First In Line Soap. In April I made the decision to close our retail store, our direct selling portion of Soapier and to regroup.

We've moved our manufacturing back to an at home business again (that's how we started out) and we've also taken some very hard looks at some of our expenses.

Here's a list of expenses we were able to cut.

Rent for the store which was not only a small retail space but most of it was dedicated to manufacturing.

Electric.

Cable/phone I've maintained a cable internet for my home and then one at the store. Now I'll just use the one from my home. I'll use my cell phone as my contact phone number.

Web site shopping cart for all of our web sites. Previously I used a service for three of our sites that cost $60 a month. We decided to go with Mal's Shopping Cart which you can get for free. You can click here for their web site. This is a basic secure shopping cart which is all that we need.

We've stopped our daily pick up with UPS. That cost was anywhere from $8.00-$16.00 per week just for them to pick up. Now we'll use FedEx and drive your purchases over to a FedEx drop off.

I've also discontinued my relationship with our credit card company thru Quickbooks and have decided to use Paypal exclusively This allows us to save the monthly statement fees and the percentage rate and cost per transaction is almost the same.

With the above changes I anticipate a saving of $12,000 each year

This economy has me looking over where I can save whether it's for my personally or business finances and if you are not doing this now then you should be, it could make the difference in whether you can stay in business or fold.

Linda Nigro
www.firstinlinesoap.com

Valentine's Day and Heart Soaps

My Heart To You

This is one of our newest soaps that we are marketing to the retail stores at $12.00 a dozen. Hearts come in assorted colors and fragrances. Plus for each dozen of soaps you get 4 organza bags so you can package them up as little gifts.

Each of these soaps weigh in about 1.5 ozs and they smell wonderful.

GUEST BAR SAMPLERS

This was our old packaging of our Guest Bar Samplers. It's nice and they do well but I wanted something different.

So this holiday season we created 3 different samplers with different packaging.

Free the Elves, with the fragrances peppermint candy, Christmas Wreath and Sparkling Snowflakes.

Kozy Up To Winter, (pictured)with the fragrances Gingerbread, Cinnabun and Hazelnut

Boston Tea Party, with fragrances green tea, chamomile and mango sage.

15% Off Sale

Are your minds on the state of the economy, or the election and who is going to be our next president and can he get us out of this mess?

I believe those of us in business are holding our breath waiting till it's safe to breath a sigh of relief.

So what do we do? I'm not going to let a bad economy drive my business into the ground nor should you.

Stratagize with other store owners, create some kind of events to attract customers. Also be aware today's customer wants a sale, wants to know that they are saving money. That's what we have to do to keep going.

And this is the reason for the post. I offered a 15% off on orders of $200 or more at the beginning of the month and this sale ends on Halloween. Now this can put extra money in your pocket or it could give you the opportunity to have a sale.

A $29.00 loaf at 15% off brings the cost of the loaf to $24.65 and if you cut 1" slices then each slice costs you $2.05 each. At this cost you can do a sale of 3 bars for $15. and still make a nice profit.

Anyway I hope you all are doing well, keeping up.

Next new item we are coming out with is a guest bar sampler. There will be The Boston Tea Party, Free the Elves and Come Home for Kozy. I should have pictures for you next week.

Till next time

LOAF SOAPS AREN'T JUST FOR SLICING

Our loaf soaps are sold by the slice usually for that individuals use. Now that the holidays are fast approaching I thought I might offer some suggestions on other ways to sell our loafs.

Pictured here is a half a loaf of soap. You could also just cut your loafs into thirds. The slice was cut for the sake of the picture. Added a ribbon and a bath brush viola you have a great gift set. Outlet stores usually have great deals on bath accessories. Another idea is go to an outlet store like T.J. Max and look for bamboo cutting boards. Add your half or third of a loaf to the board, with a dinner knife. (I like going to salvation army and getting the more fancier silver knifes) Wrap it all up in cellophane and you have a great gift idea. This will look so special on someone's bathroom sink.

Another great place to find some inexpensive bathroom accessories is the dollar store. You can get bathroom holders and scrubbies and more there. Use your imagination to come up with some great ideas combining things to make it a great gift.

What I might add to the loaf would be

Loofah (dollar store has them)

nylon scrubbie

cutting board

soap dish

bath brush

pretty wash cloth or hand towel.

If you should decide to do this wrap your loaf up with some cellophane or saron wrap then attach your item.

GUEST SOAPS SETS SPECIAL $5.00

In the course of making our soaps there is always left overs. So not to be wasteful we make these little guest bars (they are actually bigger than a guest bar weighing in at least 3 oz). Pictured you see a really nice set of black and white.

For a very limited time we are offering 5 sets to our wholesale customers for $5, that's a $1. per set. You can easily retail each gift set for $5.

What you will get is 10 different soaps and 5 organza bags. The soaps will be assorted and so will the bags. Each soap will come shrink wrapped and a label will be attached. We would not be able to identify the fragrance, but customers love sniffing and smelling. Soaps and bags will coordinate to create a nice package. Ribbon is not included. We are sorry but we can't accommodate any color or fragrance requests.

These will not be put up on the wholesale site so email me if you are interested in these.

NEW LOAF SOAPS FOR CHRISTMAS

Our loaf soaps are a big hit with customers and we added 3 more to our product line to celebrate the holiday season. Each loaf weighs 4 lbs and yields 12 1" slices. Each slice weighs at least 5 ozs and we recommend at least a $6. retail price.

SANTA'S NOG SOAP LOAF
Using striking copper and red showcased in a pale yellow bar we've created what we think Santa's perfect drink would look like. We specially blended scents to create a cinnamonny egg noggy scent that will have you singing Merry Christmas. I promise the scent will just fill the room.


GIVE A GIFT SOAP LOAF
Green and gold are popular colors for the season and we took advantage of that to create this wonderful soap. This fragrance is a combination of Christmas trees, peppermint, spearmint and vanilla. It's a nice warm winter night type of fragrance.


UNDER THE TREE SOAP LOAF
Christmas morning everyone hopes that under the tree is a big bright red present wrapped in a bow. Here it is and we fragranced this soap with a peppermint candy scent. One whiff of this wonderful fragrance will make you think of Christmas and gift giving.


We so enjoy creating new and different designs. With this process we decide what the bar should look like and then come up with just the right fragrance. We love our work and we hope you will love our designs as much as we do. Our hope is that you and your customers will love them as much as we do.

Linda Nigro

You can see these and all of our other wholesale products at http://www.firstinlinesoap.com/holiday_specials.htm