Make Money

How to Make Money Selling Soap (25 Helpful Ways & Tips)

October 5, 2022

It’s not that hard to make money selling soap, if you know what needs to be known.

Thankfully reading this article is going to really help you.

It contains up to 25 awesome ways and tips to really making money selling soap, whether as a hobby or business.

Importance

As legend would have it the beginning of soap came into existence because of animal sacrifices that were done on various altars to various gods.

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When the rains came down upon the altar the combination of the water, ash, and remnants of the animal turned into a lather which was discovered to be a good cleaning agent for clothes and skin.

Not a good picture to have in one’s mind the next time they step into the shower and pick up that bar of soap.

The reality is that soap takes on an important role in our hygiene and our ability for our skin to fight against invisible bacteria and other microorganisms.

For example, a single drop of soap mixed with water provides a chemical reaction to kill many types of bacteria and viruses that can be found not only around the world but on our skin as well.

Moving on from soap made from animals let us take a look at developing a more modern-day approach to making soap and ways that we can utilize home make this product that is powerful to keep us clean and healthy.

25 Best Ways & Tips to Making Money Selling Soap

1. Know About the Soap Business

If wishing to start a home business and earn revenue, a good way of doing that is by starting a soap business.

The reality is that the making of soap is a simple process with very few ingredients needed to make the soap product and the cost to make soap is very minimal.

The tools needed to make soap include:

Slow cooker
Measuring device for the lye
Heavy-duty stainless steel container
Scale
Spatulas made from silicone
Immersion blender
Thermometer
And various molds to form the bars

2. Know How to Make Soap

The actual process of making the bars of soap can range anywhere from one to three hours and the time frame is dependent upon the soap that you are making.

The actual process requires acid and a base and when these two are combined a chemical reaction is called saponification to produce the soap with a byproduct of glycerin

Lye can be used but working with lye can be hazardous because of its caustic nature.

Therefore, in working with lye it is important to wear appropriate protective gear as well as make the soap in a properly ventilated area

The other recommended process is to purchase recipes from retailers that you can trust.

There are six easy steps to follow which include:

Choose your recipe
Bring your tools together
Melt the base
Mix in any fragrances
Pour into the mold
Cool and remove the soap

3. Know about the Ingredients

The ingredients needed:

Coconut oil
Distilled water
Hundred percent pure lye
Olive oil
Various oils
And colorants if you wish

4. Know about Suppliers

A disco part of making money selling soap is to locate and utilize suppliers to help you sell your site so product.

A spire is a company that will help you to produce your soap product idea and work towards the same vision that you have planned

A supplier can purchase the existing products for you or you can utilize a drop shipper to satisfy the fulfillment of any sales.

Also, another question you would need to answer is whether you want a domestic supplier or a supplier that is located overseas.

Some local suppliers include:

Makers Row
Thomas Net
Kompass

Overseas suppliers can include:

Alibaba
IndiaMart
Oberlo
AliExpress

5. Know the Pros

When considering starting in the soap-making business and making money it is important to think through the whole process and weigh the pros and cons.

Some of the pros associated with the start of the soap are less would include your option to devote as much time as you wish.

Also, more than likely, this business will be started from home and therefore there will be minimum overhead and you will be able to operate the business from the can be found rest

Also, if this is something you from print only enhanced the fund and reward of making soap.

6. Know the Cons

On the other hand, it is important to take into account certain challenges that you may face in pursuing this vision and dream that you have.

First of all, the soap homemade soap business can be very competitive and to mitigate this competition and distinguish yourself from the rest of the bars of soap it is important to analyze the market and have something that distinguishes your soap from the rest.

The other added dimension is finding the right supplier.

This process can take time in both finding the supplier and establishing a good relationship and that can be counted on with the providing of quality supplies.

7. Naming

A critical component to making money selling soap is the name of your company or the soap product that you will be producing.

Some practical suggestions on selecting a name for your soap product would be to utilize names that you want to be easy to remember for your customers.

In addition, the spelling should not be too complicated but easy to sound out or spell.

When selecting a name for a company it is important that the name is not claimed by anyone else and when utilized does not bring up some weird product that has nothing to do with your soap.

Naming is important because it is your customer’s first impression of the soap and the name of the product should be easy to make the correlation between the name and your manufacturing of a bar of soap.

By clicking on Namecheap.com you can find out if the name of the product and the domain is available.

8. Identify Target

Although your product will be available to everyone, and your business hope is that everyone will want to buy your product – the reality is that this is most unlikely.

Therefore, you need to focus on a particular niche for a particular segment of the consumer base that you are looking for marketing to.

For example, if one of your product lines will remind people of the cleanness of the desert or tropical air then the tagline might be something to the effect of bringing the freshness of the outdoors indoors and the name of the company could be something to the effect of outdoor breeze.

Therefore, perhaps your target would be individuals who enjoy certain outdoor areas of certain parts of the world, and that is your marketing target.

9. Have a Business Plan

A critical framework that your company could utilize to structure the starting of their business is known as a business plan.

A business plan is a document that is thought out by you as the owner and sets the course for the business as it relates to its mission, vision, goals, objectives, etc.

In addition, the business plan should include such topics as:

Marketing plan
Budget
SWOT analysis (Strength and Weakness, Opportunity, Threats)
Products and services you will be offering
Leadership team
And more

10. Budget

Another important component before proceeding with your business action plan is to comprise a budget.

The income side of the budget should be the anticipated sales and the expense side of the budget should capture all of the anticipated expenses.

It is important to remember that some of those line items include the cost of materials, insurance, shipping, postage, etc.

Also See: Best Items You Can Buy Cheap and Sell High to Make Money.

11. Business Model

As part of forming your company, you will also need to decide what model you wish to embrace and utilize as your legal structure.

Some of those legal structures could include being a sole proprietor, LLC, etc.

Specifically, an LLC is a limited liability company in which any losses or litigation will not come against you but will come against the company.

12. Use Etsy

A way that you can sell your soap is by utilizing various online websites.

One of those websites is www.etsy.com.

By registering with this particular website, you will have the opportunity to create a virtual store in which you can upload photographs of your soap products and sell them through this virtual reality shop.

When a customer buys the item the website will completely fulfill the purchase and collection of money directly from the customer.

Check out the following for more tips on selling on Etsy:

13. Use Blogging

Another way to earn money selling soap is by creating a blog.

You can write about your particular products, the benefits of buying homemade soap, the process involved, providing a history of soap making, etc.

The blog is yours and your choice of topics as it relates to soap production will be your choice.

Revenue may be realized through your followers as they support your blogging site, purchase products, affiliate advertising, or even possibly a sponsor who will provide monetary support for your blog.

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14. Use eBay

Another way that you can sell your product online is through www.ebay.com.

Once you have registered and gone through the entire process of providing all of the business information you then can upload various photographs of your product and list the items for sale.

Of course, the packaging is key to catching the shopper’s attention to not only the soap product but the way that it is presented.

Also See: How to Make Money & Get Paid Selling Baked Goods From Home.

15. Use YouTube

If you are not camera shy another way to make money by selling soap is to develop your own YouTube channel.

The YouTube channel can be anything and everything about us soap.

As part of your presentation, you can teach others how you go about making your product, teaching others about packaging, marketing, and business strategy, and helping others in this way to develop their own soap-making company.

The beauty of starting a YouTube channel is not only could you promote your soap product and sell the items, but obtained affiliate advertising as well as gaining sponsor possible sponsorship for your channel.

Also, you can provide premium content to individuals who will subscribe to your channel to learn about more advanced techniques or the use of different fragrances in the soap.

16. Packaging

A critical component of making money through your soap business is the way that you package your product.

The soap that is sold can be wrapped in brightly colored paper that just on its appearance looks refreshing and clean.

Or you could use clean wrapping and market your product as plain old soap doing plain old cleaning duties.

Or, as an added caveat, you could package your boutique soap with a ribbon and make it decorative and festive in this manner.

It’s the key is to use something different that will distinguish your soap from the rest of the soap products available.

Also See: What Items to Pawn for $500 & What Items to Sell for $1,000.

17. Potential Revenue

As one can imagine, the potential of revenue is dependent upon several factors.

Some of those factors include your time involvement, whether you are doing this as a side venture over as a full-time commitment as well as your goal of profitability and dedication to marketing.

It would appear that the average annual income for a soul individual providing this product of soap can earn anywhere from $14,000 to $33,000 per year.

Additionally, companies that are a bit larger and have more employees could potentially earn a little over $1 million annually.

18. Charge Per Bar

When thinking about revenue and what should be charged for a bar of soap, it is important to take into many considerations.

First of all, you need to figure out what the cost is per bar of soap to make as it relates to the ingredients that go into making one bar.

This can be calculated by taking the total amount of the cost of the ingredients and dividing it by the number of bars that you can create out of each batch.

In addition, you need to add into that cost per unit any packaging material that is utilized.

Additionally, you need to create your hourly rate and figure out how much time it takes you to create one bar of soap.

Also, you need to add in peripheral activities involved with the creation of a bar soap which would include costs for marketing, time involved in getting a product to a customer, etc.

All of these added factors and, possibly more, all need to be added together to create your cost per unit as well as factoring in a percentage as it relates to profit.

19. Manufacturing

When manufacturing your product, bars of soap, you can use a variety of scents, formulas, and a variety of designs.

Some of the considerations of the manufactured product should include the look of the bar of soap, its feel, and its consistency.

A variety of soap bases can be used such as:

Shea butter
Goat’s milk
Mongol butter
Aloe Vera

The manufacturing process would also include oils, flowers, and potentially freeze-dried fruits, additionally, you may want to have a uniquely designed bar of soap that strays away from the standard bar size and maybe do oval, square, etc.

20. Uniqueness

One of the critical components to profitability for your soap-making company is the uniqueness of your product.

In other words, what differentiates or what sets apart your bar of soap from the other available soap products that are on the market?

Some of the uniqueness can be the ingredients that make up a bar of soap, the proven properties that those ingredients provide and benefit the skin of the customer, the various scents, and how the scents can be utilized like aromatherapy, even a distinguish wrapper or sticker that is placed on the outside packaging.

21. Use Social Media

Social media is a great marketing platform in which you can present your product to other individuals and encourage them to make your soap part of their body hygiene routine.

Social media websites would include Facebook, Instagram, tick-tock, etc.

22. Marketing

As it relates to marketing, it’s not just about getting the product out there through a variety of sites such as social media, word-of-mouth, or other marketing activities.

Marketing could include a personal touch from you as the company to your customer which could include a private message when the product is shipped or the way the bar of soap is wrapped or presented.

Part of marketing is the presentation and if it is appealing to the eyes and is different from the rest of the products offered, that will be the uniqueness that may be the key to profitability.

23. Samples

Another great way to get your product into the hands and bathrooms of individuals is by presenting them as gifts or small samples.

Like a delicious tasting of food, the encounter with an individual utilizing your soap may just be what is needed for the customer for the potential customer to become a customer when they have sampled your product and are impressed.

24. Gifts

Also, you can give your bars of soap to gifts individuals and simply ask them and return to provide feedback not owned to yourself but to spread the word about your product to their sphere of influence.

25. Local Venues

It is important to remember not to forget your local community as it relates to selling your product.

Your items can be displayed and sold at various local events such as farmer’s markets, craft fairs, etc.

There you can hand out samples and have your bars of soap available for individuals who wish to buy.

Personal Story

During the 1960s one of my most dreaded classes was gym class.

My hatred and uncomfortableness for this class were for a variety of reasons.

One of those reasons was that I was not in very good shape and we would often have to run from the high school to the nearby athletic field, participate in some sort of sporting event, and then run back.

It was during one of these sporting events that I lost my left front tooth to an aggressive classmate who took his role of blocking me seriously when I was rushing the quarterback.

Another reason why I didn’t like gym class was that all of the “cool kids” had the proper gym clothes which included a white shirt, white high length socks, white shoes, etc.

Also, was the added dimension of being embarrassed during shower time.

I only mention this in that at the beginning of the school year, each of these students was required to purchase a bar of soap and it had to be a certain kind.

During the year the bars of soap were then handed out to the students to shower with (when even asking how that worked).

Anyway, the deadline arrived and I only had a quarter I went to a local store and bought a bar of Lava Soap, which wasn’t on the approved list, but somehow manage to slip it by and satisfy the requirement

I’m sure somebody had a rough show.

FAQs

Is There an Estimate of How Many Homemade Soap Makers There Are in Operation?

One of the ways to determine how many soap makers there are in generalities would be to look at the number of stores on various retail websites that carry homemade soap.

For example, it is estimated that there are 76,000 Etsy listings for homemade soap.

Also, according to the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild, there are 300,000 soap-making businesses in the United States.

What Are Some Other Useful Statistics as It Relates to Handcrafted Soaps?

other useful statistics may include:

95% of the homemade soap is created by women
The average bar of soap listed ranges anywhere from six dollars to eight dollars
A basic handmade soap business would cost, as a startup, $50-$150 in supplies
$300-$500 if you factor in any classes, supplies, packaging, marketing, and more

You Can Do It

You can clean up profit-wise as it relates to making bars of soap.

The reality is that everyone needs to wash and generally use a bar of soap.

Therefore, the potential of your customer base is great, and it is just a matter of getting people to recognize your product and its uniqueness.

Conclusion

The making of soap has come a long way from its early beginnings.

Today, we have the benefits of utilizing soap that is less harsh but still does the trick in keeping our bodies clean and free of pathogens.

In addition, through the use of handmade bars of soap, that can be more than just a hygienic routine but with the addition of oils and fragrances, the whole process can be therapeutic and stress relieving.

Again, this company has paid $25+ million to members: