One of the most important elements of any online soap or craft shop is the photographs. A good picture of your soap or craft can tantalize prospective buyers and entice them to make a purchase. Any quality photo has a backdrop that can help enhance the soap’s presence, but many professional backdrops can be expensive. But who says you need to buy a backdrop?

You can use a lot of different items around your home as backdrops to make your soap stick out. For fun, whimsical soaps, you can use brightly colored beads or balloons against the wall in the background. Rustic soaps made of organic material can be shot near woven baskets, trees, or a quilt. Even a colorful shower curtain can be a fun backdrop. There are many great options out there if you use your creativity. For more photo backdrop idea, click here:: 9 Ways to Make Pretty and Easy Backdrops

Okay, so you have your online soap shop running on all cylinders. Finances are managed, website and social media are updated, soap inventory is ready to be shipped. Is there anything you’re overlooking? What about the weather?

While it may sound silly, the cold winter months might affect your online soap business. Items might take longer to ship via airmail if snow is keeping the planes grounded. If your soap isn’t properly stored, certain soaps might freeze and get brittle. Lastly, if you are snowed in and the power is out, you won’t be able to get more supplies to make soap nor internet access to accept your orders. Keep all these things in mind and have plans in place in case the weather doesn’t cooperate. For more hazards cold weather has for small businesses, click here:: 7 Cold Weather Risks for Small Businesses

Some people start their online soap shops and success comes quickly. Orders are made, sales accrued, money collected. Sadly, that’s not always the case.

Sometimes it can take months before people start appreciating and noticing your product. It can be difficult and you’ll start to question yourself and your talent. Business is a relationship and those can take time. You best bet for success is to keep your mind on that. For more a full story about pressing forward with your crafts, click here:: When Will Their Love for Your Business Blossom?

You have gotten some good responses and a few sales at your online craft soap shop. While it is important to maintain your online business, it wouldn’t hurt to show off your inventory at a craft fair to make some sales, network, and get your name out there. The first hurdle in getting into a craft show is the application.

First, be sure that this craft show is for you. Some craft shows have a jury and some don’t. Other may have larger entrance fees due to mandatory competitions you might not be interested it. If you find a show you like, be sure your application appeals to the organizers in order to keep their interest. Doing such simple steps can help you find the show you want to get the audience you need. For more tips about craft show applications, click here:: 5 Keys to a Successful Craft Fair Application

While a soap’s ingredients are a major sales draw for the soaps in your online shop’s inventory, color is an important factor. Giving your soap a mix of colors gives it a personality all of its own or reinforces a soap’s feel or theme. So how can you mix colors in cold process soap effectively?

First, get plenty of primary colorants: pink, blue, and yellow. Red is traditionally a primary color, but pink is chosen since red is a difficult color for cold process soaps to attain. From there, just use different ratios for mixes to achieve different colors (example: 3 parts yellow to 1 part blue makes a sea green while 3 parts blue to 1 part yellow makes a dark teal). For more details on making different colored cold process soaps, click here:: Create a Rainbow: Mixing Colors in Cold Process

Essential oils can be an important ingredient when making a soap. They can be… well, essential. However, it’s more essential to find the right essential oil and using it properly for your soap.

First, make sure the essential oil you are using is from pure, organic aromatic plant oils without diluents. Pre-diluted, inorganic essential oils might have harmful pesticides in them. When mixing it into your soap recipe, be sure you dilute it with organic vegetable oil, hydrosol, witch hazel, or alcohol in order to use it without overpowering the soap. A little bit goes a long way. For more information about using essential oils, click here:: 8 Tips for Buying and Using Essential Oils

Even though it is important to use social media and other methods to market your online soap shop, nothing spreads better than the word of mouth. Having a person promote your soap shop can help increase your web traffic thanks to their referral. However, should you pay that person?

Well, it depends on the dynamic. If the person is a customer that is talking up your wares, you shouldn’t feel the need to pay them since they’re just offering their opinions to friends. With that said, it might be worth your while to pay for referrals to other online shops that have a similar customer base that you have in order to increase your sales. Although, if you have previous customer that has been shooting over numerous additional customers to your site, a thank-you gift of free soap might be in order. For more on referrals, click here:: Should you pay for referrals?

When making soap using a cold process method, it can difficult to get the proper measurements of lye and oil. Too much lye will burn the skin. Too much oil will make the soap greasy and ineffective. So how can you determine a soap’s pH to see if it’s safe for the skin? Grab a red cabbage from the fridge!

Take the red cabbage, chop off 3-4 leaves, and place it in a bowl of distilled water. Blend it and strain out the juice. Place a drop of red cabbage juice onto the bar of soap. If the juice changes colors from purple to blue, your soap is safe to use. If the color changes to green or yellow, then there is too much lye. For a full picture tutorial of this method, click here:: How to Test pH with Red Cabbage

Creativity isn’t just for the young. Just ask Alfred Date, the oldest living Australian. Date has been knitting for about 80 years now and even at 109-years-old, he’s still putting the knitting needles together to make a sweater for his nephew. While this is a heartwarming story, we can certainly learn from it.

Crafting, whether it is knitting or making soap, isn’t just for young people. If they are willing, crafters can continue their hobby or their crafting business beyond the retirement age. Finding some activity that you strongly love can only increase your lifespan and your enjoyment within it. For more about Date and his knitting ventures, click here:: Oldest Man in Australia Still Knitting at 109

Many assume that crafting and making soap is a women’s world. The fruity scents and skin treating ingredients might make the soap market seem more feminine than rugged. However, men have a place in the soap market as well, both as consumers and soap shop owners.

Soaps can be made with more woody or spicy scents. There are also sweet smelling soaps that can incorporate honey to offer a sweet scent without it being overpowering. There are aftershave balms that can treat the skin or the beard/mustache shampoos and oils to soften the hair while giving it an attractive musk. Making something for the guys can be just as profitable as making something for the ladies. For a full interview with soap shop that makes masculine products, click here:: Interview with Burly Stone: Soap with a Masculine Perspective