Anne-Marie: What’s your favorite soap to make?

Kristy: I would say it would be the floral musk that will be coming up on Etsy soon. It looks like a birthday cake, lol.

Anne-Marie: What type of things do you outsource? Or is it a one woman operation?

Kristy: I’m a one woman show.

Anne-Marie: What is the best advice you can give to someone who dreams about starting their own business?

Kristy: Test, test, test. People can get hurt if you don’t test your soaps long enough or do enough research on it before selling. Also, don’t expect people to handout everything to you, you learn more by doing things yourself. I made a lot of soap before I got it right. I had a lot of wonderful people on the forums help me with questions, but I had to learn things on my own too. Start out slow, not gung ho. You can go overboard and buy too many things you will end up selling later because you didn’t use it. Then you lose money.

Anne-Marie: What’s your favorite Bramble Berry product?

Kristy: I would say my favorite product is the Lavender Chamomile Huggies Fragrance Oil, which I wish were in smaller batches. I also love the Oatmeal, Milk and Honey and Cherry Almond fragrance oils. They are the best! Omg, and the Chocolate Espresso! I love making tarts with this.

Anne-Marie: Anything we missed? Is there anything else you want Soap Queen reader’s to know about you?

Kristy: I always like to try to make something once. It might take me a while to get it right but once I do, I’m happy. I like to make liquid soap for our personal use and family members. I like to make transparent soap too. I have a tutorial on Miller’s Soap website for transparent soap if anyone wants to try it. It’s very rewarding to make soap you can actually see through. Don’t’ let the alcohol scare you. I also make lotion, lotion bars, and lip balms.

Anne-Marie: Thanks for chatting with us, Kristy!

Lemon Lavender Goat’s Milk Soap

Ocean Waves Goat’s Milk Soap

Anne-Marie: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not soaping?

Soap Wish: Over here at casa Soap Wish, you never know what we’ll be up to on any given day. The permanent residents are me, the man, the boy, and the dog, but everyone is welcome. Humor is a family value in our house, so you can expect a laugh or two if you stop by. Next in line for interests is reading- I love to read. I’ve been known to read and reread the cereal box when that’s the only thing around. I like trying new crafts and I have a storage room full of paraphernalia to prove it. We love to travel and experience different cultures. Indian food is big on the list of interests as well. My son would add that I like to spend money. He’s a bit of a smart alec for an eight year old.

Anne-Marie: What is your favorite thing about running your own business?

Soap Wish: We’re so new that my favorite thing is learning something new about the business everyday. I love the freedom to be creative, the flexibility to work when the spirit hits me, and the chance to work with my husband.

Anne-Marie: What’s the best advice you can give to someone who wants to start their own business?

Soap Wish: Try it. Start small, there are a lot of different ways to get your product out there and most of them don’t cost you much money. Use the absolute best ingredients possible and keep perfecting your product. Provide excellent customer service, there isn’t enough of that around so customers really appreciate good service.

Anne-Marie: Have you ever dabbled in other bath and body products?

Soap Wish: Does when I was 2 years old and plastered the bathroom with powder count? Seriously, I loved to mix things when I was little. I’d take my mom’s old perfume and mix lotion in it and take lotion and add color or perfume to make my own blend. All of it was atrocious, but I really loved it. I see my son doing the same thing now. He wants to be a chemist.

Anne-Marie: What is your favorite Bramble Berry product and why?

Soap Wish: When we were just starting I purchased fragrances from Bramble Berry and a few other suppliers to get a feel for what was available. Hands down, Bramble Berry has the best fragrance oils! Even with the limited knowledge we had we could tell immediately we were dealing with a superior product. The fragrance oils from the other suppliers were more like fragrance water. The fragrances were so watery and the scents had a chemical like smell so we never used them. The boy uses them for practice, and he knows not to touch the Bramble Berry ones! Getting a package of fragrances from Bramble Berry is like Christmas for your nose. One more favorite…..the micas and oxides. I love the variety and I love that they are sold by weight so you get more bang for your buck.

Anne-Marie: Final thoughts? Anything you want our readers to know about you?

Soap Wish: We love to make different things so if you have something in mind send us an email, we’ll try to make it!

Anne-Marie: You rock, Sheila! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. I cant wait to see what you come up with next. This is Anne-Marie and Sheila, signing off!

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!

Sheila and her husband own the up and coming soap company called Soap Wish. They currently sell their soaps on Etsy and you won’t believe your eyes when you see what they make.Sheila was kind enough to send us a soapy goody bag (you shouldn’t have, Sheila, but we’re SO glad you did). The whole office was abuzz with anticipation and we opened the soapy surprise! See her wares for yourself on the Soap Wish Etsy Site and her Soap Wish Blogwhere Sheila shares her thoughts on soap, life, love and laughter.Generous Sheila was kind enough to let us drill her with questions in hopes of finding out everything we could about her new business. Sit back, relax and enjoy the interview…

Anne-Marie: The question we always like to ask – What got you into soapmaking and how long have you been making your fabulous soaps? Soap Wish: First of all, thank you for the compliment!! My husband and son were away for most of the summer last year and I started looking around for something to do. I started with hot process primarily because I have the patience of a gnat. By the time the guys got home I was hooked. My husband is extraordinarily creative and when we discovered melt and pour (which requires even less patience) he got hooked on making all sorts of designs out of soap.Anne-Marie: Is this a full time or part time business for you (or just a fun hobby)?

Soap Wish: We’d like it to grow into a full time business in the future, but for now we’re doing it part-time while we continue to learn the craft.

Anne-Marie: I love your Etsy site! Do you have any other outlets for selling? Farmers Markets, craft shows, etc?

Soap Wish: Thank you again! We’ve done a few small craft shows and we’ve also sold quite a bit through word of mouth. We love to have people come back to us or send their friends, it really makes our day.

Anne-Marie: Your soaps are so creative and detailed. How do you have the time to put so much detail into all of your soaps? What type of things do you outsource?

Soap Wish: I wrote this description of creativity in our house awhile ago and it pretty much sums it up:

Me: “Look at the pretty colors I layered”
The Man: “I finally finished my scale model of the Taj Mahal made out of 4 toothpicks and two pieces of tape”
The Boy: “Do you think it’s okay the dog ate my experiment? You know- the one I had growing in the sink?”

Now, who do you think makes the intricate soap designs? As for outsourcing, I’m pretty much focused on exploiting my husband’s talent at this point.

Anne-Marie: Your chocolate soaps look so realistic (and delicious). How much practice did it take to perfect these tiny pieces of art?

Soap Wish: We tried quite a few different techniques before we hit on one that gave us the look we wanted. The next step was getting it to the point where we could count on the same result each time. Let’s just say there was some waste involved.

Anne-Marie: Your chocolate soap is so convincing that one would think you’ve actually made chocolate before. Where did you get your inspiration for your fabulous chocolate creations?

Soap Wish: There is a really great bakery not far from us that carries fabulous chocolates as well as baked goods. We (okay, I) love stopping in there to look at all the great things they come up with. One day we decided to see what we could do using soap instead of chocolate. We had never made chocolate before, but now that we’ve made chocolate soap we’d really like to try making the real thing one day. Of course, that’s the day I start on the road to weighing 1,000 pounds…not enough willpower.

Yes- these are (in fact) soaps and NOT chocolates; jaw dropping cute!

Want to hear more about Soap Wish? Check back in Monday for another round of Q & A with Sheila.

Click here if you missed the first part of Cocoa Pink’s interview.

Do you have your Vision and Values determined? Would you mind sharing?

CocoaPink is committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity. We are responsible to our customers, employees, to the environments we inhabit, and to the societies we serve. In executing our responsibilities, we do not take professional or ethical shortcuts. Our actions must reflect the high standards we affirm.

You have a great site! I love the graphics on the site. Do you feel like having great graphic design has helped your business?

I love my illustrator. I do all the label design and most of the concept art and my illustrator does all the graphics. We have a great synergy, as she is able to take my vision and realize better than I could have imagined it myself. That’s the true talent of an illustrator, to honor the clients vision and surpass expectation.

I think packaging is very important. I like to pay attention to details. Yes, product quality is the most important element, however people still judge the bottle, label, packaging. I get it with the higher end retailers, as my packaging is not “exclusive” enough to be in the higher end retail shops, even if the product is superior to the “nicely wrapped” ones.

If you only had $1000 to start out your business, what would you spend the money on, knowing what you know now?

1. Insurance.

2. Legal Fees

3. Start Up Supplies

Insurance – I am a stickler for doing things by the book. I’ve learned that to maintain a well run business you need to have a secure foundation. If someone is interested in selling cosmetics to the public, they need to be aware of the liability they are placing themselves in with each sale. There are great affordable insurance options available to the small business owner. I would recommend looking at the Handcrafted Soaper’s Guild as they have a plan with various coverage options that is very reasonable.

Selling to the public without insurance is financial suicide. Just one lawsuit is enough to rack up thousands in legal fees. If you sell it and it hurts someone, you are responsible. So insurance is a must.

Legal Fees – There are companies online that offer affordable legal options for things

like business licenses, corporations, state tax identifications, and any other legal requirements your state may have for running small businesses. Legal Zoom is a good place to begin researching. I would also recommend contacting your local small business association as they can help you state legislatures and laws. You don’t want to invest in a business then get slammed by fines. Make sure you know what is required of you before selling to the public.

Remember, all it takes is one hurt customer, one lawsuit, or one state law that you are unaware of to put you out of business for good. Be responsible and take it seriously. Selling to the public is not like a grade school bake sale. You need to know what you are getting into and make informed decisions.

After you have all the red tape in place, an active insurance policy, and anything else you may need to sell your goodies to the public… your wallet will feel pretty empty. Start with one product – the product you do best – your signature item. If it’s soap, start with that. If it’s fragrance do that. Start small. Get what you need to make a few small batches and focus on that. Depending if you sell online or locally, take photos yourself to save money. Start with Etsy or another low fee way to sell your product. Save money where you can – photos, website (wait on investing in a full blown online shop until you have some profits).

What’s your favorite product to make?

Soap! It’s my zen. I soap alone, in private. It’s intimate. I love it.

What’s your favorite Bramble Berry product?

Right now I’m really diggin’ the Hello Sweet Thang Fragrance oil.

Thank you Ilona for such an informative and information-rich interview!

I “discovered” Cocoa Pink a few years ago (along with a lot of other people!) and promised to blog my review for these products. This review is now over a year late and deserves more attention than just a mere review. Cocoa Pink (aka Ilona Timoszuk) has grown her business to employ 10 people with a retail online shop and has several large wholesale accounts. She did it the old-fashioned way – with her own cash, her own sweat equity and a vision that she convinced other people to help her with (aka friends, family and paid employees).

These are the products I bought from her back in 2007. As you read through her interview today and tomorrow, notice how her style has changed in the last year.

Where did you find financing? How in the world did you grow to 10 people and finance that growth?

The way I finance CocoaPink is influenced by my father, who started his now multi-million dollar company in a similar manner, without any credit or loans.

I do not like credit; I never have. I do believe it is necessary for home buying, student loans, and autos, but I draw the line there and refuse to finance personal indulgences. I apply this philosophy to CocoaPink and I believe shifting awareness away from credit-is-the-only-way helps empower business owners – and it feels great!

I started small. I made a couple items and sold them. Then I reinvested 100% of my profits into growth. For example, I use $100 of my own money to make a few batches of Cold Process soap and maybe some lotion. I sell those and get $150 – I reinvest all $150 in more supplies to make more products. I sell those and now I have $225 and again re-invest, make product, and sell. I did not take any personal income until I I felt the business had grown to a size I felt good about, and we had enough capital that I could afford to give myself a salary.

When you begin seeing large numbers, it’s easy to feel tempted to spend. This is where it is important to remember your vision and what you ultimate goals are. For one person this may be an intimate business with just one or two employees, while someone else’s vision may be much greater. What is important is to budget towards that vision.

A person must to feel passion for their business while respecting its growth & limitations. Don’t borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars because you suddenly decided that you want your hobby to become a multi-million dollar empire. Let the company grow itself. It will take you to the size it wants to be. If it’s meant to get there, it will. However, bigger is not better, especially when your company owes more than its worth.

Do you have a big huge goal that you want to share with us?

If you ask my ego, it will yammer on about grandiose manifestations in Manhattan skyscrapers and first class junkets to Paris. My ego is quite dangerous. (grin)

So ego aside, my real goalswould be to demonstrate my values on a wider scale. There is more than enough resources and money available to us. Greed has no place in a business, and I am sick of watching corporate scandals and people not giving a @#$%& about their staff and customers.

CEOs are modern day kings. Their power, corruption, and greed remind me of yesterday’s monarchies. We may have overthrown these governments, but the same greed and power has reincarnated within our corporations. Employees work like peasants, earning next to nothing, treated like a number, while CEOs …well we all know what they are doing.

My biggest dream – the “huge” one is to work in a position of influence and maintain my strength (or stubbornness or heart or whatever drives me) to make morally responsible choices. Choices that are not about money-money-profit-profit – and come at any expense. I’d love to follow the models of CEOs like Howard Schultz (Starbucks), who was a pioneer in ethical business practices.

I’d love to stare greed in the face and facilitate its disintegration. I’d love to empower the hard working, bring employment back to the USA, and do this while being eco-conscious.

Yes, it’s “huge” – and I do not ever see it becoming a reality. I would be just as happy if more CEO “Kings” were de-throned and corporate greed was replaced by corporate generosity.

What sort of support network do you have around you? Like a Mastermind Group or a close knit family or …

My father. We are very close (he lives 3 miles away). My family immigrated from Poland when I was 3 years old and we had nothing. Just one suitcase and a teeny apartment in a very shoddy part of Boston. My father worked as a MIT professor for over 20 years. Now seeing how far he has come (working 80 hour weeks to get there) and to witness him run a company that employs over 60 people with such honor, concern and emotional connection to each employee – it’s my inspiration. He’s my moral compass as he has often sacrificed his own salary during

rough times to make sure his staff was taken care of.

Can you imagine? A CEO giving up their own income to prevent layoffs? That’s a man worth admiring.

I also have two amazing kids and a wonderful husband who remind me that there is more to life than work.

Check back Saturday for more of Ilona’s inspiring story!