Soap Makers Help!

[chiknwhisperer]

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Congrats on the sales!

That's a great first day and I know that your sales will grow as you develop return clients and their friends. Soaps make fabulous gifts and I'm certain that some of those recipients will become repeat customers as well. Do you go again next week?

I have 18 more weeks to go

The last one is the 2nd Saturday of October. The FM is closed on July 4 and Sept. 19. All my samples ran out and a stack of business cards. Although most of my sales came from my friend lol. Her mom wanted a bunch of them and then she got some for herself to. My niece was trying to help me sell. She shouted out to everyone who came within earshot asking if they wanted to buy soap

She would bag it to and then put the receipt in and hand them their bag lol

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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That's cute! How old is she?

 

[chiknwhisperer]

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That's cute! How old is she?

Oh my, I just had to think about that one

4? I'm prety sure she is 4. Her mom and I aren't real sisters. We are both only children but we are so close its more like sisters from another mother kind of thing. So as far as Kimber is concerned I'm Auntie Corrie lol She is such a cutie.

 

[Morgaine]

Congrats on the market! I bet all the people who tried a sample are going to come back and buy next week! I'm glad that you were able to have someone there with you, it helps to have company. Your friends dd sounds so cute!

First Friday went well, though not as well as I first hoped. There is now another soaper in the market, and even though we were the first vendors to arrive, we were parked all the way at the very end and she was in the front were all the traffic came in. We picked up toward the end because people who were leaving came through our end, but a lot of people were like "Oh, another soap lady? Y'all have a lot soap vendors" We took home $250, which is good, but I think if we had a better spot we would have moved a lot more soap. Any way, she was there Saturday as well and was not happy to see us there too. The first time I waved and said hello she just tuned around and didn't say anything. There was only one vendor seperating us. Oh well, I'm not going anywhere. I was told she only does this market in the summer, so I'm going to wait her out and hope that because her sells are down she decides it's not worth it. I'm also going to revamp my table to make it look better too, and maybe do some HP soaps in more sample sizes.

Oh, I also have a little funny. I have this one customer who just loves the buttermilk & grits bars. I had some set aside for her friday. She comes up and says there's another soaper and when she went up to her she was like, "You're not my soap lady!" LOL, I'm some bodies soap lady! That really made me feel good.

I also lost one of our chicks Saturday night. We think something must have gotten him, but I'm not sure how. So I put a big pile of cat food out and sat with the back door opened and waited. I shot 1 possum and 1 raccon, though a second raccon got away because I either missed or didn't get a very good shot and only grazed it. This was the first time I've ever shot anything but cans. I feel bad about it, but I will protect my chickens. Hubby seemed impressed though. He didn't think I had it in me to kill them, but I love my chickies too much. The worst thing was I had to shoot the raccon twice to put him out of his misery, he was able to run about 10 yards before he dropped. That was hard because he was looking at me. But it had to be done. Hubby burried them for me.


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NP and hubby are still working on their house according to FB.
The FM didn't go to bad. I made a $108.35. The season fee was a $150 so I'm close to that amount. Hopefully I will do better next week. I think since it was the first day not as many people showed up because they didn't know it had started. My DH had to work over so he wasn't able to come with me. My SIL came and helped me and my best friend of like 11 years came out with her daughter. It went pretty good. I forgot my caera and had to use my SIL's phone but I have to wait for her DH to take off the pics because she doesn't know how.

 

[BirdBrain]

Morgaine I guess you are going to have to change your title now and call yourself "the soap lady".

ETA: or you could be "sure shot".

Glad you got your preditors.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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LOL. What she said.

Congrats on the sales and your success at the market. You have a fabulous product, so I wouldn't worry so much about the competition. Did you happen to notice what she was charging and how her soaps compared with yours? Perhaps you should send over a "spy" to purchase one of her bars so you can try it out.

Knowing what she'd doing can help you play up the strengths of your own soaps to your customers.

 

[NanaKat]

BB, You go girl....I love sneaky!

Morgaine, Racoons and possums love chickens as much as skunks. Glad your first defense wasn't against little stinky.
Congrats on FM

 

[TM Chickens]

Is another soap swap in the planing? I missed the first one.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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It's not sneaky.

It's called sizing up the competition.

I learned a few sales tricks here and there working at fundraising booths over the years. There are lots of ways to play up your product without overtly putting down your competition. By knowing their product, you know just what to play up in your own product. For example, let's say that their product has fewer luxury oils than your soap. When folks come to your table, you "educate" them on the value of quality ingredients. You don't have to say, "Hey, that lady over there only uses . . . ." but you point out that your product has 7 luxury oils (or whatever you have). If they then go over to her table and see she has only whatever she has, they'll think to themselves that your product is better. Likewise, if your product lathers better, mention that your product has wonderful lathering qualities. If your product is creamier, play up the creamy quality of your soap. The same thing would go for moisturizing, superfatting, etc.

The ONLY way to do this is to use their product, not for a day or two, but for several days or a week. In my experience, you can't really tell the qualities in a soap without using it for AT LEAST 4 days, if not more.

Plus, by sending over a spy, you can have your spy report back as to what SHE is saying about HER soaps and how she's playing them up.

Just make sure that your spy takes their bag, goes home, and reports to you later.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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There hasn't been a discussion with any details toward that end, but I'm sure that there will be one. I'm STILL working my way through all the soaps from the last swap. I still haven't used them all.