Wholesale customers

Hi everyone,

About four months before my mom decided to close Soapier, she closed our wholesale division, First In Line Soap.

I just re-opened it, and we're looking for customers.

If you know someone who might like to sell our soaps in their store, let them know about us! If your suggestion results in a wholesale purchase (we have a $150 minimum purchase, which is 5 loafs), we'll give you a $30 gift certificate to Soapier!

Wholesale customers must have a tax ID#.

With each loaf, customers get wrapping paper for the soap, colorful labels (you all know the labels), and signs, just like this. And, if they sign up for our newsletter, they'll receive a 10% off coupon, for being a new customer.

Thanks!

J

Doing good for others

After receiving tons of support from Redditors last year, it seemed fairly obvious to all of us that we had to pay whatever we could forward to others.

I'm not going to list the things we did this past year because, the fact is, it would just be self serving, and that's not what I want to be about.

What I do want to let everyone know is that every once in a while, there's going to be something awesome that we find out about... that the Reddit community, or the community at large, rallies behind.

Just yesterday, there was a sickening story about a 7-year old girl and her family who was being harassed by her neighbors. The thing is, the 7-year old is dying. It's pretty disgusting, and it's garnered some national interest.

But the really cool thing is that a Redditor decided to rally the troops and get his fellow Redditors to chip in and show her that there are good people in the world.

Someone else took it a step further. He owns a toy store near the girl and her family, put up a donation page, and raised over $4,000 (much of it from Redditors), to get toys for her and for other sick children.

Unreal, isn't it?

We're going to see what we can do, not only for this brave girl, but for Mott's Children's Hospital, in Michigan. I'll have to run it past Linda (mom), but I think we'll contact the hospital and see if we can send the kids there a bar of one of our Works of Art Soaps. They might not want the kids to use regular soap... I'll have to find out and update this blog, but it's something I'd like to do.

This whole situation is one of the reasons I love Reddit. Not only does it bring to light news from all over the world, but it also shows how strong the human spirit is. I'm proud to be a part of the community.

J

Edit: due to the time constraints of this young girl's situation, we donated money, instead. If you feel you'd like to donate, you can do so here.

Poker

I'm a big fan of poker. My gf and I watch the World Series of Poker religiously.

I like to go down to Atlantic City with my friends and play table games and poker. Whenever we can, we go to Vegas.

Lately, our trips have been few and far between. I haven't been working, and when you're not working, trips like that are just too expensive, and just... what's the word. Frivolous. That's a good word.

When I moved down to Florida in 2008 to help my mom and sister with the company, my mom asked my sister and I to write down a bunch of things we wanted, when the company became successful.

My mom's very big on positive thinking.

So, one of the things I wrote down was that I wanted to get into the main event at the WSOP. It's a $10,000 ticket, and, at the time, I felt that THAT would be the ultimate cool thing to do when the company went nuts.

See, we had a retail store, we had wholesale customers, and we had just hired a PR firm to help us get out into the world. We sent out press releases, received a HUGE amount of requests for samples, and we really thought we were going to have a serious amount of magazines, television shows, newspapers, and more promoting our awesome products.

At the time, $10,000 seemed like chump change. Sure, hey, I'll get to the WSOP. Maybe I'll even do well. Sure.

Hell, one of the other things I wanted was an original Jeffrey Jones painting. Something like Age of Innocence. One of the most phenomenal paintings out there, in my opinion. I'm a huge Jeffrey Jones (the painter, not the pedophile) fan.

A bit more than 2 years later, my list has changed completely.

I would never consider paying $10,000 for a seat at a poker tournament. I respect people who can do that. After being out of work for so long, I have to save whatever money I make, and, believe me, I won't be making much of anything for a while.

Soapier needs help. Marketing help, actual physical help. We need to hire someone, to help us with soap making, wrapping, shipping. All very important to the survival of my mom's mental health, and our business.

Let's see. What's on my list.

Well, I'd like to be able to help pay rent and bills.

I'd like to be able to buy Christmas presents this year, though I know how much a handmade gift can be appreciated.

I'd like to be able to get my mom a vacation. She hasn't been on a proper one in many years.

I'd like to get my sister a new (used) car.

I'd like to save enough money so that the company won't ever be on its last legs.

I'd like to have enough money so that we can continue to donate to great causes that Reddit finds.

I would Soapier to be a shining light in the world. We're not interested in making millions. We're interested in having a stable company, with stable employees that get the rewards they deserve.

I had this fantastic idea for franchising Soapier stores. I hope to be able to promote these franchises next year. I think it will revolutionize how businesses franchise. I really do... and what it will achieve will be huge for people who want to start their own businesses, but don't want to pay $50,000 before they even open a store. There's a better way.

The WSOP will always be around. Maybe one day when I'm making a salary, and have a significant amount of savings, and won't stress out about spending the money... then I'll be able to do it.

Until then, it's a nice dream... but there are quite a few nicer, more practical ones that hold priority, and I'm fine with that.

Thanks for reading. I head down to Florida for my initial trip on Wednesday. We'll see how it goes.

J

Update, new products, and more!

Hi all.

Today, we have some fantastic products for this holiday season, including a Soap of the Month Club! We can send this to friends and family... people you think are stinky. Whoever you want. We have 3 different subscription options. Each month you or your enemy... sigh, or your family member or friend or someone else... they'll receive a brand new soap in a brand new, exclusive fragrance.

These are very limited, so get them while you can! As we get orders, I'll be updating the site to let customers know how many we have left.

We have holiday soaps, holiday gift baskets, stuff for kids... and all of our other great products.

Most, if not all of this stuff are pre-orders. The Soap of the Month Club members will receive their first order just in time for Christmas!

Gift baskets and gift soaps will not start shipping until the first week of November.

And yes, yes, yes, we have our infamous Santa's Nog soap.

One other thing. To try and market us better, I have added Facebook Like buttons to all of our pages. If you see something you like, Like us on Facebook!

You can also become a fan of Soapier on FB.

Thanks everyone. Two more things.

First, if you or anyone you know is looking for work this holiday season, and who lives in the Tampa area, Soapier is looking to hire someone! Email me at john@soapier.com and we'll see what we can do. It's just one person we're hiring, and we need a really good person, who is creative, hard working, and doesn't need to text 24/7. This job could possibly become full time (we hope it will) if our holiday sales are good enough to sustain them through the new year.

Two. We're looking to move into a new facility. This, too, is dependent on holiday sales. The next two months will be crazy for us, but I believe it's imperative that we find a new space, so that we can get all of our orders out in a timely fashion.

Oh, and one more thing. Normally, we charge orders when we ship. It's taking too much time for us to do this, so we're going to start processing cc fees straight from the gateway (cart). For those of you who need to wait a couple of days, or have some special need, just contact us. We'll work with you!

All the best,

John

The Rollercoaster

Hello all. Thanks for stopping by and reading what will surely be a strange, yet provocative piece of non-fiction. Nothing to tell the grandkids, you know, but still...

At the end of August, my mom decided to call it quits with Soapier. She just couldn't do it alone any more. My sister had taken a full time job because the soap business wasn't able to support both my mom and her.

So, basically, my mom was overworked.

She said "I'm done. Done. DONE. I can't do it any more." This was on the phone, you know.

So, she said tell them we're closing. Tell them we're closing, but if they want to buy us, they can. If not, I'm going to, I don't know, be a greeter at Wal-Mart or something. But don't tell them that.

Sigh, ok mom.

Now, listen. I love everything that we've done over the past however many years. I love it. I love, more specifically, the amount of help, support, and love we've received from Reddit. I don't know how many retail companies can say the have received as much as we have. It was truly unbelievable.

I know I say it often enough, but I don't think people grasp the full scope of what happened.

I post a thread on Reddit and receive quite the sendoff.

But from that moment on, I was kind of obsessed with keeping the business.

We received over 40 interested parties who wanted to obtain Soapier. We sent out emails with an asking price, and by the end of the month, we had two potential buyers, and one party interested in investing with us.

In the end, none of it was a good fit. I was both relieved and a bit disappointed. My sister and my mom (not to mention myself) could have used the money from the sale. But I had other plans.

I haven't been working steady since February of this year. Nothing's really been working for me. I've been a graphic designer for 13 years, and I'm, unfortunately, in that position where people won't hire me for entry positions because they think I'll rabbit if something better comes along. I'm also in the position to know the value of my experience, and when a company is looking for me (or someone like me) to do the work of 3 people for a ridiculously low salary.

Ok, ok. I applied to those jobs, too. Beggars can't be choosers.

But nothing was happening. I even applied for dog walking positions. One place told me they received over 400 resumes for the position. That was when I knew that not only were things tough, but that my not finding work was not my fault.

So, I thought. And thought. Thought some more. And I decided that I would go down to Florida and take over the business.

Posted it on Reddit, got in touch with our customers who purchased during September, to give them the opportunity to return their product, just in case they felt that they were buying under false pretenses...

And now we're at present day.

Oh, check this out. Stephen Colbert mentioned Soapier in a letter he sent to Reddit. That day was pretty much THE day that I decided I wasn't giving up. It's not every day that someone like him mentions someone like us. I was floored. I mean, seriously floored. I read that letter five times. I couldn't believe it.

So, I'll be heading down to Florida, then heading to Washington, hiring a part-time person to help us get through the holidays, and trying to find a warehouse space in Florida that we can use, so that I can get the business out of my mom's apartment.

I also have a couple of great ideas for the holidays that we're sure are going to be fantastic gift ideas this year.

We're very excited.

Thanks for reading. One of the things I'll be doing is updating this blog more and more, as the days of my being at Soapier continue. Should be a lot of fun, and I'm very excited (and nervous) to get started. Wish me luck.

John

Martha Stewart Would Love These Soaps!!

Lemon Pound Cake Soapanimals!!!

Well, we think she'd love them.

She loves animals right? Got all those cute dogs and new pet products, check she likes animals.

She loves food right? Has her own recipe magazine, plus she started with a catering business way back when, check she likes food.

So we combined two of Martha's loves and made our very cute soapanimals (that's a new word that we're hoping will catch on).

First lets talk about the scent. A rich buttery lemon pound cake fragrance that has you going back for more. I'm a food fragrance lover, actually I love all the fragrances but I think the food ones are the best. They are the most fun and they always bring a smile to my face. It's a bit uplifting to smell a really good food scent and my gosh lemon pound cake is one of them.

Now we would be remiss if we didn't discuss all these cute face animals. This set of nine different soapanimals includes the cat, giraffe, hippo, lion, cow, elephant, dog, chick and bunny. There isn't a sad one in the bunch, I think they all look pretty happy, but maybe it's the lemon pound cake fragrance that has them so content.

Mix a bit of lemon pound cake scent with a bunch of animals and I'm sure we could have Martha Stewart singing, ahhhhhh, a bit off key but singing.

I have to tell you that making these soaps is so much fun and I think using them would be just as enjoyable.

Each glycerin soap bar weighs in at 2 ozs each and you receive one of each of the following; Sorry folks only one set is available and it's only on Etsy. Click HERE to find them

Cool As A Cucumber

August, the dog days of summer! It's hot, it's humid, we all want relief!

I live in Florida and the beach is pretty close but my days are so hectic that I rarely get to go. What's a gal to do? Showers, lots of showers! I love a good shower, it cools me off, makes me feel human again and it helps to relieve that hot humid fatigue that sort of comes with the dog days of summer.


Wanting relief from the heat got me to thinking about a cool smelling soap for these humid days. Cucumber Mint or as I call it Cool As A Cucumber was the answer (pictured above) . It's cucumber cool and minty fresh with just a touch of sophistication. Pretty... cool! So fire up those showers, get cooled off and then you'll be human again to do those things you need to do.

Because I love this soap so much all orders from August 6th till the end of the month will get a guest size bar free (2 ozs) in each order. (shown here) You can order the best soaps on the net HERE

Remember keep it cool!!

Linda