FIRE!! and a contest

There's nothing like shelling out a buncha money to put a fire under your butt to sell and recoup those losses.

When I got home yesterday after paying my business taxes, I finally got around to starting up a batch of soap. My first in too many months.

While I was waiting for it to heat, I thought about where I want this business to go. I have always said that I want to own my own business, and that was a very easy goal to achieve. What I forgot to specify is that I want it to be a PROFITABLE business. I want to be able to do it full time. I want to become a much larger part of the handmade soap community and provide nationwide customers with a product I can be proud of. I would like to be able to say that my product has a lower impact on the environment than traditional detergent soaps. I would like to say that it has a lower impact on your BODY than traditional detergent soaps. (that's automatic). I want to be shipping out many boxes every day. I want to be supplying on a wholesale basis.

I want to personally connect with my customers.

I want to rename all my soaps!! Except Butt and Mae Flowers.

SO! I am holding a contest!

Contest will run for 3 weeks. (the time it takes for the current batch to cure.) Prize will be your chosen name on my soap AND a free bar of it when it is cured. I will choose the winner and notify you by email. I will choose according to the following criteria:

It describes the soap.
It makes me smile.
It makes my hair stand on end.

Remember that soaping is something I love to do so naming always comes from my heart. Choosing cannot be more scientific than that.

About the soap you are naming:

This is only the second time I have made this soap, it is Castille Soap as it was meant to be made; with pure olive oil. Scentless, no additives, just soap. This is wonderful for people who have sensitive skin, or who cannot handle heavy purfumes and scents. I originally made this one for my mom when I first started Bubbly Creations because she is allergic to coconut and I wanted her to be able to use my soap. Since trying a sample I happened to have left over, my Derby Wife has been asking every couple of months for me to make some more. Then a lady I do business with asked for some as she cannot use products with a lot of chemicals. I like it too.

Since it was warm out, I set the oil out in the sun to heat and let the lye cool to temperature instead of heating it up after cooling it overnight like I usually do. So, the only energy used to manufacture this batch was the electricity it took to run my stick blender for 3 minutes. Awesome.

Leave your suggestions in Comments!!

Edit:
OOH! This just in from my brain!!! A Bubbly Creations Sticker to every entrant! I promise to send the ones where the puppy only chewed the corners!

OH! that's what I am missing!

I am so fortunate to have found, long ago, Donna Maria and her Indie Beauty Network. I am exceptionally disappointed in myself that I have not partaken in her wisdom more over the years.

She posted this morning this: http://www.indiebusinessblog.com/2009/08/23/are-you-planning-or-playing-your-small-business/

And reminded me that I have lost sight of the big picture because I have been focusing on the little goals.

when I was a sales consultant with a large, multinational cosmetics company, there were many tools that my director gave me in order to help me succeed. I had to fax these to her every week. Now I am the head of my own company (damn right I am!!) and I am finding that some of these tools would be very helpful to me.

One was a daily planner showing every hour of every day that allowed me to mark the time I spent on each of my activities thorughout the day. This showed me how much time each week I could spend building my business. While I didn't, for them, I am far more motivated to buld MY business of which I am the head honcho (damn right I am!!) I was able to see that I spent about an hour each day reading the newspaper. I was able to force myself to set aside time for my boyfriend. My life is different now, I will be setting time for my dog instead of a boyfriend and for Roller Derby instead of the newspaper, but I will also show myself just how much time I have to dedicate to Bubbly Creations.

Another tool was a poster board of goals. If I wanted the car, I needed to paste a picture of it on the board. I don't really think that will work in this situation, but maybe I can somehow illustrate where I want to go. Get focused on the big picture of what I want from my business instead of focusing on the little goals. The little goals will get me where I want to go, but aren't I going in circles if I don't have a destination?

The scary thing is, I don't know what my big picture looks like! I had better figure it out though!