A couple of years ago, I started making my own soap.
I only use organic or natural ingredients and all of my soap recipes.
I started selling bars of soap online on Facebook Marketplace and etsy. Several customers wanted to know if I had a store. At that time I started thinking about my options. I looked for a space close by Springfield, Missouri, where I live. Most of the shop spaces were too expensive for me, but I did find a very small space close to downtown and in a great area where there is a lot of foot traffic. The space needed to be cleaned up. There were a lot of repairs that needed to be made, but I was ready to tackle the job. The soap store opened a couple of months ago and so far has been a huge success. One of the biggest reasons why we do so well is due to the free foot traffic and advertising. We consistently have people walking by the store. Sometimes we give out free samples and that gets people in the building too. The store is especially busy when it is really hot outside, because we have climate control and air conditioning. We make sure that the inside of the store is always a comfortable 68°. If it was too warm inside of the store, the soap would begin to melt. Our state of the art heating and AC unit was installed by a company in Springfield that gave me a good deal. My husband traded plumbing services with the company and the HVAC business agreed to a lower installation fee.