It’s been a fun-filled year at Cibaria Soap Supply. Can you believe that it’s half way over already? We are celebrating the 1 year launch of our newly designed Soap Supply site, as of last month!

Happy Birthday to Cibaria Soap Supply!

As a special gift to celebrate not only our first year as a spiffy e-commerce operation, but also the Handcrafted Soap Maker’s Guild Conference, we decided to give away a very special gift to our friends and customers at HSMG. If you were there, you may remember even signing up for this incredible gift at the Cibaria Soap Supply booth at HSMG.

We wanted our giveaway to be something that not only was free, but something that empowered our Soap Maker clientele with the knowledge that they needed to get some amazing things done in 2010. We wanted this gift to arm YOU, The Soap Maker, with the ability to launch a POWERFUL Internet marketing campaign on a budget.

The gift is an amazing eBook called:

“The Soap Maker’s Guide to Building a Strong Brand and a Rock Solid Internet Marketing Plan”.

This knowledge-packed informational book was written by an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant and site designer, who happens to work with us. She has over 11 years of experience in all aspects of internet marketing, design, branding, and the newly minted social media marketing tactics that produce amazing results.

This eBook stresses the importance of a brand, and the power of building a community around that brand and it’s cause.

We’ve gotten great feedback so far, but we’d love to YOUR thoughts!

If you received this eBook, we want to know what you thought about it, and if you have implemented any of the concepts from it. If so, how did they work?

Do you have any questions?

We want to hear from you!

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• We’re Going to HSMG 2010!
• Christmas Holiday Soap Making Showcase
• A Basic Soap Making Recipe
• How to Use Contests to Market Your Soap Making Business

We have been getting asked by many people if we’d be attending the 2010 HSMG show. Well, we are! I’m very happy to announce that we’ll be there walking the floor – ready to mix, mingle, and catch up with some of our favorite soap making customers and friends!

Are you going to HSMG?? Let us know, and we’ll keep a lookout for you! We love meeting our online friends and customers!

A New Blog Layout

The Soap Box has a new layout! We’ve made the blog a bit more streamlined and easier to read though. It’s also easier to share our helpful content with your friends on your preferred social networks. We’ll be adding and modifying as the weeks progress, but we’re happy with the kind very words we’ve received so far!

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• The 2010 Soap Maker’s Marketing Guide
• Christmas Holiday Soap Making Showcase
• Amazing Summer Soap Making Ideas!
• Soap Making Soap Supply Essentials

With so much going on, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or even feel discouraged at the thought of sky high unemployment rates and a still sub-par economy.

We’ve developed some awesome tips to help our Soap Maker friends survive the Holidays in one piece! Without further ado, here they are!

- Get Organized:  If you’re not naturally an organized person, try to resolve to get organized before the New year arrives. Organize everything. Ingredients, recipes, Fragrances, packaging, labels… all of it! If you’re currently organized, take a good look at your ‘system’. Is it working for you? Can it be improved? Utilize online note-taking and organization tools such as Evernote, Google Calendar, and your Outlook Calendar.

-Take Notes: Are you getting various requests for certain soaps at Fairs or trade shows? Are friends or friends of friends asking about certain types of soaps and scents? Take notes, and keep track of what you’re being asked for and what’s selling for your retailers or customers! Keeping mental notes easily makes way for details to slip through the cracks. There’s something about seeing raw numbers in front of you that helps you decide what to make, what will sell, and where to allocate your ingredient budget. Think numbers and pie charts.

- Watch Your Competition: Some of your competitors may be pros at preparing for the Holidays. Keep an eye on what they’re doing! Do they change their packaging for the Holidays? Do they modify their website? Do they send out special newsletters or conduct contests? If they’ve been in the game a long time, chances are they know exactly what will work and what will waste effort. Be sure to document your findings in a special place like a dedicated notebook, excel file, or PDA note-taking app.
- Preparation is Key: Try to plan out your stock a few months in advance, and get all of your regular holiday soap making done as early a you can. On-the-fly orders are sure to come, and you won’t want to have to turn down additional business because you weren’t prepared. Take notes of what you’ve done this year, and see how it all works out. When the next holiday season rolls around, you’ll be able to take a look back, and fine-tune your Holiday practices.

- Learn Where Your time Is Going: Have you ever gone through a day and noticed that you didn’t get done nearly as much as you wanted to? We’ve all wished we could learn to better manage our time. Learning to prioritize is somewhat of an art form that everyone struggles with. We highly recommend reading “Getting Things Done” By David Allen. This book is an amazing guide to help you get things done in an organized, and pain-free fashion!

What kind of strategies have YOU and your business implemented to prepare for the Holidays?

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Gorgeous Summer Soap Making to Inspire!
• The 2010 Soap Maker’s Marketing Guide
• A Basic Soap Making Recipe
• We’re Going to HSMG 2010!