I was tracking prices loosely on a spreadsheet and realized that over 3 years I hadn't raised my prices yet oils and butters have doubled 😢 I signed up to Inventora to help track prices better and its great at breaking down costs per bar including labour - something I've not done before. I've also started making production schedules and that was based on another video you've done for us Muddy Mint 😊 thank you - I suddenly feel quite a bit more in control just by taking care and investing time into my inventory management and production.
I love this comment!! Yes, it’s all about feeling in control of your business and having confidence in what you do. Well said! When you’re operating with real information and a plan, you can trust that your business is making money and you just have to do the work. Thanks!
I love your videos, it's no surprise that you have such a successful business. You are so smart and such a great communicator and you seem so sincere about your passion for the business and people. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Im so glad that not all the soap making businesses have the regulations we have in the uk. Once you've submitted and paid for a recipe to be passed then thats how it has to be made with them exact ingredients. It makes sense to me that if your recipe works and there's not that much of a difference like you've explained then don't change it. Surely the cost of ingredients will be stable before long. Love your videos and thanks for sharing.
Ah, yes, that's a good point. Having to change your recipe is far more difficult in the UK, so it may not even seem like a good option. Thanks for watching! :)
I just discovered your channel thanks to someone in a soap group. You have grounded me again. Today, I focus on how much my bars really cost. I use lard as my main base but always envy the olive oil based soaps that most of you use. Takes so much less time to melt. I’m going to marathon Muddy Mint’s videos on this beautiful rainy Sunday.
Thank you for being a voice of reason and calm. I know it can be hard but I’ve seen soapers dropping like flys because their bars went up .05 cents and I’ve been wondering if I just live in a bubble. Thank you for communicating so clearly! Always good stuff ❤️
Thank you! Yes, a lot of soapmakers seemed to have shut down their businesses, unfortunately. I’m sure it’s due to more than just cost (I’m guessing sales is a big factor), but it is a shame!
Simi. You make an excellent point based on fact not fear. The cost per bar is minimal if you compare that to changing all other aspects in selling soap. I see the same here in Australia and I don’t sell just yet still in process of getting legal things checked off. I went ahead and ordered a larger qty of olive oil from a grower interstate and it worked out a wee bit better than buying 2-3 litres in supermarket. We don’t have Costco or Aldi so both ours have same price bracket. Thanks again for an excellent video
That’s awesome! As long as you know you’ll use it, it’s almost always better to buy in bulk. Plus, how wonderful that you can support a local grower at the same time.
Very good video. I just did my per bar cost analysis recently. I shop around for the very best price on ingredients while maintaining quality. I currently have the time to dedicate to that and don't plan to become a high-volume soap company. However, I still needed to know my costs, so I'm not selling myself short.
That’s a great idea. In the past, I’ve found that the cheapest price was usually from the same places, so I stopped shopping around, but I might be missing out! We were buying custom drums for many years, so I’ve only gotten back to buying in smaller quantities recently.
Thank you for your realistic view! I had to change from cocoa to Kokum butter because it is not available no matter the price. And my soap batter is acting differently.
Hi there! It just means that it is not a cleansing oil once saponified, but you're right that it still "cleans"! :) The calculator basically identifies which oils are effective at stripping dirt, impurities, and oil from your skin, based on the fatty acid profile. Oils that are high in saturated fatty acids are higher in the "cleansing" property, which usually means that those oils also make your skin feel tight and/or dry. This is why coconut oil (at 0% superfat) is often used as laundry soap. So, high cleansing is not necessarily better!
Thank you for this informative video! In my small town, no matter what I put in my bar my market won’t bear a $10 bar. I sell my bars that are made with premium ingredients, they weigh 4.5 ounces for $7 ea. I’m thinking of going to $8.00 next year.
Yes, totally get that. In this case, you may want to make changes to your recipe, if needed. Or, if you try selling online, it'll open up a whole new world of sales! :)
I haven't had to buy cocoa butter for awhile so I've just had a huge shock when I went to check the prices. The biggest problem though is that my suppliers are currently out of stock, so it seems the cost is going to be irrelevant if I can't buy it.
Same here! I just heard about it from a lot of soapmakers. Having things out of stock is definitely frustrating. It’s good to find a few backup suppliers or buy in larger quantities, if possible.
Thank you so much for your informative and helpful videos. I appreciate all your efforts and attention to detail. I've attempted to download the spreadsheet; I clicked on the link, and it directed me to make a purchase. I received a confirmation email but couldn't download the spreadsheet. Please let me know if the spreadsheet is still available to be downloaded. thanks!🥰
Hi there! The download should have been emailed to you immediately after the confirmation. If you didn't get it, make sure to check your spam folder. Otherwise, please email me at muddymintsoap at gmail dot com and I can resend it to you. Sometimes hotmail accounts seem to not be delivering the email the first time. Thanks!
Hello Simi , Thank you SOOOOOOOOO mutch for this program , very helpful to decide what to do , also do you think a line could included fragrance or essential oil because is a big part of the Bar cost . Still thank you
Hi there! I'm happy you found the download valuable! We will be releasing a very detailed cost calculator in the future (most likely it won't be free, but we'll do a video on it), so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you should easily be able to add a few line items for your fragrance/essential oil (and any other ingredients that you use in your soap) to the spreadsheet I provided. Thanks!
I think the increase effects smaller soap makers who aren't able to purchase drums or 55lb boxes yet. I personally used high oleic safflower oil in a small % to just bring the cost down a bit. I do like the way you laid this out.
Absolutely! That’s why I encourage you to see how it affects your specific per bar pricing. Most soapmakers purchase oils in either jugs or cubitainers and probably get their shea and cocoa in 10 lb quantities. That’s what is nice about the spreadsheet. You can put in all your specific details based on where you live and what you buy and see the exact impact. Are you able to see, for example, how much using HO sunflower is reducing your price per bar? I think a lot of smaller businesses make changes because of the up front shock factor of price changes in ingredients without ever calculating what it all means at a per bar cost. Hopefully this video helps with that! Thanks for the comment and for watching! ❤️
@muddymintsoap wonderful points! I use a calculator, but most people don't. It's a wonderful investment 🤗 We are blessed that you have provided a free one.
I make my soaps with 90-100% organic ingredients and it cost me on average about $2.50-$3.30 per bar of soap. I started tracking my prices on a spreadsheet like yours a year ago and it has made such a difference knowing my numbers. Once I started doing that I found room to actually lower my prices on some of my products. I currently sell my soaps between $12-$9 each. With most bars selling for $10 each. My $12 bars of soaps I don’t sell wholesale because of the more complex & expensive essential oil blends that I create, which my customers love, but I would have to charge much higher for those soaps if I sold them wholesale and my current market may not be able to handle that. I also have a monthly soap subscription option that’s heavily discounted at $35 per month for 4 bars soap. That box will include mostly the $9 & $10 soaps.
Love it! Sounds like you've got it figured out. I'm assuming the $2.50 to $3.30 includes labor? Knowing your numbers does make a huge difference. It helps figure out (like you did) which products work for wholesale and which don't. Nicely done!
@@silkemueller1391Wow! That seems crazy. Are you sure you’re calculating that correctly? Maybe if you’re making super small batches and using very expensive essential oils?.. I’d love to see your numbers! I once helped someone calculate their cost per bar and it ended up being way less than they thought.
Awesome! Yes, I have a spreadsheet in grams and kg if that helps. I didn’t mess with liters, which seems like how a lot of liquids are sold, but hopefully the spreadsheet is still helpful!
Great video, thanks. I dont know what I'm gonna do about my products that have cocoa butter in them, not just soap. I know I don't want to change my recipe but the cost is just too much right now, im hoping it'll go back down.
Hi there! You can figure out how much all your products have increased in cost, such as lip balm, body butter, etc. I bet it would be easy to increase your pricing to accommodate the difference. 😊
What do you think would be my best recipe or two to start most inexpensively to make money to be able to afford more premium batches and to be able to buy in bulk.
Hi there! As I mention in the video, the cost of the bars (even with high quality ingredients) is only $1, which I think is quite reasonable. If you'd like to reduce the cost, you could try using pomace olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, canola oil, safflower oil, and/or sunflower oil. If you skip using butters, it will be cheaper and if you use palm oil (make sure to use sustainable palm!), then it will lower your cost and still add hardness. I'd experiment and see what you come up with. I think that using a lower cost oil (like rice bran) combined with something like shea butter can help create a nice bar that doesn't cost too much. I hope this helps!
Thank you for touching every aspect of soap business owner's current "nightmare". I remember buying a 10lb box cocoa butter for $55 in march, now it's over $145. Almost three times more. I have been partially substituting Olive oil for H.O Sunflower oil. What is your opinions on it? Thank you again ❤
Have you checked the price difference to see if it’s worth it? I’m personally not a huge fan of sunflower oil, as I make palm free soap and find sunflower oil to make my soaps softer than I’d like. If it’s under 10%, it’s probably okay.
Hi there! You can enter the cost per oil from wherever you recently acquired the oil from. Hopefully that answers your question. Next time if you get your oil from elsewhere, you can update the sheet.
@@muddymintsoap yes that helps - thanks - BTW the video was very helpful will down load the file, getting all my ducks in a row to build my inventory enough to begin selling, your videos are very helpful.
I was tracking prices loosely on a spreadsheet and realized that over 3 years I hadn't raised my prices yet oils and butters have doubled 😢 I signed up to Inventora to help track prices better and its great at breaking down costs per bar including labour - something I've not done before. I've also started making production schedules and that was based on another video you've done for us Muddy Mint 😊 thank you - I suddenly feel quite a bit more in control just by taking care and investing time into my inventory management and production.
I love this comment!! Yes, it’s all about feeling in control of your business and having confidence in what you do. Well said! When you’re operating with real information and a plan, you can trust that your business is making money and you just have to do the work. Thanks!
I love that spreadsheet. That's awesome!! Thankyou
I love your videos, it's no surprise that you have such a successful business. You are so smart and such a great communicator and you seem so sincere about your passion for the business and people. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Wow! Thank you! That is quite the compliment and I really appreciate it. ❤️ I’m happy you’re finding our videos helpful and thanks for watching! :)
Im so glad that not all the soap making businesses have the regulations we have in the uk. Once you've submitted and paid for a recipe to be passed then thats how it has to be made with them exact ingredients. It makes sense to me that if your recipe works and there's not that much of a difference like you've explained then don't change it. Surely the cost of ingredients will be stable before long. Love your videos and thanks for sharing.
Ah, yes, that's a good point. Having to change your recipe is far more difficult in the UK, so it may not even seem like a good option. Thanks for watching! :)
I just discovered your channel thanks to someone in a soap group. You have grounded me again. Today, I focus on how much my bars really cost. I use lard as my main base but always envy the olive oil based soaps that most of you use. Takes so much less time to melt. I’m going to marathon Muddy Mint’s videos on this beautiful rainy Sunday.
Hi there! I'm so happy you found us! I'm glad this video helped you feel more grounded. Enjoy the Muddy Mint marathon and thanks for stopping by! :)
The information you provided it amazing. You are very efficient, and your information is well constructed and articulated. Thank you.
Thank you so much and thanks for watching! :)
Thank you for being a voice of reason and calm. I know it can be hard but I’ve seen soapers dropping like flys because their bars went up .05 cents and I’ve been wondering if I just live in a bubble. Thank you for communicating so clearly! Always good stuff ❤️
Thank you! Yes, a lot of soapmakers seemed to have shut down their businesses, unfortunately. I’m sure it’s due to more than just cost (I’m guessing sales is a big factor), but it is a shame!
@@Melody-cg1fn I've had people trying to convince me there's no longer any money in soap making ... 😳 ... but people always need to wash up 😂
😂😂 yes they do!
Agreed! It just gets washed down the drain- that’s the best part though, always a new one to try 🤭
Thank you Simi, this is very helpful. 😊 🙏🏻 I would love to see the full pricing video, but this is a great start 😊🎉
Yes! I will do a full pricing video as well. 😊
Thank you for this awesome spreadsheet! It was wonderful to see my cost per bar. Happy New Year to you and your family, its gonna be a great one!
I’m so happy to hear you found it helpful! Thank you for watching and happy new year to you as well! 🎉🎉
@@muddymintsoapfor some reason I can’t edit or add my own oils
Great video. You are really good at explaining things Simi.
Aww, thanks! I appreciate that❣️
Thank you for such clear, informative and calming advice! I also appreciate how your videos are relevent to us in the UK too :)
Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching! :)
Thank for the education on this subject. We really appreciate it. This helps me because Im a new soap maker.
I'm happy to hear you found it helpful! Thanks for watching. :)
Simi. You make an excellent point based on fact not fear. The cost per bar is minimal if you compare that to changing all other aspects in selling soap. I see the same here in Australia and I don’t sell just yet still in process of getting legal things checked off. I went ahead and ordered a larger qty of olive oil from a grower interstate and it worked out a wee bit better than buying 2-3 litres in supermarket. We don’t have Costco or Aldi so both ours have same price bracket. Thanks again for an excellent video
That’s awesome! As long as you know you’ll use it, it’s almost always better to buy in bulk. Plus, how wonderful that you can support a local grower at the same time.
Very good video. I just did my per bar cost analysis recently. I shop around for the very best price on ingredients while maintaining quality. I currently have the time to dedicate to that and don't plan to become a high-volume soap company. However, I still needed to know my costs, so I'm not selling myself short.
That’s a great idea. In the past, I’ve found that the cheapest price was usually from the same places, so I stopped shopping around, but I might be missing out! We were buying custom drums for many years, so I’ve only gotten back to buying in smaller quantities recently.
Great topic and video as always. I appreciate all the knowledge you share with the soap maker community.
Thank you! I'm happy you found it helpful. :)
Thank you
Depending on where you live, Rice Bran oil can be VERY expensive.
I’m just now learning this! That’s why knowing your per bar cost is so important because it fluctuates so much on where you live.
Thank you for your realistic view!
I had to change from cocoa to Kokum butter because it is not available no matter the price. And my soap batter is acting differently.
Oh, this is very interesting! Hopefully your soap still turns out great!
Hi Simi, Do you have video of how you put label on your soap and packaging for shipping?
Not yet, but this is a highly requested video, so I will probably do one soon! :)
Great step-by-step informative video.
Thank you! 😊
You are a genius Simi! Thank you for this great video.
Please make a list of the topics you wanna talk about so that you don’t forget 😊
Lol! Yes, I have a list! It’s quite long and we have ideas for entire series of videos. Hope I live long enough to make them all! 😂
thank you so much!
Thanks for a thorough explanation and examples. Great job as always
Thanks for watching! ❤️
18:16 any specific reason why the 'cleaning' row has zero in most of the cells? as far as i know if it has bubbles, it cleans! 😅
Thanks in advance
Hi there! It just means that it is not a cleansing oil once saponified, but you're right that it still "cleans"! :) The calculator basically identifies which oils are effective at stripping dirt, impurities, and oil from your skin, based on the fatty acid profile. Oils that are high in saturated fatty acids are higher in the "cleansing" property, which usually means that those oils also make your skin feel tight and/or dry. This is why coconut oil (at 0% superfat) is often used as laundry soap. So, high cleansing is not necessarily better!
Awesome video. Thank you very much!!!
You’re welcome! 😊
awesome job. Super useful. Thanks!❤
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful. ❤️
Thank you for this informative video! In my small town, no matter what I put in my bar my market won’t bear a $10 bar. I sell my bars that are made with premium ingredients, they weigh 4.5 ounces for $7 ea. I’m thinking of going to $8.00 next year.
Yes, totally get that. In this case, you may want to make changes to your recipe, if needed. Or, if you try selling online, it'll open up a whole new world of sales! :)
I love your soap channel. ❤ I will definetly order your book in November (when I have money again 😅) greetings from Germany Nina
Thanks for watching! ❤️
I haven't had to buy cocoa butter for awhile so I've just had a huge shock when I went to check the prices. The biggest problem though is that my suppliers are currently out of stock, so it seems the cost is going to be irrelevant if I can't buy it.
Same here! I just heard about it from a lot of soapmakers. Having things out of stock is definitely frustrating. It’s good to find a few backup suppliers or buy in larger quantities, if possible.
Thank you so much for your informative and helpful videos. I appreciate all your efforts and attention to detail. I've attempted to download the spreadsheet; I clicked on the link, and it directed me to make a purchase. I received a confirmation email but couldn't download the spreadsheet. Please let me know if the spreadsheet is still available to be downloaded. thanks!🥰
Hi there! The download should have been emailed to you immediately after the confirmation. If you didn't get it, make sure to check your spam folder. Otherwise, please email me at muddymintsoap at gmail dot com and I can resend it to you. Sometimes hotmail accounts seem to not be delivering the email the first time. Thanks!
Hello Simi , Thank you SOOOOOOOOO mutch for this program , very helpful to decide what to do , also do you think a line could included fragrance or essential oil because is a big part of the Bar cost . Still thank you
Hi there! I'm happy you found the download valuable! We will be releasing a very detailed cost calculator in the future (most likely it won't be free, but we'll do a video on it), so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you should easily be able to add a few line items for your fragrance/essential oil (and any other ingredients that you use in your soap) to the spreadsheet I provided. Thanks!
I think the increase effects smaller soap makers who aren't able to purchase drums or 55lb boxes yet. I personally used high oleic safflower oil in a small % to just bring the cost down a bit. I do like the way you laid this out.
Absolutely! That’s why I encourage you to see how it affects your specific per bar pricing. Most soapmakers purchase oils in either jugs or cubitainers and probably get their shea and cocoa in 10 lb quantities. That’s what is nice about the spreadsheet. You can put in all your specific details based on where you live and what you buy and see the exact impact. Are you able to see, for example, how much using HO sunflower is reducing your price per bar? I think a lot of smaller businesses make changes because of the up front shock factor of price changes in ingredients without ever calculating what it all means at a per bar cost. Hopefully this video helps with that! Thanks for the comment and for watching! ❤️
@muddymintsoap wonderful points! I use a calculator, but most people don't. It's a wonderful investment 🤗 We are blessed that you have provided a free one.
I make my soaps with 90-100% organic ingredients and it cost me on average about $2.50-$3.30 per bar of soap. I started tracking my prices on a spreadsheet like yours a year ago and it has made such a difference knowing my numbers. Once I started doing that I found room to actually lower my prices on some of my products.
I currently sell my soaps between $12-$9 each. With most bars selling for $10 each. My $12 bars of soaps I don’t sell wholesale because of the more complex & expensive essential oil blends that I create, which my customers love, but I would have to charge much higher for those soaps if I sold them wholesale and my current market may not be able to handle that.
I also have a monthly soap subscription option that’s heavily discounted at $35 per month for 4 bars soap. That box will include mostly the $9 & $10 soaps.
Love it! Sounds like you've got it figured out. I'm assuming the $2.50 to $3.30 includes labor? Knowing your numbers does make a huge difference. It helps figure out (like you did) which products work for wholesale and which don't. Nicely done!
Wow, I am not able to produce a soap under 5-6 minimum incl essential oils. Excl variable costs. Considering not using organic products anymore
@@silkemueller1391Wow! That seems crazy. Are you sure you’re calculating that correctly? Maybe if you’re making super small batches and using very expensive essential oils?.. I’d love to see your numbers! I once helped someone calculate their cost per bar and it ended up being way less than they thought.
And here in South Africa rice bran oil is just as expensive as olive oil.
Very interesting!
Look at Macadamia oil. We are fortunate to have that relatively cheap and reacts very similar to Olive oil.
Thank you! This so helpful. (i've been able to convert the spreadsheet from USD to GBP) and it makes things so clear!
Awesome! Yes, I have a spreadsheet in grams and kg if that helps. I didn’t mess with liters, which seems like how a lot of liquids are sold, but hopefully the spreadsheet is still helpful!
@@muddymintsoap it absolutely is! 👍
Great video, thanks. I dont know what I'm gonna do about my products that have cocoa butter in them, not just soap. I know I don't want to change my recipe but the cost is just too much right now, im hoping it'll go back down.
Hi there! You can figure out how much all your products have increased in cost, such as lip balm, body butter, etc. I bet it would be easy to increase your pricing to accommodate the difference. 😊
What do you think would be my best recipe or two to start most inexpensively to make money to be able to afford more premium batches and to be able to buy in bulk.
Hi there! As I mention in the video, the cost of the bars (even with high quality ingredients) is only $1, which I think is quite reasonable. If you'd like to reduce the cost, you could try using pomace olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, canola oil, safflower oil, and/or sunflower oil. If you skip using butters, it will be cheaper and if you use palm oil (make sure to use sustainable palm!), then it will lower your cost and still add hardness. I'd experiment and see what you come up with. I think that using a lower cost oil (like rice bran) combined with something like shea butter can help create a nice bar that doesn't cost too much. I hope this helps!
Thank you for touching every aspect of soap business owner's current "nightmare". I remember buying a 10lb box cocoa butter for $55 in march, now it's over $145. Almost three times more. I have been partially substituting Olive oil for H.O Sunflower oil. What is your opinions on it?
Thank you again ❤
Have you checked the price difference to see if it’s worth it? I’m personally not a huge fan of sunflower oil, as I make palm free soap and find sunflower oil to make my soaps softer than I’d like. If it’s under 10%, it’s probably okay.
Hi! I wonder 🤔... Will it last as long as olive oil 🫒 or will it get rancid sooner 😮😢
@@muddymintsoap Yes, it is way cheaper than Olive oil.
Only difference might be that Olive oil gives more luxurious leather
What’s your per bar price difference?
Hi simi , I have been looking for exactly this program to check the cost, but not able to download your program .
Hi there! Did you grab it from my website? Make sure to check your spam folder if you didn’t receive the email. :)
I get my oil at multiple locations, when doing the calculation do you take the cost of the brand you, are using or would I use an average cost?
Hi there! You can enter the cost per oil from wherever you recently acquired the oil from. Hopefully that answers your question. Next time if you get your oil from elsewhere, you can update the sheet.
@@muddymintsoap yes that helps - thanks - BTW the video was very helpful will down load the file, getting all my ducks in a row to build my inventory enough to begin selling, your videos are very helpful.
Thank you and good luck! ❤️