It is summertime in Texas. In one word that means HOT. Because of the heat, we are taking a break from our normal Saturday morning booth at the Brazos Valley Farmers' Market ( https://www.brazosvalleyfarmersmarket.com/ ). While a number of our products do fine in the heat, some of them don't handle 90+ very well. Since I don't either, it is break time until early fall.
But taking a break from running our booth doesn't mean we get to enjoy the good ol' summertime and forget about soap. On the contrary, these breaks are a great time for us to catch up on the many critical housekeeping tasks that are part of running any business. For example, today I am updating our website, including writing this blog post. We are also in the process of assessing stock and deciding what products we need to get busy making to keep up our inventory.
Break time is also a good time to do R&D. We take feedback from our customers very seriously and use it as part of our continuous quality improvement process. We want to know what is working well for customers, and what may need improvement. We are also open to customer ideas about new products, or new ways of packaging products for greater usability.
In short, making homemade, natural body and home products is not a "one and done" process. Rather, this business is a dynamic between the two of us as soap making partners, our customers, and the products themselves.
We also plan to hit a couple of local craft fairs as a way of expanding our customer base in the community. We attended one yesterday at the Brazos County Senior Citizens' Association ( https://brazoscountyseniorcitizens.weebly.com/ ), and we plan to be at another local fair in early October.
Between now and late September/early October when we return to the Market, we'll make multiple bases that can then be individually scented and packaged, as well as craft more milk soap. We'll write additional blog posts, take some new product photos for the website, and in general argue amiably about what to do and how to do it. A mother/daughter business partnership creates endless opportunities for different opinions!
I hope everyone enjoys their summer, wherever you live. Stay safe and have fun...from our cottage to yours.