I'm a little put put, short and stout...

HEY!
Eh em...excuse me.  Hey there.
No no no wait, heeeeyyyyy.
Okay, so I'm trying to find a way to introduce myself for my first blog entry, but I'll just start by saying
HEYEY!!!
Now that that's over, lets get started.

 So I started my business a couple days ago (the store is still not up and running).  I'm trying to do everything correctly and well planned so it'll be about two months (I'm hoping) before the online store is up.  I've handled financial who-ha, and FDA technical foola-wang.  And I'm ready to get started on everything from social networking, to making the actual SOAP!
Woo whooo!! Right?

So I look on other sites to get some fresh ideas, for recipes and more.....
Baaadddd ideeaaaaaaaa
So in other words, here's my competition:

 
And here's me:

I'm a little put put, and they are the Mazda's of the future.
Sigh

But then I had to stop and think for a minute.  While its great to get inspiration from others, never forget to focus mainly on what you're doing.
So I have some suggestions for all the future, or maybe even amateur entrepreneurs out there like me:

1.Don't get lost in the competition

What I've realized is that a lot of the people (at least out in soapy land) that are making handcrafted soaps have been doing it for quite sometime.  The most popular and unique are going to show up in your search bar vs. the newcomers.  Keep that in mind.

2. Do what you do to the best of your ability.
If you started making soap yesterday, play around, write new and fresh recipes, make them unique and yours.  Like I said, its great to get inspiration but remember that you are trying to make your product say what you want it to say.

3. Be optimistic
I made a batch of cocoa butter bar soap the other day and as a great friend might tell you, I totally FLIPPED when I put the batch into the mold.  Why? Because it looked ugly.  I ended up losing all sense of self-control, worrying and pouting to my husband about how I'm gonna throw away the soap, blah blah blah.  Come to find out when it finally dried, it was beautiful!  So what's my point?  Stop and think when something goes wrong and remain optimistic.  There's no batch of soap in the world that can't be fixed without a little French milling (unless you burnt it).

4.  Give it your all, and have fun.
When you start a project like this, give it your all, and remember to have fun.  I love soapmaking so far and I have so much fun doing it, and have learned from the cocoa butter bars that its better to have fun and become a problem solver and a lab scientist then it is to give up and go back to buying Dial soap in Wal-Mart.

Joyous soaping!!