Forming a Business
Let's say you find your kitty is getting full, the demand for your soap is increasing, and you still love the process of making, cutting, dressing, and selling on a small scale to friends and relations. You need to decide if this level is enough for you or if you want to take it to another level. Will you be happy, continuing as you are with a self-supporting hobby? Do you yearn to be self-employed at something you love? Can you make your soapmaking hobby into a part-time job that will earn back your time and effort and give you a small salary?
Family Considerations
Countless soapmakers have talked about resentment toward their work from their husbands and families. It is a reaction to this kind of situation that leads many soapers to try to give soaping for money a try. “Just see what they think when I start making money at this!” This is, however, one of the situations that is most likely not to work out. If someone is busy away from the family as a hobbyist soapmaker, just imagine how neglected a family will feel if the business end takes off. Not only will the family feel more neglected, but the resentment will not be healed by the extra money.
If you are a person in this kind of situation, stick to keeping soap a hobby and see what you can do to improve the quality of your family life. Getting your family involved on a small scale is a great way to build family harmony. Working together to create holiday gifts for friends and extended family is a place to start.
When Pleasure Becomes Burdensome Toil
Listen to yourself. If you hear, “I have to make soap today,” rather than “I get to make soap today,” it is a sign that you're getting tired of it. If you find yourself saying the latter more often than the former, you need to take a look at what you're doing. When your business takes off, it can very quickly become too much for you to handle on your own.
The world will not end if you decide you don't want to be in the soap business anymore. There are many hobbyist-turned-small-business-soapers who've gone back to hobbyist status or stopped making soap altogether.
Maybe you still love to make soap, but the details of running a business are so time-consuming that you're too tired to enjoy it. Or, you may find you love the business end and would rather leave the soapmaking to someone else. Once you start a business, in order to make it work, you have to be in it for the long haul. And you have to be able to recognize when it's time to change your mind.
