My wholesale beginnings

When I started out soaping I had no idea how to approach people and ask if they want to buy my products in bulk at a reduced cost, no idea if I required any paperwork or who to contact. Because of my previous lack of knowledge on this subject, I want to share with you all the fantastic experience I have had with my first ever wholesale order.

It all started before my business was even up and running when I was approached by a wholesaler who was interested in buying my products once they were good to go.

Once we had our safety assessments, insurance and all other legalities in order I contacted this wholesaler to ask if they were still interested in our products. Much to my delight they were. This was my first ever experience of wholesale and decided an open and honest relationship is the basis I want Bubble Trouble to have, so I explained that I was new to wholesale. They talked me through the wholesale process step-by-step and pointed me in the direction of valuable information, which was an amazing thing for a business to do, and I will be eternally grateful for this support offered to us as a small, newly developing business.

So what do you need to know?

The first thing I had to do was produce a line sheet. I had never heard of a line sheet before so off I went to the trusty google home page and typed in line sheet. Loads popped up. I had a wee read of what was required in a line sheet and how a lot of people produced these. Many sites are selling line sheet templates, which if you are not an adequate Excel user I would probably recommend. Luckily (or unluckily) for me I use Excel everyday at my full-time job so I decided I was going to design my own, because why pay when you can do it yourself!

A line sheet requires a certain amount of information. First off you need your name, address and contact details - don't forget a contact name, it is a bit awkward if they phone you and have to call you by the company name after all! Another important bit of info you can add in here is how they pay you. I added all of this into the header as my line sheet covers 2 pages, and saved me doing this job twice!

It was then a case of setting out my page to display my soap bars. I took new pictures of my soap on a white background for this, as it showed off the soap shapes and colours best, and looks more professional.

There was certain information that was required such as product description, a picture of the soap, the product number, packaging, wholesale price, suggested retail price and the approximate weight. Once I had added all this detail in I had my line sheet ready. Basically, in a nutshell, your line sheet is your catalogue of soaps you will sell at wholesale price.

How much do I sell soap for at wholesale cost?

So, my next big question was 'how do I know how much to sell it for wholesale?' My first thought was, how am I going to make profit from this, then it dawned on me I was looking at this all wrong. This is about selling your product in bulk, getting a bulk payment and getting your name out there, not necessarily about profit, so for this end I sell my products at cost price to wholesalers - basically half price, but this decision lies with yourself as to how much you wish to charge.

Minimum orders and lay time

The next point I had to consider was minimum orders and lay time. Like most soapers my passion is in the making of the product, so if a wholesaler asks for products I don't want to be churning out a small order of ten bars, I want a minimum that I am happy to sell at the wholesale price. What I also had to take into consideration was the time it takes to make each bar, in other words if you have another job, make sure you take this into consideration with the amount you can make in your free time! The Bubble Trouble minimum order is 75 bars. The lay time is the amount of time it will take you to get the order to the wholesaler - remember to take into consideration the postage time! At Bubble Trouble we have a lay time of 2 weeks per 75 bars of soap.

Wholesalers will often ask for samples of your work before they purchase in bulk but they will normally pay for these. This is usual protocol for wholesalers, they too want to make sure they are happy with the products they are purchasing. If it does go ahead it is a partnership and both sides need to be satisfied with the agreement.

Partnerships

The way I see it, when you are selling wholesale you have a partnership with an organisation and it is important to establish a good working relationship based on good products, good communication and mutual respect.

You will often see me post on social media to promote @thehandmadesoapcouk and vice versa, as we both have a vested interest in each others businesses. It is a very positive and happy way to get each other seen.

The future

Other wholesalers have started to approach me since my first wholesale order, which still amazes me and fills me with absolute excitement. Some which are currently in the progress of the agreement stage, so more on that in a future post!

As my first wholesale purchaser, the Handmade Soap in Bristol will always hold a special place with me as they put their trust in a 'newbie' and guided me through the wholesale process.

This blog post is specially dedicated to the support that the Handmade Soap in Bristol has given me to move into the wholesale arena; I cannot thank them enough.