Name of your website?The Greenhouse Soaps
Your name?
Ingrid Augustine
Your Location (city, etc)
Clearwater, Fl.
Please give us a short summary of your website?
I love making natural and herbal soaps. I also make body butters, solid lotion bars and the list goes on. Everything from herbal eye pillows to poochie shampoo bars, which are great for your four legged friends dry skin problems. To natural laundry soap!
What inspired you to launch your own website?
That's funny. I actually started with my web site before I decided to get out there and show my soaps to the public. As for inspiration I wanted an online base to hold all of my products. Not some auction site, but a site I could call my own. Which is what I did, I not only launched my site, I built every page.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Actually it was originally called Kybritor Kreations, it's a compilation of all my children's names. When it became too complicated for clients to remember, I changed to The Greenhouse Soaps. I wanted something that would reflect our desire to make our lives better. Not it terms of money, by how our lives changed from actually researching and using our own healthier products.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
Down home, friendly customer service! Sure there are a million handmade soap makers out there, but we believe quite a number of them are so large that they have to rely on other people making their soap and other people handling their orders. To me while you may be getting a quality product your also missing out on someone that really cares about what you'd like to see in a soap. That's what we do, we listen, learn and enjoy the one on one. Heck I've gotten so many tips on my own soaps from customers I love to pass them along.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
That's a good question. I would like to see more website traffic, have more retail stores under my belt. Really expand my soap business. Perhaps even get an article or two published
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Hire a developer to put some of those fancy flash things on my site. Add pre-shopping recommendations. Add a real shopping cart (done by a developer of course) one that can keep real time shipping quotes. I'm sure I could think of other things. However I think that by making my site too professional looking would lose it's charming appeal to me. Something that the general public can look at and feel that they are and continue to be dealing directly with me and not some automated faceless name.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Heck no, but I'd sure have fun trying. However I believe it being honest with my clients, and if I couldn't get their xyz order done in time a prompt email or phone call from me is a given. My name is what people know, and if I can't hold up whatever their trusting in me to get them than that reflects badly on me.
What unexpected headaches have you had to deal with?
Learning things the hard way. For example do you know that handmade soap does not like direct sunlight? Or even say, soap sitting in the shade on a table in the middle of a parking lot? Under the tent? Ask me how I know! Yup, while the soap didn't actually melt it WAS soft enough to leave an impression of the soap that was resting on top of it. I actually could go on, yet why, what for? You do what you love to do, regardless of the bad, because it makes you feel proud of what you've accomplished
What has been your biggest challenge?
Believing in myself. When I make soap it feels right, I FEEL like I'm in my element. However for me it's getting to talk to people that has really helped. I'm more introverted so getting out there and promoting my products has personally really taken me a long way.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Word of mouth, definitely. With the top soap sites dominating say even the first ten pages, most people don't go past that, so while I might be on page forty, word of mouth gets them to visit the page.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Yes, yes and yes again! I make soap because I love making soap! It's an outlet and privilege that others like my soap enough to visit my site and perhaps purchase some. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't make soap!
What is your website address?
The Greenhouse Soaps
