So the parents…uh…the kids…our family is at it again!

A few years back we wrote a post entitled “Learning Their Own Way“. This post chronicled our two oldest kids creating and selling Cookie Jars in order to pay their own way to ski school. Well, they’re headed back to the same school this winter and, once again, found themselves looking for ways to earn money to cover the remaining cost (they received partial scholarships).

So having small business owners for parents, they found themselves learning this time around about production and marketing costs. They also had to integrate a new “partner”, as kid #3 is now old enough to also participate (this proved to be the most interesting part of the whole project!). Then there was a difficult moment, when the immersion blender burned out, and they had to learn to account for unforeseen product costs and resulting delays in production (first time our kids ever watched for the Amazon Prime delivery to show up! “No, I’m not tracking your shipment for the 4th time today!” may or may not have been uttered by an adult member of the family).

So what did they make this time? This round they decided to make Organic Coconut Oil Hand Soaps. Using only four ingredients, they developed, emulsified, molded and packaged three scent varieties. They chose to vary the product options by offer fun “bug” molds (’cause they look “cute” on the bathroom sink) and full size bars for the shower and kitchen sinks.

The initial production sold out fast enough that we (that being the parental “we”) have decided to expand this lesson beyond a simple one-time project. We’re helping the kids to plan for multiple production runs, understand how to forecast costs and develop marketing ideas that go beyond the smiling kid face. They’re even taking these soaps into local businesses and developing retail relationships.

So if you’re interested in purchasing some soap, parental biased aside, these are the type/quality of handmade soaps you would find in a local gift shop, boutique or salon.

P.S. – If you’re interested in teaching your own kids something similar (aka, tired of selling candy bars for the local fundraiser), here’s our recipe and a step-by-step tutorial to make homemade soaps in your own home. Have fun!

Full online ordering coming soon!

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