My First Blog EVER!!

Hello!!

My first blog ever in my life! I am excited to see what comes out while I type this. Here I go!!

Wow this has been quite the journey so far just getting my product made, a webpage made and underway with farmers markets. What were the steps and how did I go about doing it? Since this process is something that is so fresh and I'm just going through it all now, I thought it would be the perfect thing to blog about.

I have been soaping for the last 5 years, but just last fall I made a batch of soap and thought to myself I have something here. I use to make and decorate wedding cakes so I had all the tools and know how. I knew I could do it and I had the willpower to produce more to make a business. I created my recipe, with the help of soapcalc, which has been a huge reassurance that my recipe is exactly what I want.  At this point I felt pretty invested and I was really enjoying creating something fun and stress free. A huge part that has kept me going and encouraging me has been my husband. This to me is a very important factor in the process. I had the courage to keep moving to the next step, and if I failed I knew he would be okay with it and proud of me anyways. Thank you HUSBAND!

When I realized I had the support and I had no fear to fail I sat down at the computer again and ordered up my first stock of ingredients to make enough for 8 different looking soaps, 2 molds each. It was a lot of product coming in the mail. It was Christmas in January! My birthday is also in January so I counted it as a birthday gift. I didn't feel as guilty that way I guess... I found out that to sell my soaps to the public or retail I needed to go onto the government of Canada website and fill out a cosmetic notification form. I thought this would be so over my head, but instead of getting overwhelmed I took a deep breath and told myself I could do this. It took me a couple hours to figure it all out but I was able to finish it and get approval to sell my soaps.

Then to find a name and register it. I went on the government of Canada website to make a legit business out of it. Foggy Valley Soaps was my first name and it hit me quick and I just knew it was exactly what my business needed to be called. When I registered it, which was a simple and pain free step, it came back approved. It was meant to be! My name came from the area I live in which is called Whitevale and the meaning behind it is the white valley or foggy valley. And yes indeed it gets VERY foggy throughout the year. Then along with the name I needed a label. I sourced out a website that was free to get started (canva) I was able to play around, make and download my design. After I felt I had an amazing product I needed to start making some money back on everything I put out. I thought where and how do I do that? We contacted a friend of the family that does web design. I talked with him at some length, showed him my product and my biggest question was.. " Is a website a good first step or should it be one of the last?" His answer was... "it needs to be the first". He designed the website and got it up and running. Then I knew I needed to get my name out in the public. I searched out some summer markets and signed myself up. I decided that the summer markets will pay off what I put out and it will get my name out there. I have made a short term goal of doing markets this summer to see where my business goes.

I am not great with computers, I actually really dislike phones and look at being on the computer as a pretty big waste of my time. But now I have to have a mind shift that I am not on here wasting time, but in fact I am working and needing to help my business get up and running and moving forward. So this is a hurdle for me... but I found an old laptop that still works and I'm sitting in the living room with a movie on typing out this blog which seems to really be helping me! I think I just figured out a way for me to be on here doing my work after the kids are in bed guilt free!

A couple months ago I signed up for a Facebook and Instagram account and it wasn't until this past weekend that I decided I needed to get on it and start posting pictures and info about Foggy Valley Soaps.

This last Friday was my first market. I was so nervous to put myself out there. When I got there it was such a rush setting up, it was hot and I was so sweaty by the time I was done. I didn't pack enough water which was a big fail moment.  Always pack water! Once I got my table set up and felt pretty good about the display I was excitedly nervous. The market began and all of a sudden I was getting so many compliments on how my soaps looked and the display I had. Now this scared, nervous, excited feeling was turning into the feeling of accomplishment, and joy. I feel like I am listening to the Big Man Above and He is giving me everything I need to accomplish all of this and He is telling me to hold on and trust.

Over the last couple months, this has been quite the ride already. It has been exciting and surprisingly not overwhelming. I couldn't say yet that I would change anything Ive done other than not make so many labels all at once.

I'm really proud of myself for getting this all typed out and starting a blog tonight! Thank you for taking the time to read it, I hope that it helped you or maybe inspired you in some way. Not just to become a soaper but I hope encouraged you to start something, anything and stick with it! I always felt I was never really really good at anything. I think of myself more as a jack of all trades. But this time something is different, my creativity has really come out. I don't feel stressed or overwhelmed. It just feels easy. When I would hear people say that about their passions I thought they were just saying it, but it is really true. So if there is something you love and it doesn't feel like work keep going with it, you just never know what lies ahead!

Until next time,

Foggy Valley Soaps AKA Angela