THE BUSINESS A. Description of Business: What are you selling? Who are your suppliers (local & non-local)? Why will people buy it? What is the legal form of your business? Earthmade specializes in making and selling 100% natural 2-3 ounce bar soap and other body care products including lip balm, lotion bars, deodorant and toothpaste.
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Promote your business in the weekly Promote-your-business thread only.ExceptionsYou can promote your business in a relevant reply to a post or comment in other threads.Related Subreddits.Help With Your Small Business Network.Location Specific Small Business Subreddit. Hi Reddit,Recently in my area I've noticed a growing interest in essential oils. Specifically using the oils therapeutically as 'aromatherapy'. I decided to do some research on the topic and thought about opening up a nice E-Commerce website selling essential oils, hydrosols, and accessories.These essential oils do have substantial use. Many people are unaware of this because they have always bought faulty, fake, and/or diluted oils. Real essential oils on the other hand, will have uplifting effects by stimulation of the senses. What I plan to offer is 100% pure undiluted essential oils, massage oils, and hydrosols with some accessories here and there.I want to ask a few questions and get a feel for what people think.
What is your opinion on essential oils and why? Do you think this is a growing market space? Is this something you could see yourself using?Thanks for reading, looking forward to some constructive responses!. My personal opinions aside, essential oils have a proven demand in the marketplace and there are some major players in the space. You are seeking opinions on what people think of essential oils?
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If we could see ourselves using essential oils? There is a market for it. That's already been proven. What it boils down to is execution. The questions you need to be asking yourself are how you can identify your target market, how to reach that target market cost-efficiently and how to convince them to buy your products. I do understand that there is a market for these products 100%.
However, not 100% of people are fully aware of the all of the oil's potential. I feel like a lot of the market has to be educated on why essential oils are the way to go; and we all know nobody wants to be 'educated'!A big thought that has been on my mind is convincing my prospects to buy my products. Do you have any recommendations on how I would differentiate my products from the other million businesses doing the same thing?After all, I feel as if the whole '100% Pure Organic Therapeutic Grade Essential Oil' statement is getting a little old and is catching a very scammy / unfavorable stigma. I'd love to find a way to get away from that and foresee another 'word-play' for the oils. I respectfully disagree 100% that the market needs to be educated. I feel that essential oils are basically snake oil and the products are useless.
There is literally nothing that could convince me to ever buy essential oils. You don't want to spend time & money trying to convert people like me, it will be too expensive.My primary point is that there are a ton of people who do believe in the products benefits and those are the people that you need to focus on. Your target market is people who have already bought essential oils from other companies.
Reaffirm their existing beliefs. Do not try to spend time & money educating people who are completely uninterested.
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There is already a market, those people are currently buying oils from other companies. If you think that particular statement is saturated and becoming unfavorable to buyers, then pounce on it. Come up with better ways to demonstrate value for your brand, why your oils are better than the ones they are already buying & drive traffic to your webpage. As more and more people dwell into the natural and organic stuff, I'd say it's a pretty good business to get into right now.What I don't agree with is pure online selling.Not against online but there are 1000000s of online stores with organic and natural 100% essential oils.They ALL cost a lot because supposedly it costs a lot to make.Now, are you going to wholesale purchase these essential oils?Or make them yourself?Also, why not market it locally first physically to see if people are willing to purchase the essential oils?. Yes, I will be producing the oils with my own apparatus. I'm not going to be buying them wholesale.Referring to '1000000s' of online stores promising 100% pure essential oils; how in the world should I go about differentiating my product?
Any input appreciated. I've been pondering thoughts like this every now and then.As for marketing it locally, I could definitely test the waters of my surrounding area.
I do really want to focus on an E-Commerce site because it would enable me to free up a LOT of time. Charity & donation definitely interests me. Not only is it good incentive, but also good cause, its a win win.The referral, reward / loyalty program sounds great as well!
A referral program would work great, along with an affiliate program for others to promote the products if they recommend them. I just don't want to end up looking like young living and their 'pyramid scheme-ish' programs.All great ideas though, the charity thing I didn't think about at first, but the more i do think about it; it really would be a big factor. The oils I am going to offer include lavender, eucalyptus, lemon peel, sweet orange, frankincense, oregano, peppermint, and rosemary.
I am starting out with 8 oils specifically because I don't have enough funds to produce different oils.Additionally, I find that those 8 oils are amongst the most popular.As for cost? My cost for production I am still working some numbers. I have packaging and labelling to incorporate into my cost still. Not only do I have to figure cost once, but eight times! Haha, each oil / plant material yields different quantities and can take different amounts of time.And yes, the oils are very well known to the current market. Most people, even if they don't buy oils, know most of the oils I will be steam distilling.
Yes, there are licenses to distill different things, you could have a distilling license for oils (crude, essential, etc); or you could have a license for distilling alcohols. Just depends what you want to do.However, keep in mind that people distill more valuable or fragile things too, such as frankincense and jasmine. You can easily distill what you stated though right in your home. Thats the beauty of it, anyone can benefit from these aromatic plants.I will say though, you can distill the makeshift way, or a more professional way.
The way I distill all of my plant material is low pressure, and low steam heat. Just steady and fragile for an hour or two. I use an essential oil distilling apparatus that strictly uses distilled water. (No solvents or ANY additives.)Of course you don't need to take the crazy full blown route, but If you do everything right the first time, your yields and quality will skyrocket.
I just went a small birth expo that allowed 3 separate MLM-based essential oil shillers to have a booth. I thought that was insane. However, as long as you aren't doing Do Terra or Young Living Essential Oils or some other pyramid scheme crap, you can get money hand over fist. I wouldn't waste your time with random consumers unless you want that market specifically. I recommend selling specifically to other professionals who use oils - soap makers, massage therapists/acupuncturists/yoga instructors, food service (if your product or part of your product line is food grade), etc. I own a lab specialized in natural product analysis and consultancy.
Essential Oil are a big part of our business (essential oil analysis, production consultancy, etc.).You seem to already know that there are a lot of faulty oil on the market currently and this is good. Now more and more people are learning about this fact and ask for a GC even though 90% of user have absolutely no idea how to read a GC analysis and what to look for.
Be sure to have very strict following of your batch/lot and be able to prove it to customers. Wow, thats great! I've always loved science, specifically chemistry.I undoubtedly know there are tons of synthetic crap out there. The gas chromatography testing would really help with the authentication of my oils. Also, what sort of strict followings would I be doing with my batch/lot? Just consistency with time, pressure, and temperature?I'm interested in the GC test, more people would find the oils credible with proper testing even though 90% don't know how to read the test haha.
I'd appreciate it if you could PM me some more information or direct me to your company's website.