Partnering with Soapstones Soap & Skincare, Inc!

We at Soapstones must make it all look pretty easy to run a bath boutique business as we get approached frequently about Franchising.  Briefly, I (The Grand Poobah) looked thoroughly into Franchising Soapstones about 5 years ago, with a very expensive lawyer in Toronto, and at the end of it, found it not to my liking.  Even the Expensive Lawyer who stood to gain more well-earned loot by acting on our behalf told me "you don't have the personality for it."  Hmm.  I have chosen to take that as a compliment.  I know what he meant.  I love business.  I love the variations on a theme.  And in our case, the theme is SOAPSTONES SOAP & SKINCARE, and the variations are the imagination, the style, the humour, the courage, that all of our wholesalers bring to their own enterprises.  I like that better than everyone doing the same thing, aka the burgers with the golden arches.  What we choose to do for those interested in having their own bath boutique shop is to provide an outstandingly made Canadian product, constantly moving towards more and more natural ingredients (more on that later), with more flexibility in creating their own variation on our theme.  And it is working wondrously well. 

When you sign up for what we have called a licensed partner store, you get more than just wholesale pricing.  You get all that we have learned over the years about our own line, how to use it best, what skin types benefit most from our formulas, what skin conditions are improved by using our products.  You get our images, use of our logo with approval.  You get our blog, our social media set ups.  And you get input into improvements, new fragrances, new ideas in skincare, and new looks in our presentation.  You get to choose all that you want for accoutrements, add-on items, ie., luscious robes and towels, baby gear, soap dishes, etc.  We are happy to share our business relationships with other vendors of products that complement our line. And you get access to us whenever you need a pep talk, a bit of advice, or a pat on the back for a job well done. 

We also encourage our wholesalers to become and stay active in fundraising for their particular communities and we share all of our ideas for that as well.  Giving back to our communities is our strongest mandate at Soapstones and we've always found it a much more effective method of advertising than any ad in any paper. 

So I'm sure Mr. Toronto Lawyer was right.  I don't have the personality of a franchiser.  I love my business and want to see it nurtured, strengthened and grown by the efforts of many entreprenuerial spirits.  And most importantly, I want to share our success with as many others as I can.

And as for moving our very natural line even further up that completely natural mountain, we will no longer have any PEG in our products.  Might loose a few fragrances that aren't happy about the decision (Maple, you are such a prima donna) but we think it is the right decision.  We will be sending out info to our wholesalers as our new PEG-free products come out of production.