Soap making business tips: How to work out how much your handmade soaps are costing you to make

Hello everyone! Welcome to the first in what will hopefully be a regular Tuesday upload focusing on behind the scenes footage and business tips regarding how to successfully run and manage a handmade soap and bath & body business. Though these videos are focused within the bath & body industry, many of them can also be transferred to the running of any kind of small craft or home based business.
One comment we regularly see across social media is how to work out exactly how much your handmade soaps and other cosmetic items cost to create. This is an important factor in knowing how profitable your own business is and it is crucial to be able to accurately work out this information.
It seems that it is not uncommon to not know where to start when working out this kind of information, so today we have created a video showing you how we work out how much our soaps cost us to make.
I will be showing you how I work out my basic bar costings using a simple Excel spreadsheet and a few formulas. I will talk you through each step so that you too can use this information to work out your own costings.
This is the simplest version of how I work out costings, so I have not factored in things like utilities costs, insurance or other costs associated with making soap. This video purely covers the raw ingredients and packaging costs to give you a guide to working out these basic costings.
If you enjoy our videos and soap making tutorials please do give us a like and subscribe :-)
We will be uploading new soap making videos every Friday and hopefully regular Tuesday videos showing more behind the scenes and business tips.
You can also follow us and find our soaps here:
www.sussexsoap.co.uk
sussexhandmadesoap
sussex_handmade_soap
If you do head over to our website, we offer our KZbin friends 20% off purchases if you enter code "youtube20" at checkout :-)

[@magalimasson9472]

Wakes up in the middle of the night and manage to look gorgeous and record a super useful video 🤯

[@stellamarisokello2140]

My spreadsheet is done. I need to now put in the formulas. Thank you so much. Nighty night 😊😊

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Excellent! Good luck with the formulas, if you need any help feel free to pop a comment down and I will help if I can :-)

[@audreystar4868]

Tq for this informative formula Anne. You are my inspiration 😍

[@raiallen-hadley9137]

Just what I was looking for, thank you so much. I don’t sleep either lol

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Perfect! I am glad we managed to help you find what you were looking for. Us non-sleepers have to find ways to pass the time don't we! :-)

[@raiallen-hadley9137]

The insomniac posse 😂😂

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Indeed it is! I should make it a regular thing so us insomniacs feel like we have some company in the wee small hours of the morning! :-)

[@marygunning5121]

Thank you so much for your time and thoughtfulness your talk is interesting and informative.

[@greenbarn2213]

Thank you so much for this video, sorry you couldn’t sleep but most grateful for the video, definitely going to give that a go ❤

[@ericabeache]

Thank you, this is so helpful.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Erica, I am so glad that you found this helpful :-)

[@sarahdocherty4035]

Thank you for sharing, great starting point and very helpful.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Sarah :-)

[@melaniekeles5567]

Thank you so much for all your videos. I am finding them very useful. I started making soap this time last year (during lockdown!) and I can't stop. I have to sell now so that I can continue making the stuff. This video and the one on the product notification portal have been particularly useful. I am London based but am often in St Leonards visiting my grandchildren so hopefully our paths will cross someday, Warm regards and thanks.

[@calmkarma1]

Hi, Thank you very much for this tutorial. I haven't used excel for many years and didn't have a clue how to do my costings. Where I find a bit of a hiccup is when I buy oils in litres rather than grams but with a bit more work I'll get there. Looking forward to seeing more vids of you for this year. 😀 x

[@monicacarroll4313]

Fantastic, this was easy to follow 👍

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Monica, I tried to break it down to make it as easy to understand as possible :-)

[@NicolaGreene-bh7tn]

Brilliant thank you XOXO

[@stellamarisokello2140]

Oh dear. Can't sleep as well. Thank you so much for this info

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are welcome Stella. I wish you a better nights sleep tonight!

[@hmvesey]

your videos are so helpful, thanks so much

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

You are very welcome Helen, I am glad that you are enjoying them.

[@cameronclark1605]

Thankyou for this :D your video's are very helpful!

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Cameron, I am glad you find them helpful :-)

[@nathaliemartinet3296]

This was very helpful. Thankyou🙏

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you, I am glad that you found it helpful :-)

[@stephanieparsons4793]

Thank you so much for doing these starter videos. It's so hard to find videos from people in the UK lol You're helping me to understand and become more confident as I venture into my own bath bomb and soap business ❤

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

I am so glad to hear that Stephanie. It is so lovely to hear how our videos are helping you :-)

[@aicrochet1661]

Thank you for sharing this information. This will serve as my guide in computing the cost of my soap. All the best to Sussex Handmade Soap 🙂

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Ailene. I am really glad you find it useful and if you have any questions feel free to ask us :-)

[@blacktancoonhoundsuk161]

Been watching you for a while now. Not sure why I never subscribed....now going through your back catalogue :) Enjoying your channel very much! I wish these videos were around when I began my Soapery business. :)

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you so much and I am glad to hear that you are enjoying our channel :-)

[@katarzynaderkacz39]

So very helpful! Ann you are amazing. I would be very happy to see more spreadsheets! 💞🌙😍☯️

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Katarzyna! Don't worry, there are more spreadsheets coming! We have decided to try and upload a new video each Tuesday now, focusing on more of the business side of things :-)

[@katarzynaderkacz39]

@@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany Good news! 😁💞

[@tassiegirl1991]

Ha I know just how you feel, I have many nights with zero sleep until 0600 arrives and I finally nod off. But your rather young too not be sleeping. I’m in my 70s so can take a nap when desperate. This is the easiest tutorial on this topic I’ve come across even if not selling it will be interesting to know what I’m spending on my new hobby. do you add in costs of moulds cutters etc. Thank you so much for something I understand. I’ve just ordered some of your soaps to send a friend in the UK as a thank you to you and her.

[@darren8854]

Sorry you couldn't sleep but... very glad you didn't now as it happens, as this was super helpful! 😃😄

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Thank you Darren and I am glad that you found it helpful - it makes the not sleeping feel more worthwhile if I think I am doing something useful with my time!

[@charlottespringall8490]

Good evening, great videos as ever. So easy to follow and super informative! May I ask if you have any tips on working out how much to sell your items at? Or do you work by a certain amount of profit per item?

[@juliebrown3393]

very useful thank you. I need to scrub up on excel again. Can I ask you is supermarket oils excepted to use with a product data sheet, after cosmetic safety report has been issued? thanks Julie

[@gisellepennyfeather1049]

Thank you for all your videos I've seen and the ones I have not as yet buy my question is how do you figure out the soap names bless

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hello Giselle. We tend to try and keep things fairly simple when we name the soaps, so we either try and name them after an ingredient they contain (for example, we have salt bars called "Rose Clay & Argan" as that is two ingredients in them) or, we name them after the essential oil or fragrance oil that they contain. The only exception is our Christmas soaps that we are currently working on - we are trying to name all of them after Christmas carols or songs!

[@joannelishman204]

Love a good spreadsheet! Thank you. How on earth do you go about calculating energy costs for production?

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Honestly Joanne, I don't have our energy costs worked out exactly, I just go for a rough figure as to work it out to the penny (while theoretically possible) would be too time consuming! I do have spreadsheets for my gas & electric that I use to calculate our daily energy costs (my life as you can tell, is full of excitement!) which I use to help give me a rough figure for cost of production! I always overestimate on energy costs though, just to make sure we are not spending more than I have allowed for!

[@joannelishman204]

@@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany I knew you would have spreadsheets ! I also knew it was bound to be a complex picture - lol - thank you so much for taking the time to reply .

[@habibekeskin8983]

Can you do more on pricing, entering details on the excel e.g. stock purchase, miles, expenses etc. Thank you

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

We will certainly do a follow up video at some point going more in depth with things like this :-)

[@praisenwoke4957]

I hardly see the figures in the spreadsheet

[@MintOutdoors]

Have you tried counting sheep :)

[@ta81uk]

Quick question: if you’re buying your olive oil in a supermarket are you still able to obtain the data sheets? Do they supply them for their products? Thanks :)

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Supermarkets don't generally give out safety data sheets, however you can write your own for something like Olive Oil. I recently read a post by a well known, well respected UK soapmaker who had researched and checked and said that SDS sheets are not necessarily required for safe, food items such as Olive Oil, but I haven't checked this out myself yet, so please don't take my word on that! I personally wrote my own SDS sheets for our Olive Oil.

[@samanthachance4412]

Maths, my fall asleep topic every time. I'm a Nurse who has never been able to "DO" Maths. As a Nurse I've had to learn how to calculate drugs, this I find easy. However, My Daughter has a degree in Maths and informs me that drug calculations are FRACTIONS 😳😳 I guess if no one says "MATHS" I'm gonna be OK.

[@TheSussexHandmadeSoapCompany]

Hi Samantha, you may be out of luck with no one mentioning maths! I am luck that I seem to have a mathematical brain - though I don't go algebra or things like that !

[@kellsgreenidge8885]

Wonderful video, thanks for. I use to calculate manually till I found Soap Inventory.com which was created by a soap maker Dean Wilson of Swirl Soaps. He just launched his new program thats just as awesome MyWorkProjects.com for $20.00 US Annually. I'm able to see the exact cost per unit of everything I use to make products including labour and packaging. Going to share this video in my group. 🇹🇹♥️🤍🖤