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So you have decided to take the plunge and start an all-natural bath and body business. Quite soon you will realize that in order to manufacture the products you need you will have to spend much more that you initially thought on bulk natural ingredients. Sometimes the cost can be several thousand dollars. This would be too much of an initial investment for an unproven venture, especially when you are on a limited budget. How can you test the market and still offer your customers a wide variety of products without breaking the bank?

One way to test a market is to buy ready made wholesale products before you risk time and capital on manufacturing the products yourself. This is a much better option as you can make mistakes this way that will not put your business at risk. If you buy 100 bars of wholesale soap to get started, choose 20 different varieties of fragrances to test. You can quickly determine which fragrances will be the most popular in your market before buying bulk quantities of expensive fragrances and having them sit in inventory. One of the best places to buy handmade soap for this purpose is http://www.thesoapguy.com. You will find that if your supplier has a large variety of fragrances you can do initial and ongoing test marketing very easily.

If you are going to include lotions as part of your line, you may want to buy a five gallon pail of natural unscented lotion. You can offer this in a dozen popular fragrances and wait for orders to come in. When you get an order you can the pick up your fragrance from a local supplier or order this fragrance from a reliable supplier that is close to your home. UPS will usually deliver within a day or two to any address that is within one state from your home. You can see their delivery charts on the UPS website. Make sure the fragrances you are offering are popular ones that your supplier has in inventory. I have found several suppliers that have one day turnarounds for their products and I rely heavily on them to allow me to expand my line without carrying extra inventory. Some more popular fragrances, such as vanilla, citrus, and lavender are going to be part of your inventory forever, so start stocking up on these as they will never go to waste.

Be sure and carry some expensive, upscale items, including gift baskets containing your products. You need not make these items in advance, but if you start to get orders for them, you you will gain invaluable market data as to the upper-end price points your market will support. You will also learn how to prepare for seasonal markets. I call these sales "found dollars" as this is not my primary market but is a very nice supplement to my main product line. This marketing also gives you added exposure to customers who might not have tried your products otherwise. If they like your products, they will continue to use them in the future.