Our Small Business in 2024: Not Just Surviving But Thriving Because Of You!

The 12 months between stocktake 2023 and stocktake 2024 for the Australian Natural Soap Company have been the toughest, yet most rewarding for me as a small business owner in the 10 years that we have been around.

The gloomy economic times of 2023-2024 certainly impacted our business. Within the space of a few months, our biggest online retail partner went bankrupt, our wholesale distributor ended our contract, and our biggest bricks-and-mortar retailer deranged us. I honestly thought it was the end of our business.

But then there was you and our products.

For the first six years of our business, until COVID, we sold our soaps at two stores in Melbourne - one at South Melbourne Market and one at Centreway Arcade Melbourne. For many of those years, I worked in the shops, and me and the other shop assistants built a beautiful little community of soap lovers - who didn't just love soap, they loved our soap and our philosophy. I knew we had something special in our products, and I knew we could build on that community of people who loved using them.

While my team and I have worked incredibly hard these 12 months to transition to an almost entirely e-commerce business - now, 12 months on, I can honestly say that that tough period last year has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Australian Natural Soap Company. Moving to e-commerce has not only helped us survive but thrive.

Now I spend a lot of my time directly talking and interacting with our customers. I cherish the personal connections we've built and the feedback we receive, which helps us continuously improve.

I also love that we are able to pass on discounts and savings directly to you all as our customers. Like many small businesses, dealing with larger retailers made things very expensive.

Which is why I am so happy being able to offer our beautiful customers some amazing discounts for this year's stock take. And so far, I have been blown away by the response and how quickly we have been able to sell through a lot of our stock.

All the items that we currently have on sale really do represent the end of the transition phase for our business. The bath salts and limited edition packs were devised at a very different time - not that long ago - when we were being advised by buyers that we needed to branch out from "old fashioned" soap.

Plus, all the older heritage packaging and ingredient formulations that reflect our humble beginnings, when I'd be the first to say I was still learning the craft of business.

There's nothing wrong with any of these products - they are handcrafted with the finest Australian ingredients - it's just time to do a little bit of a clear out and finish this chapter of transition for our business. And it's also a way for us to say thank you for your unwavering support. Your support makes this small business owner keep going, determined to get our soaps into the hands of many more people. So thank you!!

Soapy hugs,

Emma xx