Posted on: Wednesday, November 27, 2002
SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE
Soap-makers bathe in firm's success
By Nancy Pounds
Alaska Journal of Commerce
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two Anchorage women who started a soap-making business part-time at home are now awash in success.
Barb Marsh and Janie Taylor now run Denali Dreams Soap Co. full-time.
"We started it as a way to be home with our kids," Marsh said. "Now it has a life of its own."
Denali Dreams sells six herb and spice soaps, eight specialty soaps, gift packs, lip balm and bug repellent spray. Soaps cost between $5 and $6.50.
The Denali Dreams partners have never borrowed money for the business, and they say they recorded a $100,000 profit last year. They hope sales in 2002 will climb with the recent addition of an online sales feature on their 3-year-old Web site.
"Now we get three to four orders a week," Taylor said. "Before, it was three to four a year."
Denali Dreams sells its products from Fairbanks to Southeast Alaska through 100 wholesale accounts. Two products, a dog wash shampoo and a kitchen soap have acquired national interest. The Alaska-made products are sold in Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Washington, Taylor said.
David Arnsdorf, president of the Alaska Manufacturers' Association, called it an Alaska small-business manufacturing success story. He said three ingredients are essential to small business success: product manufacturing know-how, access to capital, and marketing and sales savvy.
"Don't do any of them, and you surely die," Arnsdorf said.
Many businesses have deficiencies in one or more of these areas, but Denali Dreams' Marsh and Taylor are competent at each aspect, he said.
He has seen Denali Dreams and other Alaska companies change the climate for small manufacturers.
"There are some unique products people are starting to make that are competitive and will stay that way," he said.
Most Alaska manufacturing jobs are in fish processing. U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2000 showed 12,635 workers in Alaska manufacturing, including 8,730 in fish processing. Manufacturing produced a statewide payroll in 2000 of $390 million, with $211 million coming from the seafood industry.
Taylor first learned to make soap during a 1992 vacation in New Zealand. Taylor and her mother crafted soaps and gave them to friends as Christmas gifts. Marsh received one of the gift soaps and eventually learned the manufacturing process.
The two women started Denali Dreams in 1996, selling six soap varieties at bazaars. In 1997, they began promoting the products to retailers and attended an Alaska-made products wholesale show.
Production doubled each year for the first three years. One summer, Marsh and Taylor lacked enough soaps to meet demand when retailers reordered. Such orders couldn't easily be refilled, since the handmade process takes about a month, Marsh said, and includes careful wrapping in tissue paper or raffia.
"It's real labor-intensive," Marsh said. "It's a labor of love, but we like the way it looks."
Denali Dreams has increased soap production by 30 percent each year since 2000, Taylor said. So far this year, they have crafted 35,000 bars.
Marsh and Taylor hired full-time soap-maker and friend Carol Hazeltine to help meet increasing production goals. They may add a part-time employee next year.
The owners are careful to introduce products for tourists and Alaskans. One new product, Manly Man soap, has been a big seller this year, Taylor said.
The owners are now preparing for the holiday bazaar season, which serves as a test market for new products. Then, from January through July, soap-making is in high gear.
• On the Web:
www.denalidreams.com
