Making the Change, pt. 1

The idea had been germinating for a while.  Do I change the name of my business, or keep it?  My business was over thirteen years old, steadily growing, increasingly successful.  Would I be shooting myself in the foot by rebranding at this point?

As you know, if you have followed me from my Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such days, I spent the month of December sitting around delegating like a boss (haha!) with my right leg up, my knee in a brace following a patellar sublimation right before Thanksgiving.  Idle hands lead to active mind, and I had nothing to do but sit around and think.  Sometimes I dreamed up mischief, sometimes grand ideas, with the grand ideas quickly dominating my thoughts.  It was in this time period that I decided to rebrand my business.

Why?  My original business, Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such, spun off of a hobby.  My name is Sara, I made soaps, I made other stuff (the “‘n Such”), and it seemed like a good name at the time.  Over the years, though, it became so cumbersome!  It’s long, it’s ridiculously easy to mistype, and it didn’t really reflect what my business had become.  I went from a hobbyist-turned-business owner to a full-time business owner with large order accounts.  My business had grown up, so it was time for the name to grow up.

How?  Starting in 2014, I had developed strategies for growing my business in different directions, shifting my focus from primarily retail to primarily wholesale and private label, and along with this, I set annual goals for how I would accomplish this, and I wanted these strategies to manifest themselves this year (2016), which they have.  Sitting around on my duff for 6 weeks afforded me many opportunities to catch up on educational opportunities related to my business and taking it where I wanted it to go.  These educational moments highlighted for me the mistakes I’d made previously, but you know what was so cool about this process?  It was like getting a second chance to start a new business, but in addition to the great new resources I had, I also had 13+ years of mistakes and experiences from which to draw.

Stay tuned…  Part 2 will come up soon!

 

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Sara

Hi! Sara here! I'm the CEO and Master Artisan here at Coastal Carolina Soap Co. I started out as a hobbyist and started Sara's Soaps 'n Such, which I owned for 14 years. Coastal Carolina Soap Co. was borne out of my love for the North Carolina coast and its natural beauty, and we're bringing that beauty to you in our soaps and body products.

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