We were lucky to catch up with Yorleny Davis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Yorleny , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

There’s a quote from Winston Churchill that I love and believe in, it reads: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
My business is small but I feel like I need to give back to thank my customers for choosing me and my products and I believe that together we can make a difference; big or small we can all do our part!

I chose three organizations to donate to, all three of these have a special meaning to me. They are local and they do SO MUCH. So when I decided to give a percentage of my proceeds back to them, it was an easy decision to make. I firmly believe in them and in what they do.

The Parkinson’s Foundation. My family has been affected by Parkinson’s and seeing first hand how it changes the life of not just the patient but the entire family is very hard. My donation is just a small grain of sand but I do hope that in time a cure will be found and many families and their loved ones will have chance to live a Parkinson’s-free life.

Defenders for Children. I don’t have to explain the reason why I selected Defenders for Children, the name says it all. This organization aims to prevent child abuse by raising community awareness and works with our local law enforcement agencies and electronic detection K9s agencies to investigate crimes against children. Shouldn’t we want all children to be safe?

Partners in Animal Care. Animals, I love animals, always have from a very young age. As a teenager I worked at a department store near the animal shelter and every break I had I would spend it there walking dogs and loving on puppies – every single one I could get my hands on. Partners in Animal Care is a non-profit organization that supports our local Greenville County Animal Care which is also a no-kill shelter and I believe they need all the help they can get.

These are the organizations I selected and in time I hope to donate enough to make a difference and be able to add more. Please visit the links on my website to learn more about these wonderful organizations and make a donation directly to them. No amount is too small to make a difference.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Yorleny Davis and I was born and raised in a small town in Costa Rica. Growing up, my mom always looked for “cleaner and healthier” ways of living. She was making smoothies before smoothies were cool! I guess it is true, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree… I remember her making awful vegetable smoothies, one in particular that my sisters and I would call “la bomba” or “the bomb” because it was terrible and we thought it would kill us. Ironically that is one of my favorite smoothies today! Haha.

I started making goat’s milk soaps simply by looking for healthier products for my family to use. It was also a cool Christmas present for family and friends. Before I realized it, orders started coming in, so I decided to embrace it and make it official by getting my small business registered.

My soaps are made with milk from my dairy goats. I also formulated my own signature recipe- this was not easy. It took me several trials – and fails – but I was finally satisfied and was definitely convinced after receiving feedback from several customers that were happy with the results.

I use a vast majority of local ingredients; some of which we even grow ourselves like rosemary, lemongrass, lavender and even luffa (aka loofah), as well as milk from our dairy goats. We also use honey from local farms. The oils were chosen based on healing and skin regenerating properties. I use organic oils, butters, and fats such as olive, coconut, avocado, tallow, shea, sunflower, and grapeseed as well as a variety of certified organic essential oils, colloidal oatmeal and natural clays. Because of the organic and local ingredients I use, I was accepted as an SC Certified SC Grown member and that was one of my proudest accomplishments as a small business owner.

Being a small business owner means lots and lots of work, dedication and sacrifice. In my case this means being up until one or two in the morning pouring soap and getting ready for a big event not scheduled for a couple more months and knowing that I have to get up in a few hours and face another day full of regular responsibilities, like my son’s school, my full time job, sports practices or games my son may be playing at the time. And let’s not forget to mention our house and small farm chores!

There are thousands of soap makers out there so, while I don’t feel like I am special, I don’t see them as competition either. When I find myself at an event that has more soaps vendors and customers are not as interested in my product I invite them to try them out because what I have to offer may be completely different to what they have; my product is special to me and I pour my heart into it but that doesn’t mean everyone is going to like it. We all have our different ways or style per se, and not everyone likes the same things. We all should have options right? Not to mention that there are billions of people and I can’t clean them all by myself! Haha!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Let’s go back in time to when my family moved from Costa Rica to Greenville, South Carolina. I was 16 then and I have lived here ever since. I never thought about myself as a resilient person, as an adult I’ve always had the “roll with the punches” attitude but looking back I think of being an immigrant, coming to this country only knowing a few words in English. That memory blows me away and, to be completely honest, it is what keeps me humble.
I remember my life had suddenly changed. I thought of it as a loss because I moved away from, my family, especially my dearest grandmother that I loved and missed so much. I moved away from my lifelong friends, high school friends, my town, my country, it even felt like I lost my identity and the only things I had left were my memories. For a while as a rebellious teenager; I was not ready yet to start making new ones.

Slowly things changed and it all made sense, I adjusted to my new life – we all did -and things started to take shape. But, learning a new language is not always easy. I became shy, in a way I feel like I always was. I still struggle with that. I was afraid to speak because I had an accent or I mispronounced words- and I still do, 24 years later.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate and owe my parents everything for making that choice and sacrifice to give us the American dream and to have not just one country to call home, but two, and proudly say that I love them both. That doesn’t change the fact that I was an ungrateful teenager though! Haha!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding was, honestly, not too complicated. As I said before, I have been making soap for a little while so I had some items already purchased. The word “dedication” comes to mind in order to buy all the organic oils and other supplies I needed. To buy them in bulk to start building my product stock was my goal and I also knew it had to be self-funded. I was not strapped for time either so that made it very easy. I decided to make a list of everything I needed and I would put money aside specifically for that and twice a month I would place an order and check items off. Of course, my husband, my kids and my family bought me a few things I needed as well and slowly my “wish list” was fulfilled. To them it was just my hobby but to me it was a business dream about to become a reality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hibiscusartisansoaps.com/
• Instagram: https://hibiscusartisansoaps.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HibiscusArtisanSoaps/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hibiscus_Soaps
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hibiscus-artisan-soaps-greenville

Image Credits
All images belong to me.