Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erin Goodwin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Erin , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry?
I was having coffee with a friend the other day, and she asked me what is one thing she could do to move closer to a healthier lifestyle. My response was very simple. Buy local. And not from a big corporate chain. I say this because the products that are made local, for customers that are local, tend to have less preservatives , come in eco friendly packaging and have overall better quality. When you mass produce a product you need to store it in a warehouse for an undisclosed amount of time. So you need to plan accordingly with a strong preservative that may or may not react to sensitive skin. When you buy local you’ll find you can obtain amazing quality products with premium basic ingredients. In my opinion mass production in corporate America is a problem.
Erin , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
The inspiration for Selkie Coastal Soaps was simple, our daughter’s sensitive skin. We needed a safe alternative when she often reacted to dyes and other irritants. So what do you do? Well, we started to make our own soaps using premium goat’s milk as the soap base. We never found out what specifically made her skin so inflamed but once we switched over, the hives and rashes stopped. After sharing the soap with friend’s and family as Christmas gifts, they liked the soaps so much we were inundated with requests. And with that natural progression we turned Selkie Coastal Soaps into a small business and continue to grow.
We’re proud of being able to make products that we love and are environmentally conscious. We avoid plastics and use recycled paper. Our aim was always to make affordable, eco-friendly, premium handmade products for sensitive skin while keeping all skin types in mind. We believe in our product and love sharing our soaps and spa products with our customers.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As a small business owner go with your gut. If you don’t want to do something because it isn’t sitting well with you don’t do it. We have chosen to start small and work our way through this slowly and build at our own pace. With that, we’ve been able to grow our business without compromising our ethics. We have fostered a mutual respect with our community and build lasting friendships with local farmers, and even create small revenue streams. Not to say we haven’t stepped out of our comfort zone after the pandemic we all had to relearn to be social. And I felt that in full force being a small business owner I was the face (and an extremely awkward one). So when starting out always have a plan, a goal, and best/ worse case scenario.
Being a relatively new business, there has been a couple of instances where we had opportunities to work with people who were notorious for not being nice, to say the least. Instead of following the promise of opportunity, we sat down and talked it out. I had to learn not to accept opportunities that looked amazing but didn’t align with our goals. We like to surround ourselves with like minded business owners with positive attitudes and strive for an overall better business model. I encourage any new business to find what works for them and do it. You start to see a pattern and the right avenues will open up. They well naturally fall into place if you allow it to.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Being part of community events has helped build our reputation. Our customers love that we’re local and provide free local delivery. Our return customers follow us on our social media and know where we’ll be for our next Pop-up event. Not only do they love to come say hi they also love to check out our new product line. Each season we change our scents and bars of soaps. The feedback we consistently receive is that that our products are quality, which is what we strive for. Ultimately, our reputation is customer service. We genuinely want to know the customers needs related to their skin care and offer popular seasonal scents across our product lines.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.selkiecoastalsoaps.com
- Instagram: @selkiecoastalsoaps
- Facebook: @selkiecoastalsoaps
Image Credits
Theresa Parshall with Theresa Parshall Photography & Allan Villanueva Everglow photo