We recently connected with Josh Ray and have shared our conversation below.

Josh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our mission has always been to provide a quality product at a quality price all while making others feel better. Self-care is such a big part of our lives and it is also something that sadly is tossed to the side by many. Our schedules just don’t always allow for us to take time to sit and breathe for a minute.

Here at The Bath Lab we want you to know its okay to take time for yourself. Close your laptop ten minutes earlier and just sit and meditate.

We want you to use our products and know that it was time well used.

Josh, 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?

I have always had a mind for business and art. I can remember at a young age starting a bread making business and selling homemade bread, rolls, and pastries and friends and family.

With that being my background all my years it comes to no surprise that I would turn a simple evening get together with friends into a bath bomb making party. It was Fall 2017 and we had gotten together to celebrate that I had just passed my GED. After hanging out for awhile we decided it was time to do some fun so we got on the almighty Pinterest and found a simple recipe.

Next thing you know the kitchen table looked like an episode from Breaking Bad. We had made so many fun colored and scrumptious smelling bath bombs. Let me tell you, we thought we were the coolest people at the time!

After that night I started making bath bombs for friends and became more and more addicted to it. By Winter I had done so much research and opened up an Etsy shop to begin selling. After selling on Etsy for a few months I did more research and had lots of trial and error with products and finally decided to open up my own website domain. Thus, thebathlab.net was born.

Over the next few months I would continue to grow my product line, started selling at craft shows and eventually landed my first wholesale account. Once I got this account I learned that there is great potential behind this brand if I would just put my mind to it. So that’s what I did, continued working my full-time job and once I got home for the day I would pull out all of supplies and start creating products. fine tuning them to be the best they can be.

I learned more about SEO, social media, and marketing and put what I was learning to use. I began growing a cult following and even landed more wholesale accounts.

Fast forward to COVID! I thought this little business was done for. People were home and not spending money…or so I thought! People were home! People were bored! This was my time to shine! I took to the internet and every other Sunday offered a “virtual market” via Facebook Live. I would sit in my dining room and showcase products and the viewers would comment to claim them. These virtual markets became so popular that is started to pay the bills.

COVID is still running ample through the streets, I am home creating and growing. My product is finally where I want it and now I need to get the BRANDING where I want it. I tried creating this on my own but couldn’t get the branding just right so I decided it was time to outsource. I went through 3 designers until I found the one that worked perfectly for me. Elena from PrintiasticStudio would end up being the mastermind behind the branding you see today. She took everything into account that I was looking for and created something spectacular.

It’s now 2023 and I have been doing The Bath Lab full-time for a year now. I have over 35 stores across the United States and UK that carry my products and I am excited for the future!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Not giving up! There are so many businesses that are similar to mine and at times yes, I wanted to throw in the hat and give up. But something said no! Keep going! And going I did. I didn’t let others dampen my spirits and make me feel like I wasn’t worthy success and wealth. I devoted hours upon hours of energy and time into creating this brand and making sure it is the best it can be and that is honestly what I feel has made me so successful with it. Putting in the time.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s okay not to know all the answers. As a business owner I like to think I can do it all and I know everything. Well, that is at least what I thought when I started! I quickly learned that I don’t know all of the answers and that it is okay to ask questions.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thebathlab.net
• Instagram: @thebathlab
• Facebook: facebook.com/thebathlab
• Other: We have a facebook group that is very active and where you can find most of what we have going on! www.facebook.com/groups/thebathlabinsider/

Image Credits
All images are taken by The Bath Lab. The only one that was by a photographer is the photo of myself. That one is by Taryn at Aw, Snap Media (@awsnapshots)