Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kate Lazutina. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kate, appreciate you joining us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

I think that asking your family and friends for support is a must. But only at the start!

Spreading the word, helping with events, advertising, even buying your items. It’s how it works, especially if you don’t have a big budget from the start, you have to use your connections.

I was super-shy at first, but as far as I’ve decided to earn some money, I tried to use every possible sales channel (I am still banned at one community, don’t know why exactly, but I think they were afraid I am “stealing” their customers).

I used all the help my friends and family could offer! And when the family was sick of me, I started to call acquaintances and even fellows from high school I haven’t spoken in years!

What’s appropriate and not? I think it’s really important to separate family stuff from business, and be a professional. Paying your relatives as if they were hired staff is a must. And also, no pressure and disappointment if they don’t want to help or can’t! They are not obligated to do it just because they are family.

When I was making murder-mystery parties, my husband told me at some point: “either you go there alone or hire someone! I just don’t want to play this again!” That’s when I understood that I shouldn’t push too much, it’s not their business, it’s mine. And it was the time to stop using my family’s support.

Right now all my relatives are far away, and I really miss their support. And their doubts and criticism, too!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Right now I am making handmade soap in shapes of tasty desserts and also lead soap-making master-classes.

I got into it when me and my husband just moved into the US, and he had work, but I didn’t. I went to some interviews, but I didn’t really like the jobs. And my friend from my native city has offered to teach me how to make soap! Yeah, why not, I thought. And so it began!

I love my soaps as they look tasty, but don’t add any calories, they are also detergent free and give good foam. And they smell just amazing! My house smells like a bakery store all the time. My favorite mold is my 8 inch pie! I made it myself and it’s super-fun to make different pies. I also am doing fun stuff for kids’ bath time as my own kid is growing and loves to spend time in the bath playing with all the soaps, slimes and dough I make for her!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Once, at a market our tent broke because of a heavy rain during the night. Other vendors helped us to fix it. And it seemed it was okay.
But when the next weekend and the next market came… We realized that our tent is not opening at all! Haha, we asked the organisers to place us in a shady place and managed to keep the straight face till the end! Lesson learned: I bought a better tent and weights.
Another time: I just had one sale during the whole day! And I checked on other vendors, it seems that they were doing fine! I was devastated. I decided to give up, actually. I didn’t even come for the market next day. But I didn’t give up, I just started to choose the markets to participate more thorough.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

When I decided to start soap-making, I’ve asked my friend for help. I also watched some videos on YouTube and bought a starter kit on Amazon. When I made a couple of soaps I was like: that’s it? That’s so easy! Even, too easy! I made a bunch of super-simple soaps and was about to sign up for my first market. But one day I woke up and all my soaps got sweaty! It turned out, it’s not that easy: you have to really carefully choose your colorants, soap bases, molds and technique to make soap. I had to learn a lot!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://katestastysoap.myshopify.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kates_tasty_soap