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

Mario Lebron, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I really liked homemade soap over the store bought cleansing bars. It made me feel cleaner and smelled better. We bought our soap from a long life friend of Darryl Ravary’s, the other owner, and unfortunately, she fell ill and was not able to make the soap we loved so much. I, Mario, had said to Darryl “I think I can make this soap” and off I went on practicing. Along the way I had several soaptastrophes as I call it. Eventually I was able to come up with a recipe that was great and our family and friends really liked it. Our family and friends often said they would buy our soap if we started selling it and that boost pushed us in launching The Merrill Soap Company. We often get asked “Where did the name “The Merrill Soap Company come from?” Merrill is actually Mario’s birth name. We started in September 2020, had a small pop up shop that year during the holidays., expanded our presence at the local farmers market in 2021 and other markets, By the time the holidays rolled around in 2021, we opened a pop up shop once again. After the second pop up shop was successful, we decided to open it permanently in February of 2022. We have since then added new products to our line and still add new stuff periodically.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Our main product is our hot process soap. We started as a cold process company, but quickly learned that our customer base loved the look of our hot process soaps more. We still do some cold process soap, but not much. Most soapers out there do a cold process and melt and pour. We do some melt and pour soaps as well so we can make designed molded soaps for special occasions like baby showers, wedding showers, birthdays, and many other occasions.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

We are a community driven based company. We get involved in different events in our community whether it be welcoming new teachers to town to volunteering for events and so much in between. We put ourselves out there and answer as many questions as we can about our business along the way.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Quality!! When we create a new product, we test it and if it’s not up to our personal standards, then we don’t launch it until it’s ready. We Pride ourselves on having a good product.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.themerrillsoapcompany.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themerrillsoapcompany?igsh=eDRibmNvbXB5d3Nz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MerrillSoapCompany?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits

Tim Doyle – store front photo