We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Rehmann recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

The whole thing started in our kitchen in 2017 when I made my first batch of soap. I decided I wanted to learn how to make soap and give the soap as Christmas gifts that year. I was so proud of the way they turned out, I posted a picture of them on Facebook. Messages started rolling in asking if I was selling them. I decided, “why not?”. A little side hustle would be good for me!

First, I filled up a small desk with curing soaps, and eventually, our entire dining room table was filled with curing soaps (that needed to sit there for 4 weeks). We decided it would be nice to have our dining room table back so we bought a tall wire rack to store them. At that time, a friend offered to build me a website and would take soap as trade! In the meantime, I was selling soap on Facebook to family and friends.

Once the website was built, I slowly began to sell soaps to people I didn’t even know which was super exciting! I was constantly receiving good feedback which just fueled my passion to keep going! Eventually, we transformed our spare bedroom into a soap studio. We went from one wire rack to five. We sold the furniture in our now soap room to make space for a soaping table and office desk. We crammed everything we could in this room!

A new store was coming to town and they reached out looking to sell some locally made products. They wanted to carry my soaps! I started to see the potential to take the business further and started looking for more wholesale accounts. I was lucky enough, through the owner of the store we were in, to attend our first trade show. That was huge for us! We added 20 stores to our list of wholesalers from that one show.

It didn’t take long to outgrow the room in our house. For the next four years, the business spilled into almost every room of our house. Another spare room was filled with stacks of totes. Our dining room became the office/shipping department. The dining room table became our office desk/packaging area. Our living room became storage for our wholesale packaging. Every space in between was utilized in some way for the business. We joke we were just living in our soap studio. Something had to give!

Each year, we attend trade shows which grow our business but we were out of room to grow in our house. We decided instead of leasing a space for the soap business, we would build one on our property. We already needed a garage so decided we would dedicate half of the space to the business. As much as working out of our home had started to get uncomfortable and stressful, we also really loved being there. It seemed like the perfect move. Since we didn’t have a lot of capital to start with, we took our time and chipped away at the building process. After nearly two years, we were ready to move in!

Because we had run the business from our home for so many years, we had lots of ideas about how to make our process more efficient. We went from doing all the soap dishes in our kitchen sink, to a large commercial 3 basin sink. We built tons of shelves and drawers for storage, filled the space with several stainless work tables, and purchase our base oils in large drums instead of buckets. Everything about our process has improved and become more efficient. Time is money and anything you can do to save time is worth investing in! We are always improving and making changes. This year will be our first full year in the new space. Our plan is to outgrow it and keep improving. I think learning different ways to scale up has been the most fun part of running this business. It’s so rewarding to see your dreams and ideas come to fruition. When a problem arises, there’s always a solution. Never give up. Your dreams are within reach if you just go for it.

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 husband and I moved from Grand Rapids, MI to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2013 in search of a new and exciting way of life. We lived in Raleigh for four years where we both excelled in our careers in the restaurant industry. We got married in the mountains of North Carolina in 2017 and decided we loved it there so much that we basically never left. We purchased an 11 acre property outside of a small mountain town. We wanted to live a more sustainable life. We started organic gardening and learning about native plants and just fully immersing ourselves in the land around us. We knew we wanted to start a business eventually with sustainability at the forefront. After making my first batch of soap for Christmas gifts in 2017, this fun hobby slowly grew into something special. In 2022 my husband Eric was able to quit his job to help continue growth for our business.

Unfortunately, we as humans are surrounded with toxic chemicals in our everyday lives. It seems almost unavoidable. From processed foods, bath and body products, to cleaning supplies, and even the water we drink has been linked to devastating diseases and cancers. I became more passionately aware about this after my mother died from a long battle with breast cancer in 2016. I knew if I was going to start a business, I didn’t want to contribute to this epidemic of toxicity.

We want to help our customers make the switch to healthy, plastic free products. We make plant based, palm oil free soaps, lotion bars, balms, shampoo, dish soap, and more that are all free from synthetic chemicals. We use high quality natural ingredients that are familiar and that you can pronounce! What you use on your skin is just as important as what you eat. Your skin being the largest organ of your body absorbs what you put on it. All commercial soaps you find in stores are hardly soap, rather detergents with cleaning agents, foaming agents, synthetic preservatives, and more. Plastic bottle lotions are more about the plastic bottle, water, and loads of chemicals rather than true skin health. Even many handmade soaps and lotions still use synthetic colorants, and artificial fragrances to make them more appealing to consumers. We want better for our customers. We are proud of every product we make and know our customers appreciate a better alternative for themselves and their families. Goodness is contagious. We are hopeful for the future as more and more people decide to steer away from this toxic world created and move towards a better, healthier way of life.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

We’ve always focused on organic growth and getting our faces in front of our customers. We didn’t want to grow faster than we could handle and make any promises we could not fulfill. I originally started selling soaps to family and friends, then people in town, then people through our website, and then markets and festivals, and eventually trade shows. The best way we’ve been able to grow our clientele has been through markets and festivals. It’s very rewarding seeing your customers face to face, seeing their reactions to our products, and getting real feedback from them. Being able to build relationships with our customers face to face has grown our amount of loyal customers who return to us time and time again.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My initial capital was the $200 that I invested in all the supplies I would need to make 40 soaps. After gifting some and selling the rest, I had enough money to buy more ingredients I needed to make more batches. Since I already purchased the bowls, mixer, and safety equipment I needed, I only needed to purchase more ingredients. The more money I made from selling the soaps, the more I could start to invest in ways to improve the process and make more soap in less time. From better soap cutters to more soap molds, every step of the way was funded by the batch before. It was a slow and steady way to grow but starting with very little capital, I made it work.

We knew as the business grew there would be a time we would need to take out a business loan. Once we built our new soap studio, we were able to get financing to outfit the building with all the equipment, shelving, tables, etc. that we would need. I’m glad we waited as long as we did to seek additional funding. We had already established a strong customer base, knew our process through and through, and had a clear vision of growth moving forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cullowheegeefarms.com
• Instagram: @cullowheegee_farms
• Facebook: Cullowheegee Farms

Image Credits
Andrea Nyberg