A lot of business ideas sound good until you ask the boring questions, like, "How much does it cost to start?" and "Where do customers even come from?" This one surprised me because it's the opposite of complicated. A young mom named Ashley built a real home-based soap business that did $320,000 in 2025 revenue, and she started with about $400, no ads, and no business background.
What hooked me is how normal the beginning looks. Grocery store ingredients, a basic crock pot, a cheap immersion blender, and a lot of learning as she went. Then it scales, slowly at first, then all at once when social media kicks in.
How a new mom turned "cleaner soap" into a real business
Ashley didn't start with a grand plan. She had a baby, started reading ingredient labels, and didn't like what she saw in a lot of store-bought personal care products (especially fragrance and other chemical-sounding stuff). That kicked off the first experiments, just making soap at home for her family.
There's also the emotional side, and she's straight about it. Postpartum anxiety made her want to stay close to her daughter all the time. The idea of leaving for a job, even for a few hours, didn't feel doable. So soap wasn't just a hobby, it was a path to staying home.
"I just wanted to make a product that was better for my family."
What's also real here is she didn't come in as a "business person." She says she had no experience, and even now she still feels like she's figuring things out. Payroll, employees, taxes, all of it came later, and it came the way it does for most small operators, right when you have to deal with it.
A few of the changes she had to learn on the fly:
- She went from making soap for family to managing a small team.
- She learned payroll and tax paperwork as the business grew.
- She built systems slowly instead of trying to set up a "perfect" business on day one.
That pace matters, because it explains how she stayed debt-free while scaling.
The first customers came from one simple move (that she didn't even want to do)
This part made me laugh because it's so human. Ashley is shy, she wasn't trying to promote anything, but her husband started telling people she was making soap. Friends and family wanted to try it, so they gave bars away. Then people came back and wanted more.
The lightbulb moment wasn't some branding breakthrough. It was the first time someone handed her money.
Alt Text: Ashley explains how family and friends tried the soap first, then started paying for it.
That's when soap switched from "nice homemade thing" to "this might actually keep me home with my baby."
Startup costs: the real "under $400" breakdown
Ashley and the host walk through what you actually need to start. It's not fancy, and that's kind of the point. You can buy ingredients in small amounts, and you can buy equipment secondhand, but the video lays out a simple starter setup.
Here's the cost list they wrote out.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Molds | $20 |
| Crock pot | $30 |
| Coconut oil | $100 |
| Distilled water | $15 |
| Essential oils | $30 |
| Sodium hydroxide | $30 |
| Immersion blender | $25 |
| Olive oil | $100 |
| Misc (protective gear, spatulas) | $50 |
The takeaway is pretty clean: you're not blocked by money here, you're blocked by consistency, safety, and whether you'll actually stick with it.
If you want a more traditional checklist-style business setup (bigger picture than soap), a guide like how to start a soap business in 9 steps helps you think through selling, pricing, and channels without getting lost.
The grocery run that shows how simple the ingredients can be
They literally go to the grocery store and grab coconut oil and distilled water. Coconut oil was about $6.49, distilled water about $1.79 in the clip. Later they go get sodium hydroxide (lye), which is the piece most beginners forget.
And yeah, sparkling water does not count. Distilled water only.
If you're curious what Ashley sells and how her products look in the real world, her shop is here: Ashley's soap store and product line.
Equipment rules that save you from dumb mistakes
She keeps it simple:
- Any crock pot works, but don't use your food one, soap wears it down.
- An immersion blender makes a big difference for mixing.
- A scale matters more than people think, because the measurements have to be exact.
She also mentions sourcing gear from Facebook Marketplace. That's not glamorous, but it's how a lot of profitable home businesses get built, especially early on.
Soap making 101: the hot process batch they make on camera
They make "true soap" from scratch, not a melt-and-pour base. The three core ingredients in the demo are:
- Coconut oil
- Distilled water
- Sodium hydroxide (lye)
Sodium hydroxide is not optional if you're making soap from oils. It drives the chemical reaction (saponification) that turns oils into soap. Ashley says any bar that's "true soap" includes it, even though the finished bar won't behave like raw lye.
Safety and prep (this is the part to slow down on)
Ashley calls this out as the "be careful" section. The lye solution gets extremely hot, and you need proper safety gear and ventilation. Also, when mixing, use stainless steel or plastic rated for high heat. She warns against metals like aluminum because lye can react with them.
One more rule she repeats because it matters: always add sodium hydroxide to water, never the other way around, because you can cause a violent reaction (she describes it like a volcano).
Gotcha that ruins batches: people mess up the scale, or buy sodium hydroxide with other ingredients mixed in. It needs to be pure.
The hot process steps, from oil to "mashed potatoes"
This isn't presented like a lab class, it's more like cooking, and honestly that makes it easier to follow.
First, they weigh coconut oil (the demo shows 98 g) and start melting it in the crock pot. Ashley runs it on high because she wants speed.
Next, they weigh the distilled water. For hot process, she uses more water (she mentions 300 g) because the cook process drives water off and the mix thickens fast.
Then they weigh sodium hydroxide (132 g in the example) and mix it into the water in a well-ventilated area. The bowl heats up quickly, and you can feel that it's serious.
Alt Text: Sodium hydroxide is weighed and poured into distilled water while Ashley explains the heat reaction.
After that, they pour the lye solution into the oils, then mix. The texture goes through phases. Ashley describes it like this:
- It thickens fast and can turn into a solid-looking mass.
- Then it loosens into a paste.
- When it looks like mashed potatoes, it's basically ready to mold.
Finally, they scoop it into a mold. Ashley mentions you don't even need a real soap mold at first, you can use a cardboard box lined with parchment paper.
They get about 8 to 10 bars from that small batch, depending on how you cut it. She also says you should let it cool fully before cutting (they reference 12 to 24 hours to harden enough to slice).
A quick note on "types" of soap she sells
The video makes it clear Ashley doesn't just sell one bar. The big differences come from the base oils.
She highlights two popular ones:
- Sea salt soap (with sea salt, organic coconut oil, cocoa butter) for a hard bar and strong lather.
- Beef tallow soap (grass-fed tallow) for a creamier, gentler bar.
She also runs a soap-of-the-month club where she experiments with ingredients like milks, avocado, honey, oatmeal, and even watermelon juice. That part feels like the fun engine of the business, because it keeps regular customers curious.
If you want another structured view of the business side (not Ashley's specific story, just a broader playbook), this guide on starting a successful soap making business lays out the typical steps and what to plan for.
How she went from farmers markets to online orders that felt "unreal"
Ashley starts local. She signs up for free local farmers markets, brings her daughter, and baby-wears while selling. That matters because it matches her actual goal: stay with her baby, not build some flashy brand in a downtown storefront.
Then she starts posting on social media regularly. A couple months in, a video goes viral, and online orders start coming in.
She describes it as a weird moment because you're used to face-to-face selling, and suddenly money comes in through your phone.
There's a practical shift here too. At a market, you might reach 100 people in a day. Online, you can reach thousands, sometimes more. That changes the ceiling of the business.
Scaling up: the garage becomes a mini warehouse
This is where the visuals really hit. They walk into the production area and it's still on her property, basically a garage setup turned into a working shop.
Ashley breaks the space into three zones:
- Shipping area
- Curing racks in the middle
- Ingredients and equipment storage
She also shares her schedule, and it's the kind of thing only parents truly respect. If her baby is asleep, she can walk out at 4:00 a.m. and get hours of work done before the day starts. That's the hidden advantage of home-based operations, the commute is basically zero.
Big batch example: 80 bars at once
They show a slab mold batch that makes around 80 bars.
This bigger setup includes:
- A slab mold (she says about $300).
- A commercial immersion blender (she says around $300).
- A slab cutter and bar cutter setup (they mention about $1,000 for one cutter, and about $215 for the bar cutter).
And the soap looks… honestly, it looks like food. They do a tallow facial bar with activated charcoal design, tea tree and lemongrass essential oils, and aloe vera liquid instead of water. The marbling effect is made by coloring half the batter, then swirling it into the mold.
Consistency, surprisingly, is not the hard part. Ashley says once you have a recipe, you just multiply the ingredients for bigger batches.
Time is the real cost. She says making 1,000 bars with her current equipment takes about three days, and the bigger drain isn't mixing soap, it's cleanup and prep.
The curing, cutting, and finishing steps people forget
This part is easy to skip when you're daydreaming about sales, but it's where the product becomes "good" instead of "okay."
Ashley says the bars should cure for about a month for peak hardness and lather. After curing, her team may bevel edges (shaving them slightly) so the bar feels smoother on first use. Then they wrap and label.
Revenue, expenses, and how $320K breaks down
Ashley says the business did $320,000 in revenue in 2025.
She splits income into a few streams:
- $190,000 from physical products (soap plus shampoo and conditioner bars, and a few other items).
- The rest from online products and social monetization, including an online soap making course, recipe sales, brand deals, and platform monetization.
She also shares recent monthly numbers during a growth surge: earlier averages around $20,000 per month, then a $50,000 month, and then tracking around $43,000 for the next month.
Biggest monthly expense is payroll. Ashley says payroll runs about $12,000 to $14,000 per month (and she includes herself in payroll). She has three employees, one is her mom, plus two part-time helpers who label soap and ship orders. She doesn't handle shipping anymore, which frees her up for product work and content.
Shipping costs vary, but she puts it around $4,500 to $6,000 per month.
Pricing: she charged more at the start (and that's not a typo)
At the beginning, Ashley charged $14 per bar. Now she sells bars around $10 to $12 depending on the soap type.
Why did the price drop? Two reasons she gives:
- She buys base oils in bulk now (way cheaper than grocery store prices).
- She's much more efficient and can make 400 bars in a day.
She also mentions simple bundle deals like "buy three, get one free" because it pushes higher cart sizes without needing ads.
Marketing spend: $0, but a lot of posting
Ashley says she spends $0 on marketing, and growth comes from organic social media.
Her platform mix:
- Facebook (biggest): 450,000 followers (and growing fast)
- Instagram: about 190,000
- TikTok: about 190,000
- YouTube: 35,000 (mostly shorts)
Here's the quick snapshot from the clip.
| Platform | Followers (approx.) |
|---|---|
| 450,000 | |
| 190,000 | |
| TikTok | 190,000 |
| YouTube | 35,000 |
She posts around three times a day, and the content system is almost aggressively simple. She films what she's already doing, pouring soap, cutting bars, packing orders, then she edits the "money shots" and talks over the video.
Her best advice is also the one people hate hearing because it's true: stop overthinking and post. Early on, you have no data, so you throw things at the wall, watch what performs, and repeat.
She also says the hook is everything, not just the first line, but the opening shot and the words on screen. If you lose attention early, the rest doesn't matter.
If you're starting from scratch and want more formal tactics for selling online, this Shopify piece on how to make soap to sell gets into selling basics (including business and compliance topics) without getting too deep.
Fast Q&A highlights that are actually useful
The short Q&A segment is quick, but it reveals how Ashley thinks.
She says she stands out mainly by posting a lot and teaching soap making too, not just selling. That's important, because teaching becomes its own product line, and it also builds trust.
Her target audience is straightforward: people who want more natural ingredients in daily products.
Farmers markets get a clear yes as a starting point, because you get face time, feedback, and early sales without needing a big online setup.
Packaging is a balance. She wanted eco-friendly, but she also needed it to look good and be efficient for packing. Her current wrap uses coffee filters, tape, and a label band, then a quick glue-down.
Best part of the business? Being home with her family all the time. She also mentions it's truly a family operation. Her husband helps constantly, and even her 11-year-old was cleaning floors late at night during busy periods.
What I learned (and what I'd steal if I were starting today)
I've watched a lot of home-based business stories, and most of them skip the messy middle. This one doesn't. The thing I keep coming back to is how Ashley built a system that fits her life instead of building a life that fits a system.
The "no ads" part is cool, but it's not magic. It's volume, repetition, and being okay looking imperfect on camera. Three posts a day sounds wild until you realize she's filming work she already has to do, so the content is basically a byproduct of operations. That's such a clean loop.
Also, the pricing story hit me. Charging $14 early isn't greed, it's survival, because small batches cost more and take longer. Then she earns the right to drop prices by getting efficient and buying in bulk. That's the kind of boring, real math most people ignore.
And the final thing, honestly, is the "mashed potatoes" moment. Watching the soap transform in the pot makes the business feel tangible. Not abstract. Not hype. Just, do the steps, stay safe, keep posting, keep improving, and the results stack.
Conclusion: a simple home business idea, scaled the hard way
Ashley's story is proof that some of the best business ideas start small, stay practical, and grow because the owner keeps showing up. She began with a few ingredients, a crock pot, and the need to stay home with her baby, then she turned that into $320K in revenue by scaling production, building multiple income streams, and posting consistently without paid ads. If you're looking for a model that doesn't require a loan or a fancy setup, this one is about as real as it gets.
Image Credit: UpFlip YouTube