Liquid soap is one of those products people cannot do without. In fact, it is second nature to need liquid soaps every now and then. Like food, liquid soaps are one of the essential commodities in unending demand in various households, businesses, organizations, etc. Everyone, notwithstanding social, economic or political status, needs liquid soaps for purposes befitting of the demand for it.
As long as humans continue to exist on this planet, the need for soap will never diminish or evaporate. Soaps serve everyone and there is no faulting anyone who chooses to go into liquid soap production. Liquid soap production is a business that already has an already-made market for your goods. All you need is take your products to the open arms of your target markets. Starting a liquid soap production business in Nigeria should be one of your “must dos” right now. With as little as #10,000, you can start this business and grow it to the level of your dreams.
Liquid soap is fast replacing detergents in Nigeria. Since the advent of liquid soap, detergent producers have found it uneasy coping with the competition. This is as a result of the fact that liquid soap is fast gaining grounds for laundry and dish washing. Liquid soap has several advantages over traditional soaps and detergents. Thus, its preference for laundry and dish washing by most Nigerians. Since the advent of liquid soap in Nigeria, several skill acquisition centers have incorporated liquid soap making into their curricular. The proliferation of several small scale liquid soap production companies are understandable.
Even with the Advent of liquid soap production companies and with a vast majority coming from small scale backyard liquid soap factories, the market is not yet saturated and can never be. This is because people will never stop washing their dishes and doing laundry. This means that the demand for liquid soaps or any other type of washing agents can only increase and never decrease because as long as people live on the face of the earth, they must continue to wash. If they must wash, they need a washing agent of which the liquid soap is one of such.
“The Must-Knows” in Liquid Soap Production
Before we go into guidelines or steps to starting a profitable liquid soap production business, you must take note of certain things about liquid soap production. This is for safety purposes. Enumerated below are very important facts you should know about liquid soap production:
1. Measure chemicals well before application. You are not encouraged to over-apply chemicals.
2. Some of the chemicals used in liquid soap production is hazardous to human health. You will do well to keep these chemicals away from the reach of minors and unsuspecting people.
3. Treat chemicals used for your production with the delicacy of holding an egg.
4. Make sure the color is completely dissolved before mixture.
5. Follow guidelines religiously without season.
Guidelines on How to Start a Liquid Soap Production Business in Nigeria
Here we are! Below are detailed steps on how to start producing your own liquid soap according to eentrepreneur.ng:
Step One: Draft A Business Plan
An investor can predict the success or failure of your business just by reading your business plan. As the name implies, a business plan contains detailed information on how you intend to run your business. It includes thorough feasibility studies and marketing strategies you want to explore. In addition to that, you must be able to expressly state the goals and objectives of your business, your target audience, competitive advantage, financial projections, and the likes.
Usually, an aspiring entrepreneur that takes his/her time to draft a detailed business plan will most likely do better than those who don’t. Furthermore, with your business plan, you can approach any venture capitalist or investor for funding.
Step Two: Register Your Business With CAC
CAC is an acronym for the Corporate Affairs Commission, the recognized body in charge of business registrations in Nigeria. Registering your business makes you an authority in your business and prospective customers see a registered business as trustworthy and reliable. Basically, all you need for your business registration is your valid ID card, personal details, passport photograph, and signature. To start, visit CAC’s website to check for the availability of your chosen name. This is because there is a likelihood that your desired business name has been registered by someone else.
There are two types of registration you can go for. You can either register a business name or as a limited liability company. The price for a business name is lesser than that of a limited liability company. For an easier approach to registering your business, pay someone to carry out the registration for you. One of the firms you can trust is ReDahlia, located at 43B, Emina Crescent Off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos. For them, your location is not a barrier as you can send them your details via email and your certificate will be delivered to your location once it is ready.
Step Three: Get A Space For Your Liquid Soap Business
This step is optional if you are starting on a small scale. Liquid soap business can be done from the comfort of your home and you can package it and sell it to your customers. But, if you are starting on a large scale, you may need to rent a facility for your production. In addition, if you plan to sell as a wholesaler, running the business from home will not be professional and appropriate. Besides, not everyone should have access to your home. Except, of course, you intend to produce the soap in your home and deliver it to the retailers yourself.
Step Four: Get The Liquid Soap Ingredients
The next thing to do is to purchase your liquid soap ingredients. At this point, it is important to get the right proportion of ingredients as that will go a long way to tell on the quality of your liquid soap. Basically, the required materials are mostly chemicals. This is why you need a nose mask when producing your liquid soap.
Here is the list of ingredients needed to begin:
1. Sulphoric Acid
2. Caustic Soda
3. Soda Ash
4. Nitrosol
5. Texapon
6. SLS (Sodium laurate sulphate)
7. STTP (sodium tripolyphophate sulphate)
8. Perfume
9. Formalin
10. Colorant
11. Water
If your business location is in Lagos, the best place to get these ingredients is Ojota Market. There, you can tell them the litres you want to produce and they will give you the accurate measurement you need. In addition, you will also need to get the materials mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Step Five: Produce Your Liquid Soap
Once you have the required ingredients and materials, the next step is to begin the production process. Here, you will learn the procedures for producing 20litres of liquid soap and the required measurements.
The ingredients are:
1. Sulphonic acid – 1 litre
2. Caustic Soda – 1/3 tin milk cup
3. Soda ash – 1/2 tin milk cup
4. Nitrosol – 1 tin milk cup
5. Texapon – 5-6 teaspoonful
6. STTP – 6-6 teaspoon
7. Perfume – as desired
8. Formalin – 5-6 teaspoon (optional)
9. Colorant – as desired
10. Water – 19 litres
Method of Preparation
1. Get 1 litre of water and soak the caustic soda in it for 30minutes or more to ferment. Alternatively, you can soak the caustic soda overnight as that will make the soap glitter.
2. Dissolve the Soda Ash in 1 litre of water for 1hour or more
3. Get a big bowl, then turn the sulphonic acid into it. Also, add texapon and perfume into it. Pour 3 or 4 litres of water into the mixture and stir very well for 10 minutes.
4. Dissolve STTP with 2 tin of milk cup water and stir
5. Get a separate bowl and dissolve SLS into it with 2 tin of milk cup of water and stir
6. Get a bigger bowl that can contain all the separate mixtures, then turn nitrosol into it and 4 to 5 litres of water. In place of Nitrosol, you can use antisol but antisol requires two days soaking before use.
7. After the Nitrosol dissolves, turn the dissolved sulphonic acid, texapon and perfume into it and stir vigorously
8. Add the dissolved caustic soda into the mixture and stir
10. Pour the dissolved soda ash and stir
11. Add the dissolved STTP and stir
12. Pour the dissolved SLS and stir properly
13. Add 5 teaspoonful of formalin and stir
14. Dissolve your color in water and add to the mixture
15. Leave the mixture for some hours for the foams to disappear before packaging it
Step Six: Package Your Liquid Soap
The packaging is very important in this type of business as that is what will differentiate you from the saturated liquid soap market. You will need to purchase plastic bottles of different sizes. The prices of the bottles differ depending on the size and design you go for. If you are starting on a small scale, you could begin with used pet bottles and reuse them just like many people do.
Thereafter, you can begin to purchase special bottles, then print a label that’ll be wrapped on it. Importantly, if you are producing on a large scale, you will need to get a NAFDAC registration number. Else, your production process can be halted or your products banned from circulation. But, if you are producing for personal use, you may not need to deal with NAFDAC.
Step Seven: Promote Your Business
There are recognized liquid soap brands Nigerians have come to trust. If you want them to look past those brands and choose yours, you will need to do a lot of marketing plus the branding you’ve done in step six. One of the strategies you can employ to invade the market is to use the price penetration strategy. Obviously, the liquid soap business is profitable. You can make N15,000 from N5,000 liquid soap production.
Therefore, you can reduce your price and approach supermarket owners to resell for you. Also, advertise to everyone in your neighbourhood and encourage them to tell their friends about your product. Preferably, offer them a commission in return. That will motivate them to refer their friends.
Furthermore, take advantage of online stores like Jumia, Konga, Etsy, etc. Create an account with these platforms and reach your audience through them. One important thing to note is that the quality of your soap will either draw prospective customers or send them away. Therefore, take time to produce quality soap and ensure it’s not watery.
Other Ways to Market your Liquid Soap
1. Create social media presence (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.).
2. Give freebies to prospective customers.
3. Connect with intending couples and event planners to suggest your product to them as gift items.
4. Place an advert on local newspapers.
5. Share handbills and flyers.
6. Reach out to hotels and restaurants for supplies.
Materials Needed for Liquid Soap Production
As a liquid soap producer, below are some of the materials you should have handy:
1. Measuring cup(s)
2. Bowls
3. Tablespoons
4. Hand gloves
5. Containers
6. Labels
7. Ingredients
8. Stirring rods
9. Nose masks
Conclusion
Liquid soap production requires care, dedication, seriousness and continuity. You cannot continuing keeping your customers starved of your liquid soap products. If and when that happens, they would definitely seek out other suppliers. Before you know it, you are put of business. Liquid soap production business is a business that requires that you are always on top of your game; no excuses.
Liquid soap production is a lucrative business and does not require you do too much. As long as you abide by the commandments of liquid soap production, you will definitely make fortunes before long. With little capital, you can start a liquid soap production business. It does not require much capital or even labor. It requires mostly the focus and dedication of the originator of the business.
