Who or what is your inspiration in business?

My inspiration comes from helping people who struggle with both skin sensitivities and with finding clean skin care products. After seven years from starting my “hobby” I now have a shoe box full of thank you notes of these accounts. It’s also been very rewarding to have some of the skeptics come around tallow has now earned a spot on the skin care ingredient stage.

How do you stay motivated?

Everyday I think about the first bars of soap I made in our garage. The soap was just going to be for my husband and I, and I committed to using only the best ingredients. Then as I learned more about skin care, I wanted to make it for our family and friends too. As my business has grown, I’ve continued to make every product with the same single thought I started with; to use only the very best, clean ingredients, just as I did when those first bars were only for my husband and I.

What would you do with the $25,000?

On Christmas Eve I got the keys for THE BAR ABOVE’s first warehouse space! Last week I was beyond overwhelmed with the thought of moving the business out of our home, but am now “all in” and so excited for this next chapter. The $25K would be SO helpful with packaging expenses (ordering larger quantities would cut my cost by 50%), an automatic labeling machine for the jars (do it by hand now), and also some cushion for all the unknowns as I brought on my first part time employe