The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
For me, switching from balms, creams and pastes to solid versions of these products was my breakthrough moment. It gave me a point of difference in a highly competitive market, but it also challenged me creatively. All my formulas had to be reworked and tested.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
I try to treat the business as any other job, I have set hours that are put aside for work and the rest is set aside for play or chores. Sometimes they do overlap. My husband works away, however when he is home, I use this time to make up product and stockpile what I might need for the time while he is away.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
There are a lot of pros, including:
- Feeling fulfilled
- Doing our bit for humanity and our bit for the environment (we don’t need 1 person doing it perfectly; we need a hundred people doing it imperfectly)
- Low toxic lifestyle
- Increased health
- Learning
- Being at home
- Setting an example to our daughter
The cons include:
- Rejection
- Long, hot, dusty days at markets
- Products that don’t perform
- Set up cost vs profit
Hopes and dreams: What next?
Personally, my next goal is to give up my day job and do this full time.
As a team, we want to focus on being more sustainable. For us, that means being Certified Cruelty Free, Vegan, Palm Oil free and having more direct trading partnerships. We are currently working on Cruelty Free certification.
Our bars are currently wrapped in beeswax wraps, so to become Vegan certified this needs to change, and we are in the process of exploring alternatives.
Becoming palm oil free is still a work in progress. Suppliers we have contacted only supply in bulk and since we don’t have a huge turn over, it would expire before we could use it. We are continuing to put pressure on our current suppliers for more palm free options. We (as a community) will get there.
Visit the Whipped Earth website to view their full range of products. You can also join their communities on Facebook and Instagram.
