Today I read a really interesting story about a fellow soapmaker in Florida who has been on a bumpy ride lately. Here's an excerpt from the story published on http://www.baynews9.com.
"A Bay area family is taking a creative approach to keeping their struggling dream alive in the tough economy. Linda Nigro and her family run a soap-making business. Lately, it's been a struggle for the artist to keep her head above water.Last year, the family opened a shop on the sponge docks of Tarpon Springs. For a while, everything went well. But when the economy took a hit, so did their business, and they had to close up shop.The family tried to save money by moving the business into their home, but the unpaid bills kept piling up. "I got so burnt out," Nigro said. "I owed my landlord. I still do, about four or five months rent. I owe a lot of people."
She considered throwing it all away and starting again, but her son stepped in at that critical moment. He shared their story and asked the online community for help.
Within hours, the soap orders started to pour in, some from places as far away as Singapore."
The website that her son posted on is reddit.com. I hadn't heard of it before - still don't quite understand it, but wow - what an amazing story. When I read this, they had already received 400 orders. It does my heart good to see people pitch in and try to save this company. This kind of rush reminds me of when Midwest Living published an article about Soapourri in October 2006. The orders started pouring in in August and it kept up until February. And I'm still getting them from that article! Since Soapourri is a one-person shop, however, 400 orders would probably kill me!
When I was researching molds to buy a year ago, I contacted Linda Nigro for some advice and she was most gracious. I'm very happy for her that she has had this "life-line" thrown to her and hope it keeps up, as her soaps are very very lovely.
Hi Cindy
Thank you!!! for the post and also your kind words. I love helping others and was glad to help you in your quest for molds.
Linda
Posted by: Linda | June 26, 2009 at 10:53 AM