With a desire to provide her loved ones with eco-friendly products, Melissa began making soap for her own family and eventually it turned into a business she named Concord Soap. She loves to convert “commercial soap buyers” into becoming “handmade soap addicts.” She says once you have tried handmade soap, you’ll never buy commercial again, and you’ll even be converting everyone you know.

Melissa has lots of friends on Zibbet Community. You can meet up with her on her Community Page and also in any of the three groups she belongs to: Zibbet Bath & Beauty, Bath and Body Goodies and U.S. Zibbeters.

You can follow Melissa on Twitter and her blog. Also check out her Flickr for many inspiring photos to get some great eco-friendly gift ideas.

Join me as we visit with Melissa in the countryside where she lives with her family in an eco-friendly house.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself?

   Hi there! My name is Melissa and I am the founder of The Concord Soap Company. I am 38 years old. My husband & I just celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary and our daughter just turned 10…woohoo…double digits! We live out in the country surrounded by woods and lots of wildlife in Northeast Ohio.

2. Apart from being ‘creative’ what do you do?

   Like many other Moms, I chauffeur my daughter from one activity to another until we’re both exhausted! In our spare time, we are working feverishly to finish our basement ourselves. We are probably 75% done, with the remainder being my Soap Room! I am looking forward to having my very own kitchen, workroom & office in the basement! I think ALL of us are looking forward to soap production moving to the basement & out of the family kitchen!

3. What inspires you to do the kind of work you do?

   My husband and I became interested in living as environmentally friendly as we could once we started our family. We are avid recyclers and are always trying to lessen our impact on the environment in as many ways as possible. We used cloth diapers on our daughter, carry our cloth bags when shopping, drive a hybrid car and just built our eco-friendly house! I have always been immersed in many different crafts. (usually all at once!) The blending of our natural living and my passion for crafts resulted in my interest in making handmade, natural soap for my new family. I began by making cold-process soap and then added other bath and body items to give out as holiday gifts. As you can guess, it snowballed from there! After many experiments and trials, I selected my favorite recipes and began my business adventure!

4. Do you look up to anyone? Who? Why?

   My biggest inspiration has always been my grandfather. His life was a real rags-to-riches story. His ambition and drive were, and still are, inspiring to me. I like to think I get my strong work ethic from him. He was one of my earliest supporters & always loved to brag to anyone who would listen about how much he loved my soap! It’s been difficult since losing him a couple years ago, but I am comforted by the thought of him looking over me & my business. My husband comes in a close second to grandpa. Josh has a great business mind & is wonderful to bounce ideas off of when needed. He is always there to give me a little push, a pep talk, stick labels on soap or even work craft shows!

5. What other passions do you have in your life?

   My family is my biggest passion. I love supporting them. I love being a mother & watching my daughter grow, mature & succeed. We love to do anything as long as we are doing it together even if it is mudding/taping/sanding drywall! (yuck!) One passion that we enjoy is traveling. We’ve been on some amazing trips and seen some awesome sites! Josh & I have traveled internationally as well as many hiking trips where we roughed it for days & days. We now enjoy sharing our passion for traveling with our daughter. We are looking forward to taking her to our favorite hiking spots near Moab, Utah very soon.

6. What do you like most about Zibbet?

   I LOVE the ease of listing items at zibbet. The process is streamlined very nicely.  I also love that there are no listing fees here.

7. What ‘new’ things would you like to see added to Zibbet?

   I am happy that the community area has been added…it’s an awesome addition! I think the major issue right now with zibbet is just that it needs to bring in shoppers. I know this takes time & I am happy to be here to watch it take off!

8. How do you promote your work?

   I like to hang out in the Community area whenever I can get some free time & have joined some Groups. I love chatting with fellow artisans & have met some great people! I try to list new things often. I add my zibbet shop link to my biz cards, newsletters, brochures and anywhere else I can! I have a blog (that I don’t update as often as I should) and all the other goodies like Twitter, Flickr, Project Wonderful, etc.  I sell my goodies at local craft shows, Etsy, my own website, as well as Zibbet.

9. How would you recommend other Zibbeters make the most of Zibbet.com?

   I like to do lots of research, but that’s me. Browse around the site, check out your competitors, ask lots of questions…then dive in & be as active as possible! Zibbet has a lot to offer sellers as well as buyers! There is some amazing talent here!

10. In the future I’d like to be…

    … able to have an employee or two to ‘watch the store’ while I get some more travel time in with the family! And in the near future, I am hoping to grow my wholesale accounts, especially locally.

Tags: Concord Soap, Featured Zibbeters