Donagh Quigley, founder of The Handmade Soap Company
What sets your business apart from rivals?
The fact we make everything ourselves and present all our products in a fun and exciting manner. If I was to describe our brand I’d say it was Little House on the Prairie meets Paris somewhere north of Dublin.
We make soap, bubble bath, body butter, lip balm and shower gel, and the ingredients we use are natural. The quality of our product is very high too. For example, our soap is extremely moisturising. That was the one thing that always annoyed me about soaps – that they weren’t – as I suffer from dry skin.
What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in business?
I’ve made loads of mistakes. Growing a brand is all about trial and error. You just have to hope your mistakes don’t cost you too much. It took us a while to learn who we really were in the market.
We are constantly improving our packaging. In the early days, we brought out a bubble bath in a tall statuesque bottle. It looked beautiful. The bottle was too tall to fit on shop shelves though, which we hadn’t anticipated. We had to shrink it to a 250ml size.
What has been your major success to date?
Being able to grow a new business despite the ever-worsening recession. We now export nearly 50 per cent of our products, mainly to Japan, Scandinavia, Britain and the United States.
I used to be a roof thatcher. I was thatching roofs right up until 2009, and then my business started to feel the ill-effects of the downturn, so I turned to my hand to soap-making.
I first began selling soaps at Christmas craft fairs in 2009 and we sold out. The business has continued to grow ever since and we are now stocked in 90 retailers throughout Ireland, including Avoca, Carraig Donn and the Kilkenny Store.
Who would you admire most in business and why?
Steve Jobs for the way he created functional products that are beautifully designed. Aesthetically pleasing technology gained mainstream acceptance because of him. We also present a functional product – soap – in a beautiful manner. It’s clichéd but I also admire Michael O’Leary for his brashness. That said, I learn as much from my father-in-law as the headline names, so I’d have to say I admire him too.
What would you say has been your biggest challenge?
Managing growth. We’ve proved we have no problem selling our product. We now have to manage our growth. You can only grow 300 per cent a year if you can finance that growth.
Do you think the banks are open for business to SMEs at the moment?
It’s tough raising capital. You need to present a credible business plan. Obtaining a loan is definitely a lot tougher than it was two or three years ago. I have to be careful what I say though, as I’m currently involved in talks with the bank!
What piece of advice would you give to the Government to stimulate the economy?
Capital is really hard for everyone to access, especially SMEs. If the Government could do something to alleviate that problem, it would be very positive.
The best advice I ever received is: “It will take twice as long as you think and it will cost twice as much”. The Government should bear that in mind too.
How do you see the short-term future of your business?
To upscale production facilities. We’re still launching new products so we must consolidate them. Britain will take a lot of our attention in the next 12 months. We currently supply high-end retailers in Britain such as Selfridges, Fenwicks and Bloomsbury. We want to increase the number of shops we are listed with over there.
What’s your business worth and would you sell it?
How long is a piece of string? I wouldn’t sell it as my blood, sweat and tears went into it. That said, I never say never, so who knows in the future?
In conversation with
PAMELA NEWENHAM
