Mary Corp is in the process of closing the little retail soap shop attached to her home on the Atwood/Ellsworth Road... ...In the current economic climate, this story's beginning sounds hauntingly familiar, to be tainted by crushed dreams, fractured hopes and ultimate failure.

"The sign out front announces "Store Closing", and informs passersby of deep discounts, hinting at a desperation seen often along Michigan's byways and described in business publications these days. "Peering through the door is more familiar and seemingly sad evidence. Fixtures and displays are not in their familiar tidy and appealing places. "Transition": a code word often used to disguise and soften more serious circumstances in business or in job searching.

Two things about Mary and her shop however, challenge what might otherwise seem to be yet one more indicator of the dire business environment of which we are reminded with endless repetitiveness.

"Sorry about the condition of the place," apologizes the owner. "We are in a bit of a transition."

First, when the door opens, it is not failure that is in the air. Fresh and honest aromas perk and comfort the senses. These are not the smells of anything bad. On the contrary, they are natural and even hopeful scents. Secondly is the open, smiling face of the store's proprietor, as she welcomes you into her world of comfort and clean. Someone in denial possibly? A well-meaning merchant who gave a small business her best shot and is now resolved to accept her fate? A person to pity, hiding the fact that her heart and soul just were not enough to make a go of it in the cold cruel world? "Not this time," is the real message of this crafty and skilled entrepreneur and her surroundings. "Not this time!" "We have to close the shop, expand for more room and get ready for production on a wholesale scale," explains Mrs. Corp.

The little "Soaps N' Such" shop on the Breezeway just outside of Atwood has been an outlet for loyal customers who have a clean addiction to the goat's milk soap Mary has produced out of her kitchen, but also to the many choices of soap bars she has made that are pure, made only of natural ingredients. Circumstances have changed. The goat's milk soap will still be available, but the focus will now be on a product that has hit it big, and has the promise to get bigger. It is a laundry soap bar. Stores want it. Mary's shop is closing because of success. The story causes her to pause and share, "Things happen for a reason. We are amazed at how things have come together."

"On this day, the website promoting the new laundry bar was to go up that will support new sales that have already been ignited."Mary and her family are geared up for a demand they are forecasting to be as high as 4,000 bars per week. Mary mused, "The day is here." (she pauses and continues) "Sometimes I wonder, what did I do?" Consider the fate that has paved this path. 12-13 years ago, Mary began experimenting with soap making in her kitchen. She credits the teachings of a friend. "Things went pretty well, and six years ago one of our daughters suggested making it a legitimate business. We hit the craft shows, and people seemed to like the product.

"We then took a leap of faith and added on." Along came the goat's milk introduction. "Two and a half years ago, Ken and Nancy Patton popped in and just happened to mention that they had goats, and had all this milk. I did a little research and experimented. It turns out that the pH of goat's milk is the same as human skin and people really like it. The happenstance of Patton's popping in lead to a pretty successful product." The soapy soliloquy does not end there however. Mary continued. "About a year ago, a lady stopped into our shop because she was lost, and just happened to see our sign along the road." "The lady was (and is) Linda Longworth. She and her husband own and operate a lavender farm near Horton Bay. A lavender lady happens into a soap shop, purely by accident. "This lavender lady has a keen marketing sense. There was talk. There was brainstorming. There was product development. A lavender-laced laundry bar emerged, and by August, a formal meeting took place between the two and their support teams. The result, Mary summarized, "We thought it was good enough that we could take the product nationwide." They have.

Why laundry soap? Why now? Mary responded, "I think people are tired of all the additives and plastics that are used in laundry products now. The bar works as a stain remover, but it is all natural. It will probably last at least five years depending on how often it is needed. For some, it could last a lifetime." "So, the store is closing because "The day is here". It is a good, good thing this time. Mary emphasizes the support of her family in this success. "I can't thank my kids and my husband Al enough. Anything I needed or proposed was supported by them. They have been very involved."

... The soap bar can be found on the laundry soap aisle at Olsen's right now. For her goat's milk soap customers, there will always be a corner for them in the new office at 9096 Atwood Rd.

The Laundry Bar: a clean success built on a natural bubble of inevitability.

Reprinted with permission from Laundry Bar Could be a Clean Winner for Local Business Woman Friday, 24 April 2009 14:21 by Jeffray N Kessler