Your first year, month by month
Updated
The cure makes this craft's first year unusually predictable, so it is worth laying out.
Month one
Make a batch. Make two more with the same recipe, deliberately, rather than three different recipes.
Because the first useful skill is repeatability, and three variations teach you nothing about consistency.
Set up the cure rack properly now, labeled with batch and date, because the habit is hard to add later.
And settle the category question before you write a word of copy.
Months two and three
The first batch is ready. Use it yourself for a month before selling any of it.
Which sounds slow and is the fastest way to find out whether your superfat is right, whether the bar lasts, and whether the fragrance survived.
Meanwhile keep making, so the rack is filling while you learn.
Start the label work: identity, net quantity, business name, and the ingredient declaration if you are a cosmetic.
Months four to six
Register the business, get insurance, book a first market.
You now have enough stock to fill a table, which is why this is the point and not month two.
Take a small range rather than a large one: four or five scents sells better than twelve and is far less work.
And listen at the table, because the first market teaches you more about your range than any amount of planning.
The second half
Settle the range on what actually sold.
Print proper labels, now that you know what the range is, rather than reprinting three times.
Build stock ahead of the holiday season, which for this craft means starting in late summer because of the cure.
And approach a shop only when you can hold stock for a repeat order, which is the honest test of whether you are ready for wholesale.