The first person you pay

In this craft the first hire is almost never a soap maker.

What you hire for first

Wrapping and labeling, because it is the labor that scales per bar and it is the easiest to hand over.

Then markets, which is a whole day of somebody's time and does not require them to make anything.

Then packing and shipping.

Making the soap is the last thing to hand over, because it is the part with the hazard and the part the brand rests on.

Employee or contractor

Whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor is determined by the working relationship rather than by what the agreement calls them.

Someone working in your space, on your schedule, with your equipment, doing your core work looks like an employee under that analysis.

Getting this wrong carries back pay, tax and penalty exposure, and it is a common small-business error.

The Department of Labor publishes the factors; read them against the actual arrangement rather than the intended one.

What changes when you have staff

Payroll, withholding and workers' compensation, which is a state obligation.

Your insurance, which needs to know.

And the written process, which stops being optional: a second person cannot make your soap from a recipe in your head.

Which is why the consistency work pays for itself at exactly this point.

Training for the caustic

Anyone who will be near lye needs the hazard information, the safety data sheet, the protective equipment and the first-aid procedure before their first batch.

That is a hazard communication obligation where it applies, and it is basic care regardless.

Document that you did it, with a date and a signature.

And keep the sheets where the work happens, not in a folder somewhere.

References