A job well done The Soap Co
Camilla Marcus-Dew is co-founder of The Soap Co, a luxury skincare brand that ‘is good and does good’
People talk about ‘businesses for good’, one day I hope we’ll just say ‘businesses’. The Soap Co came out of some work I did on a project about bridging the gap between charity and business, at Clarity, which has a soap factory just outside London. They were established in 1854, to provide jobs for people with disabilities and serious health conditions. I worked on everything from the creative to developing the products. The first soaps came off the production line just four months later. Listening to what people want is vital. Customers were telling us that they didn’t want us to compromise on social and environmental considerations. They wanted a new range that would be natural, organic, and environmentally friendly. Our customers helped lead our ethics. Work backwards. We learned this the hard way: we’d spend months developing a product, only to find that the ingredients weren’t vegan, or what we wanted them to be, after all, then have to step back and start again. There’s so little transparency in our industry. Now we ask what we want to write on the label and then figure out how to make that happen. It means the environment isn’t an afterthought.
The best way to tell our story is to keep
our doors open. The doors are always open at the factory. We used to get a couple of visitors a week, now we get them on a daily basis. I love to give the tours myself – it’s so nice to meet people and creates real advocates for our soap and how special it is.
Everyone brings something to the job. It’s just a matter of stopping and listening and finding out how. One of my favourite things is interviewing people with disabilities who are out of work, and working out how we could support and work with them. It’s
mutually beneficial. They’ve chosen to work, and I love helping them with that step towards independence.
You really can’t do it on your own. I’ve tried! In our launch phase, we worked with Digital Mums – an organisation that trains mums in social media – there’s no way I could have done it alone. We also get some help pro bono on publicity, for example, and making our videos for YouTube. But it’s vital that you trust your team. If you hire them, you have to think they’re amazing and then trust them. Even if there are a few mistakes along the way, you’ll know that the general direction is good.
You can’t please everyone if you want to
move things forward. If you do, you are just going to dilute what you make or do and won’t stand out. Don’t compromise on those things that are important to you.
Recognise the worth of the positive
moments. We had a meeting with a department store. We’re not ready yet to supply them, but just seeing them being so excited about what we do was amazing. And we were featured by This Morning recently, and you could see the immediate impact on orders. Every time we take on a new member of staff, we’re growing by one in the right direction. It’s helping us improve opportunities for people with disabilities in a larger way.
When you’re proud of what you do, you
want to share it with the world. I used to hate public speaking, now I love standing up and speaking about what I do. What we’re doing as a luxury brand is unique. I’m honoured to be able to tell its story.