The question asked of me most often is without a doubt, “Where did the name, Big Fat Soap, come from?”  Let me begin by saying, naming a business is about as tricky as naming a child. It’s a big responsibility, because this business (or child, as the case may be) will likely have to suffer through the rest of its life with this moniker.

Like many folks, I’ve always had a fantasy of owning my own business; however my early soapmaking endeavors did not begin with a business in mind. I made soap because it was useful, fun, and creative. The problem was I could not seem to stop making soap.

With the abundance surrounding me and my family members, I began to give it away to everyone I came in contact with—the bank teller, the dental hygienist, my neighbors, and the UPS delivery man. It was truly the recipients of my soapy gifts who finally talked me into starting a soap business. They wanted more and they wanted to pay for it. Who am I to argue with folks begging me to sell them something? The decision was made in 2009 and the stepping off point was to choose a name and secure the domain for the future website.

There were several dozen ideas of meaningful names floating around in my head, but I hit a dead-end as I spent time searching for available domains. It turns out there are many other soapmakers out in the virtual world of soap-sellers. I knew that choosing the right name could be one of the keys to success in this new business of mine. I wanted my product to be a good value to my customers and knew my bars would be of a generous size—Big bars?  Big and fat bars?  Voila! Since the main ingredient of awesome handcrafted soap is oil (fat), it all simply clicked in my mind. Big Fat Soap.  It turns out the name is super easy to remember, too, which is a bonus.

There you have it–the birth of a brand.