Belham Herbals: Help Us Grow!

Belham Herbals  is the small business dream of Michael & Lacy Putnam, a married couple native to Brunswick & the Golden Isles. We are a small, family company that creates handmade bath & body care items, and we specialize in soapmaking . We aren’t just your typical farmers-market-soap-makers – our products can currently be found in over two dozen stores around the country  and we’re adding new shops every week. We are dedicated to eco-friendly iideals, and very consciously source sustainable, cruelty-free ingredients and recycled packaging for all of our products. We aim to support other small businesses and local suppliers - many of our ingredients are sourced from nearby farmers or growers right here in Georgia. 

We also firmly believe in giving back to our community, and starting in June 2018, each month we are dedicating a portion of our profits to a different local charity or organization, so that we can make the world a better place, together, starting here in our very own home.  Our goal is to grow this little soap business into a way to support our family, and spread our handcrafted, Glynn County-made, Georgia-grown products all over. We hope to soon become profitable enough to begin creating jobs right here in our own community. We're definitely making progress – but we need your help. 

Here’s where you come in!

We recently acquired a new workshop space to help scale up our soap production. We’ve been operating our business out of our home, but growing demand for our products has created a need for more space, a little more equipment, a few supplies, and some needed updates to our brand as a whole, to help us grow and become more competitive as a national brand. Our business is still modest in its revenue, and because of its size, it is not eligible for many loans that other small businesses may qualify for, so we need a little assistance to help us take a few steps towards expansion. Our new location will be used as a production space, a place for local orders to be picked up, and eventually a venue for soapmaking classes and demonstrations! Here’s what we need! We are raising money for some very specific needs for our business.

Here’s what you can expect your donations to be used towards:

Build-Outs & Equipment for our new production facility: $1300

Our space is ready for move in, but not quite ready for production. We are installing a sink, laying tile, adding shelving, curing racks, tables, and a few mats, all very important necessities for soapmaking! These supplies are absolutely critical to our business growth and success, and we need them as soon as possible.

If we meet our goal, we have other needs that we're working towards:

Raw Materials & Supplies: $2600
Bulk materials to create our products will help us get ahead in production. Soap takes 4-6 weeks from the time of production until it can be sold; we hope to order bulk supplies for maximum cost efficiency, but we must wait several weeks before we can expect to make a profit. We are also hoping to update our packaging and labels to make our company more efficient, professional, and competitive.

Fees/Licenses/Rent: $1100
A single month of rent and utilities will help us to expand and build more comfortably, while business fees and licenses associated with changing locations will help offset our expansion costs. This is the least vital of our needs, but will greatly help with our cash-flow needs during our move. 

We need you! We’ve already come up with the funds to move into our new location, but we are hoping to raise this money by the end of July to really help get us off the ground and working hard as soon as possible!  We would be nowhere without the support of our community. Growing a new business really does take a village of supporters, including customers, friends, family, fellow creatives and makers, legal assistance, and even babysitters. We are hoping our amazing network of friends, customers, family, and supporters will help us get to where we need to be! We will greatly appreciate any support you can give; every dollar counts. And if you can’t give but you want to help? Please just share our cause, or keep supporting our business just like you always do. Even if we don’t meet our goals, every dollar we raise will put us a step closer to making this soap company a success.  


What you get:

We've got special surprises in store for all of our supporters!

$1-20: You'll receive a social media shout-out, a spot on our Donor's List, and a coupon code for 25% off your next purchase, either online, farmer's market, or by local pick-up at our new location.  

$25: You'll get a special Golden Isles Bath Gift Set in one of our best-selling Coastal Collection scents, complete with a bar of our very own handcrafted soap, a locally produced wooden soap dish, and locally made bamboo/cotton washcloth.

$50: You'll receive a Golden Isles Bath & Body Set in one of our best-selling Coastal Collection scents, complete with a bar of our very own handcrafted soap, a bottle of our handmade lotion, a locally produced wooden soap dish, and locally handmade bamboo/cotton washcloth.

OR: 

Have you ever wanted to learn to make soap? Donate now, and you'll get to attend an exclusive Introduction to Soapmaking Demonstration,, open only to our donors. We'll demonstrate soapmaking from scratch in our new production facility, and you'll get some special soap to keep!

$100: Have you ever wanted to learn to make soap? Donate now, and you'll get to attend an exclusive Introduction to Soapmaking Demonstration, with one friend, open only to our donors. We'll demonstrate soapmaking from scratch in our new production facility, and you'll get some special soap to keep!  Do you prefer using soap to learning to make it? We'll gladly send you two of our Golden Isles Bath & Body Sets in scents of your choice.

$250: Take the soapmaking a step further - you can attend our Introduction to Soapmaking Demonstration, and then you are invited to a specal Soapmaking Class with just you, a friend, and us, where we teach you more about choosing oils, scents, colors, and even swirls, and walk you through making your very own soap loaf (that you get to keep!) in our soap studio. Do you prefer using to soap to learning to make it? We'll gladly send you five of our Golden Isles Bath & Body Sets in scents of your choice.

*Thank you items will be sent in August, soapmaking classes will be scheduled as soon as the soap studio is finished, likely in August as well!*