We just celebrated our 20th year in business as Alabu. We often get questions about how we got started. Way back in February,1997, a friend called, (my goat mentor) asking me for moral support in making goat milk soap. She had 9 milking does and too much goat milk on her hands. She had tried making soap but the chemical reaction burned the milk and it couldn’t be salvaged. She suggested it would be a good home school chemistry project for our 2 children which we had just starting homeschooling. So I packed up our kids and headed to help and learn. The soap making was a success and we enjoyed a pleasant day with my friend. Later, I was so impressed with how nice the soap left my skin feeling, I vowed I would never buy commercial soap again.
Around the same time, my tech savvy and business minded husband, Dean, thought that he would like to launch a family business on the internet. He begged me to make soap that he could sell on the internet just to learn how to do a web business. I was reluctant since I was already filling my days with homeschooling. I eventually said yes and promised 2 batches a week. That added up to 18 bars of goat milk soap. I also liked making candles so Dean put them up on his new page too. Soon he and his partner started a web business called “Simplerway”. They offered to create free webpages to crafters for a small percentage of their sales.
As it turned out the response to our soap was overwhelming. Not only did my family and friends love the way our soap left their skin, so did our new customers. Dean decided to sell his business to his partner so he could fully concentrate on our soap business. The next step was to find a name for our new soap business and incorporate. After lots of brainstorming of names that didn’t work, our daughter came up with Alabu. It was settled on and we became Alabu Inc. in February of 2000. From the very beginning, our children were enthusiastic supporters and valued employees. Both our kids are now busy raising their families, but still support and help as needs arise. We are so thankful for our family and to you our customers for making Alabu such a success.
H.M.