Let's Talk Business Costs

People often speculate in the comments about how much they think it costs us to make a tube of lip balm, and give their verdict on whether or not the price is fair. I think it's kind of an amusing phenomenon, and it's interesting to see which costs people factor in, and the ones that most people don't consider.

People always think about the ingredients and packaging, which is good, even if their guesses are way off. They'll sometimes mentioned the salary for the person making the lip balm, and every now and then they'll mention overhead like rent, utilities, ect. Sometimes, they'll mention the cost of equipment, too!

But very few people factor in the cost of fulfillment (picking, packing and shipping orders), the cost of providing great customer service, or the cost of marketing and advertising to actually sell the products that we make.

At Eclair Lips there are four of us working full time in jobs that are essential to the company, but there's actually only one person making and labeling product. The rest of us are taking care of fulfillment, customer service, marketing and business development, and all of those salaries and costs are factored into our budget!