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Sasha’s Soaps & Such was started in August 2016 by Michelle Fehlman.  Prior to this date, Michelle made and packaged her homemade goat milk soap under the name of Open Arms Farm.  The Fehlman family has raised Nubian goats for 25 years.  Michelle has been making goat milk soap in her home as a hobby for 6 years.  It wasn’t until she started a 6 week small business class at the local community college that she decided to do what was necessary to turn her hobby into a successful business, and so Sasha’s Soaps and Such came into being.

 

Michelle Fehlman lives in rural Union County, North Carolina with her husband, Jerry, and their 5 children.  The Fehlman family has lived on a small farm in Union County since 2000, during which time Michelle was a stay-at-home mom and homeschool teacher to her children.  Initially, there were just 3 children, Theresa, Jeremy, and Maria, but then Grace arrived in 2001 and Anthony in 2006.  As the children became older, finances became tighter, and Michelle tried to come up with ways that she might add to the family income.  The thought of utilizing some of their many animals as a way to produce income is what sparked Michelle’s desire to begin making soap with the goat’s milk provided by their very own goats.  Unfortunately, since it was just a ‘hobby’ at this point, very little income, if any, was produced.  All of the children, except the oldest, eventually went to a public secondary school by 8th grade.  Theresa was homeschooled throughout high school, but for various reasons, it was decided that the remainder of the kids would not be homeschooled past 8th grade.  Due to Michelle’s increasing need to provide additional income, however, Grace entered the public school system one year earlier than planned, and Anthony started at the local elementary school with 3rd grade.    Michelle held on to the hope that she would bring Anthony back home once she was able to secure a job working at home as a medical coder and biller, the career that she was now focusing on after completing a 1 year online class and becoming certified in late 2014.    Due to many unforeseen circumstances, including the prolonged sickness and eventual passing of her father in June of 2015, that medical coding job was still not a reality.  Finally, in the spring of 2016, while working part-time at the local Tractor Supply Company Store, Michelle decided that she was going to turn her hobby into a successful business so that she could bring Anthony back home for his 5th grade year, and that is what she did.

 

Since it has not yet been 6 months since Sasha’s Soaps & Such came into being, there is a lot of work yet to be done.  Over the past 6 years, Michelle has gained many followers of her soap through local craft fairs, friends at church, family members, etc.  The fact is, once people try our soap, they like it and want to keep using it.  This website will hopefully help us to reach more people and to gain more loyal followers as they use our soap.

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UPDATE(December 2020):  My business has grown over the past 4 years, and I am looking forward to further growth in the future.  I just added subscriptions to my site this past month.  I do not have any subscriptions yet, but I am confident that this aspect of my business will be a game changer.  I also just recently started making soap pockets and I will be adding them to my website as well.