Bramble Berry

Today, I’d like to share with you the story of Anne-Marie Faiola from Bramble Berry.

Rock soaps. photo courtesy of Bramble Berry

“A good business,” according to Anne-Marie Faiola, “comes from finding something that works and capitalizing on it.” For Anne-Marie, that something came from making soap, a business concept she started as a hobby and then turned into a multi-million dollar enterprise.

As a teenager, Anne-Marie learned how to be business savvy from her father, a doctor who also ran a network of clinics and who encouraged her to find her own business opportunities. Taking her father’s advice, Anne-Marie started making personalized soaps to sell to friends and family. Years later, after pursuing a career as a correctional officer and about to apply to the FBI, Anne-Marie realized that her true passion was business and decided to become an entrepreneur. Determined to start her own company that would provide the highest quality of products and ingredients for soap making, Anne-Marie left the criminal justice system and founded Bramble Berry Inc. in her living room. Desiring formal business training, she went back to school and received her MBA in 2007 while running her rapidly growing company. 

For those looking to expand their skill sets, Anne-Marie launched www.SoapQueen.tv in 2009, a free Do-It-Yourself soapmaking series on YouTube where amateur and seasoned crafters alike can learn all the basics including picking your fragrances, mixing your colors and pouring your soap, all the way to more advanced techniques like swirling, embedding and layering. Anne-Marie also runs an instructional daily blog at www.soapqueen.com where you can read about soap, toiletries, business, design and decadent sweets.

Watermelon soap. photo courtesy of Bramble Berry

With new products and DIY videos added frequently, Bramble Berry looks forward to meeting the needs of crafters for a long time.

“Success doesn’t happen over night,” she says. “It’s about replicating small victories everyday.”