As co-owner of online handcrafts supply store Wholesale Supplies Plus, Inc., entrepreneur Debbie May oversees a growing operation in Broadview Heights, Ohio, providing home businesses an effective source for the materials they need to produce soap, candles, and cosmetics. Debbie May established Wholesale Supplies Plus in 1999, after building her own successful soap making business, May Showers. Seeing other families struggling to make ends meet, Ms. May first taught online classes on soap making in chat rooms and message boards, eventually deciding to make professional supplies available to her students. Debbie May developed Wholesale Supplies Plus with the express purpose of giving small businesses the same high-quality materials that large corporations use in creating soaps and candles. At Wholesale Supplies Plus, Debbie May offers all the materials a customer needs to make soap. The most basic ingredients Wholesale Supplies Plus sells are melt and pour soap bases, available in a variety of forms including cocoa butter, pro base glycerin, and olive oil. In addition to bases, Wholesale Supplies Plus offers other ingredients, including soap making oils, emulsifying wax, antimicrobial preservatives, and bath salts. To complete the process, Ms. May sells a selection of cutters and soap molds in plastic and silicone. To aid home businesses in acquiring the right materials for their soaps, Debbie May developed a variety of tools for the Wholesale Supplies Plus website, beginning with a database of soap recipes to assist businesses that want to make soap but do not know where to start. As businesses develop their signature products, they can utilize a variety of calculators that help them formulate lye-based recipes, and convert volumes to percentages and percentages to weight. The website’s fragrance database is especially helpful in finding the right scent. Once they settle on a final product, soap makers can use Debbie May's label maker to add a personal touch.
