MILLER Case Study: Goose Ridge Soaps, LLC

Kim Beatty and Janice Campbell, co-owners of Goose Ridge Soaps, both came from backgrounds far away from that of soap makers. Kim earned a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science Pre-Vet from Virginia Tech before becoming a K-9 handler/police officer in Washington DC. Janice went to school to become a paramedic, served as a police dispatcher for seven years, then took a break to be a stay-at-home mother before starting Goose Ridge Soaps with her friend Kim in November 2020.

“We wanted to teach ourselves how to make our own cold process soap because we wanted to get away from using store-bought chemical products,” Janice explained. “We did it as just something to do as a hobby at first, and then it grew into selling it to other people.”

“When we started Goose Ridge Soaps as a ‘big girl’ business and not just a hobby, we had no idea what we were doing,” Kim said. “We just knew what our concept was and where we wanted to go, and we had to figure out how to get there.”

Kim and Janice found Miller through Carroll Community College’s non-credit class schedule, Balance. Janice signed up for the Small Business Marketing Workshop and was impressed with how useful all the information was. Kim and Janice then explored what other Miller workshops, classes and events they could benefit from, and have been attending them ever since.

“We’ve gotten a lot of really good small business advice and coaching through Miller,” Kim said. “They’ve been a really great resource for teaching us what we need to know and giving us different ideas we hadn’t thought about.”

In 2022, the three winners of the Carroll Biz Challenge—the Grand Prize, People’s Choice (won by Goose Ridge Soaps) and Changemaker awards—were all women owned. “That was pretty amazing,” said Kim. “I’m pretty sure all of us went to Miller for assistance with our pitches or some point of our business plan.”

“I feel there’s advice for every stage of where we’re at,” Janice said. “We needed advice in the beginning and we’re going to continue to need advice as we grow, and Miller has been a great resource.”