The Soap Man

Sam Co. Creation’s business focuses primarily on creating soap with toys inside

When Sam Thompson isn’t busy working towards a bachelor of management degree at Dalhousie University, the 20-year-old can be found at home making things to sell.

This Pictou County man has always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

When he was 11 years old, he started taking evening art lessons with local artist Lynn-Sue Wice and continued with the lessons for the next eight years.

He had always been artistic and worked on crafts with family members, but the weekly lessons helped him to become creative, he says.

“Lynn-Sue certainly helped me to develop my artistic skills, and I continue to paint today,” he says.

This got his creative juices flowing, and it inspired him to create his own art business called Sam Co. Creations.

He started by making Christmas tree ornaments from pumpkin seeds when he was 12.

He immediately sold-out at two markets at the New Glasgow Farmers Market.

He continued to do some small Christmas sales around Pictou County, but then says the market manager encouraged him to make new products that could be sold year-round.

The following year, he began making birdhouses with wood from a barn that was being torn down. After that, his business kept growing.

The following spring, he began attending the farmers market biweekly.

Once he began at the farmers market, he just started making different items and experimented with trial and error to perfect various products.

“I had invested the earnings in bank shares and wanted to invest more,” says Thompson.

Thompson says he has always enjoyed being busy and having projects on the go.

He says this is why he originally started to make things – to ensure he was always busy.

“I can remember how proud I was when I saw boxes of Christmas ornaments that were packed and ready to go to the market,” he says. Now that he is 20 years old, Thompson’s business focuses primarily on creating soap with toys inside including Lego. He calls them surprise soap.

Thompson says his soap is by far the most popular product he makes and has been for the past six years. Children come to his table and exclaim the "Soap Man!”

When he first developed the product, however, he was unsure how the reception would be, but it turned out to be his best-selling product.

He enjoys making the soap the most, too, even though it often means late nights making batches.

“I enjoy picking out the characters to put in the soap and wondering if children will enjoy a particular character,” he says.

The trickiest product he makes are lighthouse birdhouses.

They require a lot of angled wood cuts and are considerably more time consuming compared to the other birdhouses he makes, as he must set up the chop saw many different times.

They are also the most expensive products he sells at the market, costing $45.

The most interesting item Thompson has made was a custom-ordered birdhouse.

A few years ago, a customer came to him and explained they were building a new summer home on the Northumberland shore.

They wanted him to make four birdhouses to match their new house.

To help with this, they gave him sheets of coppercoloured metal roofing that was leftover from their building project.

To make the houses, he then had to cut the metal to fit the size of a licence plate. It was tricky, and it took several tries, but he did it.

Thompson says he is constantly thinking about what product to make next.

“Sometimes, I have aha moments and think of a product.

“I then decide if I am going to make them or not,” he says.

As a third-year university student, Thompson says he’s not sure what the future holds.

He does hope to start a new entrepreneurial venture following graduation.

Thompson’s creations can be viewed online through the New Glasgow Farmers Market Xpress online ordering platform, which allows customers to purchase his products every week from the farmers market.

Through the year, Thompson says he occasionally attends the market, posting dates he will be attending to his Instagram page. Customers should visit the New Glasgow Farmers Market website to see the dates he will be there.

Otherwise, he says people are welcome to email him at samcocreations@hotmail. com to have an order of soap dropped off to them in Pictou County.

“I enjoy picking out the characters to put in the soap and wondering if children will enjoy a particular character.” Sam Thompson