CHARLESTOWN — Crowded under the shade of trees that line the fence behind Jim and PJ Jonas’ home in Charlestown, 26 family pets were seeking a reprieve from the July heat.

The pets are 26 Alpine goats, 13 of which are milkers. The family pets are also their livelihood.

Jim and PJ Jonas own Goat Milk Stuff, an online-based business that produces goat milk soap, bath bombs, lip balms, lotions and other hygiene products.

While the goal for the Jonases was always to own their own business, it took a series of leaps of faith, good luck and a lot of hard work to create a thriving business that they never expected to be centered around goats.

“I had wanted a family business for years, but I never once considered soap for that particular role,” PJ said. “It was just something I made for our family.”

The first batches

In 2005 the Jonas family bought two goats because PJ said she wanted the milk as a natural alternative to feed her children. The Jonases briefly owned a cow for the same purpose, but found the goats much easier to manage.

PJ explained the goats produce milk in cycles and during the peak in production, she had to find alternative uses for the surplus milk. Aside from making food products out of the milk, PJ discovered it could be made into soap. She was prompted to try and make the soap after she looked at the back of a baby wash bottle.

“I started it initially because I didn’t like all of the chemicals that were in the products we were using on the children’s’ skin,” she said. “That was the whole motivation. I was actually bathing the kids and looked on the back of the baby wash and it was all petroleum-based chemicals, and things I couldn’t believe was in there.”

After hours of research on how to make soap, armed with a stick mixer, a pot and a movie to distract her children, PJ concocted the first batch of goat milk soap on her back porch. Pleased at how it turned out — the bars also contain essential oils, natural pigments and lye — PJ noticed something else.

The skin on the hands of her husband — who was working outside for a garbage service at the time — had stopped cracking and splitting. The moisturizers, enzymes and vitamins in the goat milk helped with his dry skin.

“If you pay attention to high-end beauty products … they add all these things that naturally occurs in the goat milk,” PJ said.

The family used an early batch of 21 bars of soap and also gave some to family and friends. An accident in 2008 pushed the Jonas’ to sell their first bars.



Launching the business

The family owns a diesel van and in 2008, by accident, the vehicle was filled with regular gas that caused $9,000 in damage to the engine. Looking for a way to pay for the repairs, the Jonases decided to make a few extra bars of soap and sell them.

“I had just bought a case of lye, which would be enough soap for our family for about two years,” PJ said.

She said she gave the soap to a friend involved in a natural food co-op, who came back to her almost immediately asking for more.

“It just went crazy,” PJ said.

With that, Goat Milk Stuff was launched in 2008. The Jonases now make batches that produce 300 bars of soap at a time.

“Each bar of soap contains about an ounce [of milk],” PJ said. “For a gallon of milk, we get 128 bars.”

During the course of a year, the goats will average between 200 to 300 gallons of milk and the family still consumes a portion of what is produced.

“We say we can get between 20,000 and 30,000 bars of soap from each goat,” PJ said.

As more and more customers tried their product, the business grew steadily. The family sold the soap through the co-op, online and began setting up booths at local festivals, but still never expected the business to take off the way it has.

“Goat Milk Stuff is what we called it, because I never thought the soap would get that big,” PJ said. “I always thought I’d do more stuff.”



Family going full-time

As demand grew for their products, so did the operation.

The Jonases built a 30-foot-long barn to house the family’s soap-making operation, which they thought would last for years. Their children, who are home-schooled, also became more involved in the family business.

By attending area festivals, the family discovered something about the role of the children in the business.

“They’re natural salesman,” PJ said. “The kids can tell you everything about the soap … they’re just so knowledgeable on it because they deal with it every day.”

She recounted the story of one potential customer that was being helped by her 11-year-old son Emery. He talked to someone for 15 to 20 minutes who was amazed at the litany of information he was given by the boy about the soap, PJ said. As the customer walked away, he told the boy, “you’re a really good salesman.”

To which Emery shouted back, “I’m only a good salesman if you buy something.”

“It worked,” the family said with a laugh.

Nearly everything else did, too.

PJ said 70 percent of the company’s first-time buyers become repeat customers. With the consistent growth, and all eight of the family’s children pitching in, PJ still needed help running the business full-time.

Jim, who was working for a sanitation company, was able to pare down his schedule. He began working in the family business full-time in 2010 and is now the primary soap-maker.



National exposure

Goat Milk Stuff was seeing steady growth as a business when it got a huge publicity boost. The business was featured on NBC’s “Today Show” on June 27.

“It aired at 8:45 [a.m.] by 9 [a.m.] or so our website had crashed,” Jim said.

When the Jonases were able to get the site back online later that evening, orders were pouring in. Aside from the questions about their products, other comments and emails that resonated deeper, especially with PJ and Jim.

“We new we had a good product and we knew we had a good story,” PJ said. “The response was just so wonderful because it’s not just about the soap — it’s about the family and the way we run things and the values that we have and the work ethic that we instill in the children, and people responded to that. That was just so rewarding.”



The future

In two years, the Jonases have grown out of the 30-foot-long building next to their home that they use as to manufacture the soap. As a result, the family is in the process of moving from their three-acre home and business in Charlestown to a new 31-acre place in Scottsburg.

“It’s beyond my wildest expectations,” PJ said of the business growth.

The largest presence for the business is online. Goat Milk Stuff has its own website and Facebook page, which PJ said she uses as a sounding board for launching new products.

Some of the new products launched by Goat Milk Stuff include an unscented laundry detergent, a “Bug Out” repellent soap and lotion and a deodorant that is still in the development stage. The cornerstone of the business, of course, is the soap, which is available in full or half-bars and in a variety of scents. The average bar price is about $6.

“That’s what attracts people a lot, initially, to the soap is the scent,” PJ said. “Then they start using it and they feel the difference on their skin and that’s why we get more customers.”

Testimonials on Goat Milk Stuff’s website — although the family doesn’t promise results — have claimed the soap has helped to relieve dry skin and other conditions like eczema and psoriasis.

The comments are something else that has connected with the family.

“It’s not that exciting until you think about who’s going to enjoy it,” Jim said of making soap.

“We’re a family,” PJ said. “We’re not about being a high-end specialty boutique for only the richest of the rich. I want families to be able to afford natural soap. This is actually the formula I use for my family. I didn’t change anything when I started selling it. I’ve got eight kids I needed something that would last.”

Like their soap, the Jonases hope their business continues to last with some additional, but modest, goals.

“In the future we really just want it to be available so that if the children want to take it over they can,” Jim said. “They’ve grown this business just as much as she and I have.”

Making it something for their family was the purpose behind the couple initially launching the business.

“The whole reason I wanted a family business in the first place was because I wanted to raise the children the right way” PJ said. “Having a family business is the best way to instill those values.”