Russ Fye

Starting something from scratch gets a lot of attention in business.

There’s something exciting about having an idea, creating a company around it, and watching it grow from nothing.

But that’s not my story with Maine Island Soap.

The business began in Maine in 1984 as Island Soap. By the time my wife, Tina, and I bought the business in 2018, it already had more than three decades of history behind it.

We weren’t starting with a blank sheet of paper.

But we also weren’t interested in simply keeping everything exactly the way it was.

A New Chapter

When we took ownership in 2018, the business was still known as Island Soap, although it was already using MaineIslandSoap.com as its website.

We saw an opportunity in that name.

As part of a complete rebranding of the company, we created a new logo and identity around Maine Island Soap and began using that as the name of the business. Eventually, it became official with the creation of Maine Island Soap LLC.

The branding changed. The packaging changed. The website changed. The way we marketed the company changed.

Over the years, we’ve introduced new products, reached new customers, developed new wholesale relationships, and continued trying to figure out just how far we could take this business.

But through all of those changes, there were some things we believed were worth keeping.

Est. 1984

You’ll still find “Est. 1984” in the Maine Island Soap logo today.

That’s intentional.

Changing the name and completely rebranding the company didn’t mean we wanted to erase everything that came before us.

Quite the opposite.

There’s something pretty special about owning and building a business with more than four decades of history behind it. We bought a business that had already survived changing trends, changing customers, changing owners, and a changing world.

Perhaps the best example of that continuity is the soap itself.

We still make our soap using the same recipes today.

The company around those recipes has changed considerably, but the foundation hasn’t.

I think there’s a lesson in that.

Knowing What to Change and What to Keep

Buying an existing business presents a different challenge from starting one.

You have to decide what deserves to come with you.

Not everything should.

Businesses have to evolve. Customers change. Technology changes. The way people shop changes. What worked twenty or thirty years ago isn’t necessarily going to work today.

I’ve never believed that respecting the history of Maine Island Soap meant being afraid to change it.

We’ve changed a lot.

And I’m sure we’ll change a lot more.

But there’s a difference between building on something and erasing it.

For me, the goal has always been to take what was worth preserving and build something bigger around it.

That’s why Est. 1984 still matters.

And that’s why those original soap recipes still matter.

They’re the thread connecting what we’re building today to the little Maine soap business that started all those years ago.

Making It Ours

Something else happens when you spend years running a business that existed long before you owned it.

Eventually, it starts to feel like yours.

Not because you forget the people who came before you or pretend the history started when you arrived.

It feels like yours because you’ve put years of your own life into it.

Tina and I have been doing that since 2018.

We’ve made good decisions and bad ones. We’ve experimented. We’ve worried about money. We’ve invested in things we hoped would work. We’ve packed orders, made products, dealt with problems, talked with customers, worked with stores, and spent countless hours trying to move the business forward.

My mother is also our partner and co-owner, making this chapter of Maine Island Soap very much a family business.

After more than eight years, I can look around the shop and see how much has changed.

I can also see how much hasn’t.

I like that.

Still Building

Today, the business that began as Island Soap is more than 42 years old.

And strangely enough, I still feel like we’re just getting started.

There is so much more I believe Maine Island Soap can become.

There are more customers to reach. More stores that could carry our products. Better systems to build. New products to create. Mistakes we haven’t made yet and lessons we haven’t learned yet.

That’s part of what keeps it interesting.

I don’t want Maine Island Soap to become a museum piece where nothing ever changes because we’re afraid of disturbing its history.

I want it to grow.

I want to see how far we can take it.

But if we’re fortunate enough to build something much larger in the years ahead, I hope we’ll always remember where it came from.

The name has changed.

The brand has changed.

A lot about the business has changed.

But one small piece of our logo still says a lot:

Est. 1984.

And more than four decades later, we’re still making the soap from the same recipes.

We’re just building the next chapter.

– Russ Fye