Business Opportunities Weblog

The Family Biz: Goats, Soap, Hard Work and God

By on October 4, 2010 in Ideas

Christian Post:

If you live in America, you’ve more than likely heard of “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”

Less likely is the chance that you’ve heard of “Jim & P.J. Plus 8” (for one, because there is no such reality TV show).

While notably less dramatic than the Gosselins, however, the Jonases of Charleston, Ind., would provide an interesting story.

The eight young children in the family, ranging in age from three to 13, help run the family business of making chemical-free goat milk soaps and other body products. At the Goat Milk Stuff company, located in the barn next to their farmhouse, every family member has a job – from the older boys who milk the goats to the youngest daughters who put the soaps into fabric bags.

Together, as a family of ten, the Jonases work side by side to produce some 45,000 bars of goat milk soap a year.

“Our faith is pretty much the backbone of the business,” said mother P.J. Jonas to The Christian Post on Wednesday. “I had actually started to pray for a family business years before we started this one because I really felt that Jim, as head of the family, needed to be home more than he was when he was working away from home.”

family farming religion

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

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  • http://www.dailysuccessplace.com Daily Success Place

    This is the first story of it’s kind that I’ve read.

    Good stuff.

  • http://n/a Jennifer

    I feel I must post that this is NOT chemical-free soap. Anyone who uses fragrance oil is not chemical-free. I don’t mean this in the annoying “did you know water is a chemical” way – I mean it as in, fragrance oil is full of toxins and carcinogens. I see they do offer essential oil soaps, but that is not the bulk of the business. I feel it’s very erroneous to make statements like this when folks like me have skin reactions to fragrance oils.

  • Karla

    My family has been using their soap for about two years and it’s the best soap I’ve ever used. And such a wonderful family to do business with!

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