At Trev’s Trades - an artisanal soap company - a bar of soap mean so much more. Made with so much thought and heart by 26-year-old autistic entrepreneur Trevor Dealy, it’s solid proof that no matter how many hardships life lathers up, they can be overcome.
Start with a mother-son duo, mix in an outpouring of support, throw in a dash of unrelenting ambition and a spritz of love, and you’ve got Trev’s Trades.
“We certainly didn’t start out to make a business; it just kind of naturally evolved organically over time with Trevor giving his soaps out, and then one of the neighbors said, ‘Trevor, I think, could sell these'!”
Born 1.7 ounces, Trevor used to get handed lemons by life: autism, developmentally younger than his years, and a slew of health challenges, to boot.
His mom, Tia, lives one second to the next.
“The doctors would call and say, ‘You need to get back to the hospital, he has an hour, he has maybe two hours,’ and so we would rush back, and the hour would pass, and Trevor would still be here, and the day would pass, and the next day would pass,” Tia said.
Instead of turning those lemons into lemonade, Trevor turned them into lemon poppy seed artisanal soap - one of the many scents his business Trev’s Trades offers.
Trevor was deemed “unemployable” by the Department of Rehab.
“But did that stop us?” Tia asked Trevor.
“No! No way!” he said.
And that’s when Trevor’s mom got to work.
“We were doing a lot of project-based learning, and so I had ordered kits to come to the house, and we started doing them, and one of them happened to be a soap-making kit, and we did it, and what did you think of the soap-making kit?” Tia asked Trevor.
“I liked it!” Trevor answered.
And, with help from his family, that’s how Trev’s Trades was born.
Trev’s Trades is a work transition program where Trevor clocks in as the big boss.
“Are you a hard, mean boss?” Tia asked her son.
“Yeah!” Trevor jokingly answered.
The work gives him a place to learn and contribute, from researching recipes, thinking of and printing soap designs, measuring and pouring ingredients to operating tools, packaging orders, and helping make sales, Trevor does it all, and all while making a little bit of… “Some money!” Trevor said.
Trevor has to budget that money with every paystub that he gets, like anybody else does.
“It was really important that Trevor learn job skills, and that he learned how to work in an environment, a supportive environment, that would teach him the skills necessary for him to be successful in a way that he could learn,” Tia said.
In less than three years, Trev’s Trades began gaining recognition and took off. When KSBY caught up with him last in 2023, he had just won the Newcomer Award at the Entrepreneurs Dedicated to Diverse and Inclusive Excellence (EDDIE) Awards Ceremony in Georgia.
Now, bigger things are on tap for Trevor.
“I’m gonna be famous!” Trevor said.
“We’ve collaborated with a cosmetic company for a Trev’s Trades line of body butter, shower gels and body sprays,” his mother said.
What’s more, Trev’s Trades’ fall line will launch next month, and a book is also in the works for Trevor, and pre-orders will tentatively be available by December.
Trevor loves making soap and sharing his love for it with others, but his favorite part still to this day is giving his soap away.
