Step one for starting a small business is often coming up with an exciting idea. But what is step two? Step three? Steps four through launch and beyond? On our second episode, and first iteration of our Small Business Starter Kit Series, Austin and Jannese visit The Candle Pour to chat with founders Misty and Dennis Akers. They’ll tell our hosts about how they got their business off the ground and about all the things that go with it: from incorporation to trademarks. Join us as they detail how they went from Grand Idea to Grand Opening.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ruby.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
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(00:28):
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Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome back everyone. This is Mine the Business.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Small Business success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intwood,
QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Jennie Storrez.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
And I'm Austin Hankwooz.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Austin, what do you think of when you think of
small business ownership?
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Ooh, we're getting right to it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What do I think of when I think of small
business ownership? I think of working alongside of my favorite
partners and employees to build a growing business. I unfortunately
think a tax is but I also think about just
how easy it can be to start a business, depending
on the tools and resources that you choose.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
When I think of the earliest stages of someone starting
a business, I inctily think of a little kid opening
up a lemonade stand. I think for a lot of
small business owners, this is the first step that we
take into going business for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You are absolutely correct. The first business I had was
in eighth grade. I lived in Denver, Colorado, and I
was snowblowing driveways, charging people fifteen dollars a driveway. It
was quite a labor intensive business, and it did last
that long, but I made some quick money.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
That's quite the hustle.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
One of those things they don't tell us when we're
kids is whether we should have registered as an LLC
or an ascorp. I know I was not thinking about that.
Do you think kids today are looking into patent and
copyright law for their lemonade recipe?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I mean, with the AI technology we got today, who
knows what the powers that these kids. They're pretty sophisticated now,
so I would not be surprised. But I had no
idea about any of this stuff when I was starting,
and certainly not when I was a kid. Now, even
as an adult, I put in a lot of research
in studying to learn the steps I needed to take
to make my business official and finally get things off
(02:17):
the ground.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Absolutely same here and all these options and understanding the
best way to get started and launching your business can
be so overwhelming for a lot of people. But luckily
we are here to help because most of us aren't
selling lemonade in the yard anymore. We're dealing with significant
amounts of money, regulations, liability, insurance, and so much more.
So we've got to know all the paths we can
take and understand what is the best thing for our
(02:40):
business and our future plans.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And that can be very daunting just to get started right,
how overwhelming it is to think about, Oh my gosh,
I have to think about to your point, insurance, all
these employees, these liabilities, money, regulation compliance, it's pretty daunting.
I remember when I first started out Janias, I had
countless question and I was so fortunate to have some
(03:03):
mentors and people in my corner that I could lean
on to help me with that.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Yeah, you know, it's really important to just make sure
that you're getting the information that you need in order
to navigate this path, because, especially if you're the first
person in your circle. To start a business, you don't
necessarily have that level of knowledge around you. I know
for me, it was a lot of kind of Google
and YouTube university trial by fire if you.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Were professor Google is what I call them. We're going
to be discussing all that and more today with our guests,
Misty and Dennis Acres from the Candle Poor in Tampa, Florida.
Misty and Dennis are University of South Florida alums who
wanted to start a business that broke through the clutter
of technology and are increasing reliance on all things online
(03:46):
to bring people together in a physical space. They also
wanted to have a product that people could use and
enjoy every day. They found the perfect blend of the
two in candle making. They opened The Candle Core in
Tampa in twenty nineteen and have been providing unique and
enjoyable experiences for customers of all ages ever since. They
are Tampa's first pour your own candle experience, and they're
(04:09):
also family owned and operated. From individuals to couples to
groups large and small, they have a plethora of products
and scents to choose from, and pride themselves in crafting
a bond building social experience that leaves you with something
beautiful to take home. Missy and Dennis, thank you so
much for joining us on this episode of Mind the Business.
(04:30):
We're here in the candleploor in Tampa, Florida. It smells amazing,
really cool spot.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Yeah, that's half the battle, so custom candle experience. I
hope it smells good when you get in here.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So, I unfortunately am someone who is chronically online. I
am always on social media, I'm always looking at headline news.
I spend too much time on the internet. So when
it came to candle making, sort of the opposite of that.
What stood out about candle making to you, which which
allows people to detach from their devices and sort of
(05:04):
the online buzz that we're always pulled into.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, it's about the experience and that's what we wanted
to create with our business. Candles are something that I
think most people love and they use and then they
reuse and come back. So that was a big part
of it, is just being able to have an in
person experience vers like what you said is like surfing
online and really you know, being able to shop and
get everything you need to do at your doorstep. This
(05:27):
is something that really brings people together, and we love that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Talk more about the bringing people together part because I mean,
I can't count quickly here, but I'm at least a
dozen actual seating arrangements here. So how large these parties?
Do people come by themselves sometime? I mean, what is
the true customer experience when they walk in the door.
Speaker 6 (05:43):
That's a great question. The candlepoor is a custom candle experience.
Our goal is to help you create your own scent.
So we bring people together. They choose from over one
hundred different individual scents to make their own custom scent blend.
The experience itself last right around thirty to forty five minutes,
and we always reckoned and starting your day with us
because once you are done creating your own special candle,
(06:04):
they need two hours to set prep in bag. So
that's when you go spend some more time with friends,
and you come back and pick it up. I mean,
you can come by yourself, that's perfectly fine. Ninety nine
point nine percent of what we do is actually not
about candles, is about making you feel welcome, enjoying yourself,
having a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That's amazing. Now to my understanding, this in Hyde Park
is your first location. Talk to us about what it
was like to open your doors on day one.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Terrifying. Yeah, I mean the thing is you have no
idea what to expect. Are people gonna You know, we
are both from the area, so I think we had
that initial friends and family welcome, everybody's excited, they're proud
we do grand opening. But then once that day's over,
it's who's coming? Do people know where we are? Our
(06:51):
first location was actually on the other side. We were
on the second story, no traffic, so we were just
kind of like, okay, there would be days that likee
walked through the door. But then what really happened, especially
like crediting social media, is people started to come in,
they were sharing other people saw it, they were like, oh,
my friend just came. So that took off really fast
(07:12):
for us, and we're very very blessed that we had that.
And then really just our friends and family like gathering
together to support us and rallying and coming in and
getting the word.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Out was huge.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, you all have obviously done a wonderful job. I
think you're opening your fourth location.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Now, m m. Yeah, we'll be in Sarasota congratulations.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yeah, so how did you guys find the money to
do this?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
We self funded our first location. That was just something
like I knew for several years what I wanted to do,
so I you know, we were saving for that. But yeah,
to start, it was very difficult to present to people
and you're trying to like explain it and they're like,
what what are you doing? Even our friends. I had
a friend that came up to us like a year
after we opened, and she was like, I just remember
(07:56):
when you were talking about it, and she was like
I just left being like, oh no, the this is
never going to work, and I'm like she felt sorry
for us, and then she's like, I'm really happy for you.
But I knew what it would look like. He knew
what it would look like, but until we were open,
we didn't really have a lot of backing.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, I mean sometimes it takes time to make believers
out of folks, right.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
Exactly, And honestly, what she said that still happens. So
if we go to like a networking event and it's
like I'm a doctor, i'm a lawyer, I'm an accountant,
and I'm like, we are a custom candle experience and
They always like, you know how whin the dog looking
at you that doesn't really understand you?
Speaker 5 (08:30):
And they tilt their head to the left a little bit.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
They're always like, do that and you try to explain
it and have you really got to get them in
here and touch and feel and be part of the
environment to really understand what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You know what's funny.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I find a common theme in all the folks that
we've talked to on this season and just in general,
is you don't ask questions to folks who don't have
the experience or the exposure to what you're trying to do. Right,
You had a lot of nasayers, You got a lot
of people saying, are you nuts?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
But these are also probably.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
People who don't own a business, You've never dabbled in entrepreneurship,
or at least of not taking the level of risk
that you guys have taken. And so I think this
is a good reminder talk to people who are actually
in the arena, because they're the ones that are going
to set you up for success, versus folks who are
kind of just maybe projecting their own fears onto you
and are not really going to give you the advice
that you need to move forward.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
It's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, I have a funny feeling that's going to be
a theme of this season, right, leaning in on your
trusted advocates and sort of your team members.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
We're just talking to Sharise earlier with episode one, and
she was talking about how she had a mentor, right,
and so she leans on the mentor for recommendations and
other things like that.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
So I'm right there worth with you. I think it's
very important.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know, a big reason why I like into a
quick book so much is because they simplify the day
to day of me tracking my revenue, my bookkeeping, my payroll,
all that fun stuff. And so I'm curious, when is
it a good time to diiy the patents, the trademarks,
the incorporations, the accounting versus sort of offloading that to
(09:57):
a trusted partner.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
How do you balance that?
Speaker 6 (10:00):
It's just knowing your strengths, your weaknesses, a lot of
the law stuff. That was an easy one to say,
let's offload that one. You know, Yeah, that's literally what
it is. You got to understand yourself and you really
want to focus on what the business is doing. I
know you mentioned into it quick books, and it's going
to take care of a lot of things for you.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
That's the one thing you want to.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
Do is get us much off of your plate so
you can focus on how is this going to run?
How are my customers going to feel when they're in there,
as opposed to do I remember to put that recept
in and get that all that in the background and
focus on your main business.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, and that's part of it too, is like I said,
stay in your lane. If you're not great at something,
just understand you're not. You know, he does all the marketing,
and that was something like when we decided to do
it together. His photography is beautiful, so when we first
started the business, we're posting these professional photos. Hiring is
probably the number one thing that's important with any business.
It's just making sure that you have the right team
(10:53):
in place. So if you're not good at like judging
somebody as far as like you can't read them, and
get somebody that can use a recruiter. That's important. But
we've always done that in house because it's something that
I feel is probably one of my biggest strengths.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I think before the interview, you too were sort of
going back and forth where Dennis is more of like
the pie and the sky guy and Misty is more
of the operationals. Right, So maybe maybe there's like this
really cool dichotomy that balances out, you know, the success
of this business because you two works so well together.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
I mean a majority of things behind the scenes. So
it's making sure the machine is working. And then how
do we I guess what I would say that I
do is how do I put a little sugar on
the machine? I mean everything we do here is a process.
Everything is laid out, there's check marks to be made,
everything extremely extremely well oiled machine kind of stuff. And
how do we take the well oiled machine and give
it a little more personality? And that's it can be
(11:46):
probably annoying sometimes, but it's my my trait for sure.
And then yeah, as far as entrepreneurship, that's just waking
up every day and looking in the mirror and saying,
here we go, let's let's get through it and making
your list. And like you said, you're learning every day
and sometimes you don't realize you're learning it. Maybe more
trial by fire sometimes, but you want to do your
(12:07):
best to wake up and understand that you're blessed to
a be busy.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
That's why we're tired and we're busy.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
So you're blessed to be busy, and you're blessed to
have a counterpart in the business that really puts their
heart and soul in it and is up.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
Till the wee hours of the night.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
I always tell the staff when you get an email
at midnight or one am, it's not because she delayed
it on some weird clock system as she's sitting next
to me just firing away on our computer, because that's
the best time she can work because no one can
email her back.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So yeah, and holidays, weekends.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
So you just got to get used to that lifestyle,
and you got to get used to some of your
days are just not going to look the same majority
of them all. I think that's why we do this though.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely a different breed for sure.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
When people go to a school for entrepreneurship, I'm like,
maybe just go out and get your teeth kicked in,
because that's what it is.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
It is.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
It's like, how do we get through today? Like the
pandemic happened. Obviously, we open in April twenty fift two
thousand nineteen. The world changed a little bit after that,
but just to navigate the PPP loans and navigate all
that so we can just somehow hope to stay open
was a day to day taxing on both emotions and
mental status and all kinds of things.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
But we got through it.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, like you say, year to year, it's different, and
we just really got like that fire with our first year.
You're trying to figure out what you're doing, who you hire,
who your customers are, how to run your business, and
then global pandemic that's never happened in any of our times.
So then it's like, okay, now we have to close
for five months. So year two was like really weird
(13:38):
because we had to like move everything online, so we
were doing like virtual candle poor experiences.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
It was cool, yeah, and it was neat to see
like people really you know, they were just like sending
us messages like we hope you survive, you know, and
we're just like, oh.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Gosh, like little do they know you're thriving now?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah? And then you know, so year two was like,
all right, how do you operate being clothes for five
months with our staff. We kept one hundred percent of
our staff, which we were extremely proud of to like
figure out ways to keep them working. Then at the
end of that year, it was like, Okay, we're doing
an experience where it's touching and news, but everyone's having
to wear a mask. And then the third year we
(14:16):
were like, all right, we're kind of back to normal.
So it's been a real challenge, but we've learned a ton.
We feel like we can kind of get through anything.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So yeah, I mean, it's so a test of endurance.
I think entrepreneurship for sure.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
I always say the candlepor is anonymous for change. So
we're always trying to get better.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
And if you're not getting better, you may not be
getting worse, but you're just being stagnant.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm curious, was this always the dream?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Did you always have entrepreneurial dreams or what was your
previous lives in, you know, corporate entrepreneurial.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yes, this No. So I was with a company for
about ten years that did medical aesthetics. Learned a ton.
It was a growing company, and it was something like
what I love about it is what I want to
do here.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
I got that.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Experience there and I really learned franchising, the good, the bad,
the ugly, what mistakes that we could potentially make here,
and then just trying not to do those things so
we don't have to go backwards. The dream, I don't
think was Candles, but it was definitely to create something
for our employees to hopefully have careers for a long
time and then maybe go into business for themselves. That's
(15:23):
a big part of it too. My ultimate dream would
be to have an employee that's been with us a
couple of years and then they end up opening in
a different market and you know, opening their own business
and putting them into business, which would be neat.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
How about you, Dennis, what was your past life?
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I got too many past lives.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
One of my past lives was photography, video work, that
kind of stuff. I've done, real estate, I've sold flowers.
I've done a lot of different things. And when she
approached us to say candles, I went, what And then Yeah,
once we worked on the business plan and put our
minds to it, I just buckled up.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Honestly, Okay, that's it.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
I literally was just like, Hey, you think this is
a good idea, Okay, let's do it. And I'd like
to say, I'm like her chest piece, like where do
you need me today?
Speaker 5 (16:06):
And where can I help? And let's move forward.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So I think that.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Speaks to the underrated but really valuable asset that it
is to have a partner. Maybe they don't see the
whole vision, but at least they trust you enough to
be like, you know, I think you can make this work.
So I appreciate that about y'all.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Coming up on Mind the Business, Small Business success.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Stories higher slow fire Bath is probably the best advice
that I've been given that I've used.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
We'll be right back. Welcome back to Mind the Business.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
So let's talk about what comes next after you start
the business. You're tracking inventory, sales, payroll, all the things.
How does that work for y'all? How did you set
that up? Because you know, obviously we talk about the
robustness of into it QuickBooks and being able to manage
so many different aspects of your business, whether that is
tracking your money, your expenses, taking care of payroll. The
(17:09):
benefit of using a system like into it QuickBooks is
that it takes all of these things that we have
to individually track and puts them all in one place.
So can you talk to us about how you set
up your process to be able to make sure everything's
flowing so that you don't get lost in the minutia
of running the business.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, into it. QuickBooks was one of the first things
we did. I came from an industry that had like
we had our own reports, so if I needed to
see KPI anything like that, I had to like request
through it. They developed it, so it was just a
lot different With QuickBooks. It makes it so much easier,
especially for a novice business owner because I'm not an accountant,
(17:46):
I didn't really know, but you can really get a
lot of great information and helpful information even just getting started.
But then once you're operating, you know, are you making
money like you don't? You know, it makes it so
much nasier. Yes, yes it is. It is very important.
But it's shocking how many people don't have, you know,
either access to that or it's something that they don't
(18:07):
even check.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
So it says a lot about the robustness of the
system that when I was looking for an account and
the first thing and they were like, what are you
going to use if it's not into a quickbook case,
We're just literally not going to work with you, you know,
so it's like the proof is in the putting.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I think for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, I think what's really cool when people start businesses
is kind of just how step by step it can be.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It goes to, you know, you get your LLC, you
open up the business bank account, you get your EI
N things like that, Right, So it's like it's a
very step by step process. And for a lot of
small business owners, part of that process is getting a trademark.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Do you all have a trademark? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (18:44):
I was about to say that. That was one of the
first things we did to protect the brand. But the
fun fact about us is we are the Candle Poor,
but we are Wick candlebar doing business as the Candle
Poor because wick is too commonly used of a word,
so we couldn't TRADEMARKT and that that's why we wanted
to do that, so we.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
Can actually trademark it and protect it, just like our icon.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
I don't know if you can show that on this,
but we have that little square that looks like things
are pouring into sure and trademarking that and luckily we've
only had to use once someone was kind of copying it,
so we've only had to use it once where we
actually had to like put our trademark into effect.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well that's great though, because you took these steps beforehand,
you were able to protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah. We were just told, like, you might come up
with a great idea. If you don't protect yourself, someone
else can see it and they can literally do every
single thing you're doing and run away with your business.
So that was important. We had someone that literally almost
used our logo exact and was reaching out to like
all of our followers and asking them to follow hers.
But it was very confusing because people thought it was us,
(19:45):
like the logo looked like ours. She was even trying
like to get us to follow and we were like,
what the.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Heck, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So little things we utilized, the attorneys that we had
used that.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
Yeah, I felt it was just like you're working every
single day and it pops up up and our staff
started saying, Hey, someone's like following us and like they
want us to like you know that, follow on, follow
things you do and get someone's attention.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
So she was doing that and it's just frustrating.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
It's like you're putting in a ton of money and
a ton of time and someone just wants to throw
something up and kind of work underneath your brand.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, I've had the situation too.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I've had to send a couple of seasoned desist letters
through my attorney for folks just legit copying your entire content.
Or you're trying to start a brand that is so
similar to what you're doing that there's clearly going to
be some confusion. So it's important to have an attorney.
All that's part of your team as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
They're not cheap, but there's a reason they're good at
what they do, and they use an attorney. I would say,
not just like when you need them, but to avoid
having to use them and need them. So that's a
big part.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Of it too.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Something really cool that you mentioned was doing business as
can you explain to our listeners what a DBA is?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
I mean, I know why we did it because of
the trademark issue. It makes filling out paperwork a lot
longer sometimes because you got to write all that in.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
But a lot of times you'll see that.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
When you're looking up businesses, absolutely you can't find them,
like why can't I find them?
Speaker 5 (21:03):
And because they have that.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Part of it also is like we are going to
potentially franchise. You know, our second location is with Candle
Bar two, our third location and so on, so everything
is also separate. That's something to think about when you're
going into business. Is it all going to be under
one umbrella or do you plan to have different locations?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Oh, explain that a little bit. So you're saying that
you're you have different LLCs for your different locations.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yes, and you can protect yourself too. If something happened
at our Saint Pete location, it's completely separate than what
we have here or Oxford Exchange or the warehouse or
if you were you know, just the Candle Poor. If
a franchise ease coming over, then they're going to have
a different name, but they would be doing business as
the Candle Poor. So that way it's recognized when they
(21:46):
use it that way.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
That's very cool.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, I think that's uh one of those areas of
entrepreneurship that a lot of people really don't understand what
the point is of taking that step of separating the businesses,
but it really is from a legal protecting standpoint, just
to make sure that if there is some sort of
issue with one site, you're not putting your entire empire
at risk because everything's lumped together. I recently did the
DBA thing too, because now I have technically like two
(22:09):
different brands, and so it was weird explaining to folks
when I was invoicing them, like why is this Delisious
Delights but your Jokero dinetto podcast because I have a
food media company. And then the personal finance thing. So
it just helps clarify to like what entity are we
working with. And as far as the trademarking, it's something
that is pricey, right, but it is something that is
(22:33):
really essential if you really have a long term vision
for your brand. I can't tell you the amount of
friends that I've had that have started businesses are two, three,
four years in and then they find out that the
name they've been operating under has been trademarked by someone
else and you literally have to start from scratch. H
That is devastating. Yeah, you know, so just taking the
time to understand, like what you're actually investing in, how
(22:56):
you can protect your brand, that's an essential part of
this and it's something that you should plan for financially.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, it's a good point. There's people that literally go
out and look for that, or they'll like get ahead
of you and like get your website before you can.
We want the candle Poor. So that was something we
had to think about too. What's available that we might
have to pay a little bit, but we're not like
having to pay thirty thousand dollars because of the name.
It's so common and someone just has it to sell it.
So that's a really good point.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
It's actually a good point.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
So when you mentioned the beginning early stages, go on Instagram,
So for me, go on every single thing and take
as many as you can. Yep, even the different iterations
of it. So I believe I've blocked off like candle Poor.
We're the candle Poor, but we have that one associated
just not using it. So that's a way to protect it.
And then you mentioned time about the trademark.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
It takes time. Yeah, So if it's something you want
to do, that's.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Game plan day one. How do we do this and
then start the process. Get help because there's hoops to
go through and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Tip on snacking up the social media and you know
your ur l, you are home or the dot net.
You want to get all of them because anything that
you leave open is potential liability for someone else to
claim it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Or you come up with a great name, you start
doing logos and everything, and then you realize like, oh
that's not available, and then you have to start over.
So it's it's good to like figure that stuff out
first and then build. So we didn't even know our
name until it was it was late. We opened in April,
and I think it was like January when we finally
like were like okay, and then we were like getting
(24:26):
running with like logos and things, but everything else was
taken care of. Yeah, it's just important to get all
of that taken care of first so you're not going backwards.
You don't want to be scrambling and then realize that
the website's not available or your logo is copying somebody else.
So like really doing that research and I think getting
the legal help before and they guide you rather than
(24:46):
like you come up with everything, you waste time because
then you realize, oh, you're going to be violating somebody
else's you know, trademark, So it is important.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
I'm thinking now back at this trademark.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I'm thinking about getting the business bank account, going, applying
for the right things. What was the physical process right,
so like before you physically were mailed the awesome stamped
trademark there, did you have to go to a website?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Did you go inside of an office?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Like?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
What did you do? Count? Like do two years? Two years?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Okay, so walk me through that process a little bit more,
step by step.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Honestly, we utilized again the patent attorney to do it.
So they just asked, you know, us, whatever they needed
to get it going. They gave us kind of like okay,
these are going to be and they helped with a
name too, like these are going to be things that
would potentially cause you to get declined or somebody else
to protest, because you can do that too, so somebody
(25:35):
else can protest, which we've done before with people trying
to apply for something that it's too close to what
we're doing or it's so generic. You know. Wick that
was a big thing because every candle has a wick
in it, so that was like a word that's kind
of a buzzword to not get approval. So that's part
of it as well.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
One of the resources that I love is the into
what QuickBooks blog. There's a bunch of information on there
on how to start a business. I've actually contributed to
the blog and there's a lot of educational tips and
information for people who want to start out. So I'm curious,
what is the best piece of advice that you've gotten
from your business mentors?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Higher, slow, fire fast is probably the best advice that
I've been given that I've used from the time that
I started what I would say, like my professional career.
And it sounds harsh, but it is the most truthful thing.
When you meet someone and you're on the fence, don't
hire out a desperation. It's not good for anyone. It's
(26:30):
not good for your business. A lot of times the
wrong person can really taint like your environment or a team.
And if you do make that mistake and you realize
somebody is not a good fit, you got to get
rid of them because it the more time they are
it's really affecting your business negatively. So that's probably the
best advice that I've ever been given.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, and if you stay consistent on that, the team
actually starts to respect it, because.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
Not only you're holding them to standards.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
Now, if the standards aren't met and someone can't stay
on the team, they under Okay, serious, Like this is
not a joke, and like she said, don't hire out
a desperation, because if you hire out a desperation, you
end up getting that person in there and six months
down the road you're like, oh no. So it sounds
like she said, terrible, but you have to you got it,
And then that might mean you have to be in
the shop or the business nine to nine again. But
(27:18):
you get through it and you hire again, and you
cross your fingers and you do a good job.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So, as someone who's starting a business from scratch, there's
a lot of surprises that come with entrepreneurship. I've dealt
with a handful of them over the last five years myself,
and I'm assuming you all have as well. So talk
to me now about sort of the surprises that came
out of left field that just threw you for a loop.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I think my biggest one was I learned that sales
taxes don't go to where they need to go, like
you have to physically go to the state and do
these sales taxes. So I think we were operating for
like three or four months and someone had asked about
it and I was like what, And you know, then
you have to file with Florida, and I had no idea.
(28:01):
So when you're getting sales tax, it's actually going into
your account sitting there, and then you pay it either
monthly or quarterly. So that was a big surprise. Insurance
is a cost that like, it's expensive and it's really
not something that we've had to use, but you have
to pay it, and then as you grow, you're paying
it employee taxes. There's just stuff that you're just like,
(28:22):
oh my gosh, that's a.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Hard lesson Tampa Forth. We did just have a hurricane
last year.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Right, and there's obviously natural disasters that you never want
to happen that can happen, and that's all over the country,
so yeah, you want to prepare for that, but you
also hope it doesn't happen.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
But yeah, little things like that will sneak up on you.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
So I'm curious because this is one of the questions
I get a lot from my own business coaching clients.
They're like, well, should I start an LLC right away?
Do I start operating as a sole proprietor so, like,
how did you guys decide on what entity made sense
for the business.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
We relied on the accountant to kind of guide. We
gave him what do we want to be?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
What are we now?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And his recommendation was ESCORP So that's where we are now.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So when you're starting an entity, you have compliance requirements
with the state paperwork, you have a physical location that
has its own compliance requirements. You have digital content that
requires compliance. So how have you been maybe surprised by
some of these requirements in your own journey?
Speaker 6 (29:21):
You really got to be careful from a business building perspective,
brick and mortar everything has to be ADA, so when
you're designing it, you have to know about how wheelchairs
can turn around in certain areas, the distance between doors
need to be certain things, So you definitely do that.
Definitely take the time to work with a nice architect
or someone to help you with that or at least
(29:41):
understand it, because that's one of the things that if
you don't think about, you'll be two years in and
someone will walk in and that's a big fine. And
you mentioned digital there are digital compliance things as well.
I highly, highly highly recommend Google just ADA requirements for
your website because there is a lot more things you
can think about that you're having dream that can go
(30:02):
wrong with a website because a lot of times people
use websites as placeholders. Please reach out to consultant something
about the ada portion of it, because it has to
be accessible for people who are blind color blind. It
has to be accessible by navigating your entire website.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
With just like I think it's the space bar and
the arrow keys.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
There's a bunch of little things you need to make
sure that you're compliant with or you could have issues
down the road, for sure, so much to keep track of.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, even capacity, like capacity issues where we based on
the number of seats that we have and people who
can be in the space that required us to add
additional restroom. So there's so many things that like if
they say this is a space that holds twenty people,
then you have to accommodate for those twenty people.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
There's just a lot that.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
We learned, but definitely again utilizing experts that you're not
having to go in after you do a build out
and then you're having to spend forty thousand dollars to
redo your restrooms or anything like that.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
The thing is, these things change too, so it's not
a one and done situation, right, So it's important to
just really keep your ear to what's going on because
you might have to make some additional changes as your
business continues to operate.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So the last thing I need to know here, what
is your favorite scent? I'm looking behind you. I'm see
probably one hundred different scents. You have to have a favorite.
I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
What is it that's so hard?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
It changes? I think for me it's more of a
nostalgia thing. A tomato leaf. I grew up on a
tomato farm, so that like just brings me back to
being little on the tomato farm with my dad, the smell, everything,
So that's that's mine for sure.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
It's amazing. Oh man.
Speaker 6 (31:37):
Mine probably evolves with the idea of a vacation because
I think we need one. It's called Seaside Villa. It's
just very smooth, kind of close your eyes, you're out
of here kind of place.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
So I like that.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
And I like one called black Ood and so if
you like a little masking a little smooth, that's one
of my favorite ones as well.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
And I know you all ship all around the country
Dcandlepoor dot com go check it out.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Well, thank you so much for having us here at
the Candlepoor you know, I think what you guys are
doing is a very novel, incredible concept. There's something very
powerful about the sensory experience that when you connect a
memory a person with a smell, it's not just about
a candle. It really is about remembering someone or a
specific time. So I love that you guys are really
(32:22):
creating this experiential thing that people can dive into and
do something a little different when you're looking for some
fun stuff to do here in Tampa.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Yeah, we appreciate you coming and visiting us.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
It's been fun, Denise, I learned a ton during this interview,
and good god, it smells good in here. I just
I don't want to leave. I know, what were some
of your biggest takeaways.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
I think it's the idea that when you're starting a business,
there are so many things that you can plan for,
but then again, there's like so many things that you can't.
You know, things like, let me think about what enity
I want setting up an accounting system with something like
into it quick books. But then you're also just going
to be confronted with things that you literally cannot even
(33:07):
anticipate are going to be a thing. And so I
think it's just a good reminder that when you're thinking
about going down this road as a small business owner,
be prepared to you know, play with fire pun intended.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Actually that was a really good one.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
I like that.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I think a big takeaway for me was coming back
to this idea of the step by step process of
starting a business. Right they sort of just followed the playbook,
right Google, how do I start a business? And then
it goes into the LLC formation versus the sole proprietorship
and understanding the differences there and maybe there's a partnership
or maybe it's a S corporation or things like that,
and then you know, taking that to the next level
(33:45):
with finding the trademark and kind of leaning into Okay,
who in my network is a trusted ally that can
help me file for this trademark and how do I
get that process started? And how long is it going
to take for me?
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Right?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
So, I think just leaning into this idea that starting
a business in the beginning can be a very step
by step process, which is really encouraging for a lot
of small business owners listening right now that are still
in the beginning stages. But once you have that business
up and running, rocking and rolling, there's a lot to
look forward to, like expanding to a fourth location.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
I think this is an amazing episode to kick off
our small business starter Kit series. I don't know about you,
but I'm ready to make a candle. So that is
a wrap for this episode. You can find me on
social media at Jociero Dinetto podcast.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
To get the tools you need to start, run and
grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today and
while you're there, check out the latest QuickBooks blog posts
for helpful resources and insights, and you might even see
something written by Janie.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
We also want to hear from you, so be sure
to leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
See you next time.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Nothing in this episode constitutes business advice. This podcast is
a production of iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Our executive producer is Molly Sosha. Our supervising producer is
Nikiah Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Our head of Push Production is James Foster, and our
mixing engineer is Paul Vitulen's of audiography
Ruby.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The views, information, or opinions expressed during this podcast are
solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent
those of Into It QuickBooks or any of its cornerstone
brands or employees. This podcast does not constitute financial, legal,
or other professional advice or services. No assurance is given
that the information is comprehensive, accurate, or free of airs,
and the information presented is for general information purposes only.
Intoit QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or
(00:28):
revising any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before relying
on them.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome back everyone. This is Mine the Business.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Small Business success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intwood,
QuickBooks and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm Jennie Storrez.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
And I'm Austin Hankwooz.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Austin, what do you think of when you think of
small business ownership?
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Ooh, we're getting right to it. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
What do I think of when I think of small
business ownership? I think of working alongside of my favorite
partners and employees to build a growing business. I unfortunately
think a tax is but I also think about just
how easy it can be to start a business, depending
on the tools and resources that you choose.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
When I think of the earliest stages of someone starting
a business, I inctily think of a little kid opening
up a lemonade stand. I think for a lot of
small business owners, this is the first step that we
take into going business for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You are absolutely correct. The first business I had was
in eighth grade. I lived in Denver, Colorado, and I
was snowblowing driveways, charging people fifteen dollars a driveway. It
was quite a labor intensive business, and it did last
that long, but I made some quick money.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
That's quite the hustle.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
One of those things they don't tell us when we're
kids is whether we should have registered as an LLC
or an ascorp. I know I was not thinking about that.
Do you think kids today are looking into patent and
copyright law for their lemonade recipe?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I mean, with the AI technology we got today, who
knows what the powers that these kids. They're pretty sophisticated now,
so I would not be surprised. But I had no
idea about any of this stuff when I was starting,
and certainly not when I was a kid. Now, even
as an adult, I put in a lot of research
in studying to learn the steps I needed to take
to make my business official and finally get things off
(02:17):
the ground.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Absolutely same here and all these options and understanding the
best way to get started and launching your business can
be so overwhelming for a lot of people. But luckily
we are here to help because most of us aren't
selling lemonade in the yard anymore. We're dealing with significant
amounts of money, regulations, liability, insurance, and so much more.
So we've got to know all the paths we can
take and understand what is the best thing for our
(02:40):
business and our future plans.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And that can be very daunting just to get started right,
how overwhelming it is to think about, Oh my gosh,
I have to think about to your point, insurance, all
these employees, these liabilities, money, regulation compliance, it's pretty daunting.
I remember when I first started out Janias, I had
countless question and I was so fortunate to have some
(03:03):
mentors and people in my corner that I could lean
on to help me with that.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Yeah, you know, it's really important to just make sure
that you're getting the information that you need in order
to navigate this path, because, especially if you're the first
person in your circle. To start a business, you don't
necessarily have that level of knowledge around you. I know
for me, it was a lot of kind of Google
and YouTube university trial by fire if you.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Were professor Google is what I call them. We're going
to be discussing all that and more today with our guests,
Misty and Dennis Acres from the Candle Poor in Tampa, Florida.
Misty and Dennis are University of South Florida alums who
wanted to start a business that broke through the clutter
of technology and are increasing reliance on all things online
(03:46):
to bring people together in a physical space. They also
wanted to have a product that people could use and
enjoy every day. They found the perfect blend of the
two in candle making. They opened The Candle Core in
Tampa in twenty nineteen and have been providing unique and
enjoyable experiences for customers of all ages ever since. They
are Tampa's first pour your own candle experience, and they're
(04:09):
also family owned and operated. From individuals to couples to
groups large and small, they have a plethora of products
and scents to choose from, and pride themselves in crafting
a bond building social experience that leaves you with something
beautiful to take home. Missy and Dennis, thank you so
much for joining us on this episode of Mind the Business.
(04:30):
We're here in the candleploor in Tampa, Florida. It smells amazing,
really cool spot.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Yeah, that's half the battle, so custom candle experience. I
hope it smells good when you get in here.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So, I unfortunately am someone who is chronically online. I
am always on social media, I'm always looking at headline news.
I spend too much time on the internet. So when
it came to candle making, sort of the opposite of that.
What stood out about candle making to you, which which
allows people to detach from their devices and sort of
(05:04):
the online buzz that we're always pulled into.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, it's about the experience and that's what we wanted
to create with our business. Candles are something that I
think most people love and they use and then they
reuse and come back. So that was a big part
of it, is just being able to have an in
person experience vers like what you said is like surfing
online and really you know, being able to shop and
get everything you need to do at your doorstep. This
(05:27):
is something that really brings people together, and we love that.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Talk more about the bringing people together part because I mean,
I can't count quickly here, but I'm at least a
dozen actual seating arrangements here. So how large these parties?
Do people come by themselves sometime? I mean, what is
the true customer experience when they walk in the door.
Speaker 6 (05:43):
That's a great question. The candlepoor is a custom candle experience.
Our goal is to help you create your own scent.
So we bring people together. They choose from over one
hundred different individual scents to make their own custom scent blend.
The experience itself last right around thirty to forty five minutes,
and we always reckoned and starting your day with us
because once you are done creating your own special candle,
(06:04):
they need two hours to set prep in bag. So
that's when you go spend some more time with friends,
and you come back and pick it up. I mean,
you can come by yourself, that's perfectly fine. Ninety nine
point nine percent of what we do is actually not
about candles, is about making you feel welcome, enjoying yourself,
having a fun experience.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That's amazing. Now to my understanding, this in Hyde Park
is your first location. Talk to us about what it
was like to open your doors on day one.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Terrifying. Yeah, I mean the thing is you have no
idea what to expect. Are people gonna You know, we
are both from the area, so I think we had
that initial friends and family welcome, everybody's excited, they're proud
we do grand opening. But then once that day's over,
it's who's coming? Do people know where we are? Our
(06:51):
first location was actually on the other side. We were
on the second story, no traffic, so we were just
kind of like, okay, there would be days that likee
walked through the door. But then what really happened, especially
like crediting social media, is people started to come in,
they were sharing other people saw it, they were like, oh,
my friend just came. So that took off really fast
(07:12):
for us, and we're very very blessed that we had that.
And then really just our friends and family like gathering
together to support us and rallying and coming in and
getting the word.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Out was huge.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, you all have obviously done a wonderful job. I
think you're opening your fourth location.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
Now, m m. Yeah, we'll be in Sarasota congratulations.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yeah, so how did you guys find the money to
do this?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
We self funded our first location. That was just something
like I knew for several years what I wanted to do,
so I you know, we were saving for that. But yeah,
to start, it was very difficult to present to people
and you're trying to like explain it and they're like,
what what are you doing? Even our friends. I had
a friend that came up to us like a year
after we opened, and she was like, I just remember
(07:56):
when you were talking about it, and she was like
I just left being like, oh no, the this is
never going to work, and I'm like she felt sorry
for us, and then she's like, I'm really happy for you.
But I knew what it would look like. He knew
what it would look like, but until we were open,
we didn't really have a lot of backing.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, I mean sometimes it takes time to make believers
out of folks, right.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
Exactly, And honestly, what she said that still happens. So
if we go to like a networking event and it's
like I'm a doctor, i'm a lawyer, I'm an accountant,
and I'm like, we are a custom candle experience and
They always like, you know how whin the dog looking
at you that doesn't really understand you?
Speaker 5 (08:30):
And they tilt their head to the left a little bit.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
They're always like, do that and you try to explain
it and have you really got to get them in
here and touch and feel and be part of the
environment to really understand what we're doing.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
You know what's funny.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I find a common theme in all the folks that
we've talked to on this season and just in general,
is you don't ask questions to folks who don't have
the experience or the exposure to what you're trying to do. Right,
You had a lot of nasayers, You got a lot
of people saying, are you nuts?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
But these are also probably.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
People who don't own a business, You've never dabbled in entrepreneurship,
or at least of not taking the level of risk
that you guys have taken. And so I think this
is a good reminder talk to people who are actually
in the arena, because they're the ones that are going
to set you up for success, versus folks who are
kind of just maybe projecting their own fears onto you
and are not really going to give you the advice
that you need to move forward.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
It's a really good point.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah, I have a funny feeling that's going to be
a theme of this season, right, leaning in on your
trusted advocates and sort of your team members.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
We're just talking to Sharise earlier with episode one, and
she was talking about how she had a mentor, right,
and so she leans on the mentor for recommendations and
other things like that.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
So I'm right there worth with you. I think it's
very important.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You know, a big reason why I like into a
quick book so much is because they simplify the day
to day of me tracking my revenue, my bookkeeping, my payroll,
all that fun stuff. And so I'm curious, when is
it a good time to diiy the patents, the trademarks,
the incorporations, the accounting versus sort of offloading that to
(09:57):
a trusted partner.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
How do you balance that?
Speaker 6 (10:00):
It's just knowing your strengths, your weaknesses, a lot of
the law stuff. That was an easy one to say,
let's offload that one. You know, Yeah, that's literally what
it is. You got to understand yourself and you really
want to focus on what the business is doing. I
know you mentioned into it quick books, and it's going
to take care of a lot of things for you.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
That's the one thing you want to.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
Do is get us much off of your plate so
you can focus on how is this going to run?
How are my customers going to feel when they're in there,
as opposed to do I remember to put that recept
in and get that all that in the background and
focus on your main business.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, and that's part of it too, is like I said,
stay in your lane. If you're not great at something,
just understand you're not. You know, he does all the marketing,
and that was something like when we decided to do
it together. His photography is beautiful, so when we first
started the business, we're posting these professional photos. Hiring is
probably the number one thing that's important with any business.
It's just making sure that you have the right team
(10:53):
in place. So if you're not good at like judging
somebody as far as like you can't read them, and
get somebody that can use a recruiter. That's important. But
we've always done that in house because it's something that
I feel is probably one of my biggest strengths.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I think before the interview, you too were sort of
going back and forth where Dennis is more of like
the pie and the sky guy and Misty is more
of the operationals. Right, So maybe maybe there's like this
really cool dichotomy that balances out, you know, the success
of this business because you two works so well together.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
I mean a majority of things behind the scenes. So
it's making sure the machine is working. And then how
do we I guess what I would say that I
do is how do I put a little sugar on
the machine? I mean everything we do here is a process.
Everything is laid out, there's check marks to be made,
everything extremely extremely well oiled machine kind of stuff. And
how do we take the well oiled machine and give
it a little more personality? And that's it can be
(11:46):
probably annoying sometimes, but it's my my trait for sure.
And then yeah, as far as entrepreneurship, that's just waking
up every day and looking in the mirror and saying,
here we go, let's let's get through it and making
your list. And like you said, you're learning every day
and sometimes you don't realize you're learning it. Maybe more
trial by fire sometimes, but you want to do your
(12:07):
best to wake up and understand that you're blessed to
a be busy.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
That's why we're tired and we're busy.
Speaker 6 (12:12):
So you're blessed to be busy, and you're blessed to
have a counterpart in the business that really puts their
heart and soul in it and is up.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
Till the wee hours of the night.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
I always tell the staff when you get an email
at midnight or one am, it's not because she delayed
it on some weird clock system as she's sitting next
to me just firing away on our computer, because that's
the best time she can work because no one can
email her back.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
So yeah, and holidays, weekends.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
So you just got to get used to that lifestyle,
and you got to get used to some of your
days are just not going to look the same majority
of them all. I think that's why we do this though.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely a different breed for sure.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
When people go to a school for entrepreneurship, I'm like,
maybe just go out and get your teeth kicked in,
because that's what it is.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
It is.
Speaker 6 (12:55):
It's like, how do we get through today? Like the
pandemic happened. Obviously, we open in April twenty fift two
thousand nineteen. The world changed a little bit after that,
but just to navigate the PPP loans and navigate all
that so we can just somehow hope to stay open
was a day to day taxing on both emotions and
mental status and all kinds of things.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
But we got through it.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Yeah, like you say, year to year, it's different, and
we just really got like that fire with our first year.
You're trying to figure out what you're doing, who you hire,
who your customers are, how to run your business, and
then global pandemic that's never happened in any of our times.
So then it's like, okay, now we have to close
for five months. So year two was like really weird
(13:38):
because we had to like move everything online, so we
were doing like virtual candle poor experiences.
Speaker 5 (13:43):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
It was cool, yeah, and it was neat to see
like people really you know, they were just like sending
us messages like we hope you survive, you know, and
we're just like, oh.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
Gosh, like little do they know you're thriving now?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah? And then you know, so year two was like,
all right, how do you operate being clothes for five
months with our staff. We kept one hundred percent of
our staff, which we were extremely proud of to like
figure out ways to keep them working. Then at the
end of that year, it was like, Okay, we're doing
an experience where it's touching and news, but everyone's having
to wear a mask. And then the third year we
(14:16):
were like, all right, we're kind of back to normal.
So it's been a real challenge, but we've learned a ton.
We feel like we can kind of get through anything.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
So yeah, I mean, it's so a test of endurance.
I think entrepreneurship for sure.
Speaker 5 (14:30):
I always say the candlepor is anonymous for change. So
we're always trying to get better.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
And if you're not getting better, you may not be
getting worse, but you're just being stagnant.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I'm curious, was this always the dream?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Did you always have entrepreneurial dreams or what was your
previous lives in, you know, corporate entrepreneurial.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Yes, this No. So I was with a company for
about ten years that did medical aesthetics. Learned a ton.
It was a growing company, and it was something like
what I love about it is what I want to
do here.
Speaker 5 (15:00):
I got that.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Experience there and I really learned franchising, the good, the bad,
the ugly, what mistakes that we could potentially make here,
and then just trying not to do those things so
we don't have to go backwards. The dream, I don't
think was Candles, but it was definitely to create something
for our employees to hopefully have careers for a long
time and then maybe go into business for themselves. That's
(15:23):
a big part of it too. My ultimate dream would
be to have an employee that's been with us a
couple of years and then they end up opening in
a different market and you know, opening their own business
and putting them into business, which would be neat.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
How about you, Dennis, what was your past life?
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I got too many past lives.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
One of my past lives was photography, video work, that
kind of stuff. I've done, real estate, I've sold flowers.
I've done a lot of different things. And when she
approached us to say candles, I went, what And then Yeah,
once we worked on the business plan and put our
minds to it, I just buckled up.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Honestly, Okay, that's it.
Speaker 6 (15:58):
I literally was just like, Hey, you think this is
a good idea, Okay, let's do it. And I'd like
to say, I'm like her chest piece, like where do
you need me today?
Speaker 5 (16:06):
And where can I help? And let's move forward.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So I think that.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Speaks to the underrated but really valuable asset that it
is to have a partner. Maybe they don't see the
whole vision, but at least they trust you enough to
be like, you know, I think you can make this work.
So I appreciate that about y'all.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Coming up on Mind the Business, Small Business success.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Stories higher slow fire Bath is probably the best advice
that I've been given that I've used.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
We'll be right back. Welcome back to Mind the Business.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
So let's talk about what comes next after you start
the business. You're tracking inventory, sales, payroll, all the things.
How does that work for y'all? How did you set
that up? Because you know, obviously we talk about the
robustness of into it QuickBooks and being able to manage
so many different aspects of your business, whether that is
tracking your money, your expenses, taking care of payroll. The
(17:09):
benefit of using a system like into it QuickBooks is
that it takes all of these things that we have
to individually track and puts them all in one place.
So can you talk to us about how you set
up your process to be able to make sure everything's
flowing so that you don't get lost in the minutia
of running the business.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, into it. QuickBooks was one of the first things
we did. I came from an industry that had like
we had our own reports, so if I needed to
see KPI anything like that, I had to like request
through it. They developed it, so it was just a
lot different With QuickBooks. It makes it so much easier,
especially for a novice business owner because I'm not an accountant,
(17:46):
I didn't really know, but you can really get a
lot of great information and helpful information even just getting started.
But then once you're operating, you know, are you making
money like you don't? You know, it makes it so
much nasier. Yes, yes it is. It is very important.
But it's shocking how many people don't have, you know,
either access to that or it's something that they don't
(18:07):
even check.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
So it says a lot about the robustness of the
system that when I was looking for an account and
the first thing and they were like, what are you
going to use if it's not into a quickbook case,
We're just literally not going to work with you, you know,
so it's like the proof is in the putting.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
I think for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Yeah, I think what's really cool when people start businesses
is kind of just how step by step it can be.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
It goes to, you know, you get your LLC, you
open up the business bank account, you get your EI
N things like that, Right, So it's like it's a
very step by step process. And for a lot of
small business owners, part of that process is getting a trademark.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Do you all have a trademark? Yeah?
Speaker 6 (18:44):
I was about to say that. That was one of the
first things we did to protect the brand. But the
fun fact about us is we are the Candle Poor,
but we are Wick candlebar doing business as the Candle
Poor because wick is too commonly used of a word,
so we couldn't TRADEMARKT and that that's why we wanted
to do that, so we.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
Can actually trademark it and protect it, just like our icon.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
I don't know if you can show that on this,
but we have that little square that looks like things
are pouring into sure and trademarking that and luckily we've
only had to use once someone was kind of copying it,
so we've only had to use it once where we
actually had to like put our trademark into effect.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Well that's great though, because you took these steps beforehand,
you were able to protect yourself.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yeah. We were just told, like, you might come up
with a great idea. If you don't protect yourself, someone
else can see it and they can literally do every
single thing you're doing and run away with your business.
So that was important. We had someone that literally almost
used our logo exact and was reaching out to like
all of our followers and asking them to follow hers.
But it was very confusing because people thought it was us,
(19:45):
like the logo looked like ours. She was even trying
like to get us to follow and we were like,
what the.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Heck, what do you do?
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So little things we utilized, the attorneys that we had
used that.
Speaker 6 (19:56):
Yeah, I felt it was just like you're working every
single day and it pops up up and our staff
started saying, Hey, someone's like following us and like they
want us to like you know that, follow on, follow
things you do and get someone's attention.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
So she was doing that and it's just frustrating.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
It's like you're putting in a ton of money and
a ton of time and someone just wants to throw
something up and kind of work underneath your brand.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Yeah, I've had the situation too.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I've had to send a couple of seasoned desist letters
through my attorney for folks just legit copying your entire content.
Or you're trying to start a brand that is so
similar to what you're doing that there's clearly going to
be some confusion. So it's important to have an attorney.
All that's part of your team as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
They're not cheap, but there's a reason they're good at
what they do, and they use an attorney. I would say,
not just like when you need them, but to avoid
having to use them and need them. So that's a
big part.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Of it too.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Something really cool that you mentioned was doing business as
can you explain to our listeners what a DBA is?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
I mean, I know why we did it because of
the trademark issue. It makes filling out paperwork a lot
longer sometimes because you got to write all that in.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
But a lot of times you'll see that.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
When you're looking up businesses, absolutely you can't find them,
like why can't I find them?
Speaker 5 (21:03):
And because they have that.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Part of it also is like we are going to
potentially franchise. You know, our second location is with Candle
Bar two, our third location and so on, so everything
is also separate. That's something to think about when you're
going into business. Is it all going to be under
one umbrella or do you plan to have different locations?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Oh, explain that a little bit. So you're saying that
you're you have different LLCs for your different locations.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yes, and you can protect yourself too. If something happened
at our Saint Pete location, it's completely separate than what
we have here or Oxford Exchange or the warehouse or
if you were you know, just the Candle Poor. If
a franchise ease coming over, then they're going to have
a different name, but they would be doing business as
the Candle Poor. So that way it's recognized when they
(21:46):
use it that way.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
That's very cool.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Yeah, I think that's uh one of those areas of
entrepreneurship that a lot of people really don't understand what
the point is of taking that step of separating the businesses,
but it really is from a legal protecting standpoint, just
to make sure that if there is some sort of
issue with one site, you're not putting your entire empire
at risk because everything's lumped together. I recently did the
DBA thing too, because now I have technically like two
(22:09):
different brands, and so it was weird explaining to folks
when I was invoicing them, like why is this Delisious
Delights but your Jokero dinetto podcast because I have a
food media company. And then the personal finance thing. So
it just helps clarify to like what entity are we
working with. And as far as the trademarking, it's something
that is pricey, right, but it is something that is
(22:33):
really essential if you really have a long term vision
for your brand. I can't tell you the amount of
friends that I've had that have started businesses are two, three,
four years in and then they find out that the
name they've been operating under has been trademarked by someone
else and you literally have to start from scratch. H
That is devastating. Yeah, you know, so just taking the
time to understand, like what you're actually investing in, how
(22:56):
you can protect your brand, that's an essential part of
this and it's something that you should plan for financially.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, it's a good point. There's people that literally go
out and look for that, or they'll like get ahead
of you and like get your website before you can.
We want the candle Poor. So that was something we
had to think about too. What's available that we might
have to pay a little bit, but we're not like
having to pay thirty thousand dollars because of the name.
It's so common and someone just has it to sell it.
So that's a really good point.
Speaker 5 (23:23):
It's actually a good point.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
So when you mentioned the beginning early stages, go on Instagram,
So for me, go on every single thing and take
as many as you can. Yep, even the different iterations
of it. So I believe I've blocked off like candle Poor.
We're the candle Poor, but we have that one associated
just not using it. So that's a way to protect it.
And then you mentioned time about the trademark.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
It takes time. Yeah, So if it's something you want
to do, that's.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Game plan day one. How do we do this and
then start the process. Get help because there's hoops to
go through and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Tip on snacking up the social media and you know
your ur l, you are home or the dot net.
You want to get all of them because anything that
you leave open is potential liability for someone else to
claim it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Or you come up with a great name, you start
doing logos and everything, and then you realize like, oh
that's not available, and then you have to start over.
So it's it's good to like figure that stuff out
first and then build. So we didn't even know our
name until it was it was late. We opened in April,
and I think it was like January when we finally
like were like okay, and then we were like getting
(24:26):
running with like logos and things, but everything else was
taken care of. Yeah, it's just important to get all
of that taken care of first so you're not going backwards.
You don't want to be scrambling and then realize that
the website's not available or your logo is copying somebody else.
So like really doing that research and I think getting
the legal help before and they guide you rather than
(24:46):
like you come up with everything, you waste time because
then you realize, oh, you're going to be violating somebody
else's you know, trademark, So it is important.
Speaker 5 (24:53):
I'm thinking now back at this trademark.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I'm thinking about getting the business bank account, going, applying
for the right things. What was the physical process right,
so like before you physically were mailed the awesome stamped
trademark there, did you have to go to a website?
Speaker 5 (25:07):
Did you go inside of an office?
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Like?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
What did you do? Count? Like do two years? Two years?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Okay, so walk me through that process a little bit more,
step by step.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Honestly, we utilized again the patent attorney to do it.
So they just asked, you know, us, whatever they needed
to get it going. They gave us kind of like okay,
these are going to be and they helped with a
name too, like these are going to be things that
would potentially cause you to get declined or somebody else
to protest, because you can do that too, so somebody
(25:35):
else can protest, which we've done before with people trying
to apply for something that it's too close to what
we're doing or it's so generic. You know. Wick that
was a big thing because every candle has a wick
in it, so that was like a word that's kind
of a buzzword to not get approval. So that's part
of it as well.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
One of the resources that I love is the into
what QuickBooks blog. There's a bunch of information on there
on how to start a business. I've actually contributed to
the blog and there's a lot of educational tips and
information for people who want to start out. So I'm curious,
what is the best piece of advice that you've gotten
from your business mentors?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Higher, slow, fire fast is probably the best advice that
I've been given that I've used from the time that
I started what I would say, like my professional career.
And it sounds harsh, but it is the most truthful thing.
When you meet someone and you're on the fence, don't
hire out a desperation. It's not good for anyone. It's
(26:30):
not good for your business. A lot of times the
wrong person can really taint like your environment or a team.
And if you do make that mistake and you realize
somebody is not a good fit, you got to get
rid of them because it the more time they are
it's really affecting your business negatively. So that's probably the
best advice that I've ever been given.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, and if you stay consistent on that, the team
actually starts to respect it, because.
Speaker 5 (26:54):
Not only you're holding them to standards.
Speaker 6 (26:55):
Now, if the standards aren't met and someone can't stay
on the team, they under Okay, serious, Like this is
not a joke, and like she said, don't hire out
a desperation, because if you hire out a desperation, you
end up getting that person in there and six months
down the road you're like, oh no. So it sounds
like she said, terrible, but you have to you got it,
And then that might mean you have to be in
the shop or the business nine to nine again. But
(27:18):
you get through it and you hire again, and you
cross your fingers and you do a good job.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So, as someone who's starting a business from scratch, there's
a lot of surprises that come with entrepreneurship. I've dealt
with a handful of them over the last five years myself,
and I'm assuming you all have as well. So talk
to me now about sort of the surprises that came
out of left field that just threw you for a loop.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
I think my biggest one was I learned that sales
taxes don't go to where they need to go, like
you have to physically go to the state and do
these sales taxes. So I think we were operating for
like three or four months and someone had asked about
it and I was like what, And you know, then
you have to file with Florida, and I had no idea.
(28:01):
So when you're getting sales tax, it's actually going into
your account sitting there, and then you pay it either
monthly or quarterly. So that was a big surprise. Insurance
is a cost that like, it's expensive and it's really
not something that we've had to use, but you have
to pay it, and then as you grow, you're paying
it employee taxes. There's just stuff that you're just like,
(28:22):
oh my gosh, that's a.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Hard lesson Tampa Forth. We did just have a hurricane
last year.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Right, and there's obviously natural disasters that you never want
to happen that can happen, and that's all over the country,
so yeah, you want to prepare for that, but you
also hope it doesn't happen.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
But yeah, little things like that will sneak up on you.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
So I'm curious because this is one of the questions
I get a lot from my own business coaching clients.
They're like, well, should I start an LLC right away?
Do I start operating as a sole proprietor so, like,
how did you guys decide on what entity made sense
for the business.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
We relied on the accountant to kind of guide. We
gave him what do we want to be?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
What are we now?
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And his recommendation was ESCORP So that's where we are now.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
So when you're starting an entity, you have compliance requirements
with the state paperwork, you have a physical location that
has its own compliance requirements. You have digital content that
requires compliance. So how have you been maybe surprised by
some of these requirements in your own journey?
Speaker 6 (29:21):
You really got to be careful from a business building perspective,
brick and mortar everything has to be ADA, so when
you're designing it, you have to know about how wheelchairs
can turn around in certain areas, the distance between doors
need to be certain things, So you definitely do that.
Definitely take the time to work with a nice architect
or someone to help you with that or at least
(29:41):
understand it, because that's one of the things that if
you don't think about, you'll be two years in and
someone will walk in and that's a big fine. And
you mentioned digital there are digital compliance things as well.
I highly, highly highly recommend Google just ADA requirements for
your website because there is a lot more things you
can think about that you're having dream that can go
(30:02):
wrong with a website because a lot of times people
use websites as placeholders. Please reach out to consultant something
about the ada portion of it, because it has to
be accessible for people who are blind color blind. It
has to be accessible by navigating your entire website.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
With just like I think it's the space bar and
the arrow keys.
Speaker 6 (30:20):
There's a bunch of little things you need to make
sure that you're compliant with or you could have issues
down the road, for sure, so much to keep track of.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, even capacity, like capacity issues where we based on
the number of seats that we have and people who
can be in the space that required us to add
additional restroom. So there's so many things that like if
they say this is a space that holds twenty people,
then you have to accommodate for those twenty people.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
There's just a lot that.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
We learned, but definitely again utilizing experts that you're not
having to go in after you do a build out
and then you're having to spend forty thousand dollars to
redo your restrooms or anything like that.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
The thing is, these things change too, so it's not
a one and done situation, right, So it's important to
just really keep your ear to what's going on because
you might have to make some additional changes as your
business continues to operate.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So the last thing I need to know here, what
is your favorite scent? I'm looking behind you. I'm see
probably one hundred different scents. You have to have a favorite.
I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
What is it that's so hard?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
It changes? I think for me it's more of a
nostalgia thing. A tomato leaf. I grew up on a
tomato farm, so that like just brings me back to
being little on the tomato farm with my dad, the smell, everything,
So that's that's mine for sure.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
It's amazing. Oh man.
Speaker 6 (31:37):
Mine probably evolves with the idea of a vacation because
I think we need one. It's called Seaside Villa. It's
just very smooth, kind of close your eyes, you're out
of here kind of place.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
So I like that.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
And I like one called black Ood and so if
you like a little masking a little smooth, that's one
of my favorite ones as well.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
And I know you all ship all around the country
Dcandlepoor dot com go check it out.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
Well, thank you so much for having us here at
the Candlepoor you know, I think what you guys are
doing is a very novel, incredible concept. There's something very
powerful about the sensory experience that when you connect a
memory a person with a smell, it's not just about
a candle. It really is about remembering someone or a
specific time. So I love that you guys are really
(32:22):
creating this experiential thing that people can dive into and
do something a little different when you're looking for some
fun stuff to do here in Tampa.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
Yeah, we appreciate you coming and visiting us.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
It's been fun, Denise, I learned a ton during this interview,
and good god, it smells good in here. I just
I don't want to leave. I know, what were some
of your biggest takeaways.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
I think it's the idea that when you're starting a business,
there are so many things that you can plan for,
but then again, there's like so many things that you can't.
You know, things like, let me think about what enity
I want setting up an accounting system with something like
into it quick books. But then you're also just going
to be confronted with things that you literally cannot even
(33:07):
anticipate are going to be a thing. And so I
think it's just a good reminder that when you're thinking
about going down this road as a small business owner,
be prepared to you know, play with fire pun intended.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Actually that was a really good one.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
I like that.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
I'm right there with you.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I think a big takeaway for me was coming back
to this idea of the step by step process of
starting a business. Right they sort of just followed the playbook,
right Google, how do I start a business? And then
it goes into the LLC formation versus the sole proprietorship
and understanding the differences there and maybe there's a partnership
or maybe it's a S corporation or things like that,
and then you know, taking that to the next level
(33:45):
with finding the trademark and kind of leaning into Okay,
who in my network is a trusted ally that can
help me file for this trademark and how do I
get that process started? And how long is it going
to take for me?
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Right?
Speaker 2 (33:55):
So, I think just leaning into this idea that starting
a business in the beginning can be a very step
by step process, which is really encouraging for a lot
of small business owners listening right now that are still
in the beginning stages. But once you have that business
up and running, rocking and rolling, there's a lot to
look forward to, like expanding to a fourth location.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
I think this is an amazing episode to kick off
our small business starter Kit series. I don't know about you,
but I'm ready to make a candle. So that is
a wrap for this episode. You can find me on
social media at Jociero Dinetto podcast.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
To get the tools you need to start, run and
grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today and
while you're there, check out the latest QuickBooks blog posts
for helpful resources and insights, and you might even see
something written by Janie.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
We also want to hear from you, so be sure
to leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
See you next time.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Nothing in this episode constitutes business advice. This podcast is
a production of iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio and Into It QuickBooks.
Our executive producer is Molly Sosha. Our supervising producer is
Nikiah Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Our head of Push Production is James Foster, and our
mixing engineer is Paul Vitulen's of audiography
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