October 8, 2025 • 31 mins
#021 We answer real candle business questions from startup costs and profitability timelines to wicks, seasonal strategy, scaling beyond the kitchen, and cutting COGS, using hard numbers and simple steps. We share exactly what worked for us as we grew from $1.5k invested to $1.5M in sales.
• startup budget realities and lean inventory planning
• niching down, target customer clarity, and faster testing
• when to move from home to warehouse or retail
• retail vs wholesale vs private label trade-offs
• wick selection using supplier recommendations
• seasonal collections vs evergreen fragrance strategy
• lowering COGS with smart shipping and standard vessels
• sales channels that convert: email, wholesale, fundraisers
• why defining your why sustains momentum
Download our free supply list and tools, get info on our courses and Inner Circle, and submit your questions via the show notes
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
In today's episode, I'm answering Candle Business
questions from viewers andlisteners just like yourself.
When you join our CandleBusiness Pro free Facebook
group, you are offered a chanceto submit a question.
And if you do submit a question,I will answer those for you in
an upcoming episode.
So let's dive into the mostrecent submitted questions.
(00:31):
If you're just tuning in for thefirst time, I'm Sebastian
Garznet, the co-founder ofGarznet Beacon Candle Company,
alongside my husband Chad andthe founder of Candle Business
Pro, where we help makers gopro.
We have everything from supplylist to a candle making course
to our inner circle, which iswhere candle business owners
come together as a community andhelp each other grow and scale
(00:52):
our businesses.
So if you want to learn more,you can check out Candle
BusinessPro.com or visit theshow notes below for some free
links to different downloadsthat you can grab from us.
All right, so let's get intothis.
This first question is fromKaterina.
Uh, I will definitely mess yourlast name up, Katarina, and I do
apologize in advance for that.
Um, but I'm gonna go withKaterina Polenskeya.
(01:14):
Paulinskea, Katarina, all right,let's talk about this.
Your question, as a solocandlemaker, starting with
limited resources, how longwould it realistically take to
reach profitability?
And what would you recommenddoing to get there faster?
Okay, so great question.
So it's going to cost um a bitof capital for you to invest
(01:36):
into starting your business,right?
You're gonna have to go throughall the testing.
You're going to have to gothrough figuring out what wax
you want to use, what wicks,what oils, the vessels,
gathering all of those supplies.
I have a video that we recentlydid, um, and it is all about the
cost of starting up, what itrealistically costs to start
your candle business.
So I would definitely recommendchecking that out.
(01:58):
There might be some costsaffiliated that you might not
realize when you're firststarting.
So definitely check that out.
Realistically, for us, uh$1,200to$1,500 is what it took to go
through all of the differenttesting, uh, creating some
initial um inventory or to turnaround and start selling.
And then once we started sellingthose candles, we just turn
around and put that right backinto the business.
But that's what we started with.
(02:18):
That is what we got thisbusiness off the ground with.
And we have grown to now in thelast three and a half years, um,
we just surpassed$1.5 million insales.
It's definitely doable.
It will be a slow start, um, butyou it's not a matter of needing
unlimited resources.
It's more of a matter of reallyfocusing on the candles you want
to make.
(02:38):
I often will see candle makerssay that it took them$5,000 plus
to get started.
Usually, not all, but usually,that is they have tried multiple
different waxes, multipledifferent wicks.
They've tested hundreds uponhundreds of different
combinations.
They invested a lot of moneyinto uh potentially their
(03:02):
branding.
They may have pivoted a coupletimes.
You do not need to invest thatmuch if you really know uh the
direction you want to go.
What I would recommend doingwould be to think of those
brands that you you really umadmire.
Uh they can be small, they canbe large.
It doesn't matter the scale,just find something that really
aligns with the type of candlesyou want to make.
(03:24):
You need to have your niche andyour target audience completely
dialed in.
I do a lot of talk about that inmany of these episodes.
You have to understand whoyou're making candles for and
what niche you want to be in.
But once you have that, it comesdown to actually making and
learning uh the candle testingside, right?
To understand how to make theright candles.
Um, and that's where a lot ofexpense comes in.
(03:47):
But if you have some candlebrands that you really like and
appreciate that you would liketo draw inspiration from, take a
look at what they have, take alook at how they started out.
Uh, even reach out to some ofthem.
If they're if they're a small uhbusiness, they they might be
very willing to share some oftheir knowledge.
See, you know, what wax are theyusing, what type of wicks are
(04:09):
they using?
And know if they are doing it,you can certainly do it as well,
right?
People ask us what wax do youuse?
Uh, I mean, I'll give that toyou.
We use 464 wax with CD Wicks,and then we use a coconut soy
with performance wicks.
So those are the two differentwaxes we use, and two different
wicks based on whichever wax itis.
Uh oils, doesn't matter, getthem from any supplier that's
reputable.
Uh, you can grab our free supplylist in the show notes below.
(04:32):
It has all the tools andresources that we use uh to
start and run our candlebusiness with.
Um, so hopefully that helps youout there.
Keep it small.
Don't try everything, don't tryto be too wide.
Also, when we started our brand,we started with 10 different
cents.
And then in all of those 10cents, we made a lot of
inventory when we first started.
I would highly recommend scalingback even farther than that.
(04:53):
I would start with six cents andI would maybe have five to ten
candles made.
You can make candles as you go.
Once you sell something, makesome more of it.
Don't sit on supply that mightnot be something that people
want to buy, and then you'rejust stuck with it because
that's just money tied up inthat.
So hopefully that helps you outthere, uh, Katarina.
Uh, next question here is fromMike Wynn.
And your question is what stepsto take when your candle
(05:16):
business outscales home candlemaking capacity?
I love this.
So, this is exactly whathappened with us.
We started right at our kitchentable, and then I went into the
dining table and then um intopart of the living room to where
we had a table where we werelike labeling stuff at night
while we were still trying tohave like family time, watch our
shows, but we had we had stuffeverywhere, right?
(05:36):
It got to the point where I amworking my 95 job, which I
worked from home, and literallyright next to my desk was all of
our candle stuff.
It got to a point where Icouldn't handle both of that
because then it was like Iwasn't escaping work.
So what we ended up doing was wetook our primary bedroom and
turned that into our candlemaking studio so that we could
(05:58):
just close the door and turn offcandles when we wanted to,
because everything fit in thatroom, we could turn it off and
not have to face it.
Of course, we still smelled it,our neighbors smelled it because
we had our windows open.
Um, you can't always escape it.
But when it was finally the timewhere we said, enough, we need
to get this out of the house.
(06:19):
That's when we opened up ourstorefront because we justified,
hey, it's gonna cost a thousanddollars a month to get a
warehouse, get a space uh to putall of our stuff in, right?
And then we got to go there tomake the candles and everything.
And it's just gonna be a generalwarehouse, like a not a storage
unit, but you know, it's justgonna be four walls, right?
(06:39):
So we thought, let's just spenda little bit more than that uh
and get a retail space.
So let's just go all in.
Let's just do it.
Uh, it was perfect because I wasworking from home, I had my 95
job, so I could still supportour our family, us, uh, as we
needed to try this new venture.
And Chad was able to go and openup the storefront.
Uh the storefront cost us$1,700a month.
(06:59):
Uh no, no, it was$1,600.
$1,700 now.
It was$1,600 a month was ourrent there.
So it was$1,600 a month to opena storefront or about$1,000 a
month to rent a space.
So we just went on it.
Um, of course, there's a lotmore that goes into it besides
just a$600 difference.
We had to, you know, be surethat we could cover, you know, a
(07:23):
salary in the family that wasn'tgoing to be coming in
necessarily anymore.
Um, but we were comfortable withit.
We are we had just startedmaking candles.
It happened, it happened reallyquick for us.
We started our candle selling inFebruary.
We opened our storefront inAugust.
In between there, we did marketsand I really went into
wholesale.
That's what made me confidentthat we were going to be able to
make it work was we had proof ofproduct.
(07:46):
We had proof of sales.
People were enjoying ourproducts.
Okay, let's go ahead and open upa storefront.
Um, and let's do it.
It was close to home and it gotthe candles out of the house.
So that's what we were we werecomfortable with.
And so the steps, your questionis what steps to take when it
outscales your home?
It depends on what direction youwant to go.
Do you want a retail store?
Some people don't want a retailstore.
(08:08):
If we were to start all overagain, I might go harder into
wholesale and private labelingthan a retail store.
A retail store is a lot of acommitment.
You have to be open specifichours, you know, that you are
setting.
There's an expectation that youset as a retail store that it's
not just a I open when I feellike it.
That's usually not going to behow it works.
(08:29):
Some people might be able to getaway with that.
We certainly can't.
There will be times where weclose an hour early.
That's the time that someonedecided they want to show up and
they're calling us or they'releaving us a Google review
because if we weren't openduring our posted time.
So it takes a lot on, but that'swhat we did.
We we open up a retail store.
If you have zero interest inthat, then find you a nice
(08:51):
temperature-controlled um placethat you can do your candle
making uh and also be packing upyour orders and all of that from
that space.
Uh that's what that's what Iwould uh recommend trying.
Next question here is fromBridget Williams.
How do you choose a proper sizewick?
Uh, whether I'm using wooden orcotton.
Okay, great question.
Fair question there.
(09:11):
Um, so every supplier of waxthat you purchase from will have
a recommended wick.
Now, I often see candle makerstry a wick and then they try
another wick and they tryanother wick and they get
frustrated and they they justkeep going in this big circle.
The reality that we have found,um, and also a lot of the
(09:34):
members inside of our innercircle, when we have these
conversations about wicking,generally the wick that a
supplier is going to recommendfor you is a good wick.
So, candle science, they'regoing to recommend for their 464
Wax, they're going to recommenda CD WIC or an Eco Wick.
Um, we tried both of those.
We liked the CD Wick.
It was good.
We went with it.
Uh, generally they're not goingto recommend something that's
(09:56):
not going to work because theywant it to work, because then
they want you to make candles,get rid of the candles, buy more
supplies from them, right?
So they're not just going torecommend something of that they
carry unless it's going to work.
And I and I found that witheverything.
Uh with Macy, they have theircoconut soy wax and they have
(10:16):
performance wicks that theyrecommend.
When we started with that, wedidn't think that the wicks were
performing the same way thatlike a CD wick performs with the
464.
So then we went on that circleof testing a whole bunch of
different wicks.
The reality is, is that that waxburns differently than soy.
(10:37):
And so we ended up circling allthe way back and using those
wicks that were recommended.
They were the right ones.
So I would start with the theline of wicks that the supplier
recommends for that wax.
And then it's a matter oftesting.
And if this wax, if this wickdoesn't work, you need to go up
or you need to go down.
And so then you got tounderstand what you're looking
(10:58):
for when it comes to testing.
But when it comes to justselecting wicks, I would just
recommend uh starting with uhthe with the wicks that the
suppliers uh are recommendingfor the wax that you're buying
from them.
All right, so the next questionhere is from Sarah Orion.
Sarah asks, I've been absorbinga lot of information recently
and how to start my business,but I think one question
(11:19):
specific to me is do I need tohave seasonal collection of
candles to succeed?
I know that might seem weird,but I have a unique niche theme
uh that I want to create candlesfor, and seasonal collections
don't exactly fit in.
You do not need to have anyseasonal candles.
In fact, our new without brandof candles that we are doing is
(11:41):
more of a lifestyle brand forus.
We are doing uh candles.
We are also going to be havingperfumes, and it's really not
about having seasonalchangeover, it's really going to
be focusing on the brand itselfand the scents that we're going
to have are going to beyear-round.
And we will slowly add newproducts, but they're not
(12:01):
necessarily going to beseasonal.
We might eventually down theroad, but at least for the next
year or two, as we're growingthis brand out, it's it's not
going to have any type ofseasonal.
It's just not going to fit.
The theme that we're going forwith this, with the without
brand, is the scent of thecandle is also a perfume, right?
And so doing a seasonal, I don'tknow how many people want to
have a peppermint stick perfumeor pumpkin spice perfume.
(12:26):
Um, I mean, some people mightlove that, uh, but that's not
what we are going to be goingfor.
It just also wouldn't fit inwith the vibe of that brand.
So depending on what your nicheis, you absolutely don't need to
do that.
Just think of some of the otherthings besides candles that are
in the scent world, such asperfumes.
These lines of perfumes thatcome out, some of these brands,
(12:47):
such as like a Christian Dior,just as an example, they'll have
several different perfumes, butthey're not seasonal.
Like they're not putting out aseasonal scent, right?
Um, so you absolutely don't needto do that.
Um, and a lot of times it won't,it won't fit in.
If you're doing all to saybougie elevated hotel collection
(13:08):
type of scents, like where woulda fall or seasonal um scent fit
into that?
I'm not sure necessarily would.
So, yeah, depending on what yourniche is, it might be completely
irrelevant to to do somethingseasonal.
Um, so no, definitely not.
Next question here is fromShannon Cag.
And the question is, whereshould I begin?
Great question.
So the first thing I would do isuh define your why.
(13:31):
Why do you want to make candles?
Because that's what you're gonnaneed to refer back to quite
often.
Because candle making uh is noteasy, right?
Candle making can be learned andbecome very easy.
But if you're wanting to makethis into a business, it's gonna
take a lot of work.
Anybody can succeed, but youhave to put in the work.
(13:53):
And I think there's amisconception that uh because
the entry level to get into thisis so low that anyone can do it.
Yes, anyone can get into it, butsucceeding is a whole nother
thing.
So many people I see, and it'sso unfortunate that uh they go
(14:16):
through all of the steps oflearning candle making, which
it's that's its own beast.
Now they've had a candle, nowthey are building a brand around
it.
Their packaging is right, theirbranding is right, um, their
messaging is right, everythingis good, but they aren't taking
the steps to figure out whatsales channel works best for
(14:37):
them, and then they end upgiving up and quitting.
And I hate seeing that, but ithappens all the time.
In candle making, you are goingto when you want to turn this
into a business, you're gonnahave to work really, really
hard.
I it it's it's it's it's toughbecause inside of the inner
circle, we are a community ofcandle business owners, right?
(14:59):
And we are all networking,sharing tips, sharing tricks.
Um, we do a workshop everymonth, we have office hours
every week.
And people come together andoften say it's hey, I'm
struggling.
What can I do to get what can Ido to get started?
One of the easiest things Ialways say is do a fundraiser.
You can do a fundraiser and getyour brand off the ground.
Do a fundraiser.
(15:19):
But some people just just don'tdo the steps.
Whether it's just not them, theyrealize, hey, this is more than
what I wanted to do, um, orthat's not a uh a direction I
wanted to go.
Uh some people say I hate socialmedia.
I'm not gonna, I'm not gonnacreate a business page for my
candle business.
Can you make a candle businesswithout social media?
(15:42):
Sure, you can.
Um, it's not going to make itany easier, though.
It's going to make it harder,right?
It's just like the the numberone thing that I always say is
make sure you collect emailaddresses starting on day one.
Do you have to?
No.
Can you create a businesswithout that?
Sure.
But though these are just thingsthat are going to make it a lot
(16:02):
easier for you because we'vegone through it.
Uh, we started collecting emailsseveral months later than we
should have, but that's betterthan several years later than we
should have.
Because now, anytime we need aninflux of cash in the business,
I send out an email and I do apromotion, and we will get sales
that day that will pad ouraccount if we need an influx of
(16:24):
cash.
And so, and trust me, we havedone that in April around tax
time.
I'm like, eek, we got tax billsto pay.
Oh, all right, cool.
I know I can bring in X dollarsby sending out emails and doing
a promotion.
I know it works with mycustomers now.
So, where you should begin isrealize it's gonna be hard.
Uh, but if you're dedicated toit, then simply if you don't
(16:46):
know how to make candles, I'vegot a great candle making course
uh that myself and Chad uh hostand put on.
You can find out more about thatat candle businesspro.com um
slash course, I think.
Um, but there's also some freeresources out there.
Our course is built aroundgetting you from A to Z as quick
as possible.
We say 28 days, four weeks,you're gonna get through it,
(17:09):
you're gonna test all kinds ofstuff and you're going to have
candles at the end of that.
So that's the easy part.
Uh, so when you see there'splenty of resources out on
YouTube, uh, you can watch allkinds of videos.
Just make sure that whoeveryou're gonna follow, uh you just
trust.
You trust in them.
If someone is promoting thatthey can help you start a candle
business, make sure they'rerunning a candle business.
(17:31):
Make sure they're actuallyselling candles, if in fact they
are saying that, right?
So it's the same thing just withcandle making.
Surround yourself with otherpeople that are doing what you
want to do.
The the easiest way to learnanything I have found is to put
myself in the room with peoplethat are doing it.
I if I wanted to uh learn how tomake candles, I'm gonna put
(17:51):
myself in in candle groups andjust look around.
And don't always act so fast.
Don't always just as soon assomeone says something, uh do
what they say.
Just, you know, pause for aminute, see who's who's
surrounding you, and see, seereally who who you trust and
reach out to people.
People reach out to us.
In fact, the reason we startedCandle Business Pro was people
(18:13):
reaching out to us, and that'swhat ended up making us decide
hey, let's actually turn thisinto something and turn this
into a community where we canall get together.
Um, but so where you shouldbegin is just making sure you
understand your why becausethere's gonna be a lot of
hurdles and obstacles for you uhto cross on this journey so that
you're gonna be able to reflectback on why you're doing it.
(18:34):
Are you wanting um to do this asa family, to help your family,
to bring in revenue?
Are you wanting to quit thatnine to five job?
There's all of these differentreasons and different whys.
Make sure you have yours kind ofhoned in because you're going to
face challenges that are gonnamake you want to quit um
multiple times.
Uh, we're three years into this.
I have three stores, I've got150 wholesale accounts, we're
(18:56):
doing fine, but we'll have daysum that we will go without a
sale.
And I'm talking between threestores and our online store that
we get sales in every singleday, we will have a day with
like zero or like one or twosales.
So we're losing a lot of money,right?
Because we have staff in allthese stores.
(19:16):
And I think to myself, I'm like,this is it.
The candle business is over.
We'll never get another sale.
And then the next day, you know,usually bounces back.
But you're gonna have thosechallenges in your face where
you're just like, I don't knowhow I'm going to do this.
But surround yourself with otherpeople that are gonna lift you
up.
Next question here is from uhPatty Granitch.
Hopefully I'm saying thatcorrectly, Patty.
(19:37):
Uh, when just starting out, howdo you keep your cogs low enough
um to price what your candleswill sell?
Because buying in bulk to getthe lowest price doesn't make
sense when first starting out,or is that the way to go?
Great question, uh Patty.
So, COGS, for those that may notknow, uh cogs is your cost of
goods, right?
And so Patty wants to know howdo I keep my cost of goods low
(20:00):
without buying everything inbulk?
The reality is that when we'refirst starting, no, you don't
want to buy everything in bulk.
There's certain things once youget through the testing that you
are gonna feel more comfortablebuying in bulk.
Um, and that's gonna be likeyour wax.
Wax, I say buy in bulk.
Now it's it's not necessarily itis bulk.
It's not like a wholesale price.
(20:21):
They're not gonna give you muchof a discount when you buy more.
What you're gonna get a discounton is the shipping, especially
with like for instance, we willuse we use a couple of different
suppliers.
We used to use candle scienceexclusively, um, but now we are
trying other suppliers that arelocal or closer to us, that
shipping is a better price.
But one of the things thatCandle Science has is they have
UPS hundredth weight, which is aclass within UPS that once you
(20:45):
get to a certain weightthreshold, the calculation for
shipping cost changes and it'sit's pretty dramatic.
We will get up to like$300 inshipping, and then it will just
drop to like$150 and by addingmore stuff.
So what'll happen is Chad willbuild out a cart, and so he'll
(21:06):
have, you know, a couple hundredvessels and all these oils and a
couple boxes of wax, and wehaven't hit that threshold yet
to where the the shipping linesays UPS hundredth weight, and
I'll be like, add another box ofwax, and then we'll put another
box of wax in there.
If that doesn't work, we addanother box of wax, then you're
gonna see it drop downdramatically.
So the wax you can'tnecessarily, you know, you can't
(21:29):
get a discount on even the oilsand things.
Like honestly, we are running,like I said, you know, we were
doing over 500,000 a year,550,000, I think is what we'll
come into uh this year in sales.
There's not a lot of stuff thatwe are getting like crazy
discounted pricing on.
We will get our vessels wherewe'll buy the next threshold of
(21:52):
cases, right?
Where it's like one to six casesis two dollars a piece.
And starting at seven cases, itgoes down to a dollar
seventy-five.
So that might that's only aquarter per vessel.
But when you're buying a hundredvessels, that's$25.
That's a way of saving money.
Um, one of the ways of savingmoney actually is by if you're
watching this video here, I'mshowing you the our classic
(22:14):
glass, right?
So this is our classic line ofcandles.
This is where we make our money.
And this is a vessel that'sreally, I mean, it's just a
glass vessel, right?
We don't have a differentcolored vessels for our classic
year-round candles because theircolors and things like that of
vessels are going to go in andout of stock, in and out of your
(22:36):
supplier carrying them.
So start with something that youcan use for all of your candles,
like a simple jar like this, andthen make them different based
on your labeling.
That saved us a lot of moneybecause then it's not a matter
of, oh, for the sugar lemonscent, I have this yellow
vessel, but then this candledoesn't sell, and I now I'm
stuck sitting on these vessels,right?
(22:58):
The reality is a lot of thesuppliers, their vessel
inventory changes over all thetime.
I would not build a new candlebusiness around any of the
suppliers' vessels that are fun,unique, um, special, you know,
seasonal, because that's whereyou're gonna get stuck when they
(23:18):
end up not carrying thatanymore.
It's happened to us on a coupleof the lines that we carry from
different suppliers.
They, you know, they're onlygonna carry what makes sense for
them.
You buy up these colored vesselsand you have, you know, for
instance, we have a coconut soycollection that we do in these
like boxes back here.
Um, even who we buy those boxesfrom, they they end up going,
you know, out of stock all thetime.
(23:38):
So it's frustrating.
So I would keep your suppliesvery basic, but your branding
doesn't have to be basic.
And everything you do around it,you know, we invest in our
labeling um and it it works forus.
And so uh keeping your otherother cost of goods down, even
our oils, we buy it, we stillbuy them by the pound.
There's a few of our oils thatwe will buy by the five, uh
(23:59):
well, we buy a lot of our oilsin the five pounds now instead
of one pound.
But when you're first startingout, your costs are just gonna
be high.
Is this what it's going to be?
This candle, when we firststarted, was about$7.25 to make.
We make this now for about$5.50.
Okay.
So we're almost$2 cheaper now.
But at$7.25, we sell this for$26.
We're still making good money onit, right?
It might not be quite that 4X,$5X,$6X that I would want to go
(24:22):
for.
Uh, I have lots of uh episodesabout how we do our pricing.
But when this was seven and aquarter and I'm selling it for
$26, it was fine.
As long as you're pricing, youyou've got to be in a niche that
will sustain what you're goingto want to sell your candles at
retail.
Uh, you also want to make surethat you're going to be able to
sustain if you're going to bedoing that at wholesale as well.
(24:44):
Uh, so just keep keep that inmind.
As long as your margins are wideenough and know, hey, eventually
I'm going to be able to getthese down cheaper, but can I
sustain it now?
If I'm trying to sell thiscandle for$10 and you know it's
costing me$750 to make, it'sit's not going to be realistic.
So you either need to changeyour product or you need to
change your niche and who yourtarget audience is going to be.
(25:06):
If your target audience isn'tpinning, is isn't spending more
money or more than$10 for acandle, then you need to make a
pivot there.
The last question here today isfrom Talbot Robinson.
Do I need to have a YouTubechannel in order to be
successful?
Um, to sell candles?
No.
I wouldn't recommend a YouTubechannel to sell candles.
(25:29):
Now, I can see if you are insuch a niche that you can build
a following around a niche andthen throw your candles in
there.
For instance, if you if yourniche that you're in is
farmhouse cottage, right?
And you start a YouTube channelthat's all about farmhouse
cottage, then you couldcertainly throw your candles
(25:51):
into the mix of that.
But there would be so much time,effort, energy, and probably
expense on just putting togethera YouTube channel for that
farmhouse cottage that um itmight not justify what you would
get by bringing your candles ina little bit.
For instance, I had this wholechannel, which is about growing
candle businesses.
(26:12):
Uh, it's not about selling mycandles, and I don't think I've
sold any candles from thischannel.
I'm not asking anyone to go andbuy my my products.
And I don't know anyone that issuccessful on their candle
selling side because of aYouTube channel.
Uh, what I would recommend isknowing where you where is your
customer.
Our customer is Facebook andInstagram.
(26:32):
That's where our customer is.
Some uh niches are going to uhrely heavier on, say, TikTok or
more video based.
That's not necessarily ourcustomers.
Um, who is your customer?
Where do they hang out at?
And that's where you want tospend all of your time, um, is
where they are.
And you don't have to you don'thave to be everywhere.
I'd love to be on TikTok, I'dlove to be on Pinterest, I'd
love to be in so many differentareas with our brand, but
(26:54):
there's a time uh commitment.
And so I'm gonna focus on thetop two places where my
customers are going to be.
But I'm I I'm personally notfamiliar with candle brands that
are successful because of theirYouTube channel.
There's a lot of people thathave YouTube channels in the
candle making space.
I mean, we are one of them, um,that teach people how to make
(27:15):
candles and things like that onYouTube.
And a lot of that is people thatare wanting just to be, you
know, they're they're YouTube,they're their marketers, right?
And so they're they want clicks,they want likes, and they they
are looking to monetize YouTube.
Um that's completely fine.
I mean, we actually we bring ina little bit of revenue when we
(27:37):
do these episodes, but itdoesn't cost the or it doesn't
cover the cost of me hiring myeditor to do these because I
cannot do any video editing.
Uh so just keep that in mind.
You know, uh, I don't I don'tthink that you, I definitely
don't you don't need a YouTubechannel uh to be successful in a
candle business.
You just need to have socialmedia, you need to have a
website, and you need to be ableto find a sales channel that's
(28:00):
going to work for the niche thatyou want to be in.
Uh whether that's direct toconsumers, you want to do
wholesale, you want to go downthe fundraiser and private um
private type of candling, youcan do fundraisers themselves,
you can do corporate gifting,you can do wholesale.
There's so many different ways.
Once you can make a good candle,there's so many different ways
(28:20):
that you can sell it.
So just keep that in mind.
So many different ways that youcan sell.
But YouTube channel to sell mycandles is not one that I I've
considered.
So uh no, I do not think thatyou need that.
That is it for this episode.
Thank you all so much for tuningin.
Again, there are some resourcesfor you in the show notes below.
You can see our favorite toolsand supplies that we use.
(28:42):
You can actually download ourchecklist of all of the supplies
that we use to run our businesswith.
You can also give us moreinformation about our courses
and the inner circle, where Ihighly recommend anyone that
wants to scale a business comeand hang out.
Again, you can submit questionsin the show notes below or
comment on this.
And I will look in the commentsfor questions and I will answer
(29:04):
those in an upcoming episode.
Again, thank you so much fortuning in.
Have a great day.
In today's episode, I'm answering Candle Business
questions from viewers andlisteners just like yourself.
When you join our CandleBusiness Pro free Facebook
group, you are offered a chanceto submit a question.
And if you do submit a question,I will answer those for you in
an upcoming episode.
So let's dive into the mostrecent submitted questions.
(00:31):
If you're just tuning in for thefirst time, I'm Sebastian
Garznet, the co-founder ofGarznet Beacon Candle Company,
alongside my husband Chad andthe founder of Candle Business
Pro, where we help makers gopro.
We have everything from supplylist to a candle making course
to our inner circle, which iswhere candle business owners
come together as a community andhelp each other grow and scale
(00:52):
our businesses.
So if you want to learn more,you can check out Candle
BusinessPro.com or visit theshow notes below for some free
links to different downloadsthat you can grab from us.
All right, so let's get intothis.
This first question is fromKaterina.
Uh, I will definitely mess yourlast name up, Katarina, and I do
apologize in advance for that.
Um, but I'm gonna go withKaterina Polenskeya.
(01:14):
Paulinskea, Katarina, all right,let's talk about this.
Your question, as a solocandlemaker, starting with
limited resources, how longwould it realistically take to
reach profitability?
And what would you recommenddoing to get there faster?
Okay, so great question.
So it's going to cost um a bitof capital for you to invest
(01:36):
into starting your business,right?
You're gonna have to go throughall the testing.
You're going to have to gothrough figuring out what wax
you want to use, what wicks,what oils, the vessels,
gathering all of those supplies.
I have a video that we recentlydid, um, and it is all about the
cost of starting up, what itrealistically costs to start
your candle business.
So I would definitely recommendchecking that out.
(01:58):
There might be some costsaffiliated that you might not
realize when you're firststarting.
So definitely check that out.
Realistically, for us, uh$1,200to$1,500 is what it took to go
through all of the differenttesting, uh, creating some
initial um inventory or to turnaround and start selling.
And then once we started sellingthose candles, we just turn
around and put that right backinto the business.
But that's what we started with.
(02:18):
That is what we got thisbusiness off the ground with.
And we have grown to now in thelast three and a half years, um,
we just surpassed$1.5 million insales.
It's definitely doable.
It will be a slow start, um, butyou it's not a matter of needing
unlimited resources.
It's more of a matter of reallyfocusing on the candles you want
to make.
(02:38):
I often will see candle makerssay that it took them$5,000 plus
to get started.
Usually, not all, but usually,that is they have tried multiple
different waxes, multipledifferent wicks.
They've tested hundreds uponhundreds of different
combinations.
They invested a lot of moneyinto uh potentially their
(03:02):
branding.
They may have pivoted a coupletimes.
You do not need to invest thatmuch if you really know uh the
direction you want to go.
What I would recommend doingwould be to think of those
brands that you you really umadmire.
Uh they can be small, they canbe large.
It doesn't matter the scale,just find something that really
aligns with the type of candlesyou want to make.
(03:24):
You need to have your niche andyour target audience completely
dialed in.
I do a lot of talk about that inmany of these episodes.
You have to understand whoyou're making candles for and
what niche you want to be in.
But once you have that, it comesdown to actually making and
learning uh the candle testingside, right?
To understand how to make theright candles.
Um, and that's where a lot ofexpense comes in.
(03:47):
But if you have some candlebrands that you really like and
appreciate that you would liketo draw inspiration from, take a
look at what they have, take alook at how they started out.
Uh, even reach out to some ofthem.
If they're if they're a small uhbusiness, they they might be
very willing to share some oftheir knowledge.
See, you know, what wax are theyusing, what type of wicks are
(04:09):
they using?
And know if they are doing it,you can certainly do it as well,
right?
People ask us what wax do youuse?
Uh, I mean, I'll give that toyou.
We use 464 wax with CD Wicks,and then we use a coconut soy
with performance wicks.
So those are the two differentwaxes we use, and two different
wicks based on whichever wax itis.
Uh oils, doesn't matter, getthem from any supplier that's
reputable.
Uh, you can grab our free supplylist in the show notes below.
(04:32):
It has all the tools andresources that we use uh to
start and run our candlebusiness with.
Um, so hopefully that helps youout there.
Keep it small.
Don't try everything, don't tryto be too wide.
Also, when we started our brand,we started with 10 different
cents.
And then in all of those 10cents, we made a lot of
inventory when we first started.
I would highly recommend scalingback even farther than that.
(04:53):
I would start with six cents andI would maybe have five to ten
candles made.
You can make candles as you go.
Once you sell something, makesome more of it.
Don't sit on supply that mightnot be something that people
want to buy, and then you'rejust stuck with it because
that's just money tied up inthat.
So hopefully that helps you outthere, uh, Katarina.
Uh, next question here is fromMike Wynn.
And your question is what stepsto take when your candle
(05:16):
business outscales home candlemaking capacity?
I love this.
So, this is exactly whathappened with us.
We started right at our kitchentable, and then I went into the
dining table and then um intopart of the living room to where
we had a table where we werelike labeling stuff at night
while we were still trying tohave like family time, watch our
shows, but we had we had stuffeverywhere, right?
(05:36):
It got to the point where I amworking my 95 job, which I
worked from home, and literallyright next to my desk was all of
our candle stuff.
It got to a point where Icouldn't handle both of that
because then it was like Iwasn't escaping work.
So what we ended up doing was wetook our primary bedroom and
turned that into our candlemaking studio so that we could
(05:58):
just close the door and turn offcandles when we wanted to,
because everything fit in thatroom, we could turn it off and
not have to face it.
Of course, we still smelled it,our neighbors smelled it because
we had our windows open.
Um, you can't always escape it.
But when it was finally the timewhere we said, enough, we need
to get this out of the house.
(06:19):
That's when we opened up ourstorefront because we justified,
hey, it's gonna cost a thousanddollars a month to get a
warehouse, get a space uh to putall of our stuff in, right?
And then we got to go there tomake the candles and everything.
And it's just gonna be a generalwarehouse, like a not a storage
unit, but you know, it's justgonna be four walls, right?
(06:39):
So we thought, let's just spenda little bit more than that uh
and get a retail space.
So let's just go all in.
Let's just do it.
Uh, it was perfect because I wasworking from home, I had my 95
job, so I could still supportour our family, us, uh, as we
needed to try this new venture.
And Chad was able to go and openup the storefront.
Uh the storefront cost us$1,700a month.
(06:59):
Uh no, no, it was$1,600.
$1,700 now.
It was$1,600 a month was ourrent there.
So it was$1,600 a month to opena storefront or about$1,000 a
month to rent a space.
So we just went on it.
Um, of course, there's a lotmore that goes into it besides
just a$600 difference.
We had to, you know, be surethat we could cover, you know, a
(07:23):
salary in the family that wasn'tgoing to be coming in
necessarily anymore.
Um, but we were comfortable withit.
We are we had just startedmaking candles.
It happened, it happened reallyquick for us.
We started our candle selling inFebruary.
We opened our storefront inAugust.
In between there, we did marketsand I really went into
wholesale.
That's what made me confidentthat we were going to be able to
make it work was we had proof ofproduct.
(07:46):
We had proof of sales.
People were enjoying ourproducts.
Okay, let's go ahead and open upa storefront.
Um, and let's do it.
It was close to home and it gotthe candles out of the house.
So that's what we were we werecomfortable with.
And so the steps, your questionis what steps to take when it
outscales your home?
It depends on what direction youwant to go.
Do you want a retail store?
Some people don't want a retailstore.
(08:08):
If we were to start all overagain, I might go harder into
wholesale and private labelingthan a retail store.
A retail store is a lot of acommitment.
You have to be open specifichours, you know, that you are
setting.
There's an expectation that youset as a retail store that it's
not just a I open when I feellike it.
That's usually not going to behow it works.
(08:29):
Some people might be able to getaway with that.
We certainly can't.
There will be times where weclose an hour early.
That's the time that someonedecided they want to show up and
they're calling us or they'releaving us a Google review
because if we weren't openduring our posted time.
So it takes a lot on, but that'swhat we did.
We we open up a retail store.
If you have zero interest inthat, then find you a nice
(08:51):
temperature-controlled um placethat you can do your candle
making uh and also be packing upyour orders and all of that from
that space.
Uh that's what that's what Iwould uh recommend trying.
Next question here is fromBridget Williams.
How do you choose a proper sizewick?
Uh, whether I'm using wooden orcotton.
Okay, great question.
Fair question there.
(09:11):
Um, so every supplier of waxthat you purchase from will have
a recommended wick.
Now, I often see candle makerstry a wick and then they try
another wick and they tryanother wick and they get
frustrated and they they justkeep going in this big circle.
The reality that we have found,um, and also a lot of the
(09:34):
members inside of our innercircle, when we have these
conversations about wicking,generally the wick that a
supplier is going to recommendfor you is a good wick.
So, candle science, they'regoing to recommend for their 464
Wax, they're going to recommenda CD WIC or an Eco Wick.
Um, we tried both of those.
We liked the CD Wick.
It was good.
We went with it.
Uh, generally they're not goingto recommend something that's
(09:56):
not going to work because theywant it to work, because then
they want you to make candles,get rid of the candles, buy more
supplies from them, right?
So they're not just going torecommend something of that they
carry unless it's going to work.
And I and I found that witheverything.
Uh with Macy, they have theircoconut soy wax and they have
(10:16):
performance wicks that theyrecommend.
When we started with that, wedidn't think that the wicks were
performing the same way thatlike a CD wick performs with the
464.
So then we went on that circleof testing a whole bunch of
different wicks.
The reality is, is that that waxburns differently than soy.
(10:37):
And so we ended up circling allthe way back and using those
wicks that were recommended.
They were the right ones.
So I would start with the theline of wicks that the supplier
recommends for that wax.
And then it's a matter oftesting.
And if this wax, if this wickdoesn't work, you need to go up
or you need to go down.
And so then you got tounderstand what you're looking
(10:58):
for when it comes to testing.
But when it comes to justselecting wicks, I would just
recommend uh starting with uhthe with the wicks that the
suppliers uh are recommendingfor the wax that you're buying
from them.
All right, so the next questionhere is from Sarah Orion.
Sarah asks, I've been absorbinga lot of information recently
and how to start my business,but I think one question
(11:19):
specific to me is do I need tohave seasonal collection of
candles to succeed?
I know that might seem weird,but I have a unique niche theme
uh that I want to create candlesfor, and seasonal collections
don't exactly fit in.
You do not need to have anyseasonal candles.
In fact, our new without brandof candles that we are doing is
(11:41):
more of a lifestyle brand forus.
We are doing uh candles.
We are also going to be havingperfumes, and it's really not
about having seasonalchangeover, it's really going to
be focusing on the brand itselfand the scents that we're going
to have are going to beyear-round.
And we will slowly add newproducts, but they're not
(12:01):
necessarily going to beseasonal.
We might eventually down theroad, but at least for the next
year or two, as we're growingthis brand out, it's it's not
going to have any type ofseasonal.
It's just not going to fit.
The theme that we're going forwith this, with the without
brand, is the scent of thecandle is also a perfume, right?
And so doing a seasonal, I don'tknow how many people want to
have a peppermint stick perfumeor pumpkin spice perfume.
(12:26):
Um, I mean, some people mightlove that, uh, but that's not
what we are going to be goingfor.
It just also wouldn't fit inwith the vibe of that brand.
So depending on what your nicheis, you absolutely don't need to
do that.
Just think of some of the otherthings besides candles that are
in the scent world, such asperfumes.
These lines of perfumes thatcome out, some of these brands,
(12:47):
such as like a Christian Dior,just as an example, they'll have
several different perfumes, butthey're not seasonal.
Like they're not putting out aseasonal scent, right?
Um, so you absolutely don't needto do that.
Um, and a lot of times it won't,it won't fit in.
If you're doing all to saybougie elevated hotel collection
(13:08):
type of scents, like where woulda fall or seasonal um scent fit
into that?
I'm not sure necessarily would.
So, yeah, depending on what yourniche is, it might be completely
irrelevant to to do somethingseasonal.
Um, so no, definitely not.
Next question here is fromShannon Cag.
And the question is, whereshould I begin?
Great question.
So the first thing I would do isuh define your why.
(13:31):
Why do you want to make candles?
Because that's what you're gonnaneed to refer back to quite
often.
Because candle making uh is noteasy, right?
Candle making can be learned andbecome very easy.
But if you're wanting to makethis into a business, it's gonna
take a lot of work.
Anybody can succeed, but youhave to put in the work.
(13:53):
And I think there's amisconception that uh because
the entry level to get into thisis so low that anyone can do it.
Yes, anyone can get into it, butsucceeding is a whole nother
thing.
So many people I see, and it'sso unfortunate that uh they go
(14:16):
through all of the steps oflearning candle making, which
it's that's its own beast.
Now they've had a candle, nowthey are building a brand around
it.
Their packaging is right, theirbranding is right, um, their
messaging is right, everythingis good, but they aren't taking
the steps to figure out whatsales channel works best for
(14:37):
them, and then they end upgiving up and quitting.
And I hate seeing that, but ithappens all the time.
In candle making, you are goingto when you want to turn this
into a business, you're gonnahave to work really, really
hard.
I it it's it's it's it's toughbecause inside of the inner
circle, we are a community ofcandle business owners, right?
(14:59):
And we are all networking,sharing tips, sharing tricks.
Um, we do a workshop everymonth, we have office hours
every week.
And people come together andoften say it's hey, I'm
struggling.
What can I do to get what can Ido to get started?
One of the easiest things Ialways say is do a fundraiser.
You can do a fundraiser and getyour brand off the ground.
Do a fundraiser.
(15:19):
But some people just just don'tdo the steps.
Whether it's just not them, theyrealize, hey, this is more than
what I wanted to do, um, orthat's not a uh a direction I
wanted to go.
Uh some people say I hate socialmedia.
I'm not gonna, I'm not gonnacreate a business page for my
candle business.
Can you make a candle businesswithout social media?
(15:42):
Sure, you can.
Um, it's not going to make itany easier, though.
It's going to make it harder,right?
It's just like the the numberone thing that I always say is
make sure you collect emailaddresses starting on day one.
Do you have to?
No.
Can you create a businesswithout that?
Sure.
But though these are just thingsthat are going to make it a lot
(16:02):
easier for you because we'vegone through it.
Uh, we started collecting emailsseveral months later than we
should have, but that's betterthan several years later than we
should have.
Because now, anytime we need aninflux of cash in the business,
I send out an email and I do apromotion, and we will get sales
that day that will pad ouraccount if we need an influx of
(16:24):
cash.
And so, and trust me, we havedone that in April around tax
time.
I'm like, eek, we got tax billsto pay.
Oh, all right, cool.
I know I can bring in X dollarsby sending out emails and doing
a promotion.
I know it works with mycustomers now.
So, where you should begin isrealize it's gonna be hard.
Uh, but if you're dedicated toit, then simply if you don't
(16:46):
know how to make candles, I'vegot a great candle making course
uh that myself and Chad uh hostand put on.
You can find out more about thatat candle businesspro.com um
slash course, I think.
Um, but there's also some freeresources out there.
Our course is built aroundgetting you from A to Z as quick
as possible.
We say 28 days, four weeks,you're gonna get through it,
(17:09):
you're gonna test all kinds ofstuff and you're going to have
candles at the end of that.
So that's the easy part.
Uh, so when you see there'splenty of resources out on
YouTube, uh, you can watch allkinds of videos.
Just make sure that whoeveryou're gonna follow, uh you just
trust.
You trust in them.
If someone is promoting thatthey can help you start a candle
business, make sure they'rerunning a candle business.
(17:31):
Make sure they're actuallyselling candles, if in fact they
are saying that, right?
So it's the same thing just withcandle making.
Surround yourself with otherpeople that are doing what you
want to do.
The the easiest way to learnanything I have found is to put
myself in the room with peoplethat are doing it.
I if I wanted to uh learn how tomake candles, I'm gonna put
(17:51):
myself in in candle groups andjust look around.
And don't always act so fast.
Don't always just as soon assomeone says something, uh do
what they say.
Just, you know, pause for aminute, see who's who's
surrounding you, and see, seereally who who you trust and
reach out to people.
People reach out to us.
In fact, the reason we startedCandle Business Pro was people
(18:13):
reaching out to us, and that'swhat ended up making us decide
hey, let's actually turn thisinto something and turn this
into a community where we canall get together.
Um, but so where you shouldbegin is just making sure you
understand your why becausethere's gonna be a lot of
hurdles and obstacles for you uhto cross on this journey so that
you're gonna be able to reflectback on why you're doing it.
(18:34):
Are you wanting um to do this asa family, to help your family,
to bring in revenue?
Are you wanting to quit thatnine to five job?
There's all of these differentreasons and different whys.
Make sure you have yours kind ofhoned in because you're going to
face challenges that are gonnamake you want to quit um
multiple times.
Uh, we're three years into this.
I have three stores, I've got150 wholesale accounts, we're
(18:56):
doing fine, but we'll have daysum that we will go without a
sale.
And I'm talking between threestores and our online store that
we get sales in every singleday, we will have a day with
like zero or like one or twosales.
So we're losing a lot of money,right?
Because we have staff in allthese stores.
(19:16):
And I think to myself, I'm like,this is it.
The candle business is over.
We'll never get another sale.
And then the next day, you know,usually bounces back.
But you're gonna have thosechallenges in your face where
you're just like, I don't knowhow I'm going to do this.
But surround yourself with otherpeople that are gonna lift you
up.
Next question here is from uhPatty Granitch.
Hopefully I'm saying thatcorrectly, Patty.
(19:37):
Uh, when just starting out, howdo you keep your cogs low enough
um to price what your candleswill sell?
Because buying in bulk to getthe lowest price doesn't make
sense when first starting out,or is that the way to go?
Great question, uh Patty.
So, COGS, for those that may notknow, uh cogs is your cost of
goods, right?
And so Patty wants to know howdo I keep my cost of goods low
(20:00):
without buying everything inbulk?
The reality is that when we'refirst starting, no, you don't
want to buy everything in bulk.
There's certain things once youget through the testing that you
are gonna feel more comfortablebuying in bulk.
Um, and that's gonna be likeyour wax.
Wax, I say buy in bulk.
Now it's it's not necessarily itis bulk.
It's not like a wholesale price.
(20:21):
They're not gonna give you muchof a discount when you buy more.
What you're gonna get a discounton is the shipping, especially
with like for instance, we willuse we use a couple of different
suppliers.
We used to use candle scienceexclusively, um, but now we are
trying other suppliers that arelocal or closer to us, that
shipping is a better price.
But one of the things thatCandle Science has is they have
UPS hundredth weight, which is aclass within UPS that once you
(20:45):
get to a certain weightthreshold, the calculation for
shipping cost changes and it'sit's pretty dramatic.
We will get up to like$300 inshipping, and then it will just
drop to like$150 and by addingmore stuff.
So what'll happen is Chad willbuild out a cart, and so he'll
(21:06):
have, you know, a couple hundredvessels and all these oils and a
couple boxes of wax, and wehaven't hit that threshold yet
to where the the shipping linesays UPS hundredth weight, and
I'll be like, add another box ofwax, and then we'll put another
box of wax in there.
If that doesn't work, we addanother box of wax, then you're
gonna see it drop downdramatically.
So the wax you can'tnecessarily, you know, you can't
(21:29):
get a discount on even the oilsand things.
Like honestly, we are running,like I said, you know, we were
doing over 500,000 a year,550,000, I think is what we'll
come into uh this year in sales.
There's not a lot of stuff thatwe are getting like crazy
discounted pricing on.
We will get our vessels wherewe'll buy the next threshold of
(21:52):
cases, right?
Where it's like one to six casesis two dollars a piece.
And starting at seven cases, itgoes down to a dollar
seventy-five.
So that might that's only aquarter per vessel.
But when you're buying a hundredvessels, that's$25.
That's a way of saving money.
Um, one of the ways of savingmoney actually is by if you're
watching this video here, I'mshowing you the our classic
(22:14):
glass, right?
So this is our classic line ofcandles.
This is where we make our money.
And this is a vessel that'sreally, I mean, it's just a
glass vessel, right?
We don't have a differentcolored vessels for our classic
year-round candles because theircolors and things like that of
vessels are going to go in andout of stock, in and out of your
(22:36):
supplier carrying them.
So start with something that youcan use for all of your candles,
like a simple jar like this, andthen make them different based
on your labeling.
That saved us a lot of moneybecause then it's not a matter
of, oh, for the sugar lemonscent, I have this yellow
vessel, but then this candledoesn't sell, and I now I'm
stuck sitting on these vessels,right?
(22:58):
The reality is a lot of thesuppliers, their vessel
inventory changes over all thetime.
I would not build a new candlebusiness around any of the
suppliers' vessels that are fun,unique, um, special, you know,
seasonal, because that's whereyou're gonna get stuck when they
(23:18):
end up not carrying thatanymore.
It's happened to us on a coupleof the lines that we carry from
different suppliers.
They, you know, they're onlygonna carry what makes sense for
them.
You buy up these colored vesselsand you have, you know, for
instance, we have a coconut soycollection that we do in these
like boxes back here.
Um, even who we buy those boxesfrom, they they end up going,
you know, out of stock all thetime.
(23:38):
So it's frustrating.
So I would keep your suppliesvery basic, but your branding
doesn't have to be basic.
And everything you do around it,you know, we invest in our
labeling um and it it works forus.
And so uh keeping your otherother cost of goods down, even
our oils, we buy it, we stillbuy them by the pound.
There's a few of our oils thatwe will buy by the five, uh
(23:59):
well, we buy a lot of our oilsin the five pounds now instead
of one pound.
But when you're first startingout, your costs are just gonna
be high.
Is this what it's going to be?
This candle, when we firststarted, was about$7.25 to make.
We make this now for about$5.50.
Okay.
So we're almost$2 cheaper now.
But at$7.25, we sell this for$26.
We're still making good money onit, right?
It might not be quite that 4X,$5X,$6X that I would want to go
(24:22):
for.
Uh, I have lots of uh episodesabout how we do our pricing.
But when this was seven and aquarter and I'm selling it for
$26, it was fine.
As long as you're pricing, youyou've got to be in a niche that
will sustain what you're goingto want to sell your candles at
retail.
Uh, you also want to make surethat you're going to be able to
sustain if you're going to bedoing that at wholesale as well.
(24:44):
Uh, so just keep keep that inmind.
As long as your margins are wideenough and know, hey, eventually
I'm going to be able to getthese down cheaper, but can I
sustain it now?
If I'm trying to sell thiscandle for$10 and you know it's
costing me$750 to make, it'sit's not going to be realistic.
So you either need to changeyour product or you need to
change your niche and who yourtarget audience is going to be.
(25:06):
If your target audience isn'tpinning, is isn't spending more
money or more than$10 for acandle, then you need to make a
pivot there.
The last question here today isfrom Talbot Robinson.
Do I need to have a YouTubechannel in order to be
successful?
Um, to sell candles?
No.
I wouldn't recommend a YouTubechannel to sell candles.
(25:29):
Now, I can see if you are insuch a niche that you can build
a following around a niche andthen throw your candles in
there.
For instance, if you if yourniche that you're in is
farmhouse cottage, right?
And you start a YouTube channelthat's all about farmhouse
cottage, then you couldcertainly throw your candles
(25:51):
into the mix of that.
But there would be so much time,effort, energy, and probably
expense on just putting togethera YouTube channel for that
farmhouse cottage that um itmight not justify what you would
get by bringing your candles ina little bit.
For instance, I had this wholechannel, which is about growing
candle businesses.
(26:12):
Uh, it's not about selling mycandles, and I don't think I've
sold any candles from thischannel.
I'm not asking anyone to go andbuy my my products.
And I don't know anyone that issuccessful on their candle
selling side because of aYouTube channel.
Uh, what I would recommend isknowing where you where is your
customer.
Our customer is Facebook andInstagram.
(26:32):
That's where our customer is.
Some uh niches are going to uhrely heavier on, say, TikTok or
more video based.
That's not necessarily ourcustomers.
Um, who is your customer?
Where do they hang out at?
And that's where you want tospend all of your time, um, is
where they are.
And you don't have to you don'thave to be everywhere.
I'd love to be on TikTok, I'dlove to be on Pinterest, I'd
love to be in so many differentareas with our brand, but
(26:54):
there's a time uh commitment.
And so I'm gonna focus on thetop two places where my
customers are going to be.
But I'm I I'm personally notfamiliar with candle brands that
are successful because of theirYouTube channel.
There's a lot of people thathave YouTube channels in the
candle making space.
I mean, we are one of them, um,that teach people how to make
(27:15):
candles and things like that onYouTube.
And a lot of that is people thatare wanting just to be, you
know, they're they're YouTube,they're their marketers, right?
And so they're they want clicks,they want likes, and they they
are looking to monetize YouTube.
Um that's completely fine.
I mean, we actually we bring ina little bit of revenue when we
(27:37):
do these episodes, but itdoesn't cost the or it doesn't
cover the cost of me hiring myeditor to do these because I
cannot do any video editing.
Uh so just keep that in mind.
You know, uh, I don't I don'tthink that you, I definitely
don't you don't need a YouTubechannel uh to be successful in a
candle business.
You just need to have socialmedia, you need to have a
website, and you need to be ableto find a sales channel that's
(28:00):
going to work for the niche thatyou want to be in.
Uh whether that's direct toconsumers, you want to do
wholesale, you want to go downthe fundraiser and private um
private type of candling, youcan do fundraisers themselves,
you can do corporate gifting,you can do wholesale.
There's so many different ways.
Once you can make a good candle,there's so many different ways
(28:20):
that you can sell it.
So just keep that in mind.
So many different ways that youcan sell.
But YouTube channel to sell mycandles is not one that I I've
considered.
So uh no, I do not think thatyou need that.
That is it for this episode.
Thank you all so much for tuningin.
Again, there are some resourcesfor you in the show notes below.
You can see our favorite toolsand supplies that we use.
(28:42):
You can actually download ourchecklist of all of the supplies
that we use to run our businesswith.
You can also give us moreinformation about our courses
and the inner circle, where Ihighly recommend anyone that
wants to scale a business comeand hang out.
Again, you can submit questionsin the show notes below or
comment on this.
And I will look in the commentsfor questions and I will answer
(29:04):
those in an upcoming episode.
Again, thank you so much fortuning in.
Have a great day.
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