August 20, 2025 • 36 mins
#014 and Part 4 of Build A Candle Business series.
**This special series is brought to you by ToAuto Wax Melters. Our listeners will get a special deal at checkout when they use this link. **
Today I'll share essential strategies for sourcing supplies when starting a new candle business, emphasizing the importance of building on reliable, long-term available products rather than trendy items that might be discontinued.
• Keep your supply chain simple by using vessels and waxes that will always be available from multiple suppliers
• Avoid building your brand around trendy vessels that suppliers might discontinue without warning
• Source fragrance oils that are either widely available or can be custom duplicated when needed
• Use Alibaba with Trade Assurance protection for custom vessels and packaging to get better pricing
• Create an elevated unboxing experience with cost-effective options like stamps, stickers and candle care cards
• Test thoroughly when changing any component, as oils, wicks, and vessels all interact differently
• Consider starting with simple product extensions like room sprays before expanding to more complex merchandise
Download our free supply checklist in the show notes, and join our Facebook group "Candle Business Pro" to connect with other makers and get supplier recommendations.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So how do we go about sourcing all of the supplies
that we need to start a brandnew candle business?
In today's episode, I am goingto go through our steps that we
are taking to source from thewax and oils to custom vessels,
to even the packaging for ournew brand.
If you're just now tuning in,this is a series on how to build
an entirely new candle business.
(00:21):
I'm Sebastian Garznett, thefounder of Candle Business Pro,
and, alongside my husband, chad,we started Garznett Beacon
Candle Company just over threeyears ago and it has now scaled
to over a million dollars inrevenue and we are starting a
completely new candle business.
It's a completely differentniche and target audience,
completely different branding,completely different everything,
and we're having you come onthis journey with us so that you
(00:43):
can hopefully build out abusiness of your own or, if you
already have a business, theremight be some areas and some
great tips and tricks for you topick up.
So, if you've not beenfollowing along, this is week
four.
You can go back and see weeksone, two and three, where we
define our niche, our targetaudience.
We put together some branddemographics, we went out and
bought a domain, we went andtrademarked our logos.
(01:04):
So we've done all of that.
Now it's time to start puttingthe physical pieces together.
So we're going to get intotalking about all of the stuff
that we are ordering for thisnew business here in just a
moment, but first I want toshout out Tuato, tuato.
Wax melters are fantastic.
We use them at all three of ourstores and they have partnered
with us on this series.
We do have a link for you toget an exclusive discount in the
(01:25):
show notes below, so check themout if you are looking to
either scale up your business oryou're wanting to get multiple
melters.
I know with us we do soycandles, we also do wax melts
and we also do coconut soycandles.
So with three different typesof waxes, it's so nice that two
auto wax melters are affordableso that we can have multiple
(01:45):
melters, and we do that in allof our stores.
So they've been fantastic.
Again, you can look at the linkin the show notes below for an
exclusive discount for you.
So let's get into this week'sepisode.
Okay, so when you're starting anew candle business now, I
consider what we are buildinghere an actual candle lifestyle
business.
We are going to have somelifestyle elements into this.
We are going to have someshirts, we are going to have
(02:07):
some, possibly journals,possibly some hats, some other
merchandise around the candlebusiness.
We are definitely focused onthe candles first.
We will also be doing perfumeswith this line.
So there will be some thingsthat we are adding to this new
brand that you may notnecessarily need to add to yours
or you may not have any desire,and that's completely fine.
I will go through some of whatwe are doing for the lifestyle
(02:30):
side of this brand, just so thatyou're aware, and so it might
be something for you to thinkabout, depending on the
direction that you're going withyour business.
So what should you firstconsider when you're sourcing
your supplies?
So this is where I often see alot of makers get caught up at
the very beginning.
I am a huge advocate forkeeping it simple.
(02:55):
You want to build a businessaround supplies that is always
going to be available.
Oftentimes more often than notwe see new makers come out and
they are ready to start theirbusiness and they are buying the
latest vessels that just cameout.
Right, all the suppliers, ofcourse, are having new vessels
(03:17):
come out every season andthey're building a business and
a brand around one of those newvessels.
The issue with that is, moretimes than not, those vessels
are going away.
Now the suppliers don't tell usthis because, of course, if
they do extremely well, they'llkeep them around.
But so many of the suppliers, infact, that we use have vessels
(03:40):
that end up just not sellingwell.
For them, whether it's theprice point, whether it's the
style, whether it's the color,oftentimes it's the size, a lot
of these suppliers are comingout with the larger vessels and
it's not necessarily conducivefor the pricing that we're doing
for our brand.
So oftentimes those won't selland then they end up
discontinuing them.
If you build an entire businessaround relying on a specific
(04:04):
supplier's vessel and then itgoes discontinue, you're going
to have a problem.
You're going to have to pivotreally hard and figure out how
you can replace your entirebusiness.
The other thing is you're goingto have to not just find new
vessels, but then now you haveto go and retest every single
thing that you are making.
Now for us, we started and havescaled our business with a
(04:27):
simple 10 ounce vessel, 10 ounceglass.
This is a Libby jar that wewill always be able to get.
Libby is probably one of theoldest glass makers of
containers and vessels in thecountry.
They are US based here.
I'm not concerned about evernot being able to get one of
these.
I can buy these from multiplesuppliers.
I can buy them actually fromthe manufacturer themselves.
(04:49):
So that is something to keep inmind.
We also have other vessels thatwe use that we actually get
made for us.
For instance, this is just asimple seven-ounce candle, right
?
This is a simple seven-ouncecandle.
This was a clear jar.
We purchased these.
You know these are the 60 cent,70 cent jars.
We purchased these and have amanufacturer actually spray
(05:13):
these for us, so they they makethem custom for us, so they
sprayed them white and then theyscreen printed our logo on the
outside.
So sure you have to have largerminimums when you are doing
that, for For us, I believe ourminimums on these is like 1,200
vessels.
But think about where you'replanning to go with your brand
and think about if you're goingto go with something that is
(05:33):
more special or more trendingright now.
For instance, this vessel righthere.
This vessel isn't evenavailable anymore and this is
something that we had as anexclusive inside of our Garcin
Beacon brand not even a year ago.
So something to think about.
As you are building it out, youmay want to keep the vessel
simple.
So what do we do instead?
We put nice labels on there, weput bright pops of color, we
(05:57):
build around the vessel itselfwith our labeling and our
branding.
So that's one thing I wouldcaution people on is trying to
build a brand around acompletely you know trending or
new vessel.
The same thing is going to bewith waxes.
With waxes, there tends to be alot of waxes coming in and then
(06:21):
going away, and then coming inand going away.
For instance, they're the oliveoil waxes.
Several suppliers and these aregood, these are people that we
love and we love their otherproducts.
But several of the suppliersthat we in fact use have
introduced olive oil wax andthen it ends up not doing so
great for them.
(06:41):
So they have to pivot and thatmakes sense as a business.
That says on their end.
But if you build your brandaround a specific, unique, what
I call a designer wax, what areyou going to do when that wax
goes away?
You know we built a milliondollar business around soy 464.
You can buy this from probablyevery single supplier.
You can, in fact, if you canbuy it by the pallet, you can
(07:03):
just get it directly from themanufacturer themselves as well.
So there's plenty of options.
Now, of course, any businesscan possibly go out.
You know I have no idea howwell Golden Brands 464 is doing
as a business.
I know that almost everysupplier carries that brand, so
I have confidence in them.
But of course you know we theycould possibly go away at some
(07:26):
point, but I just it's lessrisky in my eyes to do that, so
I'm not chasing the latest orthe hottest supplier that's
coming out onto the scene thathas a specific wax.
I would also caution you forspecific types of oils as well.
There's a lot of trending oilsthat are based on the perfume
space that you know we see.
(07:48):
Once a supplier starts carryingthis dupe of a specific perfume
that is super popular, then allof a sudden you know the rest
of them are all carrying it andthen it ends up not doing very
well.
A perfect example of this ifanyone has been in the candle
making space for the last, let'ssay, two years, uh, there was a
candle supplier called 1617.
(08:08):
So 1617 was known for somegreat like uh perfume designer
high-end fragrance oils.
Right, that was their, that'swhat they were known for.
All of a sudden, bam, they'regone.
They filed bankruptcy, they'reout of business.
All these different smallersuppliers started duping those
(08:29):
oils and started selling themthemselves, assuming that they
were going to actually do reallywell off of those oils.
But the reality is that some ofthe oils just weren't good,
unfortunately.
They just weren't good, andthat's just not my opinion.
That's the, that's the broadopinion in any of the maker
groups that we see that becausethey were buying all of these
(08:50):
now that they could afford themfrom some of these other
suppliers that were carryingthem.
For instance, there was aBaccarat Rouge.
This is a perfect example.
There's a Baccarat Rouge oilthat 1617 used to have.
When 1617 went away, three orfour of the suppliers that we
use and we trust duped those andwe're selling those oils, but
none of them were really goodand they didn't take off and now
(09:12):
no one is carrying those oils.
So I would be cautious ofchasing trends when it comes to
your oils.
Don't build a foundation foryour business on something that
is possibly going to go away.
We built again our Garcin BeaconCandle Company off of some
scents that were easy to getalmost anywhere.
(09:33):
Now we do blend our own oils.
Chad does all of our scentcreation.
So our Sugarloin Candle this isa six figure candle seller we
have sold the number one sellingcandle over the past three and
a half, almost four years Everyyear is the number one seller.
And this is a combination of, Ibelieve, three different oils.
Now, if one of those oils was togo away, we should be able to
(09:53):
get a very, very similar versionof that, because they are going
to be.
You know, this is going to bethose verbatims the lemons, the
citrus, the cream is what we'reblending together for this.
So we're going to findalternatives.
In reality, we're now to thepoint.
I'm thankful within ourbusiness that we could just get
those oils duplicated ourselves.
So that's going to be anotheroption for you If you do love an
(10:17):
oil, if you love an oil fromone of these suppliers.
But now you're a little bitnervous.
I've told you, hey, don't buythat oil because it might be
trending and it might go away.
Keep in mind that, as long asyou have a couple ounces of it,
always that if that businessgoes away or those oils are
discontinued, there are plentyof options out there now that
(10:38):
will duplicate those oils and inreality, duplicating oils might
be something that you want tolook into, even if those oils
are still in stock, because youcan save a lot of money if you
get your oils duplicated.
We are starting to do that nowbecause we've been in business
for a couple of years now, thatwith consistent fragrances and
(11:01):
consistent candles.
We know which ones that we werekind of iffy on the future of,
but we know the ones that arevery solid, for instance, like
this is a solid candle for us.
So what we'll be doing now isactually having a company
duplicate those for us.
Now the minimum is we got tobuy a seven pound worth of that
oil, so that is going to cost,but that's going to bring that
(11:23):
oil down to at, or less than,$20 a pound.
That's significant savings.
When you look at some of thesuppliers out there that are
selling oils now for I see onenow for $99 for 16 ounces like
insane prices.
It's oil.
You can duplicate those and usethem for yourself if you would
like.
Now there are other suppliersthat we will just keep buying
(11:45):
from them because their pricesare right, their shipping is
right.
There's gonna be many factorsthat go into it.
And, of course, when we aredoing, say, a seasonal scent
that we don't know if we'regoing to want to bring it back
next year, we have to see howwell it does.
That's where we would keep it.
Continue to shop with our localsuppliers, you know, instead of
going and getting those oilsduped.
But just something to keep inmind if you do chase something
(12:06):
that's trending, make sure thatyou keep some of the oil so that
you can duplicate those oils ifyou need to in the future.
Now for our new brand.
With our new brand Withoutthat's the name of it those oils
are going to be more of thosehigher end, think along the line
(12:33):
of, like a Joe Malone type ofscents that they carry.
Some of the Le Labos we havebeen sourcing and then doing
some adjustments to some ofthese oils in the sense that we
absolutely love.
So because we're doing that, weare going to have to have all
these oils custom created for usand you can start.
You know, as long as you'redoing again, that seven pound
minimum is generally what it'sgoing to be.
There's a few different housesthat will act breakers houses
that that seven pound minimum isgenerally what it's going to be
.
There's a few different umhouses that will act, frigate
(12:53):
houses, uh that will allowduplication and then they will
duplicate for you.
So check into that Um.
For us, we have had really goodsuccess with AFI.
Afi out of Georgia.
They can literally duplicateanything for you.
They may already, in fact, havesome of those oils ready and
available on their website now,so you can go and check them out
.
Again, it's AFI.
They're great.
They're fantastic to work with.
(13:14):
In fact, you can actually ordersamples off of their website
and you just pay shipping, whichis fantastic as well.
Just keep in mind there is thatminimum order amount that might
just be more than what you arewanting to buy when you're first
starting out.
So for a without brand, we aregoing to source custom vessels.
So we are going to be using abusiness that is on Alibaba.
(13:35):
You can actually work with themdirectly as well.
So keep that in mind.
If you do find a supplier onAlibaba and you establish a
really good relationship withthem, then you can actually work
with them offline as well.
Now, if you are going to useAlibaba, I would recommend
always using a business on therethat offers trade assurance If
(13:59):
you're using that website.
What trade assurance is isessentially you and them come to
an agreement on what you'regoing to buy, what the cost is
going to be, what the timelinefor them to deliver that product
to you is going to be.
So you come to all of on whatyou're going to buy, what the
cost is going to be, what thetimeline for them to deliver
that product to you is going tobe.
So you come to all of thoseterms and then when you go to
pay them, when you pay throughtrade assurance, you are giving
your money to Alibaba to holdand then Alibaba holds that
(14:23):
money until that supplier givesyou delivery and that you are
satisfied with that delivery.
So, in case there's an issue,in case they go MIA and they
disappear, in case what youreceive is not what you ordered,
you can get your money back.
Okay, we actually had to usethis and use a claim for our WAC
(14:44):
.
Uh, wic trimmers.
Um, a couple of years ago weordered custom WIC trimmers and
they did not arrive and theywould not give us our money back
.
Thankfully, we'd use tradeassurance and they gave us our
money back.
Like the next day, uh, the thesupplier kept saying it's on its
way.
It's on its way.
It's on its way.
It never was.
They couldn't give us any proof, right I'm?
I'm pretty lenient when we'rewe were realizing that this
stuff is coming by cargo shipright General from China or
(15:08):
Southeast Asia all the way tothe US.
Of course, there's going to besome hiccups in transporting it
over sometimes, but I couldn'tget any updates at all from them
.
So after about two weeks I justfiled that claim.
You want to be cautious, or becareful, and take a look at what
the terms of the tradeassurance is on Alibaba, because
there is a timeframe that youneed to follow it then.
(15:29):
So they have to have missed thedelivery, um, but then you have
.
I think it might just be 30days, it could possibly be 60
days.
So make sure that if you aregoing to be lenient with a
supplier, um, that you aren'ttoo lenient to where you go
outside of your time period tofile a claim.
So that's what I would cautiousyou on, that.
Also, be cautious of what theactual costs are going to be
(15:52):
when we order stuff from Alibabaany of the suppliers that we
use over there.
You want to make sure what we dois ask for.
You know the quote and the costof delivery to our door.
So some will quote you todelivery to the port.
So when it comes from Chinait's going to go to like an LA
(16:12):
port or a Houston port or aMiami port, but then you would
be responsible for getting itfrom the port.
It's going to be an additionalfee for that.
We make sure that all of ourquotes include to the door
delivery.
On that, one thing you can alsodo and we did this with our
custom boxes.
So our custom boxes for ourGarcin and Beacon brand come
(16:33):
from China and so when they madethese for us, we bought, I
believe, 2000 of these to getthe price to where we needed it
to be, which was a really gooddeal, because we got 2000 boxes
for like $1,200, like 60 cents abox, delivered, custom printed
everything.
You will not find that in theUS, at least, you will not find
boxes delivered custom for thatprice.
(16:54):
You just won't.
So we got 2,000 of these comingover here, but I needed them
right away.
We were launching a new brandor a new collection and I needed
those really quick.
But I didn't need all 2,000 ofthose, I only needed a couple
hundred.
So what we did is we did asplit ship.
We bought and paid for 2,000 ofthem and they gave us a quote
to ship 200 of them by air andthen the rest of them the other
(17:19):
1,800 or so came by ship.
So the first batch of 200, wegot those in like 10 days, which
was fantastic.
That's exactly what we neededto get started, and then the
rest of them all came like 30days after order.
So that's something to keep inmind, that you can ask them to
do that for you, and then theywould be happy to to to look at
that most suppliers would Alsokeep in mind.
There's so many suppliers onAlibaba that you want to just
(17:42):
make sure that they have a goodreview.
If they don't have over a 4.8and say, a hundred reviews, I'm
probably not going to put a lotof my time and energy into them,
even if the product looks great.
I'm just going to follow whatsomeone else has done as far as
selecting a reliable shipper.
So just something kind of thereto uh to keep in mind.
So with waxes, I would alwayshave a go after a wax that is
(18:06):
available in multiple places.
Um, again, you know the GoldenRange 464, that's what we built
our Garza and Beacon brandaround.
Now, for our without brand, weare going to go higher.
We are going to go a littledifferent.
Our niche is different.
Our target demographic is goingto be different.
We want to have a candle thathas a lot more hot throw.
That is one of the downsides ofhaving 464 wax it is just a hot
(18:30):
throat, just isn't that great.
Soy wax in general, just isn'tthat great.
So we are going to look atdoing, um, likely either a
coconut soy um or a paraffin soyum blend.
That is what we're looking at.
But all the ones that we aretesting right now, um, we're
testing, like IGI, titan.
They're all big suppliers ormanufacturers that we can get
from multiple suppliers.
(18:50):
Again, because if a wax iscarried by multiple suppliers,
then if a supplier ends up goingout of business or they are
just out of stock, I couldhopefully get it from another
location.
Now, since this is a brand newbrand that we're launching, we
don't know if it's going to do.
Well, well, that's the honesttruth is, we don't know how
(19:10):
great or successful it might be.
Now we are going ahead andgetting 2,000 of these custom
vessels made.
What it's going to look like.
It's going to be kind ofsimilar to this as far as size
goes.
It's going to be a 10-ouncematte black and it's going to
have the branding screen printedon there for us, so it's going
(19:32):
to be an elevated look.
We are actually getting tubeboxes made for those.
We are also going to be doingperfumes as well.
You can negotiate with a lot ofsuppliers on Alibaba if you're
buying multiple things from them.
So who we're using is creatingour vessels for us, and they
also do perfume bottles.
So I don't know if we're goingto sell 2000 candles.
(19:54):
I would imagine we will overtime.
I don't know how quick that'sgoing to be, but if I'm unsure
about selling 2000 candles, I'mreally unsure about selling 2000
perfumes, because we haven'teven brought these to market yet
, because we're still in thesescent creation phase and having
that all designed Right.
But so what I'm able to do isnegotiate with them and say, hey
(20:15):
, I can hit the minimum for thevessels, but you got to.
Let me only buy a thousand ofthe perfume bottles Because I
just I can't go all in withthose as well because it might
just not work.
So and they worked with us onit, they were completely fine.
So we are getting our vessels,we are getting our perfume
bottles and then also tube thecircular tube boxes for our
(20:38):
candles and then also somecustom boxes for our perfume
bottles.
So it's all coming from thesame supplier that we have
sourced.
So that's going to make itreally easy.
So now that we know who andwhere we're going to get our
supplies from from our wax, ouroils, our wicks, our custom
vessels, anything that you'regoing to have for this new brand
I would map it all out and seewhat suppliers carry the
(20:59):
majority of what you want,because then you're going to
save a lot of money on shipping,right?
So if you decide candle science, you decide hive and honey, you
decide whatever brand youdecide to buy your supplies from
, I like to go with the onesthat might have more things and
try what they have.
Generally when it comes to likewicks generally, wherever
you're going to buy your wax,they're going to have a suitable
(21:19):
wick that's going to fit that.
One thing to keep in mind alsowhen it comes to wicks is that
two different suppliers may sella specific wIC, but they are
made different or they are codeddifferently, because a lot of
times our WICs are coded witheither a soy-based coating on
there or a paraffin-based.
And so if you are saying, justfor instance, as an example out
(21:42):
there, you are using, let's say,cdwics, a CDWIC supplier that
carries them is not necessarilygoing to be the exact same CDWIC
that another one is going tocarry.
Or if you're going to like, ina pinch, buy some on Amazon,
they may not be the same as whatyou're carrying.
So having a WIC and alwayskeeping plenty of supply of that
so you don't have to go toanother supplier, is going to be
(22:04):
pretty crucial because theywill burn differently depending
on where you get them because ofhow they're coded.
Pretty crucial because theywill burn differently depending
on where you get them because ofhow they're coded.
Also, if you are a brand thatis really leaning into, say like
eco-friendly sustainability,and you are on the you know team
soy anti-paraffin bandwagonwith, you know that's not what
this video is about.
(22:25):
Whatever side you're on withthat you know you may actually
end up using Wix that areparaffin coded if you are buying
from a different supplier thanthe ones that you generally buy
them from.
Little things like that, justkeep in mind.
But so when you have a list ofall the stuff you're going to
need to build out this newbusiness with.
I look at what supplier you canget most of your stuff from.
(22:45):
Look and see who's beenreliable.
There's a lot of chatter whensuppliers aren't doing what they
should, when they aren't beingtransparent, when their customer
service has gone really down.
Take a look around.
You can certainly hop into ourFacebook group.
It's completely free.
It's Candle Business Pro onFacebook.
Hop in there and ask who thereliable suppliers are.
(23:09):
Today, in fact, in the shownotes below, we're going to have
the oils created and then we'regoing to have the vessels
coming from overseas, but we aregoing to have our wax from here
(23:31):
, and so keep an eye on our freechecklist and we're
continuously updating it withthe suppliers that we are using
right now and again, that'scompletely free and you can grab
that in the show notes below.
So now you got all thesuppliers picked out, get the
samples.
Don't go all in.
Make sure you uh, you test andyou test.
You've got to do completetesting.
Even if you have made a hundredthousand of this candle and you
(23:54):
now are going to test adifferent fragrance, a
combination, but you're going touse the same vessel.
Don't assume you're going touse the same wick, because
generally there's oftentimesit's not going to be so.
In our classic line of candleswe have 10, we have 10 different
scents and amongst those 10scents there's four different
sizes of wicks because of thefragrance load or because of how
(24:14):
hot or cool an oil burns.
So something to keep in mindwhen you're starting a brand.
You have to test every singlecombination.
So keep it simple.
Um, you know, test one factorat a time.
You know, when we go throughour testing, we want to make
sure that the hot throw is goingto be suitable for what we want
, um, if it's not, we're goingto make the adjustments that we
would to adjust the hot throw.
Uh, then you also want to makesure that the temperatures, um,
(24:37):
the, the, the burning ratio, umis is all going to be in line
with what your testing should be.
So make sure that you aretesting extremely in depth and
document that as you arebuilding out your new brand as
well.
Your packaging is going to be abig part of your brand and it
doesn't just mean, like the boxthat your candles come in.
(24:57):
In fact, a lot of times youdon't have to have a box.
We have a box for our brand forone line of candles that we do.
It's called our Duos line.
They're a smaller matte blackvessel, so having a black box it
kind of just fits and those doreally well.
But we don't have vessel boxesfor the rest of our candles
except for a couple like highend We'll do, like limited
(25:20):
edition runs for one of ourstores that the average order
value is a little higher there.
The tourist that comes to thatstore spends a little bit more.
So we've created some higherline candles for them and they
come in those boxes that Iusually have behind me on my
shelf in my videos.
And those aren't custom, we are.
(25:42):
And what I would recommend youdoing is if you want to have a
box, you can start with a plainbox and put your logo on it as a
sticker.
Don't go and spend a lot ofmoney on boxes if you haven't
tested your brand out in generalto see if your candles are
going to sell.
You want to do a lot of testingat the least cost possible and
(26:04):
one of those big costs inbuilding out a brand is going to
be the packaging.
But there are other areas whereyou can do really nice
packaging.
To add to the experience, thatdoesn't cost a lot of money For
us.
We still use a stamp that westamp every single cardboard box
that we ship out to ourcustomers.
We stamp every single cardboardbox that we ship out to our
(26:25):
customers.
So we have not gone and got thefancy tape to seal up your box
with that has your branding onit.
We are still using a stamp thatprobably cost us $25.
And we've probably gone through10 or 20 ink pads with that
right, so we've spent well lessthan $ dollars on our branding
when it comes to our shippingboxes.
(26:46):
That's a way to keep our costslow.
Another thing that we can do is,with that stamp, we can
actually stamp our tissue paper.
With a smaller stamp.
We can stamp our tissue paperbecause getting custom tissue
paper is really expensive,extremely like, like.
It shouldn't be nearly asexpensive as it is like over 50
cents a sheet, which is absurd.
(27:08):
We get 900 sheets of tissuepaper on Amazon for $30, 900 of
those.
So it's like three cents asheet or something Right, and we
can stamp our logo on there.
Or what we'll do is we, when wewrap our candles in tissue.
We then put a little logosticker on there.
When you buy something like alogo sticker, you can buy those
(27:29):
by the thousands you can putthem um, whenever you wrap up
your uh candles and tissue.
You can put them in alldifferent places.
You can actually just cut offone of the stickers off of the
roll and just give that as justa little bonus gift and see if
people will stick it on theircomputer or something right.
They're very inexpensive way ofadding to your unboxing
(27:50):
experience.
A couple other things that we'regoing to want to do as far as
packaging is.
We're going to want to ordercandle care cards.
Candle care cards we get thosefrom Vistaprint.
Vistaprint does our candle carecards.
We have them printed on oneside with the candle care
instructions and on the back ofthem we keep them blank so that
we can write a custom note onthere.
(28:10):
So we like to have a note thatgoes with our orders that go out
that just says thank you forbuying from us.
But it's just a way of savingpaper and cutting down on cost
as well.
So for some other ways of doingyour packaging for us, we do
(28:34):
have a lid on our candles now.
But the reason why we do a lidnow is because we are doing, um,
a pretty decent amount ofwholesale.
So we are at like 145 storesnow that we are wholesaling our
candles in.
And it was a stability thingthat I was really cautious about
when we started Um, and Ithought that having a lid on
(28:58):
here would make the structure ofthis candle firmer, um, and so
that we wouldn't have anybreakage.
And we haven't had any breakage, so that's been a great thing.
However, since we didn't testit like we never had the problem
, I don't know if we needed todo that.
Dust covers would be generallyjust fine for your candles and
in fact, when we were addingthese lids to our main lines of
(29:22):
candles, I sent a poll out toour customers and I kind of put
my foot in my mouth in a way,because I sent a poll out to our
customers asking them hey,would you prefer if we put lids
on our candles?
And overwhelmingly, theresponse was no lid.
(29:42):
It's a waste, stay sustainable,don't put a lid on there.
Nobody wanted a lid on there,but we had kind of already made
up our mind.
We were hoping that they weregoing to be excited about the
lid and for some reason, maybeit would add value to what they
were buying, and it definitelydidn't.
So we have the lids, and some ofthose customers that were like
no, I don't want to let, no, Idon't want to let, when they
(30:04):
come to our stores and buycandles from us, they will
actually leave the lid with us,which is fantastic.
And so we, you know we willwe'll keep the lid and put on
the next one that we make.
So don't think that you need toget lids, because lids are
gonna be another dollar ofcharge on building out your
packaging that you really don'tneed Dust, your packaging that
you really don't need Dust.
Covers are just fine.
That's what we started with.
(30:24):
That's what we ran with for twoyears.
I never had a problem.
I never had a situation wheresomeone, like, wanted or
requested a lid, so that won'tbe an issue for you as well.
So for us, we are going to bedoing some other kind of
merchandise as well.
We're going to be having forour without brand.
We are going to be doing someshirts, likely some hats, some
other lifestyles merchandise,some tote bags.
(30:50):
I believe we're going to bedoing different things.
Of course, you don't have to doany or all of this stuff.
It's just a way for us to getour brand out there more by
offering these other things thatpeople might want to buy.
We'll see what direction itgoes.
Doing things like shirts, Iwould not recommend doing.
I would not recommend doing.
If you have not done it before,wait until your business gets
some traction.
I come from space where we didt-shirts.
(31:11):
I used to work for a largepodcast network and we had a
very large merchandise store andbelieve me when I tell you it
is miserable stocking shirtsbecause you're going to have
like up to seven different sizesof each of those SKUs.
So if you have, let's say,three different colors of a
shirt, if you're going to haveseven different sizes of that
(31:32):
shirt that's 21 different items,different SKUs that you have to
carry.
Plus then you've got to carryof each of those.
So if you're going to have fiveor 10 in stock, whatever it
might be, it's just it's a lotto manage, it's very
overwhelming and it's a lot ofmoney into it.
So there's a lot of money thatgoes into that.
So I wouldn't start with that.
When you see us building outthis new brand, I wouldn't say,
(31:53):
oh, they're doing it, so maybe Ineed to as well.
I would just stick to thecandles.
What else you could add wouldbe some room sprays.
Room sprays are a veryinexpensive add-on.
We do room sprays for ourclassic line of candles, our tin
candles that we carry all thetime.
We do room sprays for those.
Those room sprays cost us lessthan $250 each.
They are in really nice matteblack glass bottles that are
(32:15):
four ounce sizes and we sellthose.
We make them for $250.
We sell those for $16.
So there are fantastic marginson there.
We also use them to do like alot of giveaways and things like
that where we'll run apromotion hey, buy two candles,
get a free room spray.
Because of the perceived valuethat they're saving $16 on
something.
It makes people go after thosetype of deals and specials
(32:38):
pretty often.
So next week we will get intoproduct finalization and our
digital setup, so we willhopefully have all of the final
sense that I can kind of sharesome of the details of by next
week.
We will have those all selectedfrom the lots and lots that we
started with.
We are down to, I think, fiveto seven and we want to launch
(32:58):
our business with five.
Hopefully we'll have thosefigured out next week.
Now I may not share the exactrecipes for all of those, but I
will definitely give you a lotof detail on those.
We should also have our finalbuild-out for our custom
supplies, and I should have someof these samples on the way
from the supplier on those aswell.
We should also have a list ofsome of the other things that
(33:19):
we're going to put together asfar as shirts or hats, because
we will be in week five and thatmeans we are only seven or
eight weeks out from hopefullylaunching this brand with as few
hiccups as possible.
We're also going to startgetting into building out a
Shopify store for this brand.
There's a lot of steps thatgoes into that, to making sure
(33:40):
that we aren't just rushing itat the end.
So we'll talk a little bitabout that next week, but
hopefully this has been helpfulfor you.
If you have questions, put thosein the comments below.
Follow us on Instagram.
Send us a message over there.
You can slide into the DMs isthat what they call it?
Send us messages anytime.
Again, we have that freeFacebook group as well and, as I
(34:02):
mentioned earlier, you candownload that supply list that
we have in the notes below.
And again, a big shout out toTuato for sponsoring this series
for us.
They have helped ustremendously, not only with
their melters, but they alsohave thermal label printers.
Thermal label printers is oneof those things that you don't
think about until it stopsworking.
In fact, ours did stop workinga bit ago, and it was perfect
(34:24):
timing because Tuato had justlaunched their version, and
we've been using it ever since.
It's fantastic.
So again, thank you so much fortuning in this week.
Have a great rest of your week.
So how do we go about sourcing all of the supplies
that we need to start a brandnew candle business?
In today's episode, I am goingto go through our steps that we
are taking to source from thewax and oils to custom vessels,
to even the packaging for ournew brand.
If you're just now tuning in,this is a series on how to build
an entirely new candle business.
(00:21):
I'm Sebastian Garznett, thefounder of Candle Business Pro,
and, alongside my husband, chad,we started Garznett Beacon
Candle Company just over threeyears ago and it has now scaled
to over a million dollars inrevenue and we are starting a
completely new candle business.
It's a completely differentniche and target audience,
completely different branding,completely different everything,
and we're having you come onthis journey with us so that you
(00:43):
can hopefully build out abusiness of your own or, if you
already have a business, theremight be some areas and some
great tips and tricks for you topick up.
So, if you've not beenfollowing along, this is week
four.
You can go back and see weeksone, two and three, where we
define our niche, our targetaudience.
We put together some branddemographics, we went out and
bought a domain, we went andtrademarked our logos.
(01:04):
So we've done all of that.
Now it's time to start puttingthe physical pieces together.
So we're going to get intotalking about all of the stuff
that we are ordering for thisnew business here in just a
moment, but first I want toshout out Tuato, tuato.
Wax melters are fantastic.
We use them at all three of ourstores and they have partnered
with us on this series.
We do have a link for you toget an exclusive discount in the
(01:25):
show notes below, so check themout if you are looking to
either scale up your business oryou're wanting to get multiple
melters.
I know with us we do soycandles, we also do wax melts
and we also do coconut soycandles.
So with three different typesof waxes, it's so nice that two
auto wax melters are affordableso that we can have multiple
(01:45):
melters, and we do that in allof our stores.
So they've been fantastic.
Again, you can look at the linkin the show notes below for an
exclusive discount for you.
So let's get into this week'sepisode.
Okay, so when you're starting anew candle business now, I
consider what we are buildinghere an actual candle lifestyle
business.
We are going to have somelifestyle elements into this.
We are going to have someshirts, we are going to have
(02:07):
some, possibly journals,possibly some hats, some other
merchandise around the candlebusiness.
We are definitely focused onthe candles first.
We will also be doing perfumeswith this line.
So there will be some thingsthat we are adding to this new
brand that you may notnecessarily need to add to yours
or you may not have any desire,and that's completely fine.
I will go through some of whatwe are doing for the lifestyle
(02:30):
side of this brand, just so thatyou're aware, and so it might
be something for you to thinkabout, depending on the
direction that you're going withyour business.
So what should you firstconsider when you're sourcing
your supplies?
So this is where I often see alot of makers get caught up at
the very beginning.
I am a huge advocate forkeeping it simple.
(02:55):
You want to build a businessaround supplies that is always
going to be available.
Oftentimes more often than notwe see new makers come out and
they are ready to start theirbusiness and they are buying the
latest vessels that just cameout.
Right, all the suppliers, ofcourse, are having new vessels
(03:17):
come out every season andthey're building a business and
a brand around one of those newvessels.
The issue with that is, moretimes than not, those vessels
are going away.
Now the suppliers don't tell usthis because, of course, if
they do extremely well, they'llkeep them around.
But so many of the suppliers, infact, that we use have vessels
(03:40):
that end up just not sellingwell.
For them, whether it's theprice point, whether it's the
style, whether it's the color,oftentimes it's the size, a lot
of these suppliers are comingout with the larger vessels and
it's not necessarily conducivefor the pricing that we're doing
for our brand.
So oftentimes those won't selland then they end up
discontinuing them.
If you build an entire businessaround relying on a specific
(04:04):
supplier's vessel and then itgoes discontinue, you're going
to have a problem.
You're going to have to pivotreally hard and figure out how
you can replace your entirebusiness.
The other thing is you're goingto have to not just find new
vessels, but then now you haveto go and retest every single
thing that you are making.
Now for us, we started and havescaled our business with a
(04:27):
simple 10 ounce vessel, 10 ounceglass.
This is a Libby jar that wewill always be able to get.
Libby is probably one of theoldest glass makers of
containers and vessels in thecountry.
They are US based here.
I'm not concerned about evernot being able to get one of
these.
I can buy these from multiplesuppliers.
I can buy them actually fromthe manufacturer themselves.
(04:49):
So that is something to keep inmind.
We also have other vessels thatwe use that we actually get
made for us.
For instance, this is just asimple seven-ounce candle, right
?
This is a simple seven-ouncecandle.
This was a clear jar.
We purchased these.
You know these are the 60 cent,70 cent jars.
We purchased these and have amanufacturer actually spray
(05:13):
these for us, so they they makethem custom for us, so they
sprayed them white and then theyscreen printed our logo on the
outside.
So sure you have to have largerminimums when you are doing
that, for For us, I believe ourminimums on these is like 1,200
vessels.
But think about where you'replanning to go with your brand
and think about if you're goingto go with something that is
(05:33):
more special or more trendingright now.
For instance, this vessel righthere.
This vessel isn't evenavailable anymore and this is
something that we had as anexclusive inside of our Garcin
Beacon brand not even a year ago.
So something to think about.
As you are building it out, youmay want to keep the vessel
simple.
So what do we do instead?
We put nice labels on there, weput bright pops of color, we
(05:57):
build around the vessel itselfwith our labeling and our
branding.
So that's one thing I wouldcaution people on is trying to
build a brand around acompletely you know trending or
new vessel.
The same thing is going to bewith waxes.
With waxes, there tends to be alot of waxes coming in and then
(06:21):
going away, and then coming inand going away.
For instance, they're the oliveoil waxes.
Several suppliers and these aregood, these are people that we
love and we love their otherproducts.
But several of the suppliersthat we in fact use have
introduced olive oil wax andthen it ends up not doing so
great for them.
(06:41):
So they have to pivot and thatmakes sense as a business.
That says on their end.
But if you build your brandaround a specific, unique, what
I call a designer wax, what areyou going to do when that wax
goes away?
You know we built a milliondollar business around soy 464.
You can buy this from probablyevery single supplier.
You can, in fact, if you canbuy it by the pallet, you can
(07:03):
just get it directly from themanufacturer themselves as well.
So there's plenty of options.
Now, of course, any businesscan possibly go out.
You know I have no idea howwell Golden Brands 464 is doing
as a business.
I know that almost everysupplier carries that brand, so
I have confidence in them.
But of course you know we theycould possibly go away at some
(07:26):
point, but I just it's lessrisky in my eyes to do that, so
I'm not chasing the latest orthe hottest supplier that's
coming out onto the scene thathas a specific wax.
I would also caution you forspecific types of oils as well.
There's a lot of trending oilsthat are based on the perfume
space that you know we see.
(07:48):
Once a supplier starts carryingthis dupe of a specific perfume
that is super popular, then allof a sudden you know the rest
of them are all carrying it andthen it ends up not doing very
well.
A perfect example of this ifanyone has been in the candle
making space for the last, let'ssay, two years, uh, there was a
candle supplier called 1617.
(08:08):
So 1617 was known for somegreat like uh perfume designer
high-end fragrance oils.
Right, that was their, that'swhat they were known for.
All of a sudden, bam, they'regone.
They filed bankruptcy, they'reout of business.
All these different smallersuppliers started duping those
(08:29):
oils and started selling themthemselves, assuming that they
were going to actually do reallywell off of those oils.
But the reality is that some ofthe oils just weren't good,
unfortunately.
They just weren't good, andthat's just not my opinion.
That's the, that's the broadopinion in any of the maker
groups that we see that becausethey were buying all of these
(08:50):
now that they could afford themfrom some of these other
suppliers that were carryingthem.
For instance, there was aBaccarat Rouge.
This is a perfect example.
There's a Baccarat Rouge oilthat 1617 used to have.
When 1617 went away, three orfour of the suppliers that we
use and we trust duped those andwe're selling those oils, but
none of them were really goodand they didn't take off and now
(09:12):
no one is carrying those oils.
So I would be cautious ofchasing trends when it comes to
your oils.
Don't build a foundation foryour business on something that
is possibly going to go away.
We built again our Garcin BeaconCandle Company off of some
scents that were easy to getalmost anywhere.
(09:33):
Now we do blend our own oils.
Chad does all of our scentcreation.
So our Sugarloin Candle this isa six figure candle seller we
have sold the number one sellingcandle over the past three and
a half, almost four years Everyyear is the number one seller.
And this is a combination of, Ibelieve, three different oils.
Now, if one of those oils was togo away, we should be able to
(09:53):
get a very, very similar versionof that, because they are going
to be.
You know, this is going to bethose verbatims the lemons, the
citrus, the cream is what we'reblending together for this.
So we're going to findalternatives.
In reality, we're now to thepoint.
I'm thankful within ourbusiness that we could just get
those oils duplicated ourselves.
So that's going to be anotheroption for you If you do love an
(10:17):
oil, if you love an oil fromone of these suppliers.
But now you're a little bitnervous.
I've told you, hey, don't buythat oil because it might be
trending and it might go away.
Keep in mind that, as long asyou have a couple ounces of it,
always that if that businessgoes away or those oils are
discontinued, there are plentyof options out there now that
(10:38):
will duplicate those oils and inreality, duplicating oils might
be something that you want tolook into, even if those oils
are still in stock, because youcan save a lot of money if you
get your oils duplicated.
We are starting to do that nowbecause we've been in business
for a couple of years now, thatwith consistent fragrances and
(11:01):
consistent candles.
We know which ones that we werekind of iffy on the future of,
but we know the ones that arevery solid, for instance, like
this is a solid candle for us.
So what we'll be doing now isactually having a company
duplicate those for us.
Now the minimum is we got tobuy a seven pound worth of that
oil, so that is going to cost,but that's going to bring that
(11:23):
oil down to at, or less than,$20 a pound.
That's significant savings.
When you look at some of thesuppliers out there that are
selling oils now for I see onenow for $99 for 16 ounces like
insane prices.
It's oil.
You can duplicate those and usethem for yourself if you would
like.
Now there are other suppliersthat we will just keep buying
(11:45):
from them because their pricesare right, their shipping is
right.
There's gonna be many factorsthat go into it.
And, of course, when we aredoing, say, a seasonal scent
that we don't know if we'regoing to want to bring it back
next year, we have to see howwell it does.
That's where we would keep it.
Continue to shop with our localsuppliers, you know, instead of
going and getting those oilsduped.
But just something to keep inmind if you do chase something
(12:06):
that's trending, make sure thatyou keep some of the oil so that
you can duplicate those oils ifyou need to in the future.
Now for our new brand.
With our new brand Withoutthat's the name of it those oils
are going to be more of thosehigher end, think along the line
(12:33):
of, like a Joe Malone type ofscents that they carry.
Some of the Le Labos we havebeen sourcing and then doing
some adjustments to some ofthese oils in the sense that we
absolutely love.
So because we're doing that, weare going to have to have all
these oils custom created for usand you can start.
You know, as long as you'redoing again, that seven pound
minimum is generally what it'sgoing to be.
There's a few different housesthat will act breakers houses
that that seven pound minimum isgenerally what it's going to be
.
There's a few different umhouses that will act, frigate
(12:53):
houses, uh that will allowduplication and then they will
duplicate for you.
So check into that Um.
For us, we have had really goodsuccess with AFI.
Afi out of Georgia.
They can literally duplicateanything for you.
They may already, in fact, havesome of those oils ready and
available on their website now,so you can go and check them out
.
Again, it's AFI.
They're great.
They're fantastic to work with.
(13:14):
In fact, you can actually ordersamples off of their website
and you just pay shipping, whichis fantastic as well.
Just keep in mind there is thatminimum order amount that might
just be more than what you arewanting to buy when you're first
starting out.
So for a without brand, we aregoing to source custom vessels.
So we are going to be using abusiness that is on Alibaba.
(13:35):
You can actually work with themdirectly as well.
So keep that in mind.
If you do find a supplier onAlibaba and you establish a
really good relationship withthem, then you can actually work
with them offline as well.
Now, if you are going to useAlibaba, I would recommend
always using a business on therethat offers trade assurance If
(13:59):
you're using that website.
What trade assurance is isessentially you and them come to
an agreement on what you'regoing to buy, what the cost is
going to be, what the timelinefor them to deliver that product
to you is going to be.
So you come to all of on whatyou're going to buy, what the
cost is going to be, what thetimeline for them to deliver
that product to you is going tobe.
So you come to all of thoseterms and then when you go to
pay them, when you pay throughtrade assurance, you are giving
your money to Alibaba to holdand then Alibaba holds that
(14:23):
money until that supplier givesyou delivery and that you are
satisfied with that delivery.
So, in case there's an issue,in case they go MIA and they
disappear, in case what youreceive is not what you ordered,
you can get your money back.
Okay, we actually had to usethis and use a claim for our WAC
(14:44):
.
Uh, wic trimmers.
Um, a couple of years ago weordered custom WIC trimmers and
they did not arrive and theywould not give us our money back
.
Thankfully, we'd use tradeassurance and they gave us our
money back.
Like the next day, uh, the thesupplier kept saying it's on its
way.
It's on its way.
It's on its way.
It never was.
They couldn't give us any proof, right I'm?
I'm pretty lenient when we'rewe were realizing that this
stuff is coming by cargo shipright General from China or
(15:08):
Southeast Asia all the way tothe US.
Of course, there's going to besome hiccups in transporting it
over sometimes, but I couldn'tget any updates at all from them
.
So after about two weeks I justfiled that claim.
You want to be cautious, or becareful, and take a look at what
the terms of the tradeassurance is on Alibaba, because
there is a timeframe that youneed to follow it then.
(15:29):
So they have to have missed thedelivery, um, but then you have
.
I think it might just be 30days, it could possibly be 60
days.
So make sure that if you aregoing to be lenient with a
supplier, um, that you aren'ttoo lenient to where you go
outside of your time period tofile a claim.
So that's what I would cautiousyou on, that.
Also, be cautious of what theactual costs are going to be
(15:52):
when we order stuff from Alibabaany of the suppliers that we
use over there.
You want to make sure what we dois ask for.
You know the quote and the costof delivery to our door.
So some will quote you todelivery to the port.
So when it comes from Chinait's going to go to like an LA
(16:12):
port or a Houston port or aMiami port, but then you would
be responsible for getting itfrom the port.
It's going to be an additionalfee for that.
We make sure that all of ourquotes include to the door
delivery.
On that, one thing you can alsodo and we did this with our
custom boxes.
So our custom boxes for ourGarcin and Beacon brand come
(16:33):
from China and so when they madethese for us, we bought, I
believe, 2000 of these to getthe price to where we needed it
to be, which was a really gooddeal, because we got 2000 boxes
for like $1,200, like 60 cents abox, delivered, custom printed
everything.
You will not find that in theUS, at least, you will not find
boxes delivered custom for thatprice.
(16:54):
You just won't.
So we got 2,000 of these comingover here, but I needed them
right away.
We were launching a new brandor a new collection and I needed
those really quick.
But I didn't need all 2,000 ofthose, I only needed a couple
hundred.
So what we did is we did asplit ship.
We bought and paid for 2,000 ofthem and they gave us a quote
to ship 200 of them by air andthen the rest of them the other
(17:19):
1,800 or so came by ship.
So the first batch of 200, wegot those in like 10 days, which
was fantastic.
That's exactly what we neededto get started, and then the
rest of them all came like 30days after order.
So that's something to keep inmind, that you can ask them to
do that for you, and then theywould be happy to to to look at
that most suppliers would Alsokeep in mind.
There's so many suppliers onAlibaba that you want to just
(17:42):
make sure that they have a goodreview.
If they don't have over a 4.8and say, a hundred reviews, I'm
probably not going to put a lotof my time and energy into them,
even if the product looks great.
I'm just going to follow whatsomeone else has done as far as
selecting a reliable shipper.
So just something kind of thereto uh to keep in mind.
So with waxes, I would alwayshave a go after a wax that is
(18:06):
available in multiple places.
Um, again, you know the GoldenRange 464, that's what we built
our Garza and Beacon brandaround.
Now, for our without brand, weare going to go higher.
We are going to go a littledifferent.
Our niche is different.
Our target demographic is goingto be different.
We want to have a candle thathas a lot more hot throw.
That is one of the downsides ofhaving 464 wax it is just a hot
(18:30):
throat, just isn't that great.
Soy wax in general, just isn'tthat great.
So we are going to look atdoing, um, likely either a
coconut soy um or a paraffin soyum blend.
That is what we're looking at.
But all the ones that we aretesting right now, um, we're
testing, like IGI, titan.
They're all big suppliers ormanufacturers that we can get
from multiple suppliers.
(18:50):
Again, because if a wax iscarried by multiple suppliers,
then if a supplier ends up goingout of business or they are
just out of stock, I couldhopefully get it from another
location.
Now, since this is a brand newbrand that we're launching, we
don't know if it's going to do.
Well, well, that's the honesttruth is, we don't know how
(19:10):
great or successful it might be.
Now we are going ahead andgetting 2,000 of these custom
vessels made.
What it's going to look like.
It's going to be kind ofsimilar to this as far as size
goes.
It's going to be a 10-ouncematte black and it's going to
have the branding screen printedon there for us, so it's going
(19:32):
to be an elevated look.
We are actually getting tubeboxes made for those.
We are also going to be doingperfumes as well.
You can negotiate with a lot ofsuppliers on Alibaba if you're
buying multiple things from them.
So who we're using is creatingour vessels for us, and they
also do perfume bottles.
So I don't know if we're goingto sell 2000 candles.
(19:54):
I would imagine we will overtime.
I don't know how quick that'sgoing to be, but if I'm unsure
about selling 2000 candles, I'mreally unsure about selling 2000
perfumes, because we haven'teven brought these to market yet
, because we're still in thesescent creation phase and having
that all designed Right.
But so what I'm able to do isnegotiate with them and say, hey
(20:15):
, I can hit the minimum for thevessels, but you got to.
Let me only buy a thousand ofthe perfume bottles Because I
just I can't go all in withthose as well because it might
just not work.
So and they worked with us onit, they were completely fine.
So we are getting our vessels,we are getting our perfume
bottles and then also tube thecircular tube boxes for our
(20:38):
candles and then also somecustom boxes for our perfume
bottles.
So it's all coming from thesame supplier that we have
sourced.
So that's going to make itreally easy.
So now that we know who andwhere we're going to get our
supplies from from our wax, ouroils, our wicks, our custom
vessels, anything that you'regoing to have for this new brand
I would map it all out and seewhat suppliers carry the
(20:59):
majority of what you want,because then you're going to
save a lot of money on shipping,right?
So if you decide candle science, you decide hive and honey, you
decide whatever brand youdecide to buy your supplies from
, I like to go with the onesthat might have more things and
try what they have.
Generally when it comes to likewicks generally, wherever
you're going to buy your wax,they're going to have a suitable
(21:19):
wick that's going to fit that.
One thing to keep in mind alsowhen it comes to wicks is that
two different suppliers may sella specific wIC, but they are
made different or they are codeddifferently, because a lot of
times our WICs are coded witheither a soy-based coating on
there or a paraffin-based.
And so if you are saying, justfor instance, as an example out
(21:42):
there, you are using, let's say,cdwics, a CDWIC supplier that
carries them is not necessarilygoing to be the exact same CDWIC
that another one is going tocarry.
Or if you're going to like, ina pinch, buy some on Amazon,
they may not be the same as whatyou're carrying.
So having a WIC and alwayskeeping plenty of supply of that
so you don't have to go toanother supplier, is going to be
(22:04):
pretty crucial because theywill burn differently depending
on where you get them because ofhow they're coded.
Pretty crucial because theywill burn differently depending
on where you get them because ofhow they're coded.
Also, if you are a brand thatis really leaning into, say like
eco-friendly sustainability,and you are on the you know team
soy anti-paraffin bandwagonwith, you know that's not what
this video is about.
(22:25):
Whatever side you're on withthat you know you may actually
end up using Wix that areparaffin coded if you are buying
from a different supplier thanthe ones that you generally buy
them from.
Little things like that, justkeep in mind.
But so when you have a list ofall the stuff you're going to
need to build out this newbusiness with.
I look at what supplier you canget most of your stuff from.
(22:45):
Look and see who's beenreliable.
There's a lot of chatter whensuppliers aren't doing what they
should, when they aren't beingtransparent, when their customer
service has gone really down.
Take a look around.
You can certainly hop into ourFacebook group.
It's completely free.
It's Candle Business Pro onFacebook.
Hop in there and ask who thereliable suppliers are.
(23:09):
Today, in fact, in the shownotes below, we're going to have
the oils created and then we'regoing to have the vessels
coming from overseas, but we aregoing to have our wax from here
(23:31):
, and so keep an eye on our freechecklist and we're
continuously updating it withthe suppliers that we are using
right now and again, that'scompletely free and you can grab
that in the show notes below.
So now you got all thesuppliers picked out, get the
samples.
Don't go all in.
Make sure you uh, you test andyou test.
You've got to do completetesting.
Even if you have made a hundredthousand of this candle and you
(23:54):
now are going to test adifferent fragrance, a
combination, but you're going touse the same vessel.
Don't assume you're going touse the same wick, because
generally there's oftentimesit's not going to be so.
In our classic line of candleswe have 10, we have 10 different
scents and amongst those 10scents there's four different
sizes of wicks because of thefragrance load or because of how
(24:14):
hot or cool an oil burns.
So something to keep in mindwhen you're starting a brand.
You have to test every singlecombination.
So keep it simple.
Um, you know, test one factorat a time.
You know, when we go throughour testing, we want to make
sure that the hot throw is goingto be suitable for what we want
, um, if it's not, we're goingto make the adjustments that we
would to adjust the hot throw.
Uh, then you also want to makesure that the temperatures, um,
(24:37):
the, the, the burning ratio, umis is all going to be in line
with what your testing should be.
So make sure that you aretesting extremely in depth and
document that as you arebuilding out your new brand as
well.
Your packaging is going to be abig part of your brand and it
doesn't just mean, like the boxthat your candles come in.
(24:57):
In fact, a lot of times youdon't have to have a box.
We have a box for our brand forone line of candles that we do.
It's called our Duos line.
They're a smaller matte blackvessel, so having a black box it
kind of just fits and those doreally well.
But we don't have vessel boxesfor the rest of our candles
except for a couple like highend We'll do, like limited
(25:20):
edition runs for one of ourstores that the average order
value is a little higher there.
The tourist that comes to thatstore spends a little bit more.
So we've created some higherline candles for them and they
come in those boxes that Iusually have behind me on my
shelf in my videos.
And those aren't custom, we are.
(25:42):
And what I would recommend youdoing is if you want to have a
box, you can start with a plainbox and put your logo on it as a
sticker.
Don't go and spend a lot ofmoney on boxes if you haven't
tested your brand out in generalto see if your candles are
going to sell.
You want to do a lot of testingat the least cost possible and
(26:04):
one of those big costs inbuilding out a brand is going to
be the packaging.
But there are other areas whereyou can do really nice
packaging.
To add to the experience, thatdoesn't cost a lot of money For
us.
We still use a stamp that westamp every single cardboard box
that we ship out to ourcustomers.
We stamp every single cardboardbox that we ship out to our
(26:25):
customers.
So we have not gone and got thefancy tape to seal up your box
with that has your branding onit.
We are still using a stamp thatprobably cost us $25.
And we've probably gone through10 or 20 ink pads with that
right, so we've spent well lessthan $ dollars on our branding
when it comes to our shippingboxes.
(26:46):
That's a way to keep our costslow.
Another thing that we can do is,with that stamp, we can
actually stamp our tissue paper.
With a smaller stamp.
We can stamp our tissue paperbecause getting custom tissue
paper is really expensive,extremely like, like.
It shouldn't be nearly asexpensive as it is like over 50
cents a sheet, which is absurd.
(27:08):
We get 900 sheets of tissuepaper on Amazon for $30, 900 of
those.
So it's like three cents asheet or something Right, and we
can stamp our logo on there.
Or what we'll do is we, when wewrap our candles in tissue.
We then put a little logosticker on there.
When you buy something like alogo sticker, you can buy those
(27:29):
by the thousands you can putthem um, whenever you wrap up
your uh candles and tissue.
You can put them in alldifferent places.
You can actually just cut offone of the stickers off of the
roll and just give that as justa little bonus gift and see if
people will stick it on theircomputer or something right.
They're very inexpensive way ofadding to your unboxing
(27:50):
experience.
A couple other things that we'regoing to want to do as far as
packaging is.
We're going to want to ordercandle care cards.
Candle care cards we get thosefrom Vistaprint.
Vistaprint does our candle carecards.
We have them printed on oneside with the candle care
instructions and on the back ofthem we keep them blank so that
we can write a custom note onthere.
(28:10):
So we like to have a note thatgoes with our orders that go out
that just says thank you forbuying from us.
But it's just a way of savingpaper and cutting down on cost
as well.
So for some other ways of doingyour packaging for us, we do
(28:34):
have a lid on our candles now.
But the reason why we do a lidnow is because we are doing, um,
a pretty decent amount ofwholesale.
So we are at like 145 storesnow that we are wholesaling our
candles in.
And it was a stability thingthat I was really cautious about
when we started Um, and Ithought that having a lid on
(28:58):
here would make the structure ofthis candle firmer, um, and so
that we wouldn't have anybreakage.
And we haven't had any breakage, so that's been a great thing.
However, since we didn't testit like we never had the problem
, I don't know if we needed todo that.
Dust covers would be generallyjust fine for your candles and
in fact, when we were addingthese lids to our main lines of
(29:22):
candles, I sent a poll out toour customers and I kind of put
my foot in my mouth in a way,because I sent a poll out to our
customers asking them hey,would you prefer if we put lids
on our candles?
And overwhelmingly, theresponse was no lid.
(29:42):
It's a waste, stay sustainable,don't put a lid on there.
Nobody wanted a lid on there,but we had kind of already made
up our mind.
We were hoping that they weregoing to be excited about the
lid and for some reason, maybeit would add value to what they
were buying, and it definitelydidn't.
So we have the lids, and some ofthose customers that were like
no, I don't want to let, no, Idon't want to let, when they
(30:04):
come to our stores and buycandles from us, they will
actually leave the lid with us,which is fantastic.
And so we, you know we willwe'll keep the lid and put on
the next one that we make.
So don't think that you need toget lids, because lids are
gonna be another dollar ofcharge on building out your
packaging that you really don'tneed Dust, your packaging that
you really don't need Dust.
Covers are just fine.
That's what we started with.
(30:24):
That's what we ran with for twoyears.
I never had a problem.
I never had a situation wheresomeone, like, wanted or
requested a lid, so that won'tbe an issue for you as well.
So for us, we are going to bedoing some other kind of
merchandise as well.
We're going to be having forour without brand.
We are going to be doing someshirts, likely some hats, some
other lifestyles merchandise,some tote bags.
(30:50):
I believe we're going to bedoing different things.
Of course, you don't have to doany or all of this stuff.
It's just a way for us to getour brand out there more by
offering these other things thatpeople might want to buy.
We'll see what direction itgoes.
Doing things like shirts, Iwould not recommend doing.
I would not recommend doing.
If you have not done it before,wait until your business gets
some traction.
I come from space where we didt-shirts.
(31:11):
I used to work for a largepodcast network and we had a
very large merchandise store andbelieve me when I tell you it
is miserable stocking shirtsbecause you're going to have
like up to seven different sizesof each of those SKUs.
So if you have, let's say,three different colors of a
shirt, if you're going to haveseven different sizes of that
(31:32):
shirt that's 21 different items,different SKUs that you have to
carry.
Plus then you've got to carryof each of those.
So if you're going to have fiveor 10 in stock, whatever it
might be, it's just it's a lotto manage, it's very
overwhelming and it's a lot ofmoney into it.
So there's a lot of money thatgoes into that.
So I wouldn't start with that.
When you see us building outthis new brand, I wouldn't say,
(31:53):
oh, they're doing it, so maybe Ineed to as well.
I would just stick to thecandles.
What else you could add wouldbe some room sprays.
Room sprays are a veryinexpensive add-on.
We do room sprays for ourclassic line of candles, our tin
candles that we carry all thetime.
We do room sprays for those.
Those room sprays cost us lessthan $250 each.
They are in really nice matteblack glass bottles that are
(32:15):
four ounce sizes and we sellthose.
We make them for $250.
We sell those for $16.
So there are fantastic marginson there.
We also use them to do like alot of giveaways and things like
that where we'll run apromotion hey, buy two candles,
get a free room spray.
Because of the perceived valuethat they're saving $16 on
something.
It makes people go after thosetype of deals and specials
(32:38):
pretty often.
So next week we will get intoproduct finalization and our
digital setup, so we willhopefully have all of the final
sense that I can kind of sharesome of the details of by next
week.
We will have those all selectedfrom the lots and lots that we
started with.
We are down to, I think, fiveto seven and we want to launch
(32:58):
our business with five.
Hopefully we'll have thosefigured out next week.
Now I may not share the exactrecipes for all of those, but I
will definitely give you a lotof detail on those.
We should also have our finalbuild-out for our custom
supplies, and I should have someof these samples on the way
from the supplier on those aswell.
We should also have a list ofsome of the other things that
(33:19):
we're going to put together asfar as shirts or hats, because
we will be in week five and thatmeans we are only seven or
eight weeks out from hopefullylaunching this brand with as few
hiccups as possible.
We're also going to startgetting into building out a
Shopify store for this brand.
There's a lot of steps thatgoes into that, to making sure
(33:40):
that we aren't just rushing itat the end.
So we'll talk a little bitabout that next week, but
hopefully this has been helpfulfor you.
If you have questions, put thosein the comments below.
Follow us on Instagram.
Send us a message over there.
You can slide into the DMs isthat what they call it?
Send us messages anytime.
Again, we have that freeFacebook group as well and, as I
(34:02):
mentioned earlier, you candownload that supply list that
we have in the notes below.
And again, a big shout out toTuato for sponsoring this series
for us.
They have helped ustremendously, not only with
their melters, but they alsohave thermal label printers.
Thermal label printers is oneof those things that you don't
think about until it stopsworking.
In fact, ours did stop workinga bit ago, and it was perfect
(34:24):
timing because Tuato had justlaunched their version, and
we've been using it ever since.
It's fantastic.
So again, thank you so much fortuning in this week.
Have a great rest of your week.
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