August 6, 2025 • 26 mins
#012 and Part 2 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. **
We dive into the critical process of selecting and protecting your candle brand name, focusing on trademark registration, domain acquisition, and establishing a professional online presence. This week continues our 12-part journey of creating a brand new candle business from scratch, building on our experience growing Garcinet Beacon Candle Company to $1.3 million in retail sales.
• Avoid using "Candle Co" in your brand name as it's oversaturated and limits future growth potential
• Choose a name that invokes thought and curiosity rather than personal names or initials
• Search the USPTO website (uspto.gov) to ensure your desired name isn't already trademarked
• Always secure a .com domain - 98% of users will try this extension first when searching
• Set up professional email addresses using Google Workspace for credibility ($6/month)
• Register consistent social media handles across all platforms, even ones you don't plan to use immediately
• Trademark registration costs approximately $250-350 and takes about a year for approval
Like and subscribe to help us reach more candle entrepreneurs! Check out our partner Tuato wax melters using the exclusive discount link in the notes below. Visit candlebusinesspro.com for free resources including supply lists and join our Facebook group to see behind-the-scenes content for our new "Without Permission" brand.
SPONSORS & DEALS
💼 View exclusive deals only for podcast listeners
***
WHEN YOU'RE READY
📬 Free Candle Business Supply List
***
CONNECT
***
SHOW LOVE
💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, we're going to talk about picking a name for
your candle brand.
We're also going to talk aboutregistering that trademark,
getting your domains and gettingall of your social media
handles all set up.
If you're just now joining us,this is week two of a 12 part
series where we are creating andlaunching a brand new candle
business.
Now, if you've watched myvideos before or been tuning
(00:21):
into the podcast, we areGarcinet Beacon Candle Company.
That is the brand that westarted three and a half years
ago.
We are now at $1.3 million inretail sales.
With that.
We have 140 wholesale accountsand we just keep on growing.
But we wanted to do it all overagain with a brand new brand,
with a completely differentvision, and we wanna take you on
(00:43):
the journey with us.
Now, if you're part of ourinner circle community, you
actually get step by stepguidance through doing all of
this.
We have a video lesson for eachseparate part on this journey,
but you're going to get tons ofinformation from watching or
listening right here to this.
Now, this is week two of a 12part series.
If you've not watched week one,I would recommend going back
(01:05):
and taking a look at that.
We define your niche.
We look at your target audience, we created customer profiles
and we also wrote missionstatements and define your
values.
Those are all criticallyimportant to setting the right
foundation for your candlebusiness.
So this week we are going tostart off by talking about
picking a brand name, but firstI do want to give a big shout
(01:29):
out to Tuato.
Tuato wax melters have been withus for quite some time now.
We absolutely love them.
We use them in all three of ourstores and they are so generous
to us and also our community,so I would highly highly
recommend taking a look at them.
Not only are they the bestmelters because our community,
so I would highly highlyrecommend taking a look at them.
Not only are they the bestmelters because they're quick,
they're reliable, but they'realso affordable.
(01:50):
So you can start out with onethat works for your business now
and as your business grows youcan get more or you can get a
larger one.
I in fact have members insideof our inner circle community
that have multiple, because theyare pouring with different
waxes.
So they have a melter for theirsoy wax and then they have a
melter for their coconut soy waxand if they have additional
(02:12):
waxes, they could haveadditional melters as well,
because they are affordable.
All of their melters really aregoing to be less expensive than
you are going to find fromreally anywhere else.
So in the show notes belowthere's an exclusive link.
I do not get a affiliatecommission from this because
they are a partner on thisseries, but you would be saving
yourself money at checkout whenyou use the link in the notes
(02:33):
below.
You will get an additionaldiscount.
So check them out for all yourwax melter needs.
Okay, so today let's starttalking about picking your brand
name.
So this is one where we almostthink it might be easy, but then
there's also some of us thatreally take a lot of time and
think about this.
Now, when we first launchedGarzanet Beacon Candle Company,
(02:57):
garzanet is Chad and I's lastname, so that fit there.
Beacon is because we wanted todo good in the community and
Candle Co is just because that'swhat we saw a lot of candle
businesses having With our brandnew brand which is going to be
called Without Permission.
It is going to not be astrictly candle brand.
(03:18):
We see this going other places,this going other places.
We see this having perfumes,possibly even some clothing,
because we want this to reallyevolve into like more of a
lifestyle brand that we aremaking these candles for someone
so specific that they're goingto want other offerings that we
may have in the future.
So I recommend to take sometime to think about the
(03:41):
direction that you're going towant to go in the future with
your business.
So that's one thing to keep inmind.
I wouldn't open another candlebusiness with Candle Co in the
name.
I believe that it's verysaturated.
When we first got into candlemaking we didn't realize how
(04:01):
saturated the space is to whereyou need to be unique, you need
to stick out, and when you areon a list of other candle brands
that have Candle Co at the endof it you kind of get lost in
there.
And I think that with buildingout this entirely new brand and
you going on this journey withus, that you're going to see
that we're going to be doingthings differently than we did
(04:23):
with our Garcin and BeaconCandle Co.
And don't get me wrong, we'vedone very well with that brand.
It fits that audience.
We are very community focusedwith that, we're locally known
and then we also have all ofthese wholesale accounts.
So we do well with it and itdoes have ways of sticking out
from the crowded market, butwith this new without permission
(04:44):
brand, we are really going tostick out.
We want to be different and wedon't want to be called or
considered strictly a candlebusiness.
So some other things that Iwould be mindful of when it
comes to picking a name for yourcandle business.
A lot of time we'll see peoplewill want to choose something
(05:09):
that's personal to them.
It will have their name inthere.
It'll be Sebastian's CandleCompany or it'll be like S&C
Candle Company and have initialsin there that's really personal
to yourself.
But what is that relaying toyour potential customers with
our without permission brandthat we're launching here?
(05:30):
It's thought invoking right.
It is getting you to thinkabout what does that mean?
It's going to get people to godeeper than the surface level
and I would highly recommenddoing that with any type of
brand if I was to work with youon building out your own
business.
So I think that you have tothink about your customer first.
(05:50):
You can certainly tie in yourpersonal story into your
branding, but does it need to bein your brand name?
Think about that.
Right now you can see differentcandle brands that are really
popular and you'll see brandslike PF Candle Co that does have
a initials in their name andthey also have Candle Co in
(06:11):
their name, but they're one ofthe only ones if you were to
research what the top 10 brandsare right now that are kind of
getting traction and getting alot of eyes on them.
A lot of branding is going moreniche focused, which we talked
about in last week's episode.
Branding is going more nichefocused, which we talked about
in last week's episode.
(06:33):
So I would really consider notusing a Candle Co in your
branding and also not somethingpersonal like a first name or
initials.
I would want to use a brandthat is going to invoke thought
into what is behind the brand,so think about that.
Behind the brand, so thinkabout that.
I would also avoid using wordslike scent or candle or
fragrance those type of wordsinside of your candle brand's
(06:54):
name, like Sebastian's sweetcandles or comfy, cozy candles.
Things like that are.
They're okay on the surfacelevel, but it's not going to get
you traction based on the brandname, and we want to use every
aspect of our brand topotentially help it grow and to
market it with and likeSebastian's scented candles or
(07:15):
fragrant candles or home decorand candles.
That's not going to put uswhere we want to be.
So once you pick out a name,don't get too excited quite yet.
We still have to make sure thatno one else has claimed
trademark on this name so thatyou can use it freely and
trademark it yourself.
So the way we're going to dothat, we're going to go out to
(07:35):
the United States PatentTrademark Office's website.
That website is usptogov andhere on this website you can do
a complete search and see if orhow others are using that name.
Now, just because someone elsemight be using that name, they
might not be using it in thesame manner that you're going to
(07:56):
.
For instance, if, say, garsnetBeacon was a popular term
Garsnet Beacon, say, could beused for different products out
there but not for candles then Iwould be able to apply to use
it for candles.
So when you are doing a search,you want to search not only wide
, but you're also going to wantto search to see in the candle
(08:18):
space itself.
Class four is the class for thecandles on the USPTO's website
that you'll be searching, butmake sure that you are searching
in other fragrance areas.
So by conducting that wide andthat narrow search, you should
be able to get a good idea ifthe name that you are wanting to
use is being used in otherareas where there might be a
(08:41):
conflict there.
But the USPTO website is superthorough.
There's tons of education onthere, so you shouldn't have to
hire an attorney to assist youwith this, or hire, or pay
rather, legal Zoom or any ofthose other websites that say or
the claim that they'll do itfor you for a fee the cost of
(09:05):
doing a registration yourself,depending on the class that
you're registering in.
I would expect to pay between$250, $300, $350 to get this
registered in the Candle space.
Now do you have to do this rightaway?
No, you do not have totrademark your brand right away,
but it's going to protect you.
(09:27):
In fact, we didn't registerGarcinet Beacon for a couple of
years.
It wasn't until we were sellingon different channels that we
decided it might be better forus to go ahead and get this
trademark just for ourprotection.
But it took us a couple ofyears before we decided to do
that because there's a costinvolved.
(09:47):
But once you decide to do it,the step-by-step directions they
give you on the website is verythorough, very easy to do.
Now.
When you do submit yourapplication it's going to take
about a year.
It took us 13 months for it toget approved.
Now it's based on theapplication date.
So if someone else was rushingin to try to beat you to
(10:09):
something, generally it's notgoing to happen that way.
But just so you know, like onceit's registered or the
application has been submitted,you're going to be covered.
You can always use the TM on abrand.
If you notice at the end of aname there'll be a little TM
next to it.
That just means that there'sthe intention or that they have
(10:32):
applied for the trademark.
It does not mean that it's beenapproved.
Once a trademark's beenapproved, that is when there's
going to be the R on there,which means that it's registered
with the trademark office.
So that's the difference.
When you see a TM on a product,you legally can just put TM on
anything.
It doesn't give it anyprotection there.
(10:53):
That is essentially when abrand wants to say that they
have applied to have thistrademark, they're trying to
give more authenticity to it,but it doesn't have that R on
there, which means it isactually an approved trademark
and recognized as beingregistered by the trademark
office.
Something just to keep in mindas you do that.
(11:15):
But once you apply or really youcould do it at any time and
start using that TM, but it'sjust not going to hold any value
quite yet, so it's going totake about a year.
They will.
They'll contact you if there'sanything they need clarification
on.
They did call us one time justto get clarification on
something and then they issuedour certificate.
(11:36):
One thing to keep in mind onceyou apply, you are going to get
tons of emails.
You're going to get floodedwith I don't want to say spam,
but salesy emails.
And what it is is it's a lot oflike patent attorney offices
that are um.
They hire these um marketers orsolicitors to reach out and try
(11:57):
to help guide you.
They're they're looking forbusiness and the way that they
get your information is becauseyou just applied.
As soon as you apply, now allthat information is public on
the um USPTO's website and thenyou're going to start getting a
ton of emails.
So disregard most of those.
Take a look at it.
Just make sure that if they'retrying to sell you something, if
they're trying to collect a fee, then just know that you can
(12:19):
just delete those.
Some of the emails that you'regoing to get also is going to be
where they are offering toprint off a nice framed version
of that certificate once itbecomes available and charge you
lots of money for it.
So disregard all of that.
They called us when they had anissue.
They did not email us, theycalled us, we walked through it
and then I was able to go on tothe website and submit the
(12:43):
additional thing that theyneeded and got everything
cleared up and we moved forward.
So once we're done looking onthe website to make sure that it
is something that we cantrademark, we also want to buy a
domain.
We need a place to park ourwebsite for where our store is
going to live online.
You are gonna want to dosomething that I don't wanna say
(13:04):
it's controversial, but you'regonna want to always use a dot
com URL.
So if you go out and are tryingto obtain the domain of what's
to say scented candlescom andthat's not available, then it's
(13:25):
going to show you other optionsthat you could buy.
Here's the problem 98%.
So in my research I was lookingat um what Google said.
Google says that 98% of blindsearches on their website.
That means that someone assumesthey know what the website is.
(13:47):
So they go to Google and theyjust type it in.
So they just typed in let's sayGarznetBeaconcom and they
assume that's my GarznetBeaconbrand, and they would be right.
But they will type it in notknowing if it ends in com or net
.
There 98% of people will alwaysjust try com.
So if you don't own com, youare potentially losing out on
(14:09):
traffic.
So while you can buy a domainthat ends in net store ai, now
you can get so many differentURL endings.
I highly, highly, highlyrecommend you only go for a com
domain.
Now you can get the rest ofthose domains, so not just
(14:32):
Garcin and Beacon dot com, butGarcin and Beacon dot net dot
store and have all those otherones redirect to the dot com.
But I would not buy and registerand build out a website on a
NET or any other URL if I don'town the com as well, because
it's just the most used URL.
(14:53):
I would rather change my domainname than use an alternative
URL ending.
So what I mean by that is ifGarcinetBeacon was for some
reason taken.
So what I mean by that is, ifGarcinet Beacon was for some
reason taken so I could not useGarcinetBeaconcom, then I would
think about something else.
Would I want to doGarcinetBeaconCandlecom or
(15:17):
GBProductscom, gbcandles right,if Garcinet Beacon isn't
available?
I'm not.
I would change my name for thewebsite versus getting the net.
Here's another example, and it'swhat I'm dealing with with this
new brand.
My new brand is called WithoutPermission that's the name of my
(15:40):
new brand that I'm putting outthere.
But Without Permissioncom istaken.
It is a blog site that someonehasn't really done anything with
in like 20 years, but someoneelse owns it, so I can't do it
now.
I can get without permissionnet, but I don't want that because
it's not thecom.
(16:00):
So instead of withoutpermissionwhatever I'm, my
website's going to be different,and so that's just a heads up
on the way I would think aboutthat is I would not have a URL
ending that doesn't end in com.
So enough about that.
So you need to get that domain.
(16:21):
The way you can search to seewhat's available you can go to
Squarespace.
That's where I host all of mydifferent websites, and brands
is out of Squarespace.
But you can do GoDaddy, you cando Wix, it doesn't matter.
They all have access to thesame domain.
So go to any of those.
It's free, just to search andlook and then it'll give you
some alternatives if the onethat you want isn't available.
(16:41):
So Squarespace has always beengreat for me.
That's what I use.
Once you have your domain, thenext step is you want to set up
a professional email address,and what I mean by that is you
want an email address that endswith at business namecom, so at
the domain that you buycom.
(17:03):
So if you buy scentedcandlescom, you want an email
that is you at scentedcandlescom, right, you don't
want to continue to use a atgmailcom.
It just not as professional.
And when we're starting to dobusiness with other businesses,
it's just another signal thatyou're taking this serious, that
(17:24):
you are a business that you canbe trusted, right.
So I get emails every day frompeople that want to do marketing
for my website, that want to doSEO on my website, that want to
sell me boxes, that want tosell me vessels.
I get all kinds of emails andI'm sure you do too from people
that want to do business right,right away.
(17:44):
When I look at the emailaddress, and if it's at gmailcom
, at hotmailcom, at AOL, atwhatever else it is, I generally
will always just delete those,because if you're telling me
that you're representing acompany and that you want to do
work for my brand, but I can'ttell what business you're from
(18:04):
because it just says at gmailcom, instead of saying at you know,
candlesuppliercom, um or boxsuppliercom, um.
Then I'm going to be verycautious there.
Uh, so it's just a trust factorby having a professional email
address.
Now how do you do that Once youhave your domain?
So, for instance, I hadGarcinet beaconcom and then I
(18:25):
wanted to set up my professionalemail.
You can still set that upthrough Gmail.
That's what I would recommend.
A Google workspace is what Iwould recommend.
Getting A Google workspace isgoing to give you the exact same
software online, the exact sameapps to use as you would with
your Gmail account, but nothingwould change from your personal
(18:47):
email address.
This is just gonna be like yourwork address and it's going to
end in whatever your domain is.
So whatever domain you buy thatGarcinvecancom or
SensitiveCandlescom, whatever itmight be that you're going to
buy out at Squarespace or Wix orGoDaddy you then connect that
(19:08):
with Google through GoogleWorkspace.
It's six bucks a month.
We have upgraded to from thebasic to the standard because we
needed more storage, because weuse it for everything.
We use our Google Workspace to.
We have our standard operatingprocedures in there, we have our
employee handbooks in there, wehave all of the benefits for
our employees in there.
We have all our productionsheets and all of our batches
(19:31):
for our candles, because nowthat we have three stores,
people are working in differentareas.
So we are saving everythingwe're doing inside of the Google
Drive.
So we're using Google Docs,we're using Google Sheets, we're
using Google calendars foreverything, and it's only six
bucks per email address.
And then we have one that's onthe $10 a month plan, just for
more storage that we canactually share amongst all of
(19:53):
them.
So it's very easy to connect itto Google.
I'll set it all up for you.
They will make sure thateverything on the back end.
You know, nowadays there's somany different rules and
regulations that you have to getlike a DMARC, a DKIM, an SPF,
all these different things.
It's all a foreign language tome, but Google will walk you
through the steps of gettingthat all taken care of.
(20:15):
So I highly recommend usingthem for your professional email
address.
Ok, the last thing we want todo after we have done we've got
a brand name, we have gone outto perform a trademark search
and then we've filed for ourtrademark, if you decide to do
that at this time.
Then we went out and got ourdomain.
Whether you do that fromSquarespace or another website
(20:36):
doesn't matter where you want toget that from.
And then we have now got ourprofessional email address.
The next thing we want to do issecure all of the social media
handles, because you want themto be the same.
If on Facebook you'refacebookcom slash Garza Beacon,
I'll use my brand as an example.
Again, that's what it isFacebookcom slash Garza Beacon.
(20:59):
That's the exact same handlethat we use on Instagram.
Instagramcom slash Gar CarsonBeacon Same thing.
We would use that on TikTok oron Twitter X or blue sky or
thread or Pinterest any platformout there.
You're going to want to go outthere and just register it, even
(21:19):
if you don't use it.
We don't use the majority ofthose social media platforms.
We only hang out with where ourcustomers hang out with the
majority of them.
Time's limited and spreadingour time and trying to post on
seven or eight different socialmedia platforms is not a reality
for us.
We can't do that, so we areonly focusing on a couple of
(21:39):
them.
But if we just if it shifts andsay our customers start to go
and be on one of these otherplatforms, I want to make sure
we already have that handle onthose platforms as well, that
someone else isn't taking it.
It's also going to help toprevent from people trying to
spoof your brand and createsomething with your name, which
(22:02):
we see oftentimes with scamshappening right.
If you were to go to TikTok andyou look up Garnet and Beacon
and someone's on there sellingcandles, why would you not think
that that wasn't me or my brand?
So I want to make sure I go andjust grab those domains,
register them, even if you'renot even going to post on them,
but just so that if you decideto do it at some point in the
future you certainly can.
(22:23):
So that is going to be it forthis week.
This is what we have done sofar.
So we got a brand name, we gotour trademark search and we're
going to register that.
If you're in the inner circleagain, you can follow along with
me.
I have a lesson on step-by-stepeverything we had to upload.
We went through the wholeprocess of searching everything
(22:48):
we've done.
You can go in there and checkit out inside of that candle
launch roadmap that we havebuilt for our members that is
taking them through a videolesson of every single step
we're doing.
Then we went and got our domainand then we set up our
professional email address andthen, lastly, we got our social
media handles.
Hopefully you have found somevalue in today's episode.
If you could do us a favor likesubscribe, that helps us out
(23:09):
tremendously to get our videosout into the world more places
and to get our podcast into theears of more listeners.
Comment below, if you wouldlike, on some questions or some
roadblocks that you might befacing within these topics that
we covered today, and I will.
I will comment back.
(23:30):
I will respond back and see ifI can't help you out.
Come visit us atcandlebusinessprocom and you can
see we have lots of freeresources out there.
You can download our supplylist, you can access our
calendars that we use.
You can get access to morecontent through our blog out
there.
So lots of information outthere for you.
(23:50):
Again, I do want to say thankyou so much to Tuato for
partnering with us on thisseries.
This is week two of what will beat least 12 episodes of
building out this brand, andthen we're going to continuously
have updates about how thisbrand is doing.
So come hang out with us in ourFacebook group if you would
like.
It's completely free to hop inthere.
We're sharing the graphics, infact, we have.
(24:13):
If you're curious about whatthe Without Permission brand is
looking like today so far, comehang out in there.
We are sharing all the behindthe scenes images, videos,
marketing and branding thatwe're going to be doing.
So it's pretty exciting overthere.
So, as always, thank you somuch for tuning in today.
Have a fantastic rest of yourday and we'll talk to you soon.
Today, we're going to talk about picking a name for
your candle brand.
We're also going to talk aboutregistering that trademark,
getting your domains and gettingall of your social media
handles all set up.
If you're just now joining us,this is week two of a 12 part
series where we are creating andlaunching a brand new candle
business.
Now, if you've watched myvideos before or been tuning
(00:21):
into the podcast, we areGarcinet Beacon Candle Company.
That is the brand that westarted three and a half years
ago.
We are now at $1.3 million inretail sales.
With that.
We have 140 wholesale accountsand we just keep on growing.
But we wanted to do it all overagain with a brand new brand,
with a completely differentvision, and we wanna take you on
(00:43):
the journey with us.
Now, if you're part of ourinner circle community, you
actually get step by stepguidance through doing all of
this.
We have a video lesson for eachseparate part on this journey,
but you're going to get tons ofinformation from watching or
listening right here to this.
Now, this is week two of a 12part series.
If you've not watched week one,I would recommend going back
(01:05):
and taking a look at that.
We define your niche.
We look at your target audience, we created customer profiles
and we also wrote missionstatements and define your
values.
Those are all criticallyimportant to setting the right
foundation for your candlebusiness.
So this week we are going tostart off by talking about
picking a brand name, but firstI do want to give a big shout
(01:29):
out to Tuato.
Tuato wax melters have been withus for quite some time now.
We absolutely love them.
We use them in all three of ourstores and they are so generous
to us and also our community,so I would highly highly
recommend taking a look at them.
Not only are they the bestmelters because our community,
so I would highly highlyrecommend taking a look at them.
Not only are they the bestmelters because they're quick,
they're reliable, but they'realso affordable.
(01:50):
So you can start out with onethat works for your business now
and as your business grows youcan get more or you can get a
larger one.
I in fact have members insideof our inner circle community
that have multiple, because theyare pouring with different
waxes.
So they have a melter for theirsoy wax and then they have a
melter for their coconut soy waxand if they have additional
(02:12):
waxes, they could haveadditional melters as well,
because they are affordable.
All of their melters really aregoing to be less expensive than
you are going to find fromreally anywhere else.
So in the show notes belowthere's an exclusive link.
I do not get a affiliatecommission from this because
they are a partner on thisseries, but you would be saving
yourself money at checkout whenyou use the link in the notes
(02:33):
below.
You will get an additionaldiscount.
So check them out for all yourwax melter needs.
Okay, so today let's starttalking about picking your brand
name.
So this is one where we almostthink it might be easy, but then
there's also some of us thatreally take a lot of time and
think about this.
Now, when we first launchedGarzanet Beacon Candle Company,
(02:57):
garzanet is Chad and I's lastname, so that fit there.
Beacon is because we wanted todo good in the community and
Candle Co is just because that'swhat we saw a lot of candle
businesses having With our brandnew brand which is going to be
called Without Permission.
It is going to not be astrictly candle brand.
(03:18):
We see this going other places,this going other places.
We see this having perfumes,possibly even some clothing,
because we want this to reallyevolve into like more of a
lifestyle brand that we aremaking these candles for someone
so specific that they're goingto want other offerings that we
may have in the future.
So I recommend to take sometime to think about the
(03:41):
direction that you're going towant to go in the future with
your business.
So that's one thing to keep inmind.
I wouldn't open another candlebusiness with Candle Co in the
name.
I believe that it's verysaturated.
When we first got into candlemaking we didn't realize how
(04:01):
saturated the space is to whereyou need to be unique, you need
to stick out, and when you areon a list of other candle brands
that have Candle Co at the endof it you kind of get lost in
there.
And I think that with buildingout this entirely new brand and
you going on this journey withus, that you're going to see
that we're going to be doingthings differently than we did
(04:23):
with our Garcin and BeaconCandle Co.
And don't get me wrong, we'vedone very well with that brand.
It fits that audience.
We are very community focusedwith that, we're locally known
and then we also have all ofthese wholesale accounts.
So we do well with it and itdoes have ways of sticking out
from the crowded market, butwith this new without permission
(04:44):
brand, we are really going tostick out.
We want to be different and wedon't want to be called or
considered strictly a candlebusiness.
So some other things that Iwould be mindful of when it
comes to picking a name for yourcandle business.
A lot of time we'll see peoplewill want to choose something
(05:09):
that's personal to them.
It will have their name inthere.
It'll be Sebastian's CandleCompany or it'll be like S&C
Candle Company and have initialsin there that's really personal
to yourself.
But what is that relaying toyour potential customers with
our without permission brandthat we're launching here?
(05:30):
It's thought invoking right.
It is getting you to thinkabout what does that mean?
It's going to get people to godeeper than the surface level
and I would highly recommenddoing that with any type of
brand if I was to work with youon building out your own
business.
So I think that you have tothink about your customer first.
(05:50):
You can certainly tie in yourpersonal story into your
branding, but does it need to bein your brand name?
Think about that.
Right now you can see differentcandle brands that are really
popular and you'll see brandslike PF Candle Co that does have
a initials in their name andthey also have Candle Co in
(06:11):
their name, but they're one ofthe only ones if you were to
research what the top 10 brandsare right now that are kind of
getting traction and getting alot of eyes on them.
A lot of branding is going moreniche focused, which we talked
about in last week's episode.
Branding is going more nichefocused, which we talked about
in last week's episode.
(06:33):
So I would really consider notusing a Candle Co in your
branding and also not somethingpersonal like a first name or
initials.
I would want to use a brandthat is going to invoke thought
into what is behind the brand,so think about that.
Behind the brand, so thinkabout that.
I would also avoid using wordslike scent or candle or
fragrance those type of wordsinside of your candle brand's
(06:54):
name, like Sebastian's sweetcandles or comfy, cozy candles.
Things like that are.
They're okay on the surfacelevel, but it's not going to get
you traction based on the brandname, and we want to use every
aspect of our brand topotentially help it grow and to
market it with and likeSebastian's scented candles or
(07:15):
fragrant candles or home decorand candles.
That's not going to put uswhere we want to be.
So once you pick out a name,don't get too excited quite yet.
We still have to make sure thatno one else has claimed
trademark on this name so thatyou can use it freely and
trademark it yourself.
So the way we're going to dothat, we're going to go out to
(07:35):
the United States PatentTrademark Office's website.
That website is usptogov andhere on this website you can do
a complete search and see if orhow others are using that name.
Now, just because someone elsemight be using that name, they
might not be using it in thesame manner that you're going to
(07:56):
.
For instance, if, say, garsnetBeacon was a popular term
Garsnet Beacon, say, could beused for different products out
there but not for candles then Iwould be able to apply to use
it for candles.
So when you are doing a search,you want to search not only wide
, but you're also going to wantto search to see in the candle
(08:18):
space itself.
Class four is the class for thecandles on the USPTO's website
that you'll be searching, butmake sure that you are searching
in other fragrance areas.
So by conducting that wide andthat narrow search, you should
be able to get a good idea ifthe name that you are wanting to
use is being used in otherareas where there might be a
(08:41):
conflict there.
But the USPTO website is superthorough.
There's tons of education onthere, so you shouldn't have to
hire an attorney to assist youwith this, or hire, or pay
rather, legal Zoom or any ofthose other websites that say or
the claim that they'll do itfor you for a fee the cost of
(09:05):
doing a registration yourself,depending on the class that
you're registering in.
I would expect to pay between$250, $300, $350 to get this
registered in the Candle space.
Now do you have to do this rightaway?
No, you do not have totrademark your brand right away,
but it's going to protect you.
(09:27):
In fact, we didn't registerGarcinet Beacon for a couple of
years.
It wasn't until we were sellingon different channels that we
decided it might be better forus to go ahead and get this
trademark just for ourprotection.
But it took us a couple ofyears before we decided to do
that because there's a costinvolved.
(09:47):
But once you decide to do it,the step-by-step directions they
give you on the website is verythorough, very easy to do.
Now.
When you do submit yourapplication it's going to take
about a year.
It took us 13 months for it toget approved.
Now it's based on theapplication date.
So if someone else was rushingin to try to beat you to
(10:09):
something, generally it's notgoing to happen that way.
But just so you know, like onceit's registered or the
application has been submitted,you're going to be covered.
You can always use the TM on abrand.
If you notice at the end of aname there'll be a little TM
next to it.
That just means that there'sthe intention or that they have
(10:32):
applied for the trademark.
It does not mean that it's beenapproved.
Once a trademark's beenapproved, that is when there's
going to be the R on there,which means that it's registered
with the trademark office.
So that's the difference.
When you see a TM on a product,you legally can just put TM on
anything.
It doesn't give it anyprotection there.
(10:53):
That is essentially when abrand wants to say that they
have applied to have thistrademark, they're trying to
give more authenticity to it,but it doesn't have that R on
there, which means it isactually an approved trademark
and recognized as beingregistered by the trademark
office.
Something just to keep in mindas you do that.
(11:15):
But once you apply or really youcould do it at any time and
start using that TM, but it'sjust not going to hold any value
quite yet, so it's going totake about a year.
They will.
They'll contact you if there'sanything they need clarification
on.
They did call us one time justto get clarification on
something and then they issuedour certificate.
(11:36):
One thing to keep in mind onceyou apply, you are going to get
tons of emails.
You're going to get floodedwith I don't want to say spam,
but salesy emails.
And what it is is it's a lot oflike patent attorney offices
that are um.
They hire these um marketers orsolicitors to reach out and try
(11:57):
to help guide you.
They're they're looking forbusiness and the way that they
get your information is becauseyou just applied.
As soon as you apply, now allthat information is public on
the um USPTO's website and thenyou're going to start getting a
ton of emails.
So disregard most of those.
Take a look at it.
Just make sure that if they'retrying to sell you something, if
they're trying to collect a fee, then just know that you can
(12:19):
just delete those.
Some of the emails that you'regoing to get also is going to be
where they are offering toprint off a nice framed version
of that certificate once itbecomes available and charge you
lots of money for it.
So disregard all of that.
They called us when they had anissue.
They did not email us, theycalled us, we walked through it
and then I was able to go on tothe website and submit the
(12:43):
additional thing that theyneeded and got everything
cleared up and we moved forward.
So once we're done looking onthe website to make sure that it
is something that we cantrademark, we also want to buy a
domain.
We need a place to park ourwebsite for where our store is
going to live online.
You are gonna want to dosomething that I don't wanna say
(13:04):
it's controversial, but you'regonna want to always use a dot
com URL.
So if you go out and are tryingto obtain the domain of what's
to say scented candlescom andthat's not available, then it's
(13:25):
going to show you other optionsthat you could buy.
Here's the problem 98%.
So in my research I was lookingat um what Google said.
Google says that 98% of blindsearches on their website.
That means that someone assumesthey know what the website is.
(13:47):
So they go to Google and theyjust type it in.
So they just typed in let's sayGarznetBeaconcom and they
assume that's my GarznetBeaconbrand, and they would be right.
But they will type it in notknowing if it ends in com or net
.
There 98% of people will alwaysjust try com.
So if you don't own com, youare potentially losing out on
(14:09):
traffic.
So while you can buy a domainthat ends in net store ai, now
you can get so many differentURL endings.
I highly, highly, highlyrecommend you only go for a com
domain.
Now you can get the rest ofthose domains, so not just
(14:32):
Garcin and Beacon dot com, butGarcin and Beacon dot net dot
store and have all those otherones redirect to the dot com.
But I would not buy and registerand build out a website on a
NET or any other URL if I don'town the com as well, because
it's just the most used URL.
(14:53):
I would rather change my domainname than use an alternative
URL ending.
So what I mean by that is ifGarcinetBeacon was for some
reason taken.
So what I mean by that is, ifGarcinet Beacon was for some
reason taken so I could not useGarcinetBeaconcom, then I would
think about something else.
Would I want to doGarcinetBeaconCandlecom or
(15:17):
GBProductscom, gbcandles right,if Garcinet Beacon isn't
available?
I'm not.
I would change my name for thewebsite versus getting the net.
Here's another example, and it'swhat I'm dealing with with this
new brand.
My new brand is called WithoutPermission that's the name of my
(15:40):
new brand that I'm putting outthere.
But Without Permissioncom istaken.
It is a blog site that someonehasn't really done anything with
in like 20 years, but someoneelse owns it, so I can't do it
now.
I can get without permissionnet, but I don't want that because
it's not thecom.
(16:00):
So instead of withoutpermissionwhatever I'm, my
website's going to be different,and so that's just a heads up
on the way I would think aboutthat is I would not have a URL
ending that doesn't end in com.
So enough about that.
So you need to get that domain.
(16:21):
The way you can search to seewhat's available you can go to
Squarespace.
That's where I host all of mydifferent websites, and brands
is out of Squarespace.
But you can do GoDaddy, you cando Wix, it doesn't matter.
They all have access to thesame domain.
So go to any of those.
It's free, just to search andlook and then it'll give you
some alternatives if the onethat you want isn't available.
(16:41):
So Squarespace has always beengreat for me.
That's what I use.
Once you have your domain, thenext step is you want to set up
a professional email address,and what I mean by that is you
want an email address that endswith at business namecom, so at
the domain that you buycom.
(17:03):
So if you buy scentedcandlescom, you want an email
that is you at scentedcandlescom, right, you don't
want to continue to use a atgmailcom.
It just not as professional.
And when we're starting to dobusiness with other businesses,
it's just another signal thatyou're taking this serious, that
(17:24):
you are a business that you canbe trusted, right.
So I get emails every day frompeople that want to do marketing
for my website, that want to doSEO on my website, that want to
sell me boxes, that want tosell me vessels.
I get all kinds of emails andI'm sure you do too from people
that want to do business right,right away.
(17:44):
When I look at the emailaddress, and if it's at gmailcom
, at hotmailcom, at AOL, atwhatever else it is, I generally
will always just delete those,because if you're telling me
that you're representing acompany and that you want to do
work for my brand, but I can'ttell what business you're from
(18:04):
because it just says at gmailcom, instead of saying at you know,
candlesuppliercom, um or boxsuppliercom, um.
Then I'm going to be verycautious there.
Uh, so it's just a trust factorby having a professional email
address.
Now how do you do that Once youhave your domain?
So, for instance, I hadGarcinet beaconcom and then I
(18:25):
wanted to set up my professionalemail.
You can still set that upthrough Gmail.
That's what I would recommend.
A Google workspace is what Iwould recommend.
Getting A Google workspace isgoing to give you the exact same
software online, the exact sameapps to use as you would with
your Gmail account, but nothingwould change from your personal
(18:47):
email address.
This is just gonna be like yourwork address and it's going to
end in whatever your domain is.
So whatever domain you buy thatGarcinvecancom or
SensitiveCandlescom, whatever itmight be that you're going to
buy out at Squarespace or Wix orGoDaddy you then connect that
(19:08):
with Google through GoogleWorkspace.
It's six bucks a month.
We have upgraded to from thebasic to the standard because we
needed more storage, because weuse it for everything.
We use our Google Workspace to.
We have our standard operatingprocedures in there, we have our
employee handbooks in there, wehave all of the benefits for
our employees in there.
We have all our productionsheets and all of our batches
(19:31):
for our candles, because nowthat we have three stores,
people are working in differentareas.
So we are saving everythingwe're doing inside of the Google
Drive.
So we're using Google Docs,we're using Google Sheets, we're
using Google calendars foreverything, and it's only six
bucks per email address.
And then we have one that's onthe $10 a month plan, just for
more storage that we canactually share amongst all of
(19:53):
them.
So it's very easy to connect itto Google.
I'll set it all up for you.
They will make sure thateverything on the back end.
You know, nowadays there's somany different rules and
regulations that you have to getlike a DMARC, a DKIM, an SPF,
all these different things.
It's all a foreign language tome, but Google will walk you
through the steps of gettingthat all taken care of.
(20:15):
So I highly recommend usingthem for your professional email
address.
Ok, the last thing we want todo after we have done we've got
a brand name, we have gone outto perform a trademark search
and then we've filed for ourtrademark, if you decide to do
that at this time.
Then we went out and got ourdomain.
Whether you do that fromSquarespace or another website
(20:36):
doesn't matter where you want toget that from.
And then we have now got ourprofessional email address.
The next thing we want to do issecure all of the social media
handles, because you want themto be the same.
If on Facebook you'refacebookcom slash Garza Beacon,
I'll use my brand as an example.
Again, that's what it isFacebookcom slash Garza Beacon.
(20:59):
That's the exact same handlethat we use on Instagram.
Instagramcom slash Gar CarsonBeacon Same thing.
We would use that on TikTok oron Twitter X or blue sky or
thread or Pinterest any platformout there.
You're going to want to go outthere and just register it, even
(21:19):
if you don't use it.
We don't use the majority ofthose social media platforms.
We only hang out with where ourcustomers hang out with the
majority of them.
Time's limited and spreadingour time and trying to post on
seven or eight different socialmedia platforms is not a reality
for us.
We can't do that, so we areonly focusing on a couple of
(21:39):
them.
But if we just if it shifts andsay our customers start to go
and be on one of these otherplatforms, I want to make sure
we already have that handle onthose platforms as well, that
someone else isn't taking it.
It's also going to help toprevent from people trying to
spoof your brand and createsomething with your name, which
(22:02):
we see oftentimes with scamshappening right.
If you were to go to TikTok andyou look up Garnet and Beacon
and someone's on there sellingcandles, why would you not think
that that wasn't me or my brand?
So I want to make sure I go andjust grab those domains,
register them, even if you'renot even going to post on them,
but just so that if you decideto do it at some point in the
future you certainly can.
(22:23):
So that is going to be it forthis week.
This is what we have done sofar.
So we got a brand name, we gotour trademark search and we're
going to register that.
If you're in the inner circleagain, you can follow along with
me.
I have a lesson on step-by-stepeverything we had to upload.
We went through the wholeprocess of searching everything
(22:48):
we've done.
You can go in there and checkit out inside of that candle
launch roadmap that we havebuilt for our members that is
taking them through a videolesson of every single step
we're doing.
Then we went and got our domainand then we set up our
professional email address andthen, lastly, we got our social
media handles.
Hopefully you have found somevalue in today's episode.
If you could do us a favor likesubscribe, that helps us out
(23:09):
tremendously to get our videosout into the world more places
and to get our podcast into theears of more listeners.
Comment below, if you wouldlike, on some questions or some
roadblocks that you might befacing within these topics that
we covered today, and I will.
I will comment back.
(23:30):
I will respond back and see ifI can't help you out.
Come visit us atcandlebusinessprocom and you can
see we have lots of freeresources out there.
You can download our supplylist, you can access our
calendars that we use.
You can get access to morecontent through our blog out
there.
So lots of information outthere for you.
(23:50):
Again, I do want to say thankyou so much to Tuato for
partnering with us on thisseries.
This is week two of what will beat least 12 episodes of
building out this brand, andthen we're going to continuously
have updates about how thisbrand is doing.
So come hang out with us in ourFacebook group if you would
like.
It's completely free to hop inthere.
We're sharing the graphics, infact, we have.
(24:13):
If you're curious about whatthe Without Permission brand is
looking like today so far, comehang out in there.
We are sharing all the behindthe scenes images, videos,
marketing and branding thatwe're going to be doing.
So it's pretty exciting overthere.
So, as always, thank you somuch for tuning in today.
Have a fantastic rest of yourday and we'll talk to you soon.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.