August 27, 2025 • 40 mins
#015 and Part 5 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. **
Sabastian shares strategies for rapidly testing candles, selecting strategic sales channels for an elevated brand, and determining profitable pricing for the new gender-neutral "Without" candle line.
• Testing three wick sizes simultaneously to speed up product development
• Documenting every test burn with photos and detailed notes
• Starting with supplier-recommended wick lines rather than experimenting widely
• Being selective with sales channels for an elevated brand experience
• Controlling the narrative by focusing on direct-to-consumer through Shopify
• Targeting specific retailers for wholesale rather than using marketplace platforms
• Calculating true cost of goods including vessels, packaging, and labeling
• Aiming for 5X markup to allow room for marketing and growth
• Pricing based on target customer value perception, not competitor prices
• Considering wholesale requirements when establishing retail pricing
• Expanding into gender-neutral perfumes with scents matching the candle line
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, we're going to be talking about how we can
rapidly get through our candletesting phase.
We're also going to be talkingabout the different sales
channels that we're going to beselling our new brand on, as
well as how we finalize ourpricing by looking at our cost
of goods.
So stick around.
I think this is going to be afantastic episode for anyone
that's not just starting a brandnew business, but also if you
already have an established one.
Now, before we get started, Ido want to give a big shout out
(00:22):
to Tuato.
Tuato wax melters have beenpart of our business for quite
some time.
We have multiple of theirmelters in each of our stores.
Because we're using differentwaxes, we also do wax melts.
Now they've provided us with anexclusive link to give to you.
You can see that in thedescription below, and when you
use that link, you'll actuallyget an additional discount at
checkout.
So shout out to Tuato.
Thank, thank you so much forsponsoring this series on how to
(00:42):
build a new candle business.
Now, if we haven't met, I'mSebastian Garznett.
I am the co-founder of GarznettBeacon Candle Company,
alongside my husband, chad, andI'm also the founder of Candle
Business Pro, where we helpmakers go pro.
We have a bootcamp.
We have candle making courses,wholesale courses.
We teach you everything that weknow.
We also have the inner circle.
That's where most people loveto hang out is our community.
(01:03):
Where our members are hangingout every single week, in fact,
every single day, because wehave an app that you can use to
network, grow, go throughobstacles, roadblocks with each
other.
It is just a fantastic place tohang out.
So check that out if you'reinterested.
Now we're in week five ofgrowing this entirely new candle
business.
So we took Garcin Pecan CandleCompany to now about $1.4
(01:23):
million in revenue.
We have 140 wholesale accounts.
But this isn't about that.
What we're doing is we'restarting completely from scratch
with a brand new candlebusiness.
It is called WithoutW-T-H-O-U-T Without Without the
I in the middle of it.
If you have not been on thisjourney for the last few weeks,
check out the prior videos orprior podcast episodes where you
(01:44):
can find out what inspired thisbrand new business, what
direction we're going with it,how we're sourcing all of our
supplies.
That's all covered in theprevious episodes.
Today we're going to talk abouthow we're rapidly going through
our testing period, of howwe're testing out new waxes and
some oils.
I also want to talk about thedifferent sales channels that we
(02:05):
are going to be putting thisbrand onto.
I also want to talk about howwe calculate our cost margins,
figuring out our cost of goods,and also what we're going to be
pricing our products at based onthose results.
So stick around, let's get intothis.
I first want to start with howwe get through our testing phase
as quick as possible.
Now we are selecting new waxes,we are going to be selecting
(02:27):
new oils, new wicks, all of thatstuff, right?
So, regardless if you arestarting a brand new business or
you are putting out just a newcollection or you want to change
wax like, for instance, we do afour, six, four, four guards
and beacon for 90% of ourcandles, but we also do some
coconut soy as well so when youstart using a different wax or
you're just starting completelyfrom scratch, you need to find a
(02:48):
wick that is going to pairreally well with that.
Now, people will search for allkinds of different wicks, but
here's the reality that we havefound is that the wick that the
supplier recommends is generallythe one that you're going to
want to use.
You may now circle around andtry a bunch of different wicks,
but most likely you're going tojust go back to where you
started with the wick that thatsupplier recommended so often.
(03:10):
Usually what happens is we'renew, we're testing it, the
candles fail and we're notlooking and diagnosing why it
failed.
We're looking for otherproducts or other supplies to
make it easier, right, and notreally diving into why it didn't
work.
That's actually what we coverin our bootcamp and in our
courses.
We talk about the why behind,why something worked or why it
(03:32):
doesn't work.
So what we like to do is westart with that WIC that that
supplier recommends.
So whether they arerecommending Performance,
premier, lx, cd, it doesn'tmatter what WIC they are
recommending.
Start with that WIC.
Start with that WIC becausethey want to build your trust.
They don't want you taking yourbusiness elsewhere.
They're going to tell you whatWIC should work.
(03:53):
Just fine with that WAC.
So if it doesn't work, usuallyit's going to be a different
variable that you need to adjust.
You need to adjust either theoil percentages or several other
factors that you may not berealizing could be causing that
wick to not work in that way.
But generally they're going togive you the right wick line.
Now the wick size for thatdiameter of a candle that you
(04:17):
are testing is going to vary.
They might say that you needlet's just as an example use
like CD wicks.
So all the suppliers that sellCD wicks and they sell let's
just as an example, use like CDwicks.
So all the suppliers that sellCD wicks and they sell, let's
say, four, six, four wax.
If you look at their wick guidefor a three inch diameter, they
are going to say you need tostart with let's, a CD 16.
Don't just buy CD 16, buy CD16s, buy CD 18s, 14s, 12s, 10s,
(04:44):
buy the entire sample or pack.
Most suppliers are going tohave a sample or pack.
You're going to want to havemultiple sizes on hand because
more often than not, the exactwick that they recommend that's
just a starting point andthere's the factors that go into
it.
Is it burning hotter?
Is it burning cooler, based onthe oils that you're using,
based on the makeup of the oils,but also the percentage of
(05:05):
those oils is going to changethat dramatically.
So just keep that in mind.
Don't just buy one wick.
Wicks are really inexpensive.
One of the most expensive parts, inexpensive parts about your
candle business is going to bewicks, have a lot of wicks on
hand, most of them, again, theysell sample packs.
They're fantastic to start with.
And most of them, again, theysell sample packs they're
(05:25):
fantastic to start with.
Okay, so we have the wax thatwe want to test, we have the
recommended line of wicks thatthey are suggesting and we're
going to buy a variety of sizesof that wick.
Now what helps us get throughtesting really fast is not only
do we start with testing thatrecommended wick size for that
(05:46):
vessel diameter, we're alsogoing to go ahead and test one
size up and one size down.
So we're going to be testingthree candles at once, and
here's the reason why we do this.
When you pour a candle, you aregoing to have a cure time,
whether that's 48 hours, 72hours, five days, some people do
two weeks.
Whatever that cure time is,you're not moving forward with
(06:09):
building out this collection orthis new brand.
While that is just sittingthere, you can be working on
other areas of the business, butyou want to get to testing and
then get through testing asquick as possible.
So we always recommend testingthree candles at once with three
different size wicks.
So we have the recommended,then we do one size up and we do
(06:29):
one size down and by doing thisyou are going to see the
difference in those burns asit's burning down.
Now remember, you want toalways test all the way through.
So don't just do one test burnand consider a pass or fail.
You have to do multiple testburns all the way to the bottom,
or to a quarter of an inch fromthe bottom of that candle
(06:50):
vessel to truly evaluate whichwick is going to be best.
Often wax is not now burning allthe way to the edges.
Now with 464, with soy, itdoesn't have that um memory per
se.
What happened with soy wax isand we're getting way into the
science side of it but whathappened with soy wax is you
(07:10):
want it to burn all the way tothe edges before it goes down.
So that's always kind of whatwe're all taught and what we
share is you want to make surethat you have a full melt pool
all the way to the edges of yourvessel, um, so that it doesn't
tunnel.
But but that's not the casewhen you're using other types of
wax, with a coconut, soy, someof these other blends, you're
not going to necessarily get itto burn all the way to the edges
, because as it burns down, it'sgoing to catch up and grab some
(07:33):
of that wax that is hanging upon the side.
So keep that in mind.
Every wax does performdifferently, so for you to
understand how it's going towork, you need to do full test
burn.
So don't just take advice fromsomeone else, even myself.
Hey, listen to what I'm saying,maybe to get you started, but
make sure you're understandingfully how this works.
So test three at a time.
You're going to be able to seeall three of them burning.
(07:54):
You can understand why they'redoing what they're doing when
you can see the ones that aren'tdoing the same thing.
Make sure you are taking photosor video every step of the way.
After every single test burn,you need to take photos, and
take photos and then, so thatyou're going to have a reference
to look back on.
So data is key when it comes totesting, understanding and
(08:16):
documenting what wick, what wax,what percentage of oil that you
use, what the makeup of thatoil was, what ratio of your
blending a couple together.
That was that you used.
What the makeup of that oil was, what ratio of your blending a
couple together.
That was.
And then you need to have photodocumentation of every single
test phase.
So, for instance, if we aredoing a seven or eight ounce
candle, which is what we do inour course, that's like 11 test
burns.
(08:36):
So you need to document everysingle one of those, because
what happens is you think thisone's a good one and you think
this is a bad one, but as you goor a fail, as you go through
the testing, you're going torealize that you might actually
be wrong.
And that's actually what weshow inside of our course is,
most often than not, that firsttest burn, the results might not
(08:57):
be what you are hoping for atthe end.
That's what happens when youend up going with the test
results after the very firstburn and then your customers
have problems with those candles, whether they don't stay lit,
whether it tunnels, whether itgets too hot, whether it
explodes, whether it's not safe.
So make sure you're doing allof those test burns so for us to
speed that up, we are doingthree at a time and also make
(09:21):
sure that you're documentingeverything.
Take photos, have it writtendown on the side of the vessel
or we can give you the testingtemplates that you can actually
put stickers on the side of yourvessels so that you can
document and know exactly whichone is doing what, take photos
the entire time so that you canalways look back on that.
So we like to have a GoogleSheet where we just save all
(09:41):
this information.
All right, let's move on to thenext thing that we are working
on this week.
Inside of this launch of thisnew brand For our new without
brand, we are going to be veryselective on how we are selling.
We want to make sure that, withthis new brand, we are
completely controlling thenarrative of this brand and the
(10:03):
direction that it's going to go.
This brand is very, verypersonal to us and we want to
make sure that the message thatwe are actually trying to send
with these candles resonates theright way and it hits our
target audience.
So you can go back and checkout weeks one and two, where we
really dove into who we'retargeting with this brand, who
(10:24):
we are making these candles for,what that customer avatar is,
the brand demographics All ofthat stuff is in week one and
two of this series, but I wantto talk about the sales channels
Now, when you are launching acompletely new brand.
If you are trying to go widewith your niche and you are just
looking to get buyers, then Iwould recommend being on all the
sales channels.
So even if you are building outa get buyers, then I would
recommend being on all the saleschannels.
(10:45):
So, even if you are buildingout a Shopify store, which I
highly highly recommend thateveryone do you also want to
maybe go ahead and give Etsy atry?
Go ahead and get your candlesout on fair.
If you're wanting to try thewholesale route Now, if you've
been through our wholesalecourse, we talk about how you
know we're in 145, 147 storesnow with our candles, with our
(11:09):
Garcin and Beacon candles, and90% of those accounts we do
outreach to get those.
Okay, so we are reaching out,we are being selective and
finding the stores that we feelwould be great and we are
connecting with them and that'show we get those accounts.
That's what we teach in ourwholesale course.
But I would recommend and weare connecting with them and
that's how we get those accounts, that's what we teach in our
wholesale course.
But I would recommend and weare still on FAIR we are on FAIR
, but FAIR is one of thoseplatforms, kind of like Etsy,
(11:32):
where you're putting yourproducts in front of people and
it's their algorithm that isgoing to try to pair up a
shopper with a brand.
So go ahead and get on FAIR.
We have gotten a couple dozenaccounts on fair over the last
few years.
Nothing great, nothingspectacular, I'm nothing to brag
about.
We have gotten some really bigaccounts on fair, though We've
(11:53):
gotten into the airports, andthe reason how we did that was
they saw our products on fairand then they reach out directly
because they're a massive,massive account.
We also have another accountthat we're in 45 of their stores
and they found us on FAIR whenthey were searching for a brand,
but then they reached out to usdirectly because they're not
(12:14):
going to go through FAIR fortheir terms.
What it is is some of these bigcorporations that may want your
candles.
They don't make payments andbuy through FAIR, and then they
won't have a conversation withyou.
They have to submit to you apurchase order, a PO, and then
they're going to have eitherlike a net 30 or next net 60,
where they buy from you.
(12:34):
They give you a PO, you deliverthe product, but you're
actually not going to get paidfor like 30 or 60 days.
So it's not necessarily idealfor when we're first starting
out.
If we don't have a lot of funds, we need that money up front.
But to get into some of theselarger accounts, that's just how
they operate right.
They're not just like givingyou a credit card over the phone
, nothing like that.
They have a process they haveto go through.
They send you a PO, you fulfillthat PO and then you send an
(12:55):
invoice to that company and theypay that either in like a net
30 or net 60.
So we got those accounts fromfair, but we're not relying on
fair for just our everydayboutiques.
We are doing all outreach.
That's how we get into all ofthese stores is by doing that.
Now, with our new brand ourwithout brand we're going to be
even more selective.
I don't think we're going tostart on fair, and the reason is
(13:17):
is we want to be superselective of where these candles
go.
We want to make sure that weare aligning the right way with
the way that we want this brandto be.
Think of it and we're notcomparing ourselves to them, but
think about us as what we'regoing for being a thing such as
like a designer perfume.
(13:39):
A designer perfume you can goand get that at, you know,
macy's.
You can go and get that at Ulta, macy's.
You can go and get that at Ulta.
A lot of them, not all of them.
You can go and get them atNeiman Marcus.
You can get them online.
You can get them in specificretailers that they trust to
sell the products the right way.
There's guidelines of how itneeds to be stocked all of that
(13:59):
stuff, right?
You can't go and get let's aj'adore by tristan dior.
Uh, rihanna, which is myfavorite person.
She's the spokesperson for thatperfume.
Uh, which I didn't know thatperfumes over 300 these days
until I was shopping for my momand I was like, oh, this is
crazy.
Uh, which made me want to dosome perfumes for this new brand
(14:21):
because we can be $300 for surein selling something.
So that's a whole another topicfor probably another week or
two coming up in this podcastseries.
But knowing where you want tosell your products, what I was
saying is Christian Dior and allof the Ralph Warren, all of
these different perfumes orbrands aren't just allowing your
(14:45):
gift shop down the street tostock their products, right,
they're not out there on fair oranything.
They are probably reaching outto where they want to go into
and making those agreements andthose arrangements and all of
that.
So we do want to be moreselective with the direction
we're going with this new brand.
Um, because I want to make surethat, you know, I I think that
(15:07):
a lot of women's boutiques uh,just like with our guards and
beacon, that's kind of the, the,the shops that we like to get
into is women's boutiques.
We do really well in those.
Uh, we also want to do reallywell with that with our new
brand.
But we, we, we have analignment that we want to make
sure this new brand follows, toshare our story in the direction
(15:28):
that we're going with it.
So if you're following along,you'll probably understand that
a little bit more.
We will definitely be sharingmore of that as we release this,
but we're going to be selective.
So I am not going to put surewe're telling that story fully
If we do get on to fair oranother one of the wholesale
(15:50):
retailers.
So we're not going to do that.
We're not going to do Etsynecessarily, but I'm not rolling
Etsy out Now.
Etsy, if you're looking to go.
More luxury, more designer Ihate using luxury in the candle
space more designer.
I hate using luxury in thecandle space, uh, but if you, if
you're trying to be moreelevated, uh, more exclusive,
then being on Etsy probably uh,contradicts that a little bit.
(16:12):
Now we're on Etsy with GarcinBeacon Candle Company.
We do okay on there.
We get five or six sales amonth, not a lot.
We don't do anything with it,we just we put them out there
and if something sells,fantastic, we fulfill it.
So that's why I recommend doingit, because what's an extra six
sales a month?
You know, when our candles are25 bucks, there's $150 minus our
cost of goods, minus a littlebit of fees that they have.
(16:32):
We're making an extra $100 amonth.
That goes a long way, that.
So I'm out there.
It doesn't conflict with ourGarza and Beacon brand, with our
Without brand.
We have to think about that Isbeing on Etsy the image of.
You know it's handmade, it'ssmall business brand, all of
that.
That is what Without is.
(16:53):
But we're still trying to gofor this exclusiveness, right.
So I'm not sure that we aregoing to start there, but I'm
not sure yet.
And the reason for that is theEtsy shopper.
Some of the characteristics andvalues of an Etsy shopper is
exactly in line with who we aregoing after with our new brand.
(17:19):
A lot of people that are goingto be sharing the same values of
this brand are also shopping onEtsy.
They're trying to support small.
They have those values that youknow they that would really
align, so we may be on there.
My concern is that our candleprices are going to be much
higher and we'll get into thepricing here in just a moment.
(17:40):
Then what we're generally goingto find on Etsy with our Garson
Beacon brand, our candles thatare out there right now.
We have our 10 ounce type ofglass with lids on there.
They're $26 out there.
They don't sell very well.
Smaller candles that are goingto be seven ounces that we can
sell these for like $20, alittle bit less than that.
(18:02):
Or we'll run a sale on Etsyjust to drive some eyes onto our
products.
Those do okay out there.
So there is a budget to keep inmind of the shoppers on Etsy.
I do think that people arevaluing the handmade, small
business side of Etsy, but theyare also they seem to be price
(18:25):
conscious as well.
I'm sure there are some, youknow, elevated, more higher end
things on Etsy that areexpensive.
In fact, like artists, I knowpeople that paint.
In fact, one of the teammembers in our, one of our
stores, she is an artist and shesells tons on Etsy and, like
her photos are not notinexpensive.
(18:49):
Uh, she is actually herspecialty totally getting off
topic here, but her specialty iswhen someone gets married they
will often have like a flowerbouquet, right, a flower, a
flower, a floral arrangementarrangement.
She paints.
They provide her with eitherthe flowers or with an image and
she paints those and so that'sa that's a memory keepsake.
(19:10):
It's not a picture of them, uh,the people getting married.
It's of this floral arrangement, of that bouquet that the bride
or whomever was holding.
Um, because that's, that's justa strong memory.
So she's getting well over $150for each of these paintings
she's doing and she's crushingit out there.
But it's a unique thing outthere In the candle space I
don't see a lot of candles above$30 on Etsy.
(19:33):
I just don't, and so I'm notsure how our candles will do.
I'm sure we will definitelytest it at some point, but again
, we want to be kind of specificwith that.
But we do want to be direct toconsumer and Etsy is direct to
consumer, so I'm not concernedabout a store that our values
might not align, selling ourbrand, because when I'm selling
these products, I'm selling themdirect to a consumer, so of
(19:55):
course, we may give it a shot.
Now, of course, the thing thatwe're definitely going to focus
on is going to be on Shopify andgoing out and promoting our new
brand out on all the channels,and I recommend doing this on
all the channels, not even justthe ones that you like to use,
because your customer may beusing different ones than you.
Our customer.
I envision being big onInstagram, a little bit on
(20:18):
TikTok, a little bit on TikTok.
I do see them to not post a lot, you know, not expressing
themselves, but doing thescrolling, taking a look, being
very aware of what's going on inthe world, what's going on
around them.
We've talked about some of thedemographics of our customer in
weeks two and three of theseries, so we are going to go
(20:40):
where they are.
So, even though I'm not aTikToker I'm barely on Instagram
I want to make sure I'm therebecause I know that's where our
customers are going to be andalso our brand is going to be
very visual.
We are going to be telling astory through imagery, and we
need to have the platforms thatdo that really well.
That's going to be yourInstagram, your TikToks not
(21:00):
necessarily as much on Facebook,though we're definitely going
to be on Facebook.
We'll also be on Pinterest, Ibelieve, as well.
I don't think we need to doSnapchat or any of that.
You know, in last week'sepisode I talked about go ahead
and securing all of your handleson all of those different
platforms.
So you want to do that, youwant to go ahead and get them,
but whether or not you'reposting on there repeatedly or
(21:23):
putting a lot of energy into it,well, it does have to depend on
where your customers are.
So think about where they areand how you're going to sell to
them.
But we're definitely going tobe building out our Shopify
store.
That's going to be.
Our focus is driving customersto our website.
We're not going to direct themtowards Etsy or anywhere else.
We want to own the customer'sjourney.
We want them to go to ourwebsite.
(21:44):
We want to be able to reach outto them through their email
address or all the informationthey provide us, and that just
is simply going to be throughour website.
So that is it for how we'regoing to sell.
So now let's talk about howwe're going to price our candles
out.
(22:05):
So most candle makers tend tohave a lot of issues when it
comes to pricing out yourcandles.
What should I sell my candlesfor?
How do I calculate that?
What makes the most sense?
People are asking other makershey, how much do you sell your
seven ounce candle for?
How much you sell your candlefor versus what I sell my candle
for is completely irrelevant,for is completely irrelevant,
completely completely irrelevant.
(22:26):
You can look at some candlebrands out there.
Look at Diptyque, for instance.
Diptyque candles for a threeounce like votive style is 75
bucks.
Okay, I can't sell $75 candlesto my customer.
I just can't do that.
That is not who my customer is.
You have to know who yourcustomer is.
You have to understand whatthey're spending on candles and
(22:48):
then you make that product forthem that has the same value
that they are looking for at theleast amount of cost possible.
That's how you make a candlebusiness successful is price
your candles what your customerswill pay, but make it for as
inexpensive as possible andstill providing that value that
(23:08):
they want.
So the value is going to bespecific sense.
It's going to be the quality ofthe burn, it's going to be the
quality of the wax.
All of those characteristicsthat they're looking for is
going to be your branding, it'sgoing to be your packaging, it's
going to be the story that youtell.
All of those are going to bedifferent things that your
customers care about.
They don't know how much itcosts you to make that.
(23:30):
Okay.
So my customers have no ideathat my candle costs me about
$5.50 to make and I sell it tothem for $26.
Or for a 7-ounce candle likethis, these are going to cost
you about four bucks maximum tomake and I'm going to sell these
for $24.
There's some that I ended updoing for like $22, but most of
our seven ounce candles are 24.
(23:51):
That's the point at which theyare happy to complete that
transaction.
Now, how do we calculate ourcost of goods and how are we
going to do that for this newbrand?
So cost of goods is going to beeverything that goes into
finalizing this candle.
So that's going to be the wax,it's going to be the oil, the
(24:12):
wick, it's going to be the wicksticker, it's going to be the
vessel itself.
Are you going to have a lid?
Are you going to have a dustcover All of the stuff that goes
into it, but also the packaging?
If you are going to have a box,are you going to have a tube?
What are you going to do aroundthis candle to present it to
your customers with?
So, adding all that up, that isgoing to be your cost of goods.
Now for I just made referenceto this size candle.
This size candle for usgenerally costs us about $550.
(24:35):
It really depends on thelabeling.
The labeling is one of the mostexpensive parts of the candle.
Keep that in mind when you'rebuilding out your brand, that
you might want to go withsomething that is kind of
evergreen for your brand.
So, whether you are usingsomething, you can make labels.
These are actually screenprinted on it.
For us, we get these custommade.
(24:55):
What I'm referring to is ourseven ounce that has our
branding on the front of it.
We get those screen printed onby the company that sprays the
inside of these vessels to makethem white instead of clear.
So this is one way of doing it.
And then we buy these in bulkand then we can use these for an
assortment of candles and thenyou can just put the candle
scent on the bottom.
So there's lots of ways ofdoing it to where you're not
(25:16):
going to waste labels.
Labels is one of the mostexpensive wastes, for our
business as well, and so we havelearned to try to pivot a
little bit, because you're goingto invest all this money into
specific labels for a specificscent and then it might not do
so well.
So then now you're sitting onsometimes a couple.
(25:36):
We went all in with these labels.
We spent about $3,500 on almost50 different labels and we sell
this line of candles veryslowly.
We went way overboard with itand you know, looking back, we
(25:57):
now know we're going to testthem out ahead of time.
So when you buy your labels insmaller quantities they're more
expensive, but it may be worthit to test out to see if you can
sell the product first, then goback and buy them in bulk if
you find success.
The other option is to find orhave designs that you can print
your labels yourself.
So we do have an Ecotankprinter that we use to print
(26:21):
some of our labels.
In the shop the printer, alongwith the rest of our supplies,
is on a checklist.
You can grab that for free inthe description below.
It's all the supplies that weuse to run our business with and
that Ecotank printer is onthere.
We can use that for some of ourlabels, but not all the ones
that have the high contrast ofcolors that are super bright and
colorful.
(26:42):
We just get thoseprofessionally done.
All right for our new brand ofcandles that we're coming out
with without brand.
This candle is going to cost usabout $9.50 to $10 to make.
So this is going to be a 12ounce custom glass.
It has our branding, our brandname screen, printed right on to
the vessel.
It's matte black.
(27:03):
I don't have them here yet.
They are coming from overseas.
They are on their way.
We can't wait to share themwith you.
We do have some mock-ups ofthem that you may have seen as
we've been going through thebrand ideation, but it's going
to be close to $10 for this.
We are doing it and we areputting these in a custom tube
(27:24):
box for this, so very, veryelevated compared to some of the
other candle collection for ourother brand that we've done.
So some of the other thingsthat are going into that cost is
we are going to be using a moreexpensive wax for a Garza
Beacon candle where we're usingour 464 wax.
That's going to be one of theleast expensive waxes out there.
(27:45):
We are going for a moreelevated wax having a little bit
of different burningcharacteristics, also having a
better hot throat to it.
So we are still in the testingphase whether we are going to do
the soy paraffin or we're goingto do this coconut soy.
We're testing that now.
We really like the idea ofdoing the coconut soy, but we
(28:06):
may end up doing that soy blendthat has more paraffin in it,
based on the hot throw.
So we're testing that right now.
We'll see which way we go withit.
I kind of want one and Chadwants another one.
So we've got to come to ameeting of minds there to see
what really makes the most sensefor how we're going to sell
these, where we're going to sellthese and what our customers
(28:27):
are going to value.
So we're still in the testingof that.
But either one that we go withthis candle is going to be a $10
candle.
We plan to sell these candlesmost likely starting at $46.
So $46 for this candle.
We're getting well over that.
Keystone metrics that a lot ofbusinesses go off of having that
(28:48):
3X or 4X, I aim for 5X.
That is what I aim for, becausenot only do you have, obviously
, the cost of goods are goinginto this, but you want to leave
room to run ads, spend somemoney on marketing, hire someone
to do your social media,whatever you may want to do to
further grow your business inthe future.
(29:08):
You can't do that if you arejust making enough profit on a
candle to pay yourself.
Right, you may be the onlyperson working in your brand
right now, but what happens whenyou want to bring on a team
member but your sales are alsodipping.
You're going to need to havemore revenue coming in, so you
(29:30):
need to price your product towhere it makes sense.
Now, if pricing your candles at5X isn't going to work for your
customers in fact, if yourcustomers, your target customer
that you have in mind, is, say,only going to pay 2X or 3X, you
might need to switch.
You might need to pivot who youare targeting for your brand.
(29:52):
So if my customers are onlyspending $15 for this candle and
this candle cost me 550 ish tomake, I need to pivot because
I'm not making enough profit inthere to do a few things.
I'm not making enough profit inthere to do a few things.
I'm not making enough to bringon a new team member in the
future.
I'm not bringing on enough tospend money on ads or marketing.
But I'm also not making enoughto wholesale.
(30:13):
Because if I'm selling this, ifmy customer is spending $15 for
this, that means a boutique ora store retailer that wants to
carry my products.
They don't want to spend morethan half 50% of retail.
So if this is a $15 candle,they're going to only want to
buy this from us for $7.50.
If they're buying it from usfor $7.50 and it costs me $5.50
(30:34):
to make this, we're not makingany money.
We're not in business.
We're putting ourselves out ofbusiness.
You got to reach at least 4X ifyou want to try to wholesale.
If you want to try to wholesale, you have to be at least at 5X
or, excuse me, at least at 4X.
And because, say, this was fivebucks, I sell for 20.
So if I'm going to sell it for20, that's 4X then a wholesaler
(30:56):
is going to buy these for much,for $10.
So it costs me five to make.
I'm doubling my money and I'mselling it for 10.
That works.
I still don't like that.
I still want to be way abovethat, if I can.
But it works and you can stilloperate your business and grow.
It just might take a little bitmore time to grow to get that
revenue into where you can putit back into your business.
(31:17):
So I highly recommend aimingfor 5X to where you can put it
back into your business.
So I highly recommend aimingfor 5X.
That's what we do with Gardsand Beacon.
There's something that we aredoing even higher than that Our
room sprays.
We sell those for $16.
They cost us like two and aquarter $2.25 to make, and we do
a lot with those.
Think about not only justselling those and that's almost,
you know, a 8X on those but wealso use them for a lot of
(31:38):
giveaways.
We do a lot of promotions withthem.
So pricing your products rightwill show the value.
What we do often is we will doa weekend special where it's buy
two candles, get a free roomspray.
That room spray only costs ustwo and a quarter.
So basically it's reducing eachcandle just a little over a
dollar and we're selling twoinstead of one, and so that is a
(32:01):
fantastic way to get in a lotof revenue at once.
We'll do these flash sales,we'll send it out to our email
list.
We get a lot of orders thatcome in.
We fulfill them.
The customers believe, becausethey are getting a good deal,
they're getting a $16 value.
As long as your customersbelieve that's the value,
they'll spend that.
(32:21):
And so make sure that whatyou're putting in or out to the
world with your candles reflectswhat you're trying to put out
there.
I'm not saying put a $26 candleout there If it looks like or
presents like a $10 candle, yougot to put a little extra into
it sometimes.
So keep that in mind.
Just figure out what niche youwant to be into.
Figure out what the targetcustomer is behind that.
(32:42):
Again, we talk about this allthe time with our members inside
the inner circle.
I also have other videos out onYouTube and episodes on the
podcast where you can reallydive into what your niche and
your target audience is.
So you don't have to figure itout.
Let's work on that and then youcan figure out your pricing.
But so for our new without brand, we are going to aim for almost
five X.
I think we're going to getthere If we're going to sell the
(33:04):
candles for 46 to $48 andstarting out.
We're going to make these foraround nine, nine, 50 ish as we
start getting some success.
And this is one thing to keepin mind with um building out
your brand is your cost of goodswill end up coming down as you
grow.
So I'm looking at right nowgetting into this.
Our cost of goods is going tobe, say, let's, almost $10.
(33:25):
I'm not quite to that 5X, butif this does well and we are
starting to move these products,then that cost of goods is
going to get down into that850-ish range because we'll
start buying stuff in even morebulk and that's going to reduce
our costs.
We can reduce our costs in ourvessels, in our packaging, in
our wax and even in our oil.
(33:47):
Now we are getting custom oilmade for us.
We have to buy it by like the10 pound or 15 pounds at a time.
That's already a really gooddeal.
When we go from 15 pounds up toI think the next level is like
25 pounds We'll save some.
It's not a lot but we will savesome.
But just by getting it in that15 pound orders really saves us
a lot of money that we aren'tdoing that.
(34:08):
$30 for 16 ounces, or there'ssuppliers out there that are
selling a 16 ounce bottle for$99.
Now that's insane, but youcan't build a business around it
.
You just you can't.
You can't build a businessaround it unless you are going
super elevated, super luxury.
But I think if you're goingthat high, you might not be
(34:28):
using those brands.
You would be taking oils thatyou like and then having them
made for you.
This is what we've done withthis new brand, so hopefully
this has helped you out.
We have talked about thedifferent sales channels that
we're going to start on.
So for the new brand, we aregoing to sell, obviously direct
to consumer, right on Shopify.
We might dip our toe into Etsyto see how it goes.
(34:50):
We are not going to start onfair.
I will reach out to specificretailers to do our wholesale
outreach, just like we do withGarcin Beacon.
That is our focus.
That is what works really wellfor us.
That's what we teach in ourcourse, so we will be doing a
specific outreach for wholesale.
We will definitely have ourShopify channel that all of our
social media will be pointingpeople towards, when we will be
(35:12):
running some ads on Instagram,facebook a little bit.
I don't know about TikTok adswe may take a look at that.
We'll talk about that in thenext couple of weeks as we build
out our promotional strategy.
Next week and coming up, wewill be talking about how we are
going to be doing press we willbe sending out some press kits
to people, how we are going totry to get some influencers
(35:33):
involved, all kinds of differentways that we can market our
brand.
We'll be coming up as we get tothat stage and building out the
without brand For our withoutbrand.
We have talked about our candles, but we are also going to be
doing perfume.
So we have done all of thesescents for this new brand are
dinner neutral and we are goingto be doing sprays, some
(35:54):
perfumes for all five of theseto start as well.
So that'll be exciting to kindof follow along and see what
direction we'd go with those andthe price point that we get to
on there.
Now, just from our ownexperience, we are selling
another maker's perfumes in ourthree retail locations right now
.
We haven't put our own outthere for any of our Garza and
(36:16):
Beacon brand because we justhaven't had the time, energy or
thought of putting intolaunching perfumes under
Garcinet Beacon Now under ournew brand Without we will be
having the perfumes.
They're going to be genderneutral and the scents align
with the scents of the candleswe're putting out.
(36:37):
So we're building that out aswell, the candles we're putting
out.
So we're building that out aswell.
As far as price point goes forthat, we sell a 30 milliliter
perfume that another maker makesfor us and that's like $36 in
our store and we sell those likehotcakes, like crazy.
We sell so many of these sprays.
(36:58):
Obviously the price point'sgood.
When you are looking at these$300 perfumes out there, you
know any of the other ones thatare a reasonable price, around a
hundred bucks anyway.
So selling one of these youknow for for 32, $36 in our
store, um, it's 30 milliliters.
What we're doing, um, if you'veseen in the previous episode
where we talked about thepackaging, the packaging and we
(37:21):
showed the perfume bottles thatwe have, that's going to be a 50
milliliter, so it's going to belarger than what we're selling
currently at the $32 range.
So I think our perfumes aregoing to be in the fifties.
We're going to probably come in.
It needs to be more expensivethan the candle, I think, but I
do think that it's going to bein that mid maybe $54 range for
that.
As we completely price this out,we'll certainly share that with
(37:44):
you.
Also, in the next couple ofweeks we will be talking about
our Shopify store and I willstart laying the foundation
there, so then you'll actuallybe able to go and visit it if
you would like and you can kindof see what we've come up with
Now.
If you aren't following alongwith this week by week and
you're not watching this youknow almost live if you're
watching this in the future,then definitely go and check out
withoutbrandcom.
(38:05):
There will be links in thedescription below so you can
follow along and check out whatwe did with that brand.
Thank you so much for tuning inthis week.
Next week we're really going todive into building out our shop.
We will have some of ourbranding completed and we'll be
able to share that not only withyou, but we'll also get it out
onto our social media channelsand onto our website that we
(38:27):
will then start building out andshowing you some of the things
that you really wanna make sureyou don't forget to have,
especially on your website, todrive sales.
If you're getting traffic toyour website but you're not
converting that into sales.
I'll have some really good tipsthat works really well for us
under our Gartner Beacon brandthat I will bring to you next
week.
Another shout out to Tuato forsponsoring this entire series.
(38:50):
They have a exclusive link foryou in the notes below.
Thanks again for tuning in.
Have a great rest of your week.
Today, we're going to be talking about how we can
rapidly get through our candletesting phase.
We're also going to be talkingabout the different sales
channels that we're going to beselling our new brand on, as
well as how we finalize ourpricing by looking at our cost
of goods.
So stick around.
I think this is going to be afantastic episode for anyone
that's not just starting a brandnew business, but also if you
already have an established one.
Now, before we get started, Ido want to give a big shout out
(00:22):
to Tuato.
Tuato wax melters have beenpart of our business for quite
some time.
We have multiple of theirmelters in each of our stores.
Because we're using differentwaxes, we also do wax melts.
Now they've provided us with anexclusive link to give to you.
You can see that in thedescription below, and when you
use that link, you'll actuallyget an additional discount at
checkout.
So shout out to Tuato.
Thank, thank you so much forsponsoring this series on how to
(00:42):
build a new candle business.
Now, if we haven't met, I'mSebastian Garznett.
I am the co-founder of GarznettBeacon Candle Company,
alongside my husband, chad, andI'm also the founder of Candle
Business Pro, where we helpmakers go pro.
We have a bootcamp.
We have candle making courses,wholesale courses.
We teach you everything that weknow.
We also have the inner circle.
That's where most people loveto hang out is our community.
(01:03):
Where our members are hangingout every single week, in fact,
every single day, because wehave an app that you can use to
network, grow, go throughobstacles, roadblocks with each
other.
It is just a fantastic place tohang out.
So check that out if you'reinterested.
Now we're in week five ofgrowing this entirely new candle
business.
So we took Garcin Pecan CandleCompany to now about $1.4
(01:23):
million in revenue.
We have 140 wholesale accounts.
But this isn't about that.
What we're doing is we'restarting completely from scratch
with a brand new candlebusiness.
It is called WithoutW-T-H-O-U-T Without Without the
I in the middle of it.
If you have not been on thisjourney for the last few weeks,
check out the prior videos orprior podcast episodes where you
(01:44):
can find out what inspired thisbrand new business, what
direction we're going with it,how we're sourcing all of our
supplies.
That's all covered in theprevious episodes.
Today we're going to talk abouthow we're rapidly going through
our testing period, of howwe're testing out new waxes and
some oils.
I also want to talk about thedifferent sales channels that we
(02:05):
are going to be putting thisbrand onto.
I also want to talk about howwe calculate our cost margins,
figuring out our cost of goods,and also what we're going to be
pricing our products at based onthose results.
So stick around, let's get intothis.
I first want to start with howwe get through our testing phase
as quick as possible.
Now we are selecting new waxes,we are going to be selecting
(02:27):
new oils, new wicks, all of thatstuff, right?
So, regardless if you arestarting a brand new business or
you are putting out just a newcollection or you want to change
wax like, for instance, we do afour, six, four, four guards
and beacon for 90% of ourcandles, but we also do some
coconut soy as well so when youstart using a different wax or
you're just starting completelyfrom scratch, you need to find a
(02:48):
wick that is going to pairreally well with that.
Now, people will search for allkinds of different wicks, but
here's the reality that we havefound is that the wick that the
supplier recommends is generallythe one that you're going to
want to use.
You may now circle around andtry a bunch of different wicks,
but most likely you're going tojust go back to where you
started with the wick that thatsupplier recommended so often.
(03:10):
Usually what happens is we'renew, we're testing it, the
candles fail and we're notlooking and diagnosing why it
failed.
We're looking for otherproducts or other supplies to
make it easier, right, and notreally diving into why it didn't
work.
That's actually what we coverin our bootcamp and in our
courses.
We talk about the why behind,why something worked or why it
(03:32):
doesn't work.
So what we like to do is westart with that WIC that that
supplier recommends.
So whether they arerecommending Performance,
premier, lx, cd, it doesn'tmatter what WIC they are
recommending.
Start with that WIC.
Start with that WIC becausethey want to build your trust.
They don't want you taking yourbusiness elsewhere.
They're going to tell you whatWIC should work.
(03:53):
Just fine with that WAC.
So if it doesn't work, usuallyit's going to be a different
variable that you need to adjust.
You need to adjust either theoil percentages or several other
factors that you may not berealizing could be causing that
wick to not work in that way.
But generally they're going togive you the right wick line.
Now the wick size for thatdiameter of a candle that you
(04:17):
are testing is going to vary.
They might say that you needlet's just as an example use
like CD wicks.
So all the suppliers that sellCD wicks and they sell let's
just as an example, use like CDwicks.
So all the suppliers that sellCD wicks and they sell, let's
say, four, six, four wax.
If you look at their wick guidefor a three inch diameter, they
are going to say you need tostart with let's, a CD 16.
Don't just buy CD 16, buy CD16s, buy CD 18s, 14s, 12s, 10s,
(04:44):
buy the entire sample or pack.
Most suppliers are going tohave a sample or pack.
You're going to want to havemultiple sizes on hand because
more often than not, the exactwick that they recommend that's
just a starting point andthere's the factors that go into
it.
Is it burning hotter?
Is it burning cooler, based onthe oils that you're using,
based on the makeup of the oils,but also the percentage of
(05:05):
those oils is going to changethat dramatically.
So just keep that in mind.
Don't just buy one wick.
Wicks are really inexpensive.
One of the most expensive parts, inexpensive parts about your
candle business is going to bewicks, have a lot of wicks on
hand, most of them, again, theysell sample packs.
They're fantastic to start with.
And most of them, again, theysell sample packs they're
(05:25):
fantastic to start with.
Okay, so we have the wax thatwe want to test, we have the
recommended line of wicks thatthey are suggesting and we're
going to buy a variety of sizesof that wick.
Now what helps us get throughtesting really fast is not only
do we start with testing thatrecommended wick size for that
(05:46):
vessel diameter, we're alsogoing to go ahead and test one
size up and one size down.
So we're going to be testingthree candles at once, and
here's the reason why we do this.
When you pour a candle, you aregoing to have a cure time,
whether that's 48 hours, 72hours, five days, some people do
two weeks.
Whatever that cure time is,you're not moving forward with
(06:09):
building out this collection orthis new brand.
While that is just sittingthere, you can be working on
other areas of the business, butyou want to get to testing and
then get through testing asquick as possible.
So we always recommend testingthree candles at once with three
different size wicks.
So we have the recommended,then we do one size up and we do
(06:29):
one size down and by doing thisyou are going to see the
difference in those burns asit's burning down.
Now remember, you want toalways test all the way through.
So don't just do one test burnand consider a pass or fail.
You have to do multiple testburns all the way to the bottom,
or to a quarter of an inch fromthe bottom of that candle
(06:50):
vessel to truly evaluate whichwick is going to be best.
Often wax is not now burning allthe way to the edges.
Now with 464, with soy, itdoesn't have that um memory per
se.
What happened with soy wax isand we're getting way into the
science side of it but whathappened with soy wax is you
(07:10):
want it to burn all the way tothe edges before it goes down.
So that's always kind of whatwe're all taught and what we
share is you want to make surethat you have a full melt pool
all the way to the edges of yourvessel, um, so that it doesn't
tunnel.
But but that's not the casewhen you're using other types of
wax, with a coconut, soy, someof these other blends, you're
not going to necessarily get itto burn all the way to the edges
, because as it burns down, it'sgoing to catch up and grab some
(07:33):
of that wax that is hanging upon the side.
So keep that in mind.
Every wax does performdifferently, so for you to
understand how it's going towork, you need to do full test
burn.
So don't just take advice fromsomeone else, even myself.
Hey, listen to what I'm saying,maybe to get you started, but
make sure you're understandingfully how this works.
So test three at a time.
You're going to be able to seeall three of them burning.
(07:54):
You can understand why they'redoing what they're doing when
you can see the ones that aren'tdoing the same thing.
Make sure you are taking photosor video every step of the way.
After every single test burn,you need to take photos, and
take photos and then, so thatyou're going to have a reference
to look back on.
So data is key when it comes totesting, understanding and
(08:16):
documenting what wick, what wax,what percentage of oil that you
use, what the makeup of thatoil was, what ratio of your
blending a couple together.
That was that you used.
What the makeup of that oil was, what ratio of your blending a
couple together.
That was.
And then you need to have photodocumentation of every single
test phase.
So, for instance, if we aredoing a seven or eight ounce
candle, which is what we do inour course, that's like 11 test
burns.
(08:36):
So you need to document everysingle one of those, because
what happens is you think thisone's a good one and you think
this is a bad one, but as you goor a fail, as you go through
the testing, you're going torealize that you might actually
be wrong.
And that's actually what weshow inside of our course is,
most often than not, that firsttest burn, the results might not
(08:57):
be what you are hoping for atthe end.
That's what happens when youend up going with the test
results after the very firstburn and then your customers
have problems with those candles, whether they don't stay lit,
whether it tunnels, whether itgets too hot, whether it
explodes, whether it's not safe.
So make sure you're doing allof those test burns so for us to
speed that up, we are doingthree at a time and also make
(09:21):
sure that you're documentingeverything.
Take photos, have it writtendown on the side of the vessel
or we can give you the testingtemplates that you can actually
put stickers on the side of yourvessels so that you can
document and know exactly whichone is doing what, take photos
the entire time so that you canalways look back on that.
So we like to have a GoogleSheet where we just save all
(09:41):
this information.
All right, let's move on to thenext thing that we are working
on this week.
Inside of this launch of thisnew brand For our new without
brand, we are going to be veryselective on how we are selling.
We want to make sure that, withthis new brand, we are
completely controlling thenarrative of this brand and the
(10:03):
direction that it's going to go.
This brand is very, verypersonal to us and we want to
make sure that the message thatwe are actually trying to send
with these candles resonates theright way and it hits our
target audience.
So you can go back and checkout weeks one and two, where we
really dove into who we'retargeting with this brand, who
(10:24):
we are making these candles for,what that customer avatar is,
the brand demographics All ofthat stuff is in week one and
two of this series, but I wantto talk about the sales channels
Now, when you are launching acompletely new brand.
If you are trying to go widewith your niche and you are just
looking to get buyers, then Iwould recommend being on all the
sales channels.
So even if you are building outa get buyers, then I would
recommend being on all the saleschannels.
(10:45):
So, even if you are buildingout a Shopify store, which I
highly highly recommend thateveryone do you also want to
maybe go ahead and give Etsy atry?
Go ahead and get your candlesout on fair.
If you're wanting to try thewholesale route Now, if you've
been through our wholesalecourse, we talk about how you
know we're in 145, 147 storesnow with our candles, with our
(11:09):
Garcin and Beacon candles, and90% of those accounts we do
outreach to get those.
Okay, so we are reaching out,we are being selective and
finding the stores that we feelwould be great and we are
connecting with them and that'show we get those accounts.
That's what we teach in ourwholesale course.
But I would recommend and weare connecting with them and
that's how we get those accounts, that's what we teach in our
wholesale course.
But I would recommend and weare still on FAIR we are on FAIR
, but FAIR is one of thoseplatforms, kind of like Etsy,
(11:32):
where you're putting yourproducts in front of people and
it's their algorithm that isgoing to try to pair up a
shopper with a brand.
So go ahead and get on FAIR.
We have gotten a couple dozenaccounts on fair over the last
few years.
Nothing great, nothingspectacular, I'm nothing to brag
about.
We have gotten some really bigaccounts on fair, though We've
(11:53):
gotten into the airports, andthe reason how we did that was
they saw our products on fairand then they reach out directly
because they're a massive,massive account.
We also have another accountthat we're in 45 of their stores
and they found us on FAIR whenthey were searching for a brand,
but then they reached out to usdirectly because they're not
(12:14):
going to go through FAIR fortheir terms.
What it is is some of these bigcorporations that may want your
candles.
They don't make payments andbuy through FAIR, and then they
won't have a conversation withyou.
They have to submit to you apurchase order, a PO, and then
they're going to have eitherlike a net 30 or next net 60,
where they buy from you.
(12:34):
They give you a PO, you deliverthe product, but you're
actually not going to get paidfor like 30 or 60 days.
So it's not necessarily idealfor when we're first starting
out.
If we don't have a lot of funds, we need that money up front.
But to get into some of theselarger accounts, that's just how
they operate right.
They're not just like givingyou a credit card over the phone
, nothing like that.
They have a process they haveto go through.
They send you a PO, you fulfillthat PO and then you send an
(12:55):
invoice to that company and theypay that either in like a net
30 or net 60.
So we got those accounts fromfair, but we're not relying on
fair for just our everydayboutiques.
We are doing all outreach.
That's how we get into all ofthese stores is by doing that.
Now, with our new brand ourwithout brand we're going to be
even more selective.
I don't think we're going tostart on fair, and the reason is
(13:17):
is we want to be superselective of where these candles
go.
We want to make sure that weare aligning the right way with
the way that we want this brandto be.
Think of it and we're notcomparing ourselves to them, but
think about us as what we'regoing for being a thing such as
like a designer perfume.
(13:39):
A designer perfume you can goand get that at, you know,
macy's.
You can go and get that at Ulta, macy's.
You can go and get that at Ulta.
A lot of them, not all of them.
You can go and get them atNeiman Marcus.
You can get them online.
You can get them in specificretailers that they trust to
sell the products the right way.
There's guidelines of how itneeds to be stocked all of that
(13:59):
stuff, right?
You can't go and get let's aj'adore by tristan dior.
Uh, rihanna, which is myfavorite person.
She's the spokesperson for thatperfume.
Uh, which I didn't know thatperfumes over 300 these days
until I was shopping for my momand I was like, oh, this is
crazy.
Uh, which made me want to dosome perfumes for this new brand
(14:21):
because we can be $300 for surein selling something.
So that's a whole another topicfor probably another week or
two coming up in this podcastseries.
But knowing where you want tosell your products, what I was
saying is Christian Dior and allof the Ralph Warren, all of
these different perfumes orbrands aren't just allowing your
(14:45):
gift shop down the street tostock their products, right,
they're not out there on fair oranything.
They are probably reaching outto where they want to go into
and making those agreements andthose arrangements and all of
that.
So we do want to be moreselective with the direction
we're going with this new brand.
Um, because I want to make surethat, you know, I I think that
(15:07):
a lot of women's boutiques uh,just like with our guards and
beacon, that's kind of the, the,the shops that we like to get
into is women's boutiques.
We do really well in those.
Uh, we also want to do reallywell with that with our new
brand.
But we, we, we have analignment that we want to make
sure this new brand follows, toshare our story in the direction
(15:28):
that we're going with it.
So if you're following along,you'll probably understand that
a little bit more.
We will definitely be sharingmore of that as we release this,
but we're going to be selective.
So I am not going to put surewe're telling that story fully
If we do get on to fair oranother one of the wholesale
(15:50):
retailers.
So we're not going to do that.
We're not going to do Etsynecessarily, but I'm not rolling
Etsy out Now.
Etsy, if you're looking to go.
More luxury, more designer Ihate using luxury in the candle
space more designer.
I hate using luxury in thecandle space, uh, but if you, if
you're trying to be moreelevated, uh, more exclusive,
then being on Etsy probably uh,contradicts that a little bit.
(16:12):
Now we're on Etsy with GarcinBeacon Candle Company.
We do okay on there.
We get five or six sales amonth, not a lot.
We don't do anything with it,we just we put them out there
and if something sells,fantastic, we fulfill it.
So that's why I recommend doingit, because what's an extra six
sales a month?
You know, when our candles are25 bucks, there's $150 minus our
cost of goods, minus a littlebit of fees that they have.
(16:32):
We're making an extra $100 amonth.
That goes a long way, that.
So I'm out there.
It doesn't conflict with ourGarza and Beacon brand, with our
Without brand.
We have to think about that Isbeing on Etsy the image of.
You know it's handmade, it'ssmall business brand, all of
that.
That is what Without is.
(16:53):
But we're still trying to gofor this exclusiveness, right.
So I'm not sure that we aregoing to start there, but I'm
not sure yet.
And the reason for that is theEtsy shopper.
Some of the characteristics andvalues of an Etsy shopper is
exactly in line with who we aregoing after with our new brand.
(17:19):
A lot of people that are goingto be sharing the same values of
this brand are also shopping onEtsy.
They're trying to support small.
They have those values that youknow they that would really
align, so we may be on there.
My concern is that our candleprices are going to be much
higher and we'll get into thepricing here in just a moment.
(17:40):
Then what we're generally goingto find on Etsy with our Garson
Beacon brand, our candles thatare out there right now.
We have our 10 ounce type ofglass with lids on there.
They're $26 out there.
They don't sell very well.
Smaller candles that are goingto be seven ounces that we can
sell these for like $20, alittle bit less than that.
(18:02):
Or we'll run a sale on Etsyjust to drive some eyes onto our
products.
Those do okay out there.
So there is a budget to keep inmind of the shoppers on Etsy.
I do think that people arevaluing the handmade, small
business side of Etsy, but theyare also they seem to be price
(18:25):
conscious as well.
I'm sure there are some, youknow, elevated, more higher end
things on Etsy that areexpensive.
In fact, like artists, I knowpeople that paint.
In fact, one of the teammembers in our, one of our
stores, she is an artist and shesells tons on Etsy and, like
her photos are not notinexpensive.
(18:49):
Uh, she is actually herspecialty totally getting off
topic here, but her specialty iswhen someone gets married they
will often have like a flowerbouquet, right, a flower, a
flower, a floral arrangementarrangement.
She paints.
They provide her with eitherthe flowers or with an image and
she paints those and so that'sa that's a memory keepsake.
(19:10):
It's not a picture of them, uh,the people getting married.
It's of this floral arrangement, of that bouquet that the bride
or whomever was holding.
Um, because that's, that's justa strong memory.
So she's getting well over $150for each of these paintings
she's doing and she's crushingit out there.
But it's a unique thing outthere In the candle space I
don't see a lot of candles above$30 on Etsy.
(19:33):
I just don't, and so I'm notsure how our candles will do.
I'm sure we will definitelytest it at some point, but again
, we want to be kind of specificwith that.
But we do want to be direct toconsumer and Etsy is direct to
consumer, so I'm not concernedabout a store that our values
might not align, selling ourbrand, because when I'm selling
these products, I'm selling themdirect to a consumer, so of
(19:55):
course, we may give it a shot.
Now, of course, the thing thatwe're definitely going to focus
on is going to be on Shopify andgoing out and promoting our new
brand out on all the channels,and I recommend doing this on
all the channels, not even justthe ones that you like to use,
because your customer may beusing different ones than you.
Our customer.
I envision being big onInstagram, a little bit on
(20:18):
TikTok, a little bit on TikTok.
I do see them to not post a lot, you know, not expressing
themselves, but doing thescrolling, taking a look, being
very aware of what's going on inthe world, what's going on
around them.
We've talked about some of thedemographics of our customer in
weeks two and three of theseries, so we are going to go
(20:40):
where they are.
So, even though I'm not aTikToker I'm barely on Instagram
I want to make sure I'm therebecause I know that's where our
customers are going to be andalso our brand is going to be
very visual.
We are going to be telling astory through imagery, and we
need to have the platforms thatdo that really well.
That's going to be yourInstagram, your TikToks not
(21:00):
necessarily as much on Facebook,though we're definitely going
to be on Facebook.
We'll also be on Pinterest, Ibelieve, as well.
I don't think we need to doSnapchat or any of that.
You know, in last week'sepisode I talked about go ahead
and securing all of your handleson all of those different
platforms.
So you want to do that, youwant to go ahead and get them,
but whether or not you'reposting on there repeatedly or
(21:23):
putting a lot of energy into it,well, it does have to depend on
where your customers are.
So think about where they areand how you're going to sell to
them.
But we're definitely going tobe building out our Shopify
store.
That's going to be.
Our focus is driving customersto our website.
We're not going to direct themtowards Etsy or anywhere else.
We want to own the customer'sjourney.
We want them to go to ourwebsite.
(21:44):
We want to be able to reach outto them through their email
address or all the informationthey provide us, and that just
is simply going to be throughour website.
So that is it for how we'regoing to sell.
So now let's talk about howwe're going to price our candles
out.
(22:05):
So most candle makers tend tohave a lot of issues when it
comes to pricing out yourcandles.
What should I sell my candlesfor?
How do I calculate that?
What makes the most sense?
People are asking other makershey, how much do you sell your
seven ounce candle for?
How much you sell your candlefor versus what I sell my candle
for is completely irrelevant,for is completely irrelevant,
completely completely irrelevant.
(22:26):
You can look at some candlebrands out there.
Look at Diptyque, for instance.
Diptyque candles for a threeounce like votive style is 75
bucks.
Okay, I can't sell $75 candlesto my customer.
I just can't do that.
That is not who my customer is.
You have to know who yourcustomer is.
You have to understand whatthey're spending on candles and
(22:48):
then you make that product forthem that has the same value
that they are looking for at theleast amount of cost possible.
That's how you make a candlebusiness successful is price
your candles what your customerswill pay, but make it for as
inexpensive as possible andstill providing that value that
(23:08):
they want.
So the value is going to bespecific sense.
It's going to be the quality ofthe burn, it's going to be the
quality of the wax.
All of those characteristicsthat they're looking for is
going to be your branding, it'sgoing to be your packaging, it's
going to be the story that youtell.
All of those are going to bedifferent things that your
customers care about.
They don't know how much itcosts you to make that.
(23:30):
Okay.
So my customers have no ideathat my candle costs me about
$5.50 to make and I sell it tothem for $26.
Or for a 7-ounce candle likethis, these are going to cost
you about four bucks maximum tomake and I'm going to sell these
for $24.
There's some that I ended updoing for like $22, but most of
our seven ounce candles are 24.
(23:51):
That's the point at which theyare happy to complete that
transaction.
Now, how do we calculate ourcost of goods and how are we
going to do that for this newbrand?
So cost of goods is going to beeverything that goes into
finalizing this candle.
So that's going to be the wax,it's going to be the oil, the
(24:12):
wick, it's going to be the wicksticker, it's going to be the
vessel itself.
Are you going to have a lid?
Are you going to have a dustcover All of the stuff that goes
into it, but also the packaging?
If you are going to have a box,are you going to have a tube?
What are you going to do aroundthis candle to present it to
your customers with?
So, adding all that up, that isgoing to be your cost of goods.
Now for I just made referenceto this size candle.
This size candle for usgenerally costs us about $550.
(24:35):
It really depends on thelabeling.
The labeling is one of the mostexpensive parts of the candle.
Keep that in mind when you'rebuilding out your brand, that
you might want to go withsomething that is kind of
evergreen for your brand.
So, whether you are usingsomething, you can make labels.
These are actually screenprinted on it.
For us, we get these custommade.
(24:55):
What I'm referring to is ourseven ounce that has our
branding on the front of it.
We get those screen printed onby the company that sprays the
inside of these vessels to makethem white instead of clear.
So this is one way of doing it.
And then we buy these in bulkand then we can use these for an
assortment of candles and thenyou can just put the candle
scent on the bottom.
So there's lots of ways ofdoing it to where you're not
(25:16):
going to waste labels.
Labels is one of the mostexpensive wastes, for our
business as well, and so we havelearned to try to pivot a
little bit, because you're goingto invest all this money into
specific labels for a specificscent and then it might not do
so well.
So then now you're sitting onsometimes a couple.
(25:36):
We went all in with these labels.
We spent about $3,500 on almost50 different labels and we sell
this line of candles veryslowly.
We went way overboard with itand you know, looking back, we
(25:57):
now know we're going to testthem out ahead of time.
So when you buy your labels insmaller quantities they're more
expensive, but it may be worthit to test out to see if you can
sell the product first, then goback and buy them in bulk if
you find success.
The other option is to find orhave designs that you can print
your labels yourself.
So we do have an Ecotankprinter that we use to print
(26:21):
some of our labels.
In the shop the printer, alongwith the rest of our supplies,
is on a checklist.
You can grab that for free inthe description below.
It's all the supplies that weuse to run our business with and
that Ecotank printer is onthere.
We can use that for some of ourlabels, but not all the ones
that have the high contrast ofcolors that are super bright and
colorful.
(26:42):
We just get thoseprofessionally done.
All right for our new brand ofcandles that we're coming out
with without brand.
This candle is going to cost usabout $9.50 to $10 to make.
So this is going to be a 12ounce custom glass.
It has our branding, our brandname screen, printed right on to
the vessel.
It's matte black.
(27:03):
I don't have them here yet.
They are coming from overseas.
They are on their way.
We can't wait to share themwith you.
We do have some mock-ups ofthem that you may have seen as
we've been going through thebrand ideation, but it's going
to be close to $10 for this.
We are doing it and we areputting these in a custom tube
(27:24):
box for this, so very, veryelevated compared to some of the
other candle collection for ourother brand that we've done.
So some of the other thingsthat are going into that cost is
we are going to be using a moreexpensive wax for a Garza
Beacon candle where we're usingour 464 wax.
That's going to be one of theleast expensive waxes out there.
(27:45):
We are going for a moreelevated wax having a little bit
of different burningcharacteristics, also having a
better hot throat to it.
So we are still in the testingphase whether we are going to do
the soy paraffin or we're goingto do this coconut soy.
We're testing that now.
We really like the idea ofdoing the coconut soy, but we
(28:06):
may end up doing that soy blendthat has more paraffin in it,
based on the hot throw.
So we're testing that right now.
We'll see which way we go withit.
I kind of want one and Chadwants another one.
So we've got to come to ameeting of minds there to see
what really makes the most sensefor how we're going to sell
these, where we're going to sellthese and what our customers
(28:27):
are going to value.
So we're still in the testingof that.
But either one that we go withthis candle is going to be a $10
candle.
We plan to sell these candlesmost likely starting at $46.
So $46 for this candle.
We're getting well over that.
Keystone metrics that a lot ofbusinesses go off of having that
(28:48):
3X or 4X, I aim for 5X.
That is what I aim for, becausenot only do you have, obviously
, the cost of goods are goinginto this, but you want to leave
room to run ads, spend somemoney on marketing, hire someone
to do your social media,whatever you may want to do to
further grow your business inthe future.
(29:08):
You can't do that if you arejust making enough profit on a
candle to pay yourself.
Right, you may be the onlyperson working in your brand
right now, but what happens whenyou want to bring on a team
member but your sales are alsodipping.
You're going to need to havemore revenue coming in, so you
(29:30):
need to price your product towhere it makes sense.
Now, if pricing your candles at5X isn't going to work for your
customers in fact, if yourcustomers, your target customer
that you have in mind, is, say,only going to pay 2X or 3X, you
might need to switch.
You might need to pivot who youare targeting for your brand.
(29:52):
So if my customers are onlyspending $15 for this candle and
this candle cost me 550 ish tomake, I need to pivot because
I'm not making enough profit inthere to do a few things.
I'm not making enough profit inthere to do a few things.
I'm not making enough to bringon a new team member in the
future.
I'm not bringing on enough tospend money on ads or marketing.
But I'm also not making enoughto wholesale.
(30:13):
Because if I'm selling this, ifmy customer is spending $15 for
this, that means a boutique ora store retailer that wants to
carry my products.
They don't want to spend morethan half 50% of retail.
So if this is a $15 candle,they're going to only want to
buy this from us for $7.50.
If they're buying it from usfor $7.50 and it costs me $5.50
(30:34):
to make this, we're not makingany money.
We're not in business.
We're putting ourselves out ofbusiness.
You got to reach at least 4X ifyou want to try to wholesale.
If you want to try to wholesale, you have to be at least at 5X
or, excuse me, at least at 4X.
And because, say, this was fivebucks, I sell for 20.
So if I'm going to sell it for20, that's 4X then a wholesaler
(30:56):
is going to buy these for much,for $10.
So it costs me five to make.
I'm doubling my money and I'mselling it for 10.
That works.
I still don't like that.
I still want to be way abovethat, if I can.
But it works and you can stilloperate your business and grow.
It just might take a little bitmore time to grow to get that
revenue into where you can putit back into your business.
(31:17):
So I highly recommend aimingfor 5X to where you can put it
back into your business.
So I highly recommend aimingfor 5X.
That's what we do with Gardsand Beacon.
There's something that we aredoing even higher than that Our
room sprays.
We sell those for $16.
They cost us like two and aquarter $2.25 to make, and we do
a lot with those.
Think about not only justselling those and that's almost,
you know, a 8X on those but wealso use them for a lot of
(31:38):
giveaways.
We do a lot of promotions withthem.
So pricing your products rightwill show the value.
What we do often is we will doa weekend special where it's buy
two candles, get a free roomspray.
That room spray only costs ustwo and a quarter.
So basically it's reducing eachcandle just a little over a
dollar and we're selling twoinstead of one, and so that is a
(32:01):
fantastic way to get in a lotof revenue at once.
We'll do these flash sales,we'll send it out to our email
list.
We get a lot of orders thatcome in.
We fulfill them.
The customers believe, becausethey are getting a good deal,
they're getting a $16 value.
As long as your customersbelieve that's the value,
they'll spend that.
(32:21):
And so make sure that whatyou're putting in or out to the
world with your candles reflectswhat you're trying to put out
there.
I'm not saying put a $26 candleout there If it looks like or
presents like a $10 candle, yougot to put a little extra into
it sometimes.
So keep that in mind.
Just figure out what niche youwant to be into.
Figure out what the targetcustomer is behind that.
(32:42):
Again, we talk about this allthe time with our members inside
the inner circle.
I also have other videos out onYouTube and episodes on the
podcast where you can reallydive into what your niche and
your target audience is.
So you don't have to figure itout.
Let's work on that and then youcan figure out your pricing.
But so for our new without brand, we are going to aim for almost
five X.
I think we're going to getthere If we're going to sell the
(33:04):
candles for 46 to $48 andstarting out.
We're going to make these foraround nine, nine, 50 ish as we
start getting some success.
And this is one thing to keepin mind with um building out
your brand is your cost of goodswill end up coming down as you
grow.
So I'm looking at right nowgetting into this.
Our cost of goods is going tobe, say, let's, almost $10.
(33:25):
I'm not quite to that 5X, butif this does well and we are
starting to move these products,then that cost of goods is
going to get down into that850-ish range because we'll
start buying stuff in even morebulk and that's going to reduce
our costs.
We can reduce our costs in ourvessels, in our packaging, in
our wax and even in our oil.
(33:47):
Now we are getting custom oilmade for us.
We have to buy it by like the10 pound or 15 pounds at a time.
That's already a really gooddeal.
When we go from 15 pounds up toI think the next level is like
25 pounds We'll save some.
It's not a lot but we will savesome.
But just by getting it in that15 pound orders really saves us
a lot of money that we aren'tdoing that.
(34:08):
$30 for 16 ounces, or there'ssuppliers out there that are
selling a 16 ounce bottle for$99.
Now that's insane, but youcan't build a business around it
.
You just you can't.
You can't build a businessaround it unless you are going
super elevated, super luxury.
But I think if you're goingthat high, you might not be
(34:28):
using those brands.
You would be taking oils thatyou like and then having them
made for you.
This is what we've done withthis new brand, so hopefully
this has helped you out.
We have talked about thedifferent sales channels that
we're going to start on.
So for the new brand, we aregoing to sell, obviously direct
to consumer, right on Shopify.
We might dip our toe into Etsyto see how it goes.
(34:50):
We are not going to start onfair.
I will reach out to specificretailers to do our wholesale
outreach, just like we do withGarcin Beacon.
That is our focus.
That is what works really wellfor us.
That's what we teach in ourcourse, so we will be doing a
specific outreach for wholesale.
We will definitely have ourShopify channel that all of our
social media will be pointingpeople towards, when we will be
(35:12):
running some ads on Instagram,facebook a little bit.
I don't know about TikTok adswe may take a look at that.
We'll talk about that in thenext couple of weeks as we build
out our promotional strategy.
Next week and coming up, wewill be talking about how we are
going to be doing press we willbe sending out some press kits
to people, how we are going totry to get some influencers
(35:33):
involved, all kinds of differentways that we can market our
brand.
We'll be coming up as we get tothat stage and building out the
without brand For our withoutbrand.
We have talked about our candles, but we are also going to be
doing perfume.
So we have done all of thesescents for this new brand are
dinner neutral and we are goingto be doing sprays, some
(35:54):
perfumes for all five of theseto start as well.
So that'll be exciting to kindof follow along and see what
direction we'd go with those andthe price point that we get to
on there.
Now, just from our ownexperience, we are selling
another maker's perfumes in ourthree retail locations right now
.
We haven't put our own outthere for any of our Garza and
(36:16):
Beacon brand because we justhaven't had the time, energy or
thought of putting intolaunching perfumes under
Garcinet Beacon Now under ournew brand Without we will be
having the perfumes.
They're going to be genderneutral and the scents align
with the scents of the candleswe're putting out.
(36:37):
So we're building that out aswell, the candles we're putting
out.
So we're building that out aswell.
As far as price point goes forthat, we sell a 30 milliliter
perfume that another maker makesfor us and that's like $36 in
our store and we sell those likehotcakes, like crazy.
We sell so many of these sprays.
(36:58):
Obviously the price point'sgood.
When you are looking at these$300 perfumes out there, you
know any of the other ones thatare a reasonable price, around a
hundred bucks anyway.
So selling one of these youknow for for 32, $36 in our
store, um, it's 30 milliliters.
What we're doing, um, if you'veseen in the previous episode
where we talked about thepackaging, the packaging and we
(37:21):
showed the perfume bottles thatwe have, that's going to be a 50
milliliter, so it's going to belarger than what we're selling
currently at the $32 range.
So I think our perfumes aregoing to be in the fifties.
We're going to probably come in.
It needs to be more expensivethan the candle, I think, but I
do think that it's going to bein that mid maybe $54 range for
that.
As we completely price this out,we'll certainly share that with
(37:44):
you.
Also, in the next couple ofweeks we will be talking about
our Shopify store and I willstart laying the foundation
there, so then you'll actuallybe able to go and visit it if
you would like and you can kindof see what we've come up with
Now.
If you aren't following alongwith this week by week and
you're not watching this youknow almost live if you're
watching this in the future,then definitely go and check out
withoutbrandcom.
(38:05):
There will be links in thedescription below so you can
follow along and check out whatwe did with that brand.
Thank you so much for tuning inthis week.
Next week we're really going todive into building out our shop.
We will have some of ourbranding completed and we'll be
able to share that not only withyou, but we'll also get it out
onto our social media channelsand onto our website that we
(38:27):
will then start building out andshowing you some of the things
that you really wanna make sureyou don't forget to have,
especially on your website, todrive sales.
If you're getting traffic toyour website but you're not
converting that into sales.
I'll have some really good tipsthat works really well for us
under our Gartner Beacon brandthat I will bring to you next
week.
Another shout out to Tuato forsponsoring this entire series.
(38:50):
They have a exclusive link foryou in the notes below.
Thanks again for tuning in.
Have a great rest of your week.
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