June 4, 2025 • 46 mins
#002 Part 2 of 3 of How to Build a Successful Candle Business.
Our candle business journey evolved through strategic sales channels that built upon each other, creating multiple revenue streams and customer touchpoints along the way.
• Started by selling to friends and family who followed our brand development on social media
• Launched simultaneously on Shopify and Etsy to reach different customer segments
• Utilized markets and pop-ups for real-time customer feedback and email list building
• Created a wholesale strategy by identifying dream retailers and personalizing outreach
• Developed fundraiser partnerships with local nonprofits to expand community awareness
• Opened our first brick-and-mortar store just six months after selling our first candle
• Built email marketing as our most reliable sales driver during slow periods
• Focused on SEO optimization to drive organic traffic to our Shopify store
• Expanded to three retail locations with different formats based on local market needs
• Maintained approximately 140 wholesale accounts through consistent relationship building
Head over to candlebusinesspro.com to explore our free resources, courses, and community. We're here to help you go pro with your candle business.
WHEN YOU'RE READY
📬 Free Candle Business Supply List
***
CONNECT
***
SHOW LOVE
💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
***
SPONSORS & DEALS
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sabastian Garsnett (00:02):
People often ask me what's the best way to
sell candles, and the truth isthere's no one answer.
We've sold candles online, atpop-ups and boutiques, in our
own storefronts and even throughschool fundraisers, but none of
that happened overnight.
In this episode, I'm breakingdown the exact path we took the
good, the messy and theunexpectedly successful so you
(00:22):
can start mapping out your own.
Let's walk through the timelinewhat came first, what worked
and how each sales channelopened new doors that we didn't
expect.
So the first way we sold ourchannels is going to be through
(00:42):
our friends and family.
So in the last episode, youprobably remember me talking
about how we allowed our futurecustomers to go on our path as
we started building out ourbrand.
So as soon as we knew we weregoing to make this candle brand,
we started social mediachannels just to start posting
(01:02):
about what was happening in ourgrowth.
So, from the testing phase topicking out labels, to naming
our brand, we let people go onthat journey with us.
So our very first sales channelwas through our friends and
family.
When we opened up the doors toour store online, we were so
excited to share with everyoneand we had some friends and
(01:22):
family, previous coworkers, thatall supported us and it was
fantastic.
It was such an incredibleweekend for us, really, and the
sales trickled into the nextweek.
But that initial weekend, Ibelieve, we opened it up in the
afternoon on a Friday and wejust got a sale and then we got
another sale and another sale,and it was fantastic.
(01:44):
Now, the only way we were ableto promote this was through our
own personal, you know, socialmedia channels and the page that
we had created for the business.
But even though we created thepages for the business and we're
going to post on those socialmedia channels, you'll still
want to promote on your ownbecause, just the way Facebook
and Instagram and the algorithmswork, they want you as a
(02:08):
business page to pay to play, sothey want you to pay to get
your posts put in front of youraudience.
So, even though you may have,say, 500 followers on your
Facebook page for your business,when you go and make a post,
(02:28):
you can then circle back a fewdays later and go and see how
many people actually saw that,and it's going to be a lot less
than those 500 people.
It'll likely be under a hundred, honestly.
So that's why I encourage acouple of things that you're
always going to still want topromote on your own personal
pages and you also want to postfrequently on those business
(02:52):
pages because if only you knowless than a hundred people saw
that post and you had 500 peopleyou're hoping to would see it.
Keep posting over and overagain to hopefully capture a
wider audience of people andjust for the basic repetitive
nature of putting something infront of your customers for them
(03:13):
to see it more often is goingto have them remember that you
exist, that your brand exists.
Even if someone in the futureisn't ready to buy a candle when
you make your post, it's justkeeping you top of mind.
So just something to thinkabout.
So that was how we first startedout was selling just to our
friends and family.
(03:33):
Now, at the same time that weopen up that Shopify store, we
open up an Etsy store.
So here's some of the pros andcons of each.
So we did build out our Shopifystore when we released our
brand to the public, becausethat was the only way for us to
collect payment.
We needed a type of credit cardprocessor for people to go to.
Now you can create an Instagramstore, a Facebook store a
(03:57):
TikTok store and collect paymentthat way.
You certainly can do that.
But we wanted to have a fullwebsite.
We were serious about thedirection we were going to go
with our candle brand and ifyou're serious about your candle
brand you've got to have awebsite.
That's just the day and agethat we're in.
Every business that you shopfrom has a website.
Unless it's a very local momand pop type of shop or
(04:22):
restaurant, every business outthere has a website.
So that's just part of runninga candle business.
I highly recommend Shopify.
I'll actually put a link in thenotes below.
It should give you a free month, a month or two at least.
Sometimes, occasionally it'llbe for three months, whatever
the best deal is.
I'll put a link below in thenotes so that you can see and
(04:46):
open up a store and then you cando it risk-free and you know,
see if it's going to be worth itfor you long-term for the type
of business that you're going tohave.
So that is Shopify.
So Shopify is the e-commercecentral hub that almost every
store that's opening these daysis built on.
(05:06):
There are some alternatives outthere there's Wix, there's
Square, there's otheropportunities but Shopify is
built for e-commerce.
So it is built with the onlinecustomer in mind.
So just the way their themeswork, the way their metadata for
your SEO optimization works,this is really the place to be.
(05:26):
It might be a little bit moreexpensive than those others, but
if you can think about it ashey, as long as I sell one more
candle a month through thiswebsite, then I will cover those
additional costs.
But keep in mind, Shopify isjust a platform.
Shopify is not a shopping mall.
(05:48):
It is not Etsy, it is not aplace where people are coming
looking for you.
So that is one of the cons of asite like Shopify is you still
have to bring your customerthere.
You don't just open up a storeand there's just people just
like waiting, and it's justshowing up magically in front of
people.
No, people have to be lookingwith intent on the internet for
(06:12):
your product, and then Googlehas to say, hey, I bet this is
going to be the product that youwant.
Based on what you searched andwhat is on this website, this is
most likely what you want, andthen that's how Google will then
put it in front of their eyesin the search results.
Okay, so keep that in mind whenyou open up a Shopify store, it
(06:33):
is a place for you to sendpeople through your marketing,
through your advertising, andthen for where your repeat
customers will then go lookingfor you.
I still highly highly recommendit.
You've got to have a website,especially if you're going to
want to get those repeatcustomers from.
If you're starting out atmarkets and you're selling to
coworkers and your neighbors,you still want a place where
(06:54):
people can go and rebuy from youand you're going to need a
website for that.
So that is the pros and cons ofShopify, the pros being that it
is your store.
It makes you kind of businessofficial.
People can come and shop you.
It's open 24 hours a day.
Those transactions can come in.
It is so good of a feeling whenwe wake up and we see that we
(07:18):
got orders overnight.
It's just a nice feeling thatwe have our brick and mortar
stores but we didn't have toopen our doors up to get that
sale.
So that's what's really niceabout Shopify.
Also, people discovering us onGoogle and whatever search
engine they're using and they'researching for something and we
carry it.
Based on our optimizations ofour SEO, we are showing up.
As a result, people click on usand they buy from us.
Also, people are always talkingto their friends and families
(07:41):
about things that they reallylike.
So when someone buys our candleeven if it's out at a market,
they're burning it.
They have family friends overto visit them.
They see our branding on thatcandle.
They like the way it smells.
They can then look us up andsee that we have a store and
they can buy it from us.
Now we have a new customer, sothat's Shopify.
Now with Etsy, etsy is a littledifferent.
(08:03):
Etsy is a little different.
Etsy is a little bit morestarter friendly.
Now Etsy is a marketplace wherepotential customers.
They go to Etsy looking forthese handmade items, right.
So they are going to Etsy withintent to buy something for
someone, whether it's forthemselves or generally gifting
(08:25):
for someone else.
Etsy is a fantastic marketplace.
So people go on to Etsy, theysearch for something and they're
going to get thousands ofresults.
Our goal on Etsy is to dial inexactly what people are
searching for and create thatproduct for them.
It's generally kind of toughjust to have, let's say, a
(08:46):
lavender candle out on Etsy.
You have to be able to stickout from the rest of the
competition out there because itis a very competitive
marketplace.
But if you're doing somethingunique that captures the
shopper's attention, that's howyou're going to have some pretty
good luck on Etsy.
People that are doing likedough bowls on there do really
(09:07):
well.
People that are doing uniquevessels on there do really well.
People that are making layeredcandles, people that are making
the birthday candles that havelike the sprinkles on them,
people that are making thepersonalized candles and putting
those out there that have asaying all these types of
candles are going to do betterthan just my lavender or my
(09:31):
sugar lemon candle putting thoseout there.
We started out there and we'vegot sales.
We got a little bit of traction, but we also.
One thing about Etsy to keep inmind is people are looking at
price points, because whensomeone comes to my website and
they see my candles and myprices, they don't necessarily
(09:52):
have as much competition tocompare it to.
Right, they're on my website.
If they fall in with my product, they click on it, they open it
up, they read about it and theysee the pricing.
They're not saying, oh,whatever the other options that
I have, you know sure, they cango off of my website and go into
another one and check With Etsy.
When they get their searchresult, there's tons of listings
(10:14):
altogether.
So before they even click intoyour listing, they're looking at
your photos, they're looking atyour title and then they're
looking at the price point.
So price is a factor on Etsythat I think may hold some
people back that are selling themore high-end, luxury priced
candles.
We're selling our candles onthere $20 to $28.
(10:35):
So we're being competitive.
There's still going to be someout there that are being $8, $10
.
And you think, how can I evercompete with them?
Again, it goes into more thanjust price.
It's going to be the qualitythat you are giving to them,
that perceived value that youare showing off, whether that is
through your imagery, throughyour descriptions on there,
(10:57):
through your title and then alsojust customer trust.
So as you get more and moresales on Etsy and then the
number on your Etsy listing kindof keeps going up, and then
they see that your rating oryour reviews are really good,
they're going to have moreconfidence in you.
So you still have to put thesame amount of effort into
(11:18):
building a Shopify store as youdo an Etsy store, because you
still got to have really goodimages.
You have to have really goodimages.
You have to have really goodtitles that people are searching
for.
You have to have really gooddescriptions.
You have to have all of that.
With Shopify, you have to bringyour own customers there to your
site.
With Etsy, you get to rely onthe marketplace of people
(11:40):
shopping.
The downside is with Etsy it iscompetitive because you got
thousands of others out therethat are competing with you.
With Shopify, the con is thatyou have to bring your own
traffic, which you can do forfree through SEO optimization
and things like that.
It does take a while for yourSEO to click in.
We actually do a SEO workshopfor our members inside of the
(12:05):
inner circle and people aregetting fantastic results.
I actually show them my resultsand on what candles of mine
rank on the very first page ofGoogle.
But it takes time.
I can't build it out today andI show up number one on Google
tomorrow.
It doesn't happen like that.
It's going to take weeks,months to get it right, so just
keep that in mind.
But long-term, shopify isdefinitely the way to go.
(12:28):
So why not just do both whenyou're brand new?
Do both of them.
Open up an Etsy store.
Open up a Shopify store and youcan benefit from both and kind
of see what's going to work foryou.
It only costs 20 cents alisting on Etsy.
So each of one of my candles is20 cents, right?
So if I got, you know, 50candles I'm going to put out
there which hopefully you don'thave that many when you're
starting out say 10 candles,right, it's only $2 to put them
(12:50):
out there.
Now Etsy does get a percentageI believe it was like 15% of
that sale, and so people docomplain about the cost because
of the fees of Etsy.
But Etsy is bringing you acustomer that you most likely
wouldn't have had otherwise.
In other episodes we will do areally good deep dive into
(13:11):
pricing and understanding howpricing works, how you should be
pricing your candles forsuccess.
Because if you're going to justsell direct to consumer and
then you also are thinking aboutgoing into, say, wholesale or
consignment or other means ofgetting your products to
customers and growing yourbusiness, you're going to need
(13:31):
to make sure that you are pricedcorrectly.
So just something to keep inmind from the start is pricing
your candles correctly.
I do have YouTube videos aboutthat you can check out if you
would like Currently.
We'll also dive into it in thepodcast as well.
(13:52):
Now let's talk about markets andpop-ups.
We love doing markets andpop-ups.
Now we don't get to do themnearly as much as we would want
to because we now have our brickand mortar stores, so we don't
get to do them quite as often.
But when we first started outthey were amazing.
They were fantastic and, quitefrankly, that is what grew our
business the fastest and thereason for that not just because
(14:13):
of the sales that we may get,but from the learning that we
get.
When you have your candles outon a table in front of strangers
and they come up to yourproduct and they start smelling
it, you can get instant feedback.
Even if they don't buy anything, you can see their reaction to
(14:34):
the way something smells.
You can see if it's a hit or amiss based on their facial
expressions, without them evenopening their mouth.
It's fascinating making thoseconnections with them, asking
them questions what type ofscents do you gravitate towards?
That is what we'll always askpotential customers when they
(14:54):
come to our booth is what typeof scents do you gravitate
towards?
And when they say, oh, I want awoodsy scent or I want a
spa-like scent, or I want afruity or citrus scent.
We then can point them to whatcandles we have out on our table
for them to sample and smell.
If they start smelling candleswithout you asking them what
(15:16):
type of scents they gravitatetowards, once they smell a
couple of candles that they justpick up and smell and they
don't like, they're going tokind of start moving on to other
booths.
They're not going to stickaround.
So it's important to get ascent that they may really enjoy
in front of them as quick aspossible, and that's how we do
it is by asking them what typeof scents do they gravitate
(15:39):
towards.
Other great opportunities withmarkets and doing pop-ups is
just that interaction withcustomers.
You are starting to understandhow the sales process goes with
them.
You're ringing them up.
You are collecting their emailaddresses, which is the most
crucial part of doing thosemarkets on top of getting
customer feedback, is collectingemail addresses.
(15:59):
You're starting to collectemail addresses to build out
your email communication withcustomers.
It is so important from day oneany method that you choose to
sell your candles that you arecollecting email addresses.
Email addresses are the waythat we will continue to
(16:20):
communicate with those customerson an ongoing basis.
Now we'll go into a deeper diveinto how we do email marketing
inside of a future episode.
But email is so crucial to yourcandle business.
You want to be able to reachout to your customers and not be
restricted by the algorithm onEtsy, on Facebook or Instagram
(16:44):
or TikTok.
You do not want thecommunication with your
customers to be roadblocked bysomeone else.
Collecting someone's emailaddress allows you to reach out
to them when you are ready topromote something, when you're
running a sale, when you justwant to share the story about
(17:04):
your brand and how you'reevolving and growing.
You want to share that storywith your customers and email is
going to be the number one bestway to do that.
In fact, anytime we're having aslow week or a slow month or
winter for us, that's alwaystough.
After the holiday season, for afew months, it's very rough
around our shops and quiet.
(17:24):
We will communicate with ourcustomers through email and
every time we send an emailwe're getting sales out of it.
So we actually have to bestrategic about the spacing
between our emails just to makesure we're not gonna overwhelm
them.
But that's definitely a topicfor another episode.
Make sure that you arecollecting email addresses at
(17:46):
these markets.
Okay, so just to recap wherewe're at so far.
So when we first started sellingour candles, it was just to our
friends and family that we werepromoting through our Facebook,
through our Instagram, to thepeople that had kind of gone on
the journey with us.
They were following ourbusiness page, things like that.
That is what we first startedand at the same time that we did
that, we obviously opened upour Shopify store for them to
(18:08):
make those purchases and welaunched that at G-SOP.
So that is what we did Numberone, day one, then next what we
did before we actually went intothose markets, because, for our
time, it was February when welaunched our candle business,
and market season here inMichigan doesn't start until May
because, well, it was Februarywhen we launched our candle
business, and market season herein Michigan doesn't start until
(18:29):
May because, well, it's cold.
So at the same time that wewere launched online and selling
to our friends and family,working on our website, seo,
working on our Etsy, keepcontinuously updating our photos
and things like that thatyou're always going to have to
improve.
The same time I started doingwholesale outreach.
I purchased all kinds ofdifferent programs to learn
(18:52):
wholesale.
I joined masterminds, I joinedgroups just so I could get a
feel and an understanding forwholesale.
So when I went into wholesale Ihad a pretty clear
understanding of the process,but there's still going to be
plenty to learn as you start togrow out your wholesale accounts
.
The way we got our firstwholesale accounts is we created
(19:15):
a spreadsheet of all of ourdream stores in our local town.
We said we would love to be anapothecary gift shop, we would
love to be in Francis J, wewould love to be in and just we
would love to be in and justcreated this whole list, right.
So we created a list of all thestores.
The next thing you do and whatI'm doing is I'm sharing the
tips that I've learned from allthe wholesale courses and the
(19:37):
training I've received.
We actually have a wholesalecourse that you can get on our
website.
I don't want to spend a lot oftime talking about that, but
that is something that we dooffer at canadabusinessprocom is
a collection of all thiswholesale.
So what we did is we created aspreadsheet that listed out the
location that we want to be into, the name of the store, the
(19:59):
address of the store, the phonenumber.
We probably collected moreinformation than we necessarily
needed at first.
We didn't necessarily needtheir address, and all that
because we knew who they were,because they were local.
But we created that dream listof stores and then, one by one,
I would email each of thosestores.
And the key when you emailthese stores isn't just to say,
hey, I sell candles, you sellcandles, would you like to sell
(20:21):
my candles?
It's a lot more than that.
You need to have a wholesalecatalog put together.
You need to have a strategybehind approaching all of your
stores.
What we like to do is, in ourinitial email to these potential
retailers that we'd love to getinto whether they are local or
they are across the country wedo a little bit of research on
(20:42):
them.
We'll go to their website,we'll see what they're all about
, just to make sure they're agood fit.
Because I may love, I wouldlove to be in, you know, macy's
and Target and all you know allthese different stores.
But the one candle that we'reselling isn't going to be a fit
for all of those different typesof stores.
You want to make sure that thecandle that you're selling lines
(21:03):
up with those stores thatyou're reaching out to, or
you're really just wasting yourown time, in a way.
So just be mindful of that,that it needs to align with that
store.
So to do that, go to theirwebsite, go to their Instagram,
go to their TikTok, go to theirFacebook whatever social
channels that they are using andtheir website.
Go and look and see and thinkwill my candles fit in with the
(21:24):
shop?
If so, put them on your list.
Also, while you're kind ofinvestigating and researching
their website and their socialmedia, grab a couple ideas of
what you can mention in theemail.
For instance, what I alwayslike to say in my example inside
of that wholesale course that Imentioned, is when I go to a
(21:45):
page of a gift shop, I'll say,oh, look, they just got these
new tea towels.
Or oh, they're carrying thesenew soaps.
So I'll document that on thatspreadsheet that we have and
when I then sit down to emailthem, I reference that.
I'll look up and see if I canget the owner's name.
If it's a smaller store, they'renot gonna have buyers and a
(22:06):
marketing manager and a newbusiness development manager.
They're not going to have allthat necessarily.
If they are a small business,generally, the owner is going to
be the one that's making thosepurchasing decisions.
Now, if they're a mid-sizedbrand, they will likely have a
buyer, someone responsible forall of that.
So take a look at the stores,see what you think.
(22:27):
Check out their website.
If, when you go to the aboutsection or the contact section
of that store, it just says likeowner at, or info at,
carsandbeaconcom, generallythat's going to go to a central
inbox and that'll be okay toemail, that'll be the one to
email.
Instead of trying to track downthat owner's specific personal
(22:48):
email, just use the one that'son the website.
It should be fine.
If it's a larger business, youthen may want to go and look at
LinkedIn or other places to seeoh, do they have a buyer, do
they have someone that's incharge of new business?
And seeing if you can find thatright person, that that would
be to contact.
So that would be what I woulddo.
But in that initial email, ofcourse you want to explain why
(23:11):
your product is good for theirstore and you want to talk about
your product, but don't spendtoo much time talking about your
product.
Spend more time talking aboutwhy your product is good for
their customer.
So I'm reaching out to, let'ssay, a natural, health and
(23:32):
beauty store, right, and mycandle brand is all about
eco-conscious, eco-friendly,made with all natural
ingredients, things like thatthat I can align with them.
I'm going to want to talk aboutwhy my candle brand being all
natural and whatever marketingtactics I'm using is on that
(23:53):
candle.
You know the recycled packaging, recycled vessels, all clean
fragrances, all those differenttypes of selling points I would
then want to bring up if thatstore's customers actually care
about that.
But let's say, for instance, weare in a sports apparel chain.
Across the country.
We're in like 45 stores thatsell jerseys, hats, things like
(24:17):
that.
It's more of like a hometownpride type of store.
This store sells in likecollege towns and in sports
towns.
They like one of our candlelines called Best Of and it says
like Best of Indiana, best ofMichigan, best of Chicago, and
it's all location themed.
So that's why they wanted ourcandles.
(24:38):
They found us online and weworked out and we're in all
those stores.
Now, when I reach out to a storelike that to potentially carry
my products, I'm not talkingabout how my products are made
with recycled packaging and allclean fragrances.
I'm talking about why my candlethat talks about Chicago is
(25:01):
good for their brand.
Because their brand sells stuffthat needs to have
location-based themes and that'swhy that line of candles is
going to be good for that store.
If you are selling those likegourmand scents, right, like the
baked goods and the cookies andthe coffee scents.
(25:22):
And so if your whole brand isabout you know, farmhouse
cottage candles that are madewith all these yummy scents,
right.
If I'm reaching out to a storethat I want to sell my candles
and I want to relate to that notnecessarily like what they're
made out of, think about thecustomer that shops at that
(25:42):
store, so that the email thatyou write to that store's owner
or manager that you're relatingto that customer and conveying
to them why your product isgoing to be good for that
customer.
Because ultimately, the ownerthemselves probably doesn't care
about your candle.
They're not buying your candle,they're not using your candle.
They want to be able to sellyour candle.
(26:02):
They're in the business ofselling.
They want to make sure they'reputting in front of their
customers what their customersare going to buy.
So just keep that in mind, notto promote things about your
candles that those specificstores aren't going to care
about.
Another thing that I like tomention in these emails to the
store is something that's goingto show that I'm not sending
(26:23):
this email out to hundreds ofother retailers at the same time
.
So I want to talk about theirstore.
I want to mention hey, I justsaw those new lemon tea towels
you started carrying, or thatsoap I bet that's fantastic.
I'll have to check it back outnext time I'm shopping in your
store Things like that, so thatthey realize that you actually
(26:45):
spent time or that you'realready following them.
Also, when like that, so thatthey realize that you actually
spent time or that you'realready following them.
Also, when you're building outthat spreadsheet of all the
potential retailers, go aheadand start following their social
channels, because we all knowkind of how it goes If you have
social medias for your businessalready, when you start getting
people liking a bunch of yourposts and then they're going to
(27:05):
reach out, you can.
It's almost like clockwork.
I know when someone goes toGarcin Beacon's social media
handle and they start liking I'mgetting this thread of all
these likes on my phone fromsomeone or some brand.
I know I'm about to getmessaged and then they always
message on social media that way.
So go ahead and start likingthese so you stay kind of in the
(27:26):
loop of what these stores thatyou want to get into are doing.
Because, say, for instance, theyjust started carrying my
candles.
You probably don't want toemail them the same day If they
just posted this big launch thatthey're carrying my candles.
You would want to wait a littlebit, you know, wait a couple of
months, and then you can followand say hey, I saw that you
were carrying those Garsonbeacon candles.
(27:47):
How are they doing?
I wanted to let you know aboutmy candle brand and if that
makes sense.
So you don't want to um, youdon't want to waste your email
opportunity to them on somethingif it's not going to be the
right time.
So just keep that in mind.
Another couple of things thatyou may want to keep in mind is
going to be the seasonality ofwhen you message them.
(28:07):
You're not going to want tomessage someone in December
asking if they want to carryyour Christmas line of candles.
It's too late.
They've already got it in theworks of what they're going to
stock months in advance.
Now sometimes I'm a businessowner that has retail locations.
I've got three of them now.
I do get behind sometimes andI'm buying stuff just a few
(28:28):
weeks prior to an event.
For instance, every May here wehave what's called the Tulip
Time Festival, so we want tohave anything tulip themed in
our shop.
Now, should I be getting thatstuff in January, february,
march?
Absolutely I should.
I should definitely be doingthat.
It was I doing it in April thisyear?
Yes, I was.
(28:48):
It was the week before thefestival kicked off and I was
still getting stuff, umdelivered that we had boughten,
you know, from retailers to uh,from wholesalers to retail in
our store, uh.
So you can possibly get some ofthose late um shoppers, but you
don't want to waste your entirestrategy on reaching out to
(29:09):
them when it's too late and thenfeeling like you can't reach
out to them again for a fewmonths.
So that's one thing to keep inmind.
Also and this is probably themost critical part about doing
wholesale outreach is, once youemail, you got to follow up,
because here's what's going tohappen.
You're going to email mebecause I'm a retailer and I
(29:33):
carry a bunch of differentbrands.
So you're going to email me,I'm going to get your email.
I'm going to read the, the, the, the subject line of it, and
I'm going to do one of a coupleof things.
If I have time, I'm going to goahead and open it up and start
reading it, but likely I'm notjust sitting here waiting for
your email to come in, so I'mgoing to put that into a folder
that I'll check it later, I'mgoing to star it and what's
going to happen?
Life happens, I'm going to moveon to something else, I'm just
(29:55):
going to forget about it.
That's just the reality of it.
Everyone's very busy and wejust forget or it's not urgent
enough for us to take actionright away.
So you've got to follow up.
So that's why, after thatinitial email that you're going
to send out, you're going towant to send out a follow-up.
If they've not responded to youwithin a week, make sure you
follow up with them and keepfollowing up with them until you
(30:16):
get a response.
Worst case scenario they justsay no, you take them off the
list, you color code thatspreadsheet and you move on.
So I break down and I actuallygive you all of our emails and
templates inside of that course,if you want to check out that
course or actually, I have afree download of Wholesale 101.
(30:37):
You know what?
I'm going to drop that in theshow notes below, completely
free.
Just click on that and that'sgoing to give you some tips and
tricks with more details aboutwholesaling.
So that'll be in the show notesbelow.
All right, so let's talk aboutsome of the downsides of
wholesale.
You have to have your businessset up to be able to do
wholesale.
It does take a little bit ofwork.
Once you have candles, there'sso many opportunities to sell
(30:58):
them.
But the next thing besideshaving a candle that is smells
good, is super safe and is ofquality, is your pricing.
That's the next thing that youhave to understand and have down
.
You've got to have your pricingdown right so that you're going
to be able to scale to doingwholesale.
If you're not priced right, thenyou're not going to be able to
(31:20):
wholesale.
That's just the reality of it.
A retailer is going to want atleast 50% so um, if of a margin.
So if my candle, which they are$26, a retailer is not going to
spend more than $13 on it,they're just not.
So my, my candle retails for 26.
They want to buy it for 13.
So I got to make sure my costof goods are at a place that I'm
(31:42):
okay with selling these for $13to a wholesale account.
If that math doesn't work foryou, then the math is a math,
and then you've got to fixsomething.
You got to fix your price point, you got to get a, you got to
figure out a way of reducingyour cost of goods, um, or
opening up your margins a littlebit more.
So that's what you have to do.
Um, when it comes to yourpricing, if you're not set up on
(32:04):
day one for wholesaling, thenmaybe you look at other channels
to uh, to bring in revenue thatwill then allow you to.
Then, hey, I've banked thismuch money.
Now I can buy my wax in bulk sothat my cost of that wax and
that shipping isn't killing meevery time.
And so now my cost of goods arestarting to go down.
(32:26):
Instead of buying a four ounceor an eight ounce bottle of oil
now you're buying by the pound.
Things like that is going toget your cost of goods down
dramatically.
Another way of getting your costof goods down is going to be
through your labels and printingthose.
The more you order from a labelprinter at once, the less
expensive it's going to be.
(32:46):
So those are things that welearned as we were going through
it.
Right now, our standard $26candle cost us about five, five
and a quarter.
So that's like five X five anda half X six X six times the
cost of good.
When we first started, that $5and 25 cent candle was around $7
for us to make.
So it was still okay for us tostart out by doing wholesale,
(33:09):
because I was wholesaling for$13.
It cost me $7 to make it, so Iwas only making $5, but I wanted
to wholesale and that was theway to start.
Once we started getting moneycoming in from it, I can buy my
products in bigger bulks and gotthe price of each of those
candles down.
So that is something to keep inmind that you might not make a
(33:33):
lot on wholesale when you firststart, but if you're gonna be
able to reduce your cost ofgoods in the longterm, then it
can definitely still be worthdoing Okay.
So the next way that we foundsuccess in selling our candles
is through fundraisers.
Fundraisers are fantastic.
First fundraiser we did was fora high school basketball team
that my mom teaches at.
(33:53):
They needed basketball jerseys.
It's a rural school in themiddle of kind of nowhere
Indiana.
They don't have a lot offunding and they needed jerseys.
So we put together a fundraiserwhere the community could buy
our candles and we were giving aportion of those proceeds back
to that school to then turnaround and buy jerseys with.
(34:15):
Another fantastic fundraiserthat we have done is with our
Pet Palace Candles.
So we reached out to a localanimal shelter and said, hey, we
would love to partner with youon a fundraiser, because animal
shelters, humane societies,people love pets and people will
(34:38):
support those organizations.
So we wanted to make a productthat they could help us sell and
they would be able to bring ina really good income from it.
So what we did was we reachedout to the Humane Society here
in Holland, michigan, and said,hey, we're Garza Beacon Candle
Company.
We are local here in Holland.
(34:59):
We were a home base.
We didn't have our stores oranything like that at the time,
but we didn't tell them that.
Not that it would have mattered, but we didn't divulge that.
We were just making these inour kitchen.
Right, we are a local candlecompany here in Holland.
We would love to do afundraiser with you.
We can create these candles andsell them on our website and
(35:20):
anyone that buys these candles,we will give you 25% of the
proceeds.
Would you be interested?
When they say that they areinterested in it?
Great, and then you work onsetting it up.
You can use it with a code onyour website.
There's a lot of differentmeans of collecting that payment
.
We'll talk about that inanother episode.
(35:41):
But the fact that you can relyon them.
They've got like 50,000 peoplefollowing them.
They have an email list.
They have people that aresupporting them weekly, that are
giving donations.
So when they promoted that theywere selling this odor
eliminating candle from GarstinBeacon Candle Company, we
started getting all of thesepeople following our pages and
(36:03):
buying that candle from us.
It was fantastic.
We've had a lot of fundraiserssince then.
None stick out as much as thatdid, because in that weekend
span that we did that fundraiser, we drew, we grew our social
media, we grew our email listand we made a lot of sales and
we were able to do good bygiving back to that organization
(36:24):
.
Then what you do is you takethat system that you just
created for doing fundraisersand do it for another nonprofit
and then in another nonprofit,one of the workshops inside of
the inner circle.
That we do is on thefundraisers, and we actually
went and looked at how manynonprofits are in our town.
There were tons of them that Ididn't even know about and so I
(36:47):
was like, oh okay, let's do somemore of those Now, something
that we have done.
So we will do the humanesocieties.
We will also do like educationbased.
We will also do minority based,lgbtq based, all these
different kinds of organizationsthat we can align with that we
would like to have thosecustomers following our brand.
We will do.
We'll also do nonprofittheaters.
(37:09):
There's a local it's called thepark theater here in Holland.
We do a fundraiser for them, uh, raising money for them, and
then also, again, it gives usmore awareness about our brand.
So people knew about GarzaBeacon Candle Company before
they ever came to our store,before they ever had come to our
website, before they'd everspent any money with us, before
they had ever seen us out at amarket, because the animal
(37:32):
shelter, the um nonprofittheater, all these different
organizations that we werepartnering with were spreading
the word about us.
So that really got us connectedand putting roots down in our
community, so that when westarted doing other things, like
markets.
People were recognizing us oh,I think I bought a candle from
(37:53):
you on your website when you didsuch and such fundraiser, so
that's more of that connectionthere.
Now, even though they alreadyhave our product, they can put a
name to the face whenever theysee us out doing these public
events as well.
Brick and mortar let's talk alittle bit about brick and
mortar.
Brick and mortar is not for thefaint of heart.
It's for those that are reallywanting to go all in, and that's
(38:17):
what we did.
We sold our first candle to ourfriends and family on February
26th of 2022.
We opened our first brick andmortar store on August 1st of
2022.
So six months later.
From first putting this on awebsite selling this candle to
(38:37):
our friends and family toopening the doors to a store was
less than six months, or rightat six months, for us.
Now I'm not saying everyoneshould do this or everyone has
the means to do this, but let metell you what it took for us to
be able to do this.
It doesn't take nearly as muchas what you might think.
We didn't have a lot of moneyin the bank to do this with.
(38:59):
We didn't have friends andfamily or anyone like that to
rely on.
We had to be able to cover thefirst month's rent and a deposit
.
Our rent is $1,700 on thatfirst location and so we had to
have that.
Plus.
We had to have a deposit.
I don't even think it's a fulldeposit, it might've just been
like a half month, but say itwas a full deposit, that would
(39:20):
be $3,400.
So I need $3,400 to get intothe store.
I need to be able to build itout with some furniture or what
you're going to use yourdisplays.
Um, and then I we needed to.
Definitely oh, we'll definitelycover it more.
We definitely needed to paintthe walls in this place.
The color was terrible.
I think it took us four coatsof white paint to finally get
(39:42):
rid of that color.
Um, it's come a long ways.
Uh, we had to, as I mentionedthe furniture that we put in
there.
So, for all the shel now, don'tgo to a retail furniture
display store online soexpensive.
Go to Amazon.
Go to other places.
We have these nice Nathan Jamesbrand shelves.
(40:05):
They have two screws at the top.
They're like ladder shelvesthat go into the wall.
That's all we needed for them.
I think they were $160 a piece.
At the top they're like laddershelves that go into the wall.
That's all we needed for them.
I think they were $160 a pieceat the time.
I don't know what they are now.
They may have gone up and weneeded, you know, at least 10 of
those for the shop.
We obviously needed some otherstuff.
We needed to get some tablesand things in there.
But the reason we were confidentin doing this was because of
(40:29):
the results that we were gettingfrom the markets.
We knew people loved our stuff.
They would say I love yourlabeling, I love your branding,
I love the way it smells.
They really were appreciatingit.
So we knew from the sales wewere getting out of markets that
we could get people into ourstore to buy those candles as
well.
So we were pretty confidentthere.
(40:49):
Now, with that said, me and Chadwere both working from home at
the time.
We were testing and playingaround with the candles on our
lunch breaks, before work, afterwork and all of that.
But we had two incomes.
So we were comfortable withgetting Chad out of the house
and opening up this first brickand mortar location because we
(41:10):
did still have my income.
Now it wasn't going to be easyon just my income, like we could
have done it for maybe sixmonths and then, like you, got
to come back because we're notable to pay all of our bills, if
it's just my income, but it wasenough to get us by.
So the candle brand had tosupport itself.
It may be not make a profit,but it needed to at least be
(41:34):
able to be self-sufficient.
So $1,700 a month for our rent,with all the overhead of the
location, is going to be aboutanother $300, maybe 400.
You're going to have yourutilities or insurance, those
things that are just come with abrick and mortar store, so
you're going to have that, sothat 1,700 is now like $2,000.
Of course we needed to put theproduct in the store, so you're
going to have that, so that 1700is now like $2,000.
Of course we need to put theproduct in the store.
So that's probably aboutanother $750 to a thousand
(41:56):
dollars in product to put on theshelves inside of that store.
And then there's going to beall those odds and end costs.
You're going to have a sandwichboard that's going to go out on
the sidewalk.
We need to.
There was a permit for like $40that went with that they're
going to have all these othercosts that are going to come up.
So we put that stuff on a creditcard because we didn't just
have the cash in the bank.
(42:17):
We had some money coming infrom doing the markets.
But a lot of that revenuecoming in from those markets is
just paying to buy more supplies, to just kind of build up
inventory more and more, and ofcourse we were trying new oils
and trying other fun things.
But that's really paying foritself.
So it took us about I think 12or $13,000 total to get into and
(42:42):
open the doors of our retaillocation.
And we didn't have all of thatin revenue because we'd only
been selling at markets forthree months tops.
So we did have to put some ofthat on a credit card and pull a
little bit of that money fromsavings.
But to show you, like doingmarkets and making five, 600
bucks every time, you can get upto the money that you need
(43:03):
pretty quickly.
And once we opened the doors itwas self-sufficient because
people were at least coming in.
Even though we might not bemaking a lot of money when we're
first starting out people don'tknow about us yet we are at
least in an area with enoughtraffic that we were able to
have the space pay for itself.
So that's a little bit ofinformation about brick and
(43:24):
mortar.
Of course, we'll definitely doa more deep dive into a brick
and mortar only episode in thefuture.
Okay, so those are the main waysthat we are selling our candles
online through our Shopifystore.
We still continuously get a feworders on Etsy, but we don't
put the effort and energy intoEtsy.
We need to use that energyelsewhere, especially through
(43:46):
our Shopify store, tocontinuously build that out and
optimize that.
Seo.
That is probably the workshopinside of the inner circle that
people talk about the most isthe SEO workshop and the results
they've gotten from there.
So that's where a lot of ourfocus is is on continuously
updating our Shopify.
Also our email communication.
That takes a lot of our timeand energy to stay top of mind
(44:09):
to our customers and our repeatbuyers.
We do a lot of our time andenergy to stay top of mind to
our customers and our repeatbuyers.
We do a lot of wholesale.
We've got 140-ish wholesaleaccounts that we are
continuously reaching out to andgrowing and fulfilling reorders
for all of them.
And then we have our brick andmortar stores.
We actually have three storesnow.
The one I was just telling youabout, store number one, we
(44:29):
opened that August 1st of 2022.
We opened brick and mortarstore number two in November of
2023.
So a year and three monthslater we opened that one up and
then seven months no, six monthslater we opened up store number
three, which is in Saugatuck,michigan.
Here.
That's where I shoot a lot ofmy YouTube videos from, because
(44:49):
I'll get there early and it's avery small store.
That store we don't offerpeople to pour their own candles
.
In store number one and storenumber two we do, so they are
different sizes based on, really, what the town supports.
Store number three is veryseasonal, so it's not even open
in the wintertime becausethere's no one traveling to that
location.
Okay, so you may have gathered,there's no single path to candle
(45:11):
business success, but the moreyou understand your options, the
better you can choose whatworks for you.
In episode three, we'll diveinto the mindset, marketing and
growth strategies that helped usevolve without losing any steam
.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Candle Business Pro
Podcast.
If you found this episodehelpful, we would love it if
(45:31):
you'd leave us a rating and areview.
It really helps us reach moremakers like you.
And if you're ready to take thenext step in your candle
business journey, head over tocandlebusinessprocom to explore
our free resources, our coursesand our community.
We're here to help you go pro.
Thank you so much for tuning intoday.
I greatly appreciate you.
Have a great day.
People often ask me what's the best way to
sell candles, and the truth isthere's no one answer.
We've sold candles online, atpop-ups and boutiques, in our
own storefronts and even throughschool fundraisers, but none of
that happened overnight.
In this episode, I'm breakingdown the exact path we took the
good, the messy and theunexpectedly successful so you
(00:22):
can start mapping out your own.
Let's walk through the timelinewhat came first, what worked
and how each sales channelopened new doors that we didn't
expect.
So the first way we sold ourchannels is going to be through
(00:42):
our friends and family.
So in the last episode, youprobably remember me talking
about how we allowed our futurecustomers to go on our path as
we started building out ourbrand.
So as soon as we knew we weregoing to make this candle brand,
we started social mediachannels just to start posting
(01:02):
about what was happening in ourgrowth.
So, from the testing phase topicking out labels, to naming
our brand, we let people go onthat journey with us.
So our very first sales channelwas through our friends and
family.
When we opened up the doors toour store online, we were so
excited to share with everyoneand we had some friends and
(01:22):
family, previous coworkers, thatall supported us and it was
fantastic.
It was such an incredibleweekend for us, really, and the
sales trickled into the nextweek.
But that initial weekend, Ibelieve, we opened it up in the
afternoon on a Friday and wejust got a sale and then we got
another sale and another sale,and it was fantastic.
(01:44):
Now, the only way we were ableto promote this was through our
own personal, you know, socialmedia channels and the page that
we had created for the business.
But even though we created thepages for the business and we're
going to post on those socialmedia channels, you'll still
want to promote on your ownbecause, just the way Facebook
and Instagram and the algorithmswork, they want you as a
(02:08):
business page to pay to play, sothey want you to pay to get
your posts put in front of youraudience.
So, even though you may have,say, 500 followers on your
Facebook page for your business,when you go and make a post,
(02:28):
you can then circle back a fewdays later and go and see how
many people actually saw that,and it's going to be a lot less
than those 500 people.
It'll likely be under a hundred, honestly.
So that's why I encourage acouple of things that you're
always going to still want topromote on your own personal
pages and you also want to postfrequently on those business
(02:52):
pages because if only you knowless than a hundred people saw
that post and you had 500 peopleyou're hoping to would see it.
Keep posting over and overagain to hopefully capture a
wider audience of people andjust for the basic repetitive
nature of putting something infront of your customers for them
(03:13):
to see it more often is goingto have them remember that you
exist, that your brand exists.
Even if someone in the futureisn't ready to buy a candle when
you make your post, it's justkeeping you top of mind.
So just something to thinkabout.
So that was how we first startedout was selling just to our
friends and family.
(03:33):
Now, at the same time that weopen up that Shopify store, we
open up an Etsy store.
So here's some of the pros andcons of each.
So we did build out our Shopifystore when we released our
brand to the public, becausethat was the only way for us to
collect payment.
We needed a type of credit cardprocessor for people to go to.
Now you can create an Instagramstore, a Facebook store a
(03:57):
TikTok store and collect paymentthat way.
You certainly can do that.
But we wanted to have a fullwebsite.
We were serious about thedirection we were going to go
with our candle brand and ifyou're serious about your candle
brand you've got to have awebsite.
That's just the day and agethat we're in.
Every business that you shopfrom has a website.
Unless it's a very local momand pop type of shop or
(04:22):
restaurant, every business outthere has a website.
So that's just part of runninga candle business.
I highly recommend Shopify.
I'll actually put a link in thenotes below.
It should give you a free month, a month or two at least.
Sometimes, occasionally it'llbe for three months, whatever
the best deal is.
I'll put a link below in thenotes so that you can see and
(04:46):
open up a store and then you cando it risk-free and you know,
see if it's going to be worth itfor you long-term for the type
of business that you're going tohave.
So that is Shopify.
So Shopify is the e-commercecentral hub that almost every
store that's opening these daysis built on.
(05:06):
There are some alternatives outthere there's Wix, there's
Square, there's otheropportunities but Shopify is
built for e-commerce.
So it is built with the onlinecustomer in mind.
So just the way their themeswork, the way their metadata for
your SEO optimization works,this is really the place to be.
(05:26):
It might be a little bit moreexpensive than those others, but
if you can think about it ashey, as long as I sell one more
candle a month through thiswebsite, then I will cover those
additional costs.
But keep in mind, Shopify isjust a platform.
Shopify is not a shopping mall.
(05:48):
It is not Etsy, it is not aplace where people are coming
looking for you.
So that is one of the cons of asite like Shopify is you still
have to bring your customerthere.
You don't just open up a storeand there's just people just
like waiting, and it's justshowing up magically in front of
people.
No, people have to be lookingwith intent on the internet for
(06:12):
your product, and then Googlehas to say, hey, I bet this is
going to be the product that youwant.
Based on what you searched andwhat is on this website, this is
most likely what you want, andthen that's how Google will then
put it in front of their eyesin the search results.
Okay, so keep that in mind whenyou open up a Shopify store, it
(06:33):
is a place for you to sendpeople through your marketing,
through your advertising, andthen for where your repeat
customers will then go lookingfor you.
I still highly highly recommendit.
You've got to have a website,especially if you're going to
want to get those repeatcustomers from.
If you're starting out atmarkets and you're selling to
coworkers and your neighbors,you still want a place where
(06:54):
people can go and rebuy from youand you're going to need a
website for that.
So that is the pros and cons ofShopify, the pros being that it
is your store.
It makes you kind of businessofficial.
People can come and shop you.
It's open 24 hours a day.
Those transactions can come in.
It is so good of a feeling whenwe wake up and we see that we
(07:18):
got orders overnight.
It's just a nice feeling thatwe have our brick and mortar
stores but we didn't have toopen our doors up to get that
sale.
So that's what's really niceabout Shopify.
Also, people discovering us onGoogle and whatever search
engine they're using and they'researching for something and we
carry it.
Based on our optimizations ofour SEO, we are showing up.
As a result, people click on usand they buy from us.
Also, people are always talkingto their friends and families
(07:41):
about things that they reallylike.
So when someone buys our candleeven if it's out at a market,
they're burning it.
They have family friends overto visit them.
They see our branding on thatcandle.
They like the way it smells.
They can then look us up andsee that we have a store and
they can buy it from us.
Now we have a new customer, sothat's Shopify.
Now with Etsy, etsy is a littledifferent.
(08:03):
Etsy is a little different.
Etsy is a little bit morestarter friendly.
Now Etsy is a marketplace wherepotential customers.
They go to Etsy looking forthese handmade items, right.
So they are going to Etsy withintent to buy something for
someone, whether it's forthemselves or generally gifting
(08:25):
for someone else.
Etsy is a fantastic marketplace.
So people go on to Etsy, theysearch for something and they're
going to get thousands ofresults.
Our goal on Etsy is to dial inexactly what people are
searching for and create thatproduct for them.
It's generally kind of toughjust to have, let's say, a
(08:46):
lavender candle out on Etsy.
You have to be able to stickout from the rest of the
competition out there because itis a very competitive
marketplace.
But if you're doing somethingunique that captures the
shopper's attention, that's howyou're going to have some pretty
good luck on Etsy.
People that are doing likedough bowls on there do really
(09:07):
well.
People that are doing uniquevessels on there do really well.
People that are making layeredcandles, people that are making
the birthday candles that havelike the sprinkles on them,
people that are making thepersonalized candles and putting
those out there that have asaying all these types of
candles are going to do betterthan just my lavender or my
(09:31):
sugar lemon candle putting thoseout there.
We started out there and we'vegot sales.
We got a little bit of traction, but we also.
One thing about Etsy to keep inmind is people are looking at
price points, because whensomeone comes to my website and
they see my candles and myprices, they don't necessarily
(09:52):
have as much competition tocompare it to.
Right, they're on my website.
If they fall in with my product, they click on it, they open it
up, they read about it and theysee the pricing.
They're not saying, oh,whatever the other options that
I have, you know sure, they cango off of my website and go into
another one and check With Etsy.
When they get their searchresult, there's tons of listings
(10:14):
altogether.
So before they even click intoyour listing, they're looking at
your photos, they're looking atyour title and then they're
looking at the price point.
So price is a factor on Etsythat I think may hold some
people back that are selling themore high-end, luxury priced
candles.
We're selling our candles onthere $20 to $28.
(10:35):
So we're being competitive.
There's still going to be someout there that are being $8, $10
.
And you think, how can I evercompete with them?
Again, it goes into more thanjust price.
It's going to be the qualitythat you are giving to them,
that perceived value that youare showing off, whether that is
through your imagery, throughyour descriptions on there,
(10:57):
through your title and then alsojust customer trust.
So as you get more and moresales on Etsy and then the
number on your Etsy listing kindof keeps going up, and then
they see that your rating oryour reviews are really good,
they're going to have moreconfidence in you.
So you still have to put thesame amount of effort into
(11:18):
building a Shopify store as youdo an Etsy store, because you
still got to have really goodimages.
You have to have really goodimages.
You have to have really goodtitles that people are searching
for.
You have to have really gooddescriptions.
You have to have all of that.
With Shopify, you have to bringyour own customers there to your
site.
With Etsy, you get to rely onthe marketplace of people
(11:40):
shopping.
The downside is with Etsy it iscompetitive because you got
thousands of others out therethat are competing with you.
With Shopify, the con is thatyou have to bring your own
traffic, which you can do forfree through SEO optimization
and things like that.
It does take a while for yourSEO to click in.
We actually do a SEO workshopfor our members inside of the
(12:05):
inner circle and people aregetting fantastic results.
I actually show them my resultsand on what candles of mine
rank on the very first page ofGoogle.
But it takes time.
I can't build it out today andI show up number one on Google
tomorrow.
It doesn't happen like that.
It's going to take weeks,months to get it right, so just
keep that in mind.
But long-term, shopify isdefinitely the way to go.
(12:28):
So why not just do both whenyou're brand new?
Do both of them.
Open up an Etsy store.
Open up a Shopify store and youcan benefit from both and kind
of see what's going to work foryou.
It only costs 20 cents alisting on Etsy.
So each of one of my candles is20 cents, right?
So if I got, you know, 50candles I'm going to put out
there which hopefully you don'thave that many when you're
starting out say 10 candles,right, it's only $2 to put them
(12:50):
out there.
Now Etsy does get a percentageI believe it was like 15% of
that sale, and so people docomplain about the cost because
of the fees of Etsy.
But Etsy is bringing you acustomer that you most likely
wouldn't have had otherwise.
In other episodes we will do areally good deep dive into
(13:11):
pricing and understanding howpricing works, how you should be
pricing your candles forsuccess.
Because if you're going to justsell direct to consumer and
then you also are thinking aboutgoing into, say, wholesale or
consignment or other means ofgetting your products to
customers and growing yourbusiness, you're going to need
(13:31):
to make sure that you are pricedcorrectly.
So just something to keep inmind from the start is pricing
your candles correctly.
I do have YouTube videos aboutthat you can check out if you
would like Currently.
We'll also dive into it in thepodcast as well.
(13:52):
Now let's talk about markets andpop-ups.
We love doing markets andpop-ups.
Now we don't get to do themnearly as much as we would want
to because we now have our brickand mortar stores, so we don't
get to do them quite as often.
But when we first started outthey were amazing.
They were fantastic and, quitefrankly, that is what grew our
business the fastest and thereason for that not just because
(14:13):
of the sales that we may get,but from the learning that we
get.
When you have your candles outon a table in front of strangers
and they come up to yourproduct and they start smelling
it, you can get instant feedback.
Even if they don't buy anything, you can see their reaction to
(14:34):
the way something smells.
You can see if it's a hit or amiss based on their facial
expressions, without them evenopening their mouth.
It's fascinating making thoseconnections with them, asking
them questions what type ofscents do you gravitate towards?
That is what we'll always askpotential customers when they
(14:54):
come to our booth is what typeof scents do you gravitate
towards?
And when they say, oh, I want awoodsy scent or I want a
spa-like scent, or I want afruity or citrus scent.
We then can point them to whatcandles we have out on our table
for them to sample and smell.
If they start smelling candleswithout you asking them what
(15:16):
type of scents they gravitatetowards, once they smell a
couple of candles that they justpick up and smell and they
don't like, they're going tokind of start moving on to other
booths.
They're not going to stickaround.
So it's important to get ascent that they may really enjoy
in front of them as quick aspossible, and that's how we do
it is by asking them what typeof scents do they gravitate
(15:39):
towards.
Other great opportunities withmarkets and doing pop-ups is
just that interaction withcustomers.
You are starting to understandhow the sales process goes with
them.
You're ringing them up.
You are collecting their emailaddresses, which is the most
crucial part of doing thosemarkets on top of getting
customer feedback, is collectingemail addresses.
(15:59):
You're starting to collectemail addresses to build out
your email communication withcustomers.
It is so important from day oneany method that you choose to
sell your candles that you arecollecting email addresses.
Email addresses are the waythat we will continue to
(16:20):
communicate with those customerson an ongoing basis.
Now we'll go into a deeper diveinto how we do email marketing
inside of a future episode.
But email is so crucial to yourcandle business.
You want to be able to reachout to your customers and not be
restricted by the algorithm onEtsy, on Facebook or Instagram
(16:44):
or TikTok.
You do not want thecommunication with your
customers to be roadblocked bysomeone else.
Collecting someone's emailaddress allows you to reach out
to them when you are ready topromote something, when you're
running a sale, when you justwant to share the story about
(17:04):
your brand and how you'reevolving and growing.
You want to share that storywith your customers and email is
going to be the number one bestway to do that.
In fact, anytime we're having aslow week or a slow month or
winter for us, that's alwaystough.
After the holiday season, for afew months, it's very rough
around our shops and quiet.
(17:24):
We will communicate with ourcustomers through email and
every time we send an emailwe're getting sales out of it.
So we actually have to bestrategic about the spacing
between our emails just to makesure we're not gonna overwhelm
them.
But that's definitely a topicfor another episode.
Make sure that you arecollecting email addresses at
(17:46):
these markets.
Okay, so just to recap wherewe're at so far.
So when we first started sellingour candles, it was just to our
friends and family that we werepromoting through our Facebook,
through our Instagram, to thepeople that had kind of gone on
the journey with us.
They were following ourbusiness page, things like that.
That is what we first startedand at the same time that we did
that, we obviously opened upour Shopify store for them to
(18:08):
make those purchases and welaunched that at G-SOP.
So that is what we did Numberone, day one, then next what we
did before we actually went intothose markets, because, for our
time, it was February when welaunched our candle business,
and market season here inMichigan doesn't start until May
because, well, it was Februarywhen we launched our candle
business, and market season herein Michigan doesn't start until
(18:29):
May because, well, it's cold.
So at the same time that wewere launched online and selling
to our friends and family,working on our website, seo,
working on our Etsy, keepcontinuously updating our photos
and things like that thatyou're always going to have to
improve.
The same time I started doingwholesale outreach.
I purchased all kinds ofdifferent programs to learn
(18:52):
wholesale.
I joined masterminds, I joinedgroups just so I could get a
feel and an understanding forwholesale.
So when I went into wholesale Ihad a pretty clear
understanding of the process,but there's still going to be
plenty to learn as you start togrow out your wholesale accounts
.
The way we got our firstwholesale accounts is we created
(19:15):
a spreadsheet of all of ourdream stores in our local town.
We said we would love to be anapothecary gift shop, we would
love to be in Francis J, wewould love to be in and just we
would love to be in and justcreated this whole list, right.
So we created a list of all thestores.
The next thing you do and whatI'm doing is I'm sharing the
tips that I've learned from allthe wholesale courses and the
(19:37):
training I've received.
We actually have a wholesalecourse that you can get on our
website.
I don't want to spend a lot oftime talking about that, but
that is something that we dooffer at canadabusinessprocom is
a collection of all thiswholesale.
So what we did is we created aspreadsheet that listed out the
location that we want to be into, the name of the store, the
(19:59):
address of the store, the phonenumber.
We probably collected moreinformation than we necessarily
needed at first.
We didn't necessarily needtheir address, and all that
because we knew who they were,because they were local.
But we created that dream listof stores and then, one by one,
I would email each of thosestores.
And the key when you emailthese stores isn't just to say,
hey, I sell candles, you sellcandles, would you like to sell
(20:21):
my candles?
It's a lot more than that.
You need to have a wholesalecatalog put together.
You need to have a strategybehind approaching all of your
stores.
What we like to do is, in ourinitial email to these potential
retailers that we'd love to getinto whether they are local or
they are across the country wedo a little bit of research on
(20:42):
them.
We'll go to their website,we'll see what they're all about
, just to make sure they're agood fit.
Because I may love, I wouldlove to be in, you know, macy's
and Target and all you know allthese different stores.
But the one candle that we'reselling isn't going to be a fit
for all of those different typesof stores.
You want to make sure that thecandle that you're selling lines
(21:03):
up with those stores thatyou're reaching out to, or
you're really just wasting yourown time, in a way.
So just be mindful of that,that it needs to align with that
store.
So to do that, go to theirwebsite, go to their Instagram,
go to their TikTok, go to theirFacebook whatever social
channels that they are using andtheir website.
Go and look and see and thinkwill my candles fit in with the
(21:24):
shop?
If so, put them on your list.
Also, while you're kind ofinvestigating and researching
their website and their socialmedia, grab a couple ideas of
what you can mention in theemail.
For instance, what I alwayslike to say in my example inside
of that wholesale course that Imentioned, is when I go to a
(21:45):
page of a gift shop, I'll say,oh, look, they just got these
new tea towels.
Or oh, they're carrying thesenew soaps.
So I'll document that on thatspreadsheet that we have and
when I then sit down to emailthem, I reference that.
I'll look up and see if I canget the owner's name.
If it's a smaller store, they'renot gonna have buyers and a
(22:06):
marketing manager and a newbusiness development manager.
They're not going to have allthat necessarily.
If they are a small business,generally, the owner is going to
be the one that's making thosepurchasing decisions.
Now, if they're a mid-sizedbrand, they will likely have a
buyer, someone responsible forall of that.
So take a look at the stores,see what you think.
(22:27):
Check out their website.
If, when you go to the aboutsection or the contact section
of that store, it just says likeowner at, or info at,
carsandbeaconcom, generallythat's going to go to a central
inbox and that'll be okay toemail, that'll be the one to
email.
Instead of trying to track downthat owner's specific personal
(22:48):
email, just use the one that'son the website.
It should be fine.
If it's a larger business, youthen may want to go and look at
LinkedIn or other places to seeoh, do they have a buyer, do
they have someone that's incharge of new business?
And seeing if you can find thatright person, that that would
be to contact.
So that would be what I woulddo.
But in that initial email, ofcourse you want to explain why
(23:11):
your product is good for theirstore and you want to talk about
your product, but don't spendtoo much time talking about your
product.
Spend more time talking aboutwhy your product is good for
their customer.
So I'm reaching out to, let'ssay, a natural, health and
(23:32):
beauty store, right, and mycandle brand is all about
eco-conscious, eco-friendly,made with all natural
ingredients, things like thatthat I can align with them.
I'm going to want to talk aboutwhy my candle brand being all
natural and whatever marketingtactics I'm using is on that
(23:53):
candle.
You know the recycled packaging, recycled vessels, all clean
fragrances, all those differenttypes of selling points I would
then want to bring up if thatstore's customers actually care
about that.
But let's say, for instance, weare in a sports apparel chain.
Across the country.
We're in like 45 stores thatsell jerseys, hats, things like
(24:17):
that.
It's more of like a hometownpride type of store.
This store sells in likecollege towns and in sports
towns.
They like one of our candlelines called Best Of and it says
like Best of Indiana, best ofMichigan, best of Chicago, and
it's all location themed.
So that's why they wanted ourcandles.
(24:38):
They found us online and weworked out and we're in all
those stores.
Now, when I reach out to a storelike that to potentially carry
my products, I'm not talkingabout how my products are made
with recycled packaging and allclean fragrances.
I'm talking about why my candlethat talks about Chicago is
(25:01):
good for their brand.
Because their brand sells stuffthat needs to have
location-based themes and that'swhy that line of candles is
going to be good for that store.
If you are selling those likegourmand scents, right, like the
baked goods and the cookies andthe coffee scents.
(25:22):
And so if your whole brand isabout you know, farmhouse
cottage candles that are madewith all these yummy scents,
right.
If I'm reaching out to a storethat I want to sell my candles
and I want to relate to that notnecessarily like what they're
made out of, think about thecustomer that shops at that
(25:42):
store, so that the email thatyou write to that store's owner
or manager that you're relatingto that customer and conveying
to them why your product isgoing to be good for that
customer.
Because ultimately, the ownerthemselves probably doesn't care
about your candle.
They're not buying your candle,they're not using your candle.
They want to be able to sellyour candle.
(26:02):
They're in the business ofselling.
They want to make sure they'reputting in front of their
customers what their customersare going to buy.
So just keep that in mind, notto promote things about your
candles that those specificstores aren't going to care
about.
Another thing that I like tomention in these emails to the
store is something that's goingto show that I'm not sending
(26:23):
this email out to hundreds ofother retailers at the same time
.
So I want to talk about theirstore.
I want to mention hey, I justsaw those new lemon tea towels
you started carrying, or thatsoap I bet that's fantastic.
I'll have to check it back outnext time I'm shopping in your
store Things like that, so thatthey realize that you actually
(26:45):
spent time or that you'realready following them.
Also, when like that, so thatthey realize that you actually
spent time or that you'realready following them.
Also, when you're building outthat spreadsheet of all the
potential retailers, go aheadand start following their social
channels, because we all knowkind of how it goes If you have
social medias for your businessalready, when you start getting
people liking a bunch of yourposts and then they're going to
(27:05):
reach out, you can.
It's almost like clockwork.
I know when someone goes toGarcin Beacon's social media
handle and they start liking I'mgetting this thread of all
these likes on my phone fromsomeone or some brand.
I know I'm about to getmessaged and then they always
message on social media that way.
So go ahead and start likingthese so you stay kind of in the
(27:26):
loop of what these stores thatyou want to get into are doing.
Because, say, for instance, theyjust started carrying my
candles.
You probably don't want toemail them the same day If they
just posted this big launch thatthey're carrying my candles.
You would want to wait a littlebit, you know, wait a couple of
months, and then you can followand say hey, I saw that you
were carrying those Garsonbeacon candles.
(27:47):
How are they doing?
I wanted to let you know aboutmy candle brand and if that
makes sense.
So you don't want to um, youdon't want to waste your email
opportunity to them on somethingif it's not going to be the
right time.
So just keep that in mind.
Another couple of things thatyou may want to keep in mind is
going to be the seasonality ofwhen you message them.
(28:07):
You're not going to want tomessage someone in December
asking if they want to carryyour Christmas line of candles.
It's too late.
They've already got it in theworks of what they're going to
stock months in advance.
Now sometimes I'm a businessowner that has retail locations.
I've got three of them now.
I do get behind sometimes andI'm buying stuff just a few
(28:28):
weeks prior to an event.
For instance, every May here wehave what's called the Tulip
Time Festival, so we want tohave anything tulip themed in
our shop.
Now, should I be getting thatstuff in January, february,
march?
Absolutely I should.
I should definitely be doingthat.
It was I doing it in April thisyear?
Yes, I was.
(28:48):
It was the week before thefestival kicked off and I was
still getting stuff, umdelivered that we had boughten,
you know, from retailers to uh,from wholesalers to retail in
our store, uh.
So you can possibly get some ofthose late um shoppers, but you
don't want to waste your entirestrategy on reaching out to
(29:09):
them when it's too late and thenfeeling like you can't reach
out to them again for a fewmonths.
So that's one thing to keep inmind.
Also and this is probably themost critical part about doing
wholesale outreach is, once youemail, you got to follow up,
because here's what's going tohappen.
You're going to email mebecause I'm a retailer and I
(29:33):
carry a bunch of differentbrands.
So you're going to email me,I'm going to get your email.
I'm going to read the, the, the, the subject line of it, and
I'm going to do one of a coupleof things.
If I have time, I'm going to goahead and open it up and start
reading it, but likely I'm notjust sitting here waiting for
your email to come in, so I'mgoing to put that into a folder
that I'll check it later, I'mgoing to star it and what's
going to happen?
Life happens, I'm going to moveon to something else, I'm just
(29:55):
going to forget about it.
That's just the reality of it.
Everyone's very busy and wejust forget or it's not urgent
enough for us to take actionright away.
So you've got to follow up.
So that's why, after thatinitial email that you're going
to send out, you're going towant to send out a follow-up.
If they've not responded to youwithin a week, make sure you
follow up with them and keepfollowing up with them until you
(30:16):
get a response.
Worst case scenario they justsay no, you take them off the
list, you color code thatspreadsheet and you move on.
So I break down and I actuallygive you all of our emails and
templates inside of that course,if you want to check out that
course or actually, I have afree download of Wholesale 101.
(30:37):
You know what?
I'm going to drop that in theshow notes below, completely
free.
Just click on that and that'sgoing to give you some tips and
tricks with more details aboutwholesaling.
So that'll be in the show notesbelow.
All right, so let's talk aboutsome of the downsides of
wholesale.
You have to have your businessset up to be able to do
wholesale.
It does take a little bit ofwork.
Once you have candles, there'sso many opportunities to sell
(30:58):
them.
But the next thing besideshaving a candle that is smells
good, is super safe and is ofquality, is your pricing.
That's the next thing that youhave to understand and have down
.
You've got to have your pricingdown right so that you're going
to be able to scale to doingwholesale.
If you're not priced right, thenyou're not going to be able to
(31:20):
wholesale.
That's just the reality of it.
A retailer is going to want atleast 50% so um, if of a margin.
So if my candle, which they are$26, a retailer is not going to
spend more than $13 on it,they're just not.
So my, my candle retails for 26.
They want to buy it for 13.
So I got to make sure my costof goods are at a place that I'm
(31:42):
okay with selling these for $13to a wholesale account.
If that math doesn't work foryou, then the math is a math,
and then you've got to fixsomething.
You got to fix your price point, you got to get a, you got to
figure out a way of reducingyour cost of goods, um, or
opening up your margins a littlebit more.
So that's what you have to do.
Um, when it comes to yourpricing, if you're not set up on
(32:04):
day one for wholesaling, thenmaybe you look at other channels
to uh, to bring in revenue thatwill then allow you to.
Then, hey, I've banked thismuch money.
Now I can buy my wax in bulk sothat my cost of that wax and
that shipping isn't killing meevery time.
And so now my cost of goods arestarting to go down.
(32:26):
Instead of buying a four ounceor an eight ounce bottle of oil
now you're buying by the pound.
Things like that is going toget your cost of goods down
dramatically.
Another way of getting your costof goods down is going to be
through your labels and printingthose.
The more you order from a labelprinter at once, the less
expensive it's going to be.
(32:46):
So those are things that welearned as we were going through
it.
Right now, our standard $26candle cost us about five, five
and a quarter.
So that's like five X five anda half X six X six times the
cost of good.
When we first started, that $5and 25 cent candle was around $7
for us to make.
So it was still okay for us tostart out by doing wholesale,
(33:09):
because I was wholesaling for$13.
It cost me $7 to make it, so Iwas only making $5, but I wanted
to wholesale and that was theway to start.
Once we started getting moneycoming in from it, I can buy my
products in bigger bulks and gotthe price of each of those
candles down.
So that is something to keep inmind that you might not make a
(33:33):
lot on wholesale when you firststart, but if you're gonna be
able to reduce your cost ofgoods in the longterm, then it
can definitely still be worthdoing Okay.
So the next way that we foundsuccess in selling our candles
is through fundraisers.
Fundraisers are fantastic.
First fundraiser we did was fora high school basketball team
that my mom teaches at.
(33:53):
They needed basketball jerseys.
It's a rural school in themiddle of kind of nowhere
Indiana.
They don't have a lot offunding and they needed jerseys.
So we put together a fundraiserwhere the community could buy
our candles and we were giving aportion of those proceeds back
to that school to then turnaround and buy jerseys with.
(34:15):
Another fantastic fundraiserthat we have done is with our
Pet Palace Candles.
So we reached out to a localanimal shelter and said, hey, we
would love to partner with youon a fundraiser, because animal
shelters, humane societies,people love pets and people will
(34:38):
support those organizations.
So we wanted to make a productthat they could help us sell and
they would be able to bring ina really good income from it.
So what we did was we reachedout to the Humane Society here
in Holland, michigan, and said,hey, we're Garza Beacon Candle
Company.
We are local here in Holland.
(34:59):
We were a home base.
We didn't have our stores oranything like that at the time,
but we didn't tell them that.
Not that it would have mattered, but we didn't divulge that.
We were just making these inour kitchen.
Right, we are a local candlecompany here in Holland.
We would love to do afundraiser with you.
We can create these candles andsell them on our website and
(35:20):
anyone that buys these candles,we will give you 25% of the
proceeds.
Would you be interested?
When they say that they areinterested in it?
Great, and then you work onsetting it up.
You can use it with a code onyour website.
There's a lot of differentmeans of collecting that payment
.
We'll talk about that inanother episode.
(35:41):
But the fact that you can relyon them.
They've got like 50,000 peoplefollowing them.
They have an email list.
They have people that aresupporting them weekly, that are
giving donations.
So when they promoted that theywere selling this odor
eliminating candle from GarstinBeacon Candle Company, we
started getting all of thesepeople following our pages and
(36:03):
buying that candle from us.
It was fantastic.
We've had a lot of fundraiserssince then.
None stick out as much as thatdid, because in that weekend
span that we did that fundraiser, we drew, we grew our social
media, we grew our email listand we made a lot of sales and
we were able to do good bygiving back to that organization
(36:24):
.
Then what you do is you takethat system that you just
created for doing fundraisersand do it for another nonprofit
and then in another nonprofit,one of the workshops inside of
the inner circle.
That we do is on thefundraisers, and we actually
went and looked at how manynonprofits are in our town.
There were tons of them that Ididn't even know about and so I
(36:47):
was like, oh okay, let's do somemore of those Now, something
that we have done.
So we will do the humanesocieties.
We will also do like educationbased.
We will also do minority based,lgbtq based, all these
different kinds of organizationsthat we can align with that we
would like to have thosecustomers following our brand.
We will do.
We'll also do nonprofittheaters.
(37:09):
There's a local it's called thepark theater here in Holland.
We do a fundraiser for them, uh, raising money for them, and
then also, again, it gives usmore awareness about our brand.
So people knew about GarzaBeacon Candle Company before
they ever came to our store,before they ever had come to our
website, before they'd everspent any money with us, before
they had ever seen us out at amarket, because the animal
(37:32):
shelter, the um nonprofittheater, all these different
organizations that we werepartnering with were spreading
the word about us.
So that really got us connectedand putting roots down in our
community, so that when westarted doing other things, like
markets.
People were recognizing us oh,I think I bought a candle from
(37:53):
you on your website when you didsuch and such fundraiser, so
that's more of that connectionthere.
Now, even though they alreadyhave our product, they can put a
name to the face whenever theysee us out doing these public
events as well.
Brick and mortar let's talk alittle bit about brick and
mortar.
Brick and mortar is not for thefaint of heart.
It's for those that are reallywanting to go all in, and that's
(38:17):
what we did.
We sold our first candle to ourfriends and family on February
26th of 2022.
We opened our first brick andmortar store on August 1st of
2022.
So six months later.
From first putting this on awebsite selling this candle to
(38:37):
our friends and family toopening the doors to a store was
less than six months, or rightat six months, for us.
Now I'm not saying everyoneshould do this or everyone has
the means to do this, but let metell you what it took for us to
be able to do this.
It doesn't take nearly as muchas what you might think.
We didn't have a lot of moneyin the bank to do this with.
(38:59):
We didn't have friends andfamily or anyone like that to
rely on.
We had to be able to cover thefirst month's rent and a deposit
.
Our rent is $1,700 on thatfirst location and so we had to
have that.
Plus.
We had to have a deposit.
I don't even think it's a fulldeposit, it might've just been
like a half month, but say itwas a full deposit, that would
(39:20):
be $3,400.
So I need $3,400 to get intothe store.
I need to be able to build itout with some furniture or what
you're going to use yourdisplays.
Um, and then I we needed to.
Definitely oh, we'll definitelycover it more.
We definitely needed to paintthe walls in this place.
The color was terrible.
I think it took us four coatsof white paint to finally get
(39:42):
rid of that color.
Um, it's come a long ways.
Uh, we had to, as I mentionedthe furniture that we put in
there.
So, for all the shel now, don'tgo to a retail furniture
display store online soexpensive.
Go to Amazon.
Go to other places.
We have these nice Nathan Jamesbrand shelves.
(40:05):
They have two screws at the top.
They're like ladder shelvesthat go into the wall.
That's all we needed for them.
I think they were $160 a piece.
At the top they're like laddershelves that go into the wall.
That's all we needed for them.
I think they were $160 a pieceat the time.
I don't know what they are now.
They may have gone up and weneeded, you know, at least 10 of
those for the shop.
We obviously needed some otherstuff.
We needed to get some tablesand things in there.
But the reason we were confidentin doing this was because of
(40:29):
the results that we were gettingfrom the markets.
We knew people loved our stuff.
They would say I love yourlabeling, I love your branding,
I love the way it smells.
They really were appreciatingit.
So we knew from the sales wewere getting out of markets that
we could get people into ourstore to buy those candles as
well.
So we were pretty confidentthere.
(40:49):
Now, with that said, me and Chadwere both working from home at
the time.
We were testing and playingaround with the candles on our
lunch breaks, before work, afterwork and all of that.
But we had two incomes.
So we were comfortable withgetting Chad out of the house
and opening up this first brickand mortar location because we
(41:10):
did still have my income.
Now it wasn't going to be easyon just my income, like we could
have done it for maybe sixmonths and then, like you, got
to come back because we're notable to pay all of our bills, if
it's just my income, but it wasenough to get us by.
So the candle brand had tosupport itself.
It may be not make a profit,but it needed to at least be
(41:34):
able to be self-sufficient.
So $1,700 a month for our rent,with all the overhead of the
location, is going to be aboutanother $300, maybe 400.
You're going to have yourutilities or insurance, those
things that are just come with abrick and mortar store, so
you're going to have that, sothat 1,700 is now like $2,000.
Of course we needed to put theproduct in the store, so you're
going to have that, so that 1700is now like $2,000.
Of course we need to put theproduct in the store.
So that's probably aboutanother $750 to a thousand
(41:56):
dollars in product to put on theshelves inside of that store.
And then there's going to beall those odds and end costs.
You're going to have a sandwichboard that's going to go out on
the sidewalk.
We need to.
There was a permit for like $40that went with that they're
going to have all these othercosts that are going to come up.
So we put that stuff on a creditcard because we didn't just
have the cash in the bank.
(42:17):
We had some money coming infrom doing the markets.
But a lot of that revenuecoming in from those markets is
just paying to buy more supplies, to just kind of build up
inventory more and more, and ofcourse we were trying new oils
and trying other fun things.
But that's really paying foritself.
So it took us about I think 12or $13,000 total to get into and
(42:42):
open the doors of our retaillocation.
And we didn't have all of thatin revenue because we'd only
been selling at markets forthree months tops.
So we did have to put some ofthat on a credit card and pull a
little bit of that money fromsavings.
But to show you, like doingmarkets and making five, 600
bucks every time, you can get upto the money that you need
(43:03):
pretty quickly.
And once we opened the doors itwas self-sufficient because
people were at least coming in.
Even though we might not bemaking a lot of money when we're
first starting out people don'tknow about us yet we are at
least in an area with enoughtraffic that we were able to
have the space pay for itself.
So that's a little bit ofinformation about brick and
(43:24):
mortar.
Of course, we'll definitely doa more deep dive into a brick
and mortar only episode in thefuture.
Okay, so those are the main waysthat we are selling our candles
online through our Shopifystore.
We still continuously get a feworders on Etsy, but we don't
put the effort and energy intoEtsy.
We need to use that energyelsewhere, especially through
(43:46):
our Shopify store, tocontinuously build that out and
optimize that.
Seo.
That is probably the workshopinside of the inner circle that
people talk about the most isthe SEO workshop and the results
they've gotten from there.
So that's where a lot of ourfocus is is on continuously
updating our Shopify.
Also our email communication.
That takes a lot of our timeand energy to stay top of mind
(44:09):
to our customers and our repeatbuyers.
We do a lot of our time andenergy to stay top of mind to
our customers and our repeatbuyers.
We do a lot of wholesale.
We've got 140-ish wholesaleaccounts that we are
continuously reaching out to andgrowing and fulfilling reorders
for all of them.
And then we have our brick andmortar stores.
We actually have three storesnow.
The one I was just telling youabout, store number one, we
(44:29):
opened that August 1st of 2022.
We opened brick and mortarstore number two in November of
2023.
So a year and three monthslater we opened that one up and
then seven months no, six monthslater we opened up store number
three, which is in Saugatuck,michigan.
Here.
That's where I shoot a lot ofmy YouTube videos from, because
(44:49):
I'll get there early and it's avery small store.
That store we don't offerpeople to pour their own candles
.
In store number one and storenumber two we do, so they are
different sizes based on, really, what the town supports.
Store number three is veryseasonal, so it's not even open
in the wintertime becausethere's no one traveling to that
location.
Okay, so you may have gathered,there's no single path to candle
(45:11):
business success, but the moreyou understand your options, the
better you can choose whatworks for you.
In episode three, we'll diveinto the mindset, marketing and
growth strategies that helped usevolve without losing any steam
.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Candle Business Pro
Podcast.
If you found this episodehelpful, we would love it if
(45:31):
you'd leave us a rating and areview.
It really helps us reach moremakers like you.
And if you're ready to take thenext step in your candle
business journey, head over tocandlebusinessprocom to explore
our free resources, our coursesand our community.
We're here to help you go pro.
Thank you so much for tuning intoday.
I greatly appreciate you.
Have a great day.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
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.