July 23, 2025 • 44 mins
#010 Building a successful candle business requires strategic planning and avoiding common pitfalls that can derail your progress before you reach success. We share five critical lessons learned from growing our business to over a million dollars in sales.
• Start with six well-chosen scents instead of ten or more to test market response without overwhelming yourself
• Focus on customer favorites: two citrus scents, one masculine/woodsy, one spa-like, one approachable floral, and one staple scent
• Wholesale success comes primarily from persistent personal outreach rather than marketplace listings
• Create organized systems for tracking potential stockists and following up consistently
• Focus wholesale pitches on how your products benefit their customers, not just your product features
• 80% of our wholesale accounts came from follow-up emails
• Understand your numbers early—pricing that works for markets won't sustain growth when scaling
• Be cautious about building your brand around vessels, waxes, or fragrances that might be discontinued
• Choose widely available vessels from multiple suppliers for your core collection
• Create seasonal scents by blending staple oils rather than relying on limited-edition fragrances
• Be selective about whose advice you follow in candle communities
• Seek guidance from people actively succeeding in the specific areas you want to improve
Join us next week for part two, where we'll share five more essential tips plus a bonus lesson for candle entrepreneurs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So starting a candle business is tough.
It's a lot of work.
It takes more than the majorityof us realize when we start
down this entrepreneurialjourney.
It is going to challenge you alot.
You are going to face obstaclesthat you had no idea you're
going to end up facing at somepoint on this journey.
(00:24):
If you stick around long enoughto be successful.
The majority of candle makersend up quitting just before they
get to reaching success,because they don't realize that
success can be just right aroundthe corner.
Today I want to talk about 10steps, or 10 things, rather,
(00:44):
that we learned on our journeyand we're still learning all of
the time.
Sure, we've crossed over amillion dollars in candle sales
in the past three and a halfyears and we've accomplished a
lot of things that we're really,really proud of.
But if we would be able tostart all over again, these are
going to be things that I wantto have in mind as I'm going on
(01:06):
this journey.
Even if these aren't thingsthat you may be doing right now,
if you're thinking ahead,hopefully these will be some
tips that you will appreciateand be able to at least hold
with you and just store themaway somewhere for when you do
happen to face this on yourjourney.
So let's get into 10 thingsthat I want to share with you.
(01:28):
In fact, I actually have abonus one here, so I think I've
got a total of 11 here todiscuss today.
So let's get into it, all right.
So the first thing that I wishthat we knew when we first
(01:50):
started our candle business isyou don't need 10, 12 or more
cents when you start your candlebusiness.
You do not need such a robustinitial collection because,
quite frankly, we're stilltrying to figure out if that
(02:10):
niche that we have in mind andthat target customer that we
think we are going to have evenonce our product, so we don't
need to start with too manyproducts.
So we started our candlebusiness with 10 candles, 10
different scents, a wide variety.
They all seem to fit togetherin the puzzle.
(02:32):
We covered a lot of bases ofdifferent scent categories, but
we had 10 and it was a lot,because then you're going to
also not only have 10 differentscents but you have to make them
in all the different sizes thatyou're going to carry.
So we started our cano business.
We have a five ounce tin, whichis in an eight ounce tin, but
(02:53):
it's a five ounce pour.
Then we have a 10 ounce ofglass and then we also had a 12
ounce ceramic and then we haveour wax melts.
Now, if we started all overagain, we would get rid of that
ceramic.
Not only did we do a ceramic,but we also did it in three
different colors.
So it was the Nordic ceramicvessel from Candle Science that
(03:15):
would go in and out of stockanyways, and we'll talk about
that a little bit later today, Ihave a feeling.
But so we had to make a lot ofcandles.
We started with 10 differentscents and then we had all the
different sizes, we had waxmelts and then in those ceramics
we also had them in differentcolors.
So we went really wide withcasting a net and trying to hit
on a ton of different scents.
(03:39):
Sixth sense is what we wouldstart our candle business with,
and so this is the breakdown.
I'm going to share a littleinsider with you.
This is a breakdown of sense.
We would start with Two citrus.
Citrus is our number onesellers and we sell a lot of
different types of scentcategories.
Citrus is always the number oneyear round.
(04:02):
So we would start with two ofthose six scents would be citrus
.
We would also start with onemasculine.
So like a woodsy, masculine, Ithink, mahogany type of candle,
something that's going toinstantly make someone think of
a guy in their life orthemselves If they're shopping
for themselves and they wantthat woodsy, masculine type of
scent.
You got to have one of those inyour collection.
(04:24):
We would would.
If we started all over again, wewould also have like a spa
light, like a sandalwood,something fresh, something
calming that a lot of peoplewill enjoy.
It wouldn't be what I call anoffensive scent, something that
someone's going to smell and say, oh, I don't like that.
Something calming, soothing, soa spa light type of scent.
I would also have a floral.
(04:44):
Now, I wouldn't do like a lilacheavy, that type of floral.
I'm talking a floral that themajority of people will like.
We would do our.
We have a lavender breeze blendthat we do.
We would do that again.
We have done a lilac candle.
It was horrible.
It was one of our first 10 andit took us almost three years to
(05:07):
sell the last of those that wehad already pre-produced before
we started and opened up ourbusiness online.
It took us almost three yearsto get rid of that lilac candle
but a lavender candle.
We sell that every day.
So I would definitely go withthat type of having a floral.
So I would definitely go withthat type of having a floral,
but being a floral, that'ssomething that people will enjoy
(05:27):
.
That's common.
Oftentimes, I think we try toget too unique, too special with
what we're coming up with, thatwe forget that we have to be
(05:47):
able to relate this product toour customer, and so sometimes
some of these blends that peopleare doing and we're doing
blends as well, but it's notnecessarily going to resonate to
someone shopping online.
They may not know what it'sgoing to smell like.
So I would focus more on whatis my niche, what is my target
audience, and then give them acandle that they're going to
have a pretty good idea of whatit's going to smell like when
they receive it.
So that's why I would go with,like, a lavender type of candle.
And then, lastly, I would haveone of those staple candles that
(06:09):
people just enjoy, whetherthat's going to be a like a
blend of a vanilla.
We have a few different typesof vanilla candles that we sell.
We have like a toasted vanillafor fall.
We also, in our duo collectionwe mix a velvet vanilla and a
smoked vanilla.
We collection we mix a vellumvanilla and a smoked vanilla.
We have a ratio for that thatwe came up with.
That we really love that's ayear-round.
People smell it.
They really like it.
So some another staple type ofcandle for us it would be our
(06:32):
peace of mind candle.
So that is that candle, that isthat blend of eucalyptus and
mint and verbanum.
It's that candle that you smellit and you, you remember
smelling that before or verysimilar to that.
It's similar to like the greencandle that like bad than body
works has had since probably the80s.
That scent has been in a lot ofdifferent um bath products.
(06:55):
You can get body wash, you canget bars of soap, you can get
lotion.
That mint, verbanum, eucalyptusblend.
It's something that has beenaround for 20 some years.
So why not have that in ourcollection to be able to sell?
Now we blend all of our candles.
We're not selling the candlesjust out of the bottles, but
that doesn't mean that you haveto.
But that is a scent that youwould have to blend those items
(07:18):
together because, sure, you canget a freshman, you can get a
eucalyptus, you can get aeucalyptus.
You can get a rubanum, but eachof those individually wouldn't
be the scent I'm talking about.
I'm talking about that blendthat is going to be really
familiar for a lot of people.
So that's.
Tip number one is don't startwith 10 scents.
You don't need that many.
Start with just six.
See how it resonates with thecustomers.
Also, make sure that you caneven find customers, because if
(07:39):
you can't find customers, thengoing wider isn't going to do
that for you customers, thengoing wider isn't going to do
that for you.
I think that's a misconceptionof if I have more sense, I can
have more sales Long-term.
Sure, we want to offer oursuperfans and our core customers
more options, but you have tofind those people first.
(08:01):
So that's where you need towork on what your niche is and
what your target audience is.
Then sell them candles.
Once you know you havesomething going, then keep
adding to it.
That was number one.
Let's now talk about number two.
So number two, wholesale is notas hard as it seems.
Now.
A lot of people do reach outbecause we do a substantial
(08:25):
amount of wholesale.
We've been in the business nowfor three years and three and a
half years going on now andwe've had about 140, 145
wholesale accounts.
We have some big wholesaleaccounts.
We're in the internationalairports sports apparel company
that sells our candles in 45stores across the Midwest and
(08:48):
South in some of their locations, and the way it's going we
should be expanding even further.
We certainly hope so.
They actually have about 300stores across the country and my
goal is to get in all of them.
So we're doing a test now, asix month test in those 45
stores.
That seems to be going allright.
So how do you simplify wholesaleNow, all the wholesale we do?
(09:14):
We actually teach this in mywholesale course because it's a
really straightforward process,but it's all about you going out
and getting these wholesaleaccounts.
I know a lot of people will sayget on fair, which fair is
great.
We're on fair, we get orders onfair, but less than 10% of our
wholesale orders come from fair.
(09:36):
Fair is just like any othermarketplace that's going to get
saturated.
There's going to be a lot ofcompetition out there and you're
just waiting around hoping forsomeone to find you, and that's
not the way I like to operate mybusiness.
I want to go out and put myproduct in front of people and
show them why my candles arebetter than someone else's for
(10:01):
their customer and why theircustomer will want my product.
So I do outreach of all.
The majority of wholesaleaccounts that we get is from my
outreach and that's what weteach in our candle making
course.
But excuse me that in ourcandle wholesale course we have
a candle making course thatshows you exactly how we make
our container candles.
(10:21):
But I'm referring to ourwholesale course.
So let me give you some of thehigh level things to do.
I don't want to just tell youabout my course.
I actually want to give youwhat's in it that can help you
today without even getting thecourse.
So one of the things is stayvery organized.
We have a spreadsheet.
We offer this in the course,but you can just make your own
(10:41):
spreadsheet.
It's not complicated.
Make a spreadsheet and list acolumn for the store that you
want to reach out to theircontact information.
You would like to ideally havethe store manager or owner's
email address and then writedown that email address, their
name, their email address.
Also, go ahead and put thesocial media handle, whether
(11:02):
it's Instagram or Facebook.
Go ahead and put that there soyou can reference back and click
on it rather easy.
Also, have a line column forthe website itself.
Again, because you're going towant to go back and reference
this and you don't want to goout searching anywhere else.
So create a spreadsheet withall the information about the
store.
But also make sure that youhave something that is relatable
(11:23):
and why your product is goingto be good for their store,
whether it's because it's alocal store and you want to sell
to them by being a local candlemaker.
That's how we got started.
We were just reaching out tostores in our town and then we
just kind of went wider fromthere and now we do it by
different metropolitans all overthe country when I'm reaching
(11:45):
out kind of one by one to getour candles in the shop.
So create a spreadsheet.
Then you're going to email them.
You're going to email thatperson and this email it needs
to be rather short and sweet.
Don't fill it with a lot ofparagraphs.
They do not want to read thisinformation.
You need to not sell them onhow great your candles are.
(12:08):
You need to sell them on whyyour candles are going to be
great for their customer and whytheir customer is going to love
them.
I've seen a lot of people thatare doing wholesale and are
struggling with this concept.
I say you know, let me see theemails that you're sending.
And the emails that they'resending out is sort of like the
(12:32):
information that we're puttingon our website Um, 100% natural
wax, all clean fragrances, nophthalates and paraben, all of
those type of features, but notthe benefits.
So we're selling the featuresand not the benefits and, quite
frankly, the store owner ormanager probably doesn't care
(12:54):
about any of those things.
What they care about is sellingproduct to their customers.
What do their customersactually care about?
It's great to say that you'reeco-friendly and all clean and
this and that, however, you showvalue to your potential
customers that you're selling todirectly, but when you're
reaching out to online retailers, they're not going to care
(13:17):
about that.
They want to know why is thiscandle that you're selling going
to be good in their store?
Is it the design?
Is it the packaging?
Is it the price point?
All of these different thingsis what they're going to care
about.
You know, you don't find a storethat when you go looking at
what they're selling online,it's like okay, they're selling
these candles that are $15, $20and my candles are $60, $70.
(13:39):
Okay, there's going to be amisalignment there.
So it doesn't matter what youput in that email to them,
they're going with the price.
This doesn't line up with ourcustomers.
Our customers don't spend thatand it can go both ways with it.
Right, if it is a elevatedwomen's boutique, those are what
I love to go after.
I'm not putting my gourmand orthe foodie scented candles.
(14:02):
That just doesn't fit with thevibe of that store.
So I'm not referencing thosetype of candles right when I am
trying to sell to them.
Also, depending on which storeyou're reaching out to, some of
them aren't going to haveholidays, right?
So a women's um high-endboutique clothing store, they
(14:25):
don't have Christmas sweatshirts, uh, or sweaters, uh.
They don't have some of thoseitems there.
They're, they're.
They're selling dresses,they're selling formal wear type
of items going out date nights,cocktail dresses, uh, things
like that, where my fall senseand winter sense probably aren't
a good fit for that storebecause that store is not really
(14:47):
transitioning by holiday season.
They're transitioning theirstore by clothing seasons and by
what's trending.
So I'm going to put my trendingcandles facing forward to those
stores.
I'm trying to sell them onwhat's going to fit in that
store.
Okay, I'm not trying to sellthem on my lemon pound cake and
(15:10):
my orange creamsicle candle,right?
I want to sell them on what Ithink is going to work in their
store.
So keep that in mind.
So you have a spreadsheet thatyou list out all of these stores
you want to reach out to andthen you have your emails.
Here's the key.
The key to getting a wholesaleaccount is the follow-up.
You have to have a system inplace where you are following up
(15:32):
with all of these stores.
The reality is probably 80% ofthe wholesale accounts that
we've received have come on thefollow-up or the follow-up after
that.
Because here's what happens andI know this on both sides,
because we have three retailstores now we're staying busy.
I'm getting emails all the timefrom people wanting us to carry
their products in our stores,whether it's selling t-shirts,
hats, perfumes, greeting cards,stickers, all kinds of things
(15:57):
and oftentimes I'll get an email.
I'll see it.
I'll see a photo of what's inthis email to me, like oh yeah,
that was great, let me you know.
You know I'm going to get backto them later, cause right now
I'm making the schedule and I'mprocessing payroll and I'm
running a store and I'm busy, soI'm going to star that for
later.
And then about five minuteslater it will leave my mind and
(16:17):
be gone forever and I'll nevergo back and check that email
again and follow up with them.
So when they reach back out tome in a week and remind me,
there we go, now it's clicked.
Oh shoot, yes, I did like thatstuff.
Let me pull that up.
Let me spend five minutes onthis real quick and get them a
reply and see if I can get anorder in.
That is how wholesale works.
It's just the reality of it.
(16:38):
You have to follow up and keepfollowing up.
Remember, we're in the businessof selling candles.
We aren't in a business offeeling embarrassed about
following up too much or buggingsomeone.
You know what, when they don'twant me to email them anymore,
they'll let me know or they'lljust keep deleting those emails.
But eventually they're going todecide to tell me you know it's
(16:59):
not a good fit, not interesteddeleting those emails.
But eventually they're going todecide to tell me you know it's
not a good fit, not interested,check back in spring, check
back in fall.
Once they give me a response,then that is when I'm, when I
take them off of my list or wemove forward with an order.
So I'll follow them severaltimes and then I will just place
them on my list of justquarterly.
When I update my wholesalecatalog, I will send it to them
(17:21):
along with everyone else.
So until they tell me, no,don't bug me anymore,
unsubscribe me, something likethat, then they're still on my
potential list and you want tokeep track of all of this on a
spreadsheet.
Then you got to have thoseemails, then you also have to
have those good email follow-upsand you actually have to have a
really good wholesale catalog.
Now for us.
We offer our students that comethrough our wholesale course.
(17:42):
I hate saying students, we'reall peers, we're all doing this
together, we're all learningfrom each other, but you know
what I'm referencing.
So when someone signs up, theyget all that stuff.
They get my email templates,they get my follow-ups, they get
the spreadsheet, but they alsoget three different wholesale
catalogs because, based on thesize of your brand and your
collection how many candles doyou have we have formatted it
(18:03):
differently.
Also, as I was referencing abit ago, some stores you don't
want to try to sell thesecandles or these room sprays too
, because this is the only stuffthat's really going to work for
them.
So you're going to want to makea few different versions of
your wholesale catalog.
Or, if you're reaching out tosomething very specific, we get
into a lot of pet boutiques aswell.
People are, you know, arebuying a designer dog food and
(18:24):
bandanas and all this stuff inthese pet boutiques and we get a
lot of our odor eliminatingcandles in those shops.
And it's because my catalog ismade for pet shops.
The front cover looks like amagazine for pets, right, and so
it's eye-catching.
So when people get ourwholesale, course they get all
of those.
(18:44):
But again, you can make all ofthis yourself.
You can do all this yourself.
Just keep that in mind.
Have a good system in place forgetting the information about
the stores that you want toreach out to, and then how to
reach out to them, how to followup with them and what to
actually send them, and thenalso some different ways for
them to order from you.
So make sure you have all ofthat.
(19:05):
Let's get into the third thinghere.
That's going to be candle.
Math is not optional, so you'vegot to know your margins,
you've got to know your pricing,you've got to know your cost
per unit very, very early inyour candle business and start
thinking about the ways thatthose may not work eventually.
Sure, if it's just you and itcosts you, let's say, $5 to make
(19:29):
this candle, it costs you fivebucks to make this candle and
you want to go out to a marketthis weekend and you want to
sell it for $10.
Sure, totally fine.
You want to sell it to friends,family, coworkers, your
neighbor, the mailman, whomever,for $10.
So you only have a 2X, totallyfine.
But if you want to build awebsite, if you want to start
(19:53):
doing wholesale, if you want torun ads run paid ads on Meta, on
Facebook or Instagram if youwant to open a brick and mortar
store, if you want to hire anassistant to start helping you,
if you want to then hire abookkeeper to make sure that
you're doing your numbers right,if you want to start scaling
your business, you cannot sellthis $5 candle for $10.
(20:18):
You can't do it, it's not goingto happen, it's not going to
work.
You have to have all of thosethings right your pricing, your
margins and your cost per unit.
So get all of that figured out.
Make sure you know your numbers.
A lot of people I have found inthis space are very creative,
much more creative than I everhave been.
(20:38):
That's kind of why me and Chadare really good balance where I
understand the ins and outs ofthe business side.
He doesn't struggle with it.
But he's much stronger in thecreating and the creation of
stuff.
All of our 10 classic candlesthat we have he sent blends.
All of our like our 10 classiccandles that we have um, he sent
(21:01):
blends.
All of that stuff that hasthree, four, five different oils
all blended together.
He's the one that genuine,genuinely teaches our candle
making course and our bootcampthat we do.
Um, I, I'm in it a little bit,but he's really showing the ins
and outs of how he does it as aprofessional candle maker.
So I find that sometimes thesevery, very, extremely creative
(21:24):
people will sometimes strugglewith the math side of things or
the business outlook side ofthings.
But you have to learn it.
You have to learn it just soyou understand where you can
possibly go with your businessand so that you can make
adjustments on the front end.
If need be, get another candlemath.
(21:45):
That's all we got to do, or atleast have a connection with
someone that can look at yournumbers and do it for you.
We have inside of our innercircle, our membership with
other candle businesses.
People are always exchangingideas and saying, hey, does this
make sense, does this not makesense?
You don't have to be perfect ateverything we're certainly not
but you want to rely on peoplethat can help you out a little
bit whenever you need Next tipfor you.
Number four here is somesuppliers will discontinue the
(22:09):
supplies.
That makes sense, right?
We see new products coming outall the time.
That's how they have to operatetheir business.
They want to stay fresh and topof mind to us all as candle
makers.
But when they bring in newitems, something's got to go at
some point.
Keep that in mind when you arebuilding out your initial brand
(22:34):
collections, line of candles andwhat is going to be something
that will hopefully resonatewith your future customers for a
long time.
So what I have found hashappened it's happened to us a
few times.
Those first initial 10 centsthat I told you that we came out
with and then we created in waytoo many sizes, is those
(22:57):
ceramic Nordics that we hadpurchased.
Two of the colors ended updiscontinuing or going out of
stock for months.
So for us those didn't sellwell, so we ended up cutting
those from our brand.
But for the ones that did sellwell, we ran out and we couldn't
provide that to those customersanymore.
So I would be cautious ofbuilding out your brand in your
(23:24):
initial candle collectionsaround something that could
possibly go away.
So I look at building our candlebrand around just a glass
candle.
It is a glass candle that wecan get from multiple suppliers,
so if our supplier was todiscontinue or be out of stock,
(23:47):
I could probably go find itelsewhere.
Also, a line of candles aroundlike an amber jar.
An amber jar or just anothernine ounce straight sided jar or
vessel You're going to be ableto get from multiple places.
But if you buy something uniquefrom some of the suppliers and
we buy those candles as well, sodon't get me wrong when I say
(24:08):
this but if you're building yourbrand around something maybe a
little bit more elevated, maybemore luxury, make sure that what
you're selecting, especiallywhen it comes like colors of
vessels, make sure you look andsee how long they've been
carrying that, for If they'veonly been carrying it for a
season, it might be going out atthe end of the season.
(24:30):
We have found that to happenoften.
Colors of vessels are going togo away.
So try to find the ones thatare stuck around for a while and
ask the supplier.
Now, they're not going to tellyou if they're going to plan on
discontinuing it in a few months.
You can't reach out to these,some of these bigger suppliers,
because they're not going totell you if they're going to
discontinue it.
They'll let you know when theydiscontinue it, but they're not
(24:52):
going to tell you.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don'twant to buy that from us today
because, like, it's not sellingwell and it's going to go away.
But if you create your entireline up and that vessel goes
away, what are you going to do,honestly, when it comes to
something that you can'tnecessarily replicate too easy,
what are you going to do whenyou have orders coming in?
You sell out of something yougot to make.
(25:13):
More people are buying more.
You know you're taking off withyour business.
But now that vessel, you'retaking off with your business,
but now that vessel, you have tostart over, all over again, and
it's not just a matter ofswapping out vessels.
You're also going to have toretest, right, if you have to go
up or down a size, it doesn'thold as much volume.
You're going to retest all yourwicks.
Same thing happens withdesigner waxes, as I call them.
(25:34):
If you are starting your candlebrand with a designer wax, as I
call it, be cautious, becausewe see this happen.
It's happened a couple of timesthis year, in 2025, several
times.
There are oils that some ofthese suppliers that we love, I
love have discontinued their waxand they tried it, and again
(25:55):
they want to give us stuffthat's what's hot, what's fresh,
what makes them look like.
They are the go-to supplierbecause they're coming out with
the newest, latest thing, whichis perfectly fine.
There's no fault to thatwhatsoever, but it doesn't mean
it's going to work.
Some of those waxes are goingto be a lot more expensive, and
sometimes people just don't needthat wax.
(26:18):
There is a olive oil wax thatwas on the scene the last year,
year and a half.
That was fantastic and it burntreally well.
The pricing wasn't there for usto use it for our line of
candles, for our customers,because of where we were going
to have to put our prices of ourcandles.
It was a great wax, though, butnot enough people were buying
(26:38):
it, so it went away.
What are you going to do?
If you're the one person thatbuilt your brand around that wax
?
It's going to be a problem.
I would stick with your soy,your paraffins and even your
coconut soy.
I would be confident nowadaysbuilding a brand around coconut
soy because you're going to beable to find other um options.
(27:02):
If the supplier you're usingends up not continuing to carry
it, it goes away, you can findanother supplier Again.
You're going to have to do thetesting all over again.
Um but um.
You wouldn't have to change uplike where, if your brand is all
coconut soy and that is yourthing, you promote it, you
(27:22):
explain to your customer whyit's better and that supplier
doesn't have it anymore, you canfind another one so that
messaging with your customerdoesn't have to change, because
the messaging with your customeris one of the key factors of a
brand being an actual brand.
We go way into that inside ofour branding workshop inside of
the inner circle.
(27:43):
So that might be something, ifyou're unsure about your
branding, for you to check out.
But so that's what I'd becautious of.
Also, the other thing to becautious of would be the oils.
So I just mentioned at the topof this episode about the sense
that we would sell if we were tostart all over again what we
(28:06):
would start with now, this year2025,.
There are scents such asSantals, still some grapefruit.
There's some scents that areout there that are really
popular and that we're sellingwell in our shops and online,
(28:28):
but they're going to go at somepoint.
They're not going to be thehottest thing anymore.
Grapefruit was really big forus last year.
It's starting to go down, likethis this year, where mango
scent has been going up, and soour mango scented candle has
been going up.
So there's always going to betrends, right.
What I'm getting at is Iwouldn't base my initial
(28:52):
collection, when I'm starting abrand, around something that
might be a trend.
Sure, you can be popular andhot right now, but as soon as
Santal isn't popular anymoreright now, every supplier is on
that wagon Um, it's going to endup going down at some point.
Um, and you know, if your brandis all built around just that
(29:17):
and then you can't get that oilanymore, that's going to be a
problem.
Also, when it comes to, likeyour fall and winter candles our
fall and winter candles.
We've had the exact same fourwinter candles, four fall
candles for the last three yearsand to give you the honest
reality of why they're the sameis because that second year of
our business we were just aboutto open up our second storefront
(29:40):
and we were just busy anddidn't have the time, didn't
have the time to create anentire brand new collection,
which means all brand newgraphic designer labels, all new
custom blends that Chad had tocome up with, then all the scent
with, then all the scenttesting, and then all of the
wick testing for a glass, a tin,the wax melt, and then the
(30:00):
holiday times we'll have alarger vessel for those.
It was just a lot of work.
So year two of our business, webrought out the exact same ones
.
We brought out the fall ones,the winter ones.
They did well.
So this past year we opened upour third store.
Let's focus on what is reallyimportant, and as long as these
are still selling, it'simportant.
(30:21):
So what I'm getting at bymentioning this is, if you look
at any of the seasonal oils thatthe suppliers come out with,
nine out of 10 of those oils aregoing to be gone as soon as the
season is over and they're notcoming back next year.
That's just a reality ofseasonal scents.
(30:44):
Because they know the suppliersand manufacturers know that us,
as candle makers, love scents.
We love it.
We spend so much time trying tofind the best scents out there
and we want to have those togive to our customers, right,
that's why they come out with adozen.
And so when we have, we buyfrom like six or seven different
(31:07):
suppliers and they all came outwith between eight and a dozen
oils Like I, chad probablybought every single one of those
, right, and you will put theseinto your line.
You're going to put all thework into the labeling, all the
work into the vessels, all thetesting, and then next year
they're not going to have thatoil, that oil is going to go
(31:29):
away, and then you got to startall over again because you're
forced to, not because you justwant to.
So what I would recommend doingis basing those seasonal lines,
if you're going to want to havethem come back.
Base them around scents thatyou can build, that you can
actually put the pieces together.
So for our fall scents, just asan example, we have an orchard
stroll candle which is going tobe that apple cinnamon, right.
(31:52):
So again, we do all of our ownblending.
Anyone can do their ownblending, you know, reach out if
you have any questions, Icertainly can help you with it.
So we put the scents together.
We have an apple, we have acinnamon Apple and a cinnamon at
the suppliers aren't going away.
We have a pumpkin souffle,which has a little bit of
cinnamon, has some pumpkin, hasa couple other things there, but
(32:14):
all the ingredients of thatcandle are scents that are
always going to be around.
Right, our toasted vanilla youknow we've got a certain kind of
nut that goes into that, andthen a vanilla that we found
that we really like.
These are all just things thatat any time of the year we can
make that candle, because thesuppliers carry those scents
(32:35):
year round.
It's those unique, fancy onesthat the suppliers come out with
, that it's what's hot for theseason for them and they're
really focused more.
Those scents that come out arereally focused on those people.
That aren't going to be blendingthings together, which is,
again, totally fine If that'sthe direction you want to go
with your business, if you'relike you know what, it's just
easier to buy these four oilsand let's just, you know, think
(32:59):
about it for this year and nextyear.
We'll just worry about nextyear, when, when, when that time
comes again, totally fine.
But we spend a lot of time withour graphic design for our
labels.
It costs us a lot of money, andthen buying all those labels to
get them professionally printedcosts a lot of money.
So we bring the stuff back andthen we can use any of the
supplies that we may not haveused the previous year.
(33:20):
So just something to keep inmind there.
Okay, so number five not alladvice in candle groups are
gonna be good advice.
So I'm in a lot of candlegroups, you're probably in a lot
of candle groups.
You're probably in a lot ofcandle groups.
I enjoy being in those.
I enjoy helping out othermakers, other people that are
trying to turn this into abusiness.
Really, I love giving thatsupport.
(33:43):
But we're all going to comeacross some people that are
going to either disagree with usfor whatever reason, in
everything that we do, um, orpeople that will.
They want to just give helpingadvice on every single post, and
(34:03):
we can't all be experts ateverything, right.
So a lot of times we'll seepeople giving, let's say, how to
sell candles online advice, butthey don't actually have a
website they're not actuallysuccessful in, they're not
actually doing it right now.
I don't want to say successfulor not because I don't know
(34:24):
someone else's journey but youwant to be cautious on the
advice that you're taking.
Now.
If you are asking a question of, hey, I just got this new
Santal oil, what does it blendwell with?
Let the floodgates open andthat's totally fine.
Get some inspiration, becauseyou're going to get a lot of
(34:45):
responses to a question likethat, and that is totally fine.
You'll post about hey, I'mstarting with this vessel that
is three and a half inchesacross and I'm using CD wicks.
What wicks did I start with?
You're going to get some prettypretty good advice there, I
(35:05):
would say.
But as the advice starts towiden, you're going to start
kind of getting lost and caughtup in that.
Also, people are a lot of timesgiving advice on what kind of
business structure should youopen up.
Should it be an LLC, soleproprietor, things like that,
(35:26):
talking about DBAs, s-corps, allof that.
Like that's the kind of advicethat you don't want to take from
someone in a Facebook group,because everyone's situation is
completely different the wayours is.
We started out as a singlemember LLC, which was just Chad,
and then we ended up puttingmyself on there.
(35:46):
We had to.
We changed over to apartnership and then our
accountant, our CPA, a year anda half ago, because of the staff
and bringing people on thepayroll, switched us over to an
S-corp.
So that's the reason we've goneon a journey through a lot of
those.
So just asking and gettingadvice back on what you should
(36:08):
set up without someone knowingyour exact strategy and where
you are, what do you plan ondoing?
How much?
How much sales are you planningon doing?
A lot of those types ofquestions you're just going to
get a bunch of answers.
So sometimes it's about thatway.
We ask questions, but also wehave followed all kinds of
advice and when we first startedthat we shouldn't have, for
instance, like when Sully wasn'tgiving us the, the, the hot
(36:31):
throw that we wanted, when soywasn't giving us the, the, the
hot throw that we wanted.
And you, if you post thatquestion, you post how to get
soy hot throw better.
If you post that in an onlinegroup, you're going to get crazy
answers from add in a scoop ofcoconut to a triple wick instead
of single wicking it to just upyour oil, you're gonna get all
(36:52):
kinds of stuff right and you'regonna feel lost.
So you know, I try to to letpeople either in our CanaMaking
course or in our inner circle orjust in my own Facebook group
and in our community, you know,make sure that we ask follow-up
questions to understand what thetrue question is and see if the
(37:13):
person asking the question hasmore information they can give
us.
Just be cautious about goingdown.
If it seems like the advicethat you're getting is going to
make things complicated, thenseek different advice, because
we're making candles here.
This is not complicated.
We teach in our canning courselike this is what you do.
(37:34):
We're going to start with A toB and when you get to B, if B
isn't working the way it should,then it's either this or it's
this, and so that is very, veryeasy to understand and follow.
And so whenever you get to thenext roadblock, it's either this
, this or this, and this is howyou test all of that out.
(37:56):
So just be cautious of whoyou're getting advice from.
You know, see, you know we alllike to click up to those
profiles, see their candles,also see how long they've been
doing this for.
When someone's giving me advicein these groups again, I don't
know everything, I'm askingquestions as well and someone
gives me advice, I'm like, okay,I think I might be able to
trust that person.
I click on there.
I'm like, oh, they've been inthis group for 10 years.
I look at their profile.
They've been selling.
They didn't know what they'retalking about.
Always take advice from someonethat is doing what you want to
(38:19):
do.
If I want to know how to dobetter at wholesaling, I need to
follow people that are actuallywholesaling today, not someone
that's just giving advice orselling advice that are actually
doing it.
There are other people in thisspace.
I know I've I've referencedearlier that I have a wholesale
course, but, like we're doingwholesale every single week, so
(38:43):
I would think that I'm someoneto at least get advice from
right, um.
But there are people that aregoing to sell, you know,
products out there, um, such ashow to you know, build a Shopify
store?
Um, but if they don't, if theyhaven't sold candles on there,
they're not going to know theins and outs of it.
That's why actually building aShopify website is one of the
free workshops inside of ourinner circle so people come on
(39:06):
board.
Because when it comes to I'mgetting way off topic here, but
when it comes to building awebsite your website, I
understand you want to hiresomeone to do it, but then
you're going to go spend $2,000,$2,500 to pay someone to build
your website.
Even if you find someonecheaper than that, find someone
in five or 500 bucks.
That seems like a great deal.
Here's the problem.
You're going to change yoursense.
(39:26):
You're going to change yourvessels, you're going to change
the way you're going to wantyour website layout to be at
some point, and if you don'tknow how to do that, you got to
pay someone else to do it andmake those adjustments for you.
Also, if they end up screwingsomething up on accident, or
whenever that software theShopify gets an update, when
your theme gets an update, ifyou have to go and put some
things back in there, like thepop-ups and things on your
(39:46):
website to collect emails,you're going to have to keep
paying someone over and overagain.
So, even though some peopledon't like to learn the
technology side, I get it.
I would recommend learning ityourself.
That's why we put together it'slike a three-part workshop.
Again, it's free for anyone inthe inner circle.
And I actually I started fromscratch and I just built another
whole new candle business,connecting into my website,
going out and showing you whereto trademark your stuff, all of
(40:10):
that stuff, cause you want toknow all of that stuff as you're
going to open up a store.
So just be cautious of whoyou're taking advice from and
also make sure that you don'tlet what I call I call the
minions or I call the piranhasthose are the people that are
hanging out in those socialcandle groups that are just
always negative, right, they'realways just negative, always
(40:33):
talking down almost to othermakers and how they're doing
things, or critiquing.
You know, if I post a candleout here and say, hey, I'm super
excited, I just created this.
It is a sandal and sandalwoodblend together.
I, you know, I'm excited tostart selling this.
There's going to be that personthat's going to be like oh, did
(40:53):
you test it?
How many tests did you do?
Like, I'm not asking abouttesting, I am just showing a
creation that I am proud of.
I wasn't asking for anyone'sadvice.
I just wanted to share with thecommunity, because we're all
here to help each other outright.
So that's something that neverflies in our Facebook group.
I think that people reallyenjoy that.
(41:14):
We moderate it really tight.
It's free.
Come and join us.
There's a link below here inthe notes.
Come join in, hang out with us.
It's a good group of people andyou're not going to get any of
what I call the piranhas thosepeople that are just always
miserable, right?
We don't need miserable peoplein the communities that we're in
, so we just we we had to justget rid of those people that are
(41:35):
like that.
All right, so that is tips onethrough five.
Next week, I will be back withtips six through 10, or, if
you're watching this on YouTube,there will be a additional part
two video for you to watch thatis going to have tips six
through 10 plus a bonus for you.
So please come back, check thatout.
If you have any tips for us,leave them in the comments below
(41:58):
.
I would love to start adiscussion there.
You can also come and join usinside of our Facebook group.
It's completely free for anyoneto join that.
Come hang out, where we'realways sharing tips and tricks,
not only on the candle makingbut on making your business move
forward.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Candle Business Pro
Podcast.
If you found this episodehelpful, we'd love it if you'd
(42:19):
leave us a rating and a review.
It really helps us reach moremakers like you.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Have a great day.
So starting a candle business is tough.
It's a lot of work.
It takes more than the majorityof us realize when we start
down this entrepreneurialjourney.
It is going to challenge you alot.
You are going to face obstaclesthat you had no idea you're
going to end up facing at somepoint on this journey.
(00:24):
If you stick around long enoughto be successful.
The majority of candle makersend up quitting just before they
get to reaching success,because they don't realize that
success can be just right aroundthe corner.
Today I want to talk about 10steps, or 10 things, rather,
(00:44):
that we learned on our journeyand we're still learning all of
the time.
Sure, we've crossed over amillion dollars in candle sales
in the past three and a halfyears and we've accomplished a
lot of things that we're really,really proud of.
But if we would be able tostart all over again, these are
going to be things that I wantto have in mind as I'm going on
(01:06):
this journey.
Even if these aren't thingsthat you may be doing right now,
if you're thinking ahead,hopefully these will be some
tips that you will appreciateand be able to at least hold
with you and just store themaway somewhere for when you do
happen to face this on yourjourney.
So let's get into 10 thingsthat I want to share with you.
(01:28):
In fact, I actually have abonus one here, so I think I've
got a total of 11 here todiscuss today.
So let's get into it, all right.
So the first thing that I wishthat we knew when we first
(01:50):
started our candle business isyou don't need 10, 12 or more
cents when you start your candlebusiness.
You do not need such a robustinitial collection because,
quite frankly, we're stilltrying to figure out if that
(02:10):
niche that we have in mind andthat target customer that we
think we are going to have evenonce our product, so we don't
need to start with too manyproducts.
So we started our candlebusiness with 10 candles, 10
different scents, a wide variety.
They all seem to fit togetherin the puzzle.
(02:32):
We covered a lot of bases ofdifferent scent categories, but
we had 10 and it was a lot,because then you're going to
also not only have 10 differentscents but you have to make them
in all the different sizes thatyou're going to carry.
So we started our cano business.
We have a five ounce tin, whichis in an eight ounce tin, but
(02:53):
it's a five ounce pour.
Then we have a 10 ounce ofglass and then we also had a 12
ounce ceramic and then we haveour wax melts.
Now, if we started all overagain, we would get rid of that
ceramic.
Not only did we do a ceramic,but we also did it in three
different colors.
So it was the Nordic ceramicvessel from Candle Science that
(03:15):
would go in and out of stockanyways, and we'll talk about
that a little bit later today, Ihave a feeling.
But so we had to make a lot ofcandles.
We started with 10 differentscents and then we had all the
different sizes, we had waxmelts and then in those ceramics
we also had them in differentcolors.
So we went really wide withcasting a net and trying to hit
on a ton of different scents.
(03:39):
Sixth sense is what we wouldstart our candle business with,
and so this is the breakdown.
I'm going to share a littleinsider with you.
This is a breakdown of sense.
We would start with Two citrus.
Citrus is our number onesellers and we sell a lot of
different types of scentcategories.
Citrus is always the number oneyear round.
(04:02):
So we would start with two ofthose six scents would be citrus
.
We would also start with onemasculine.
So like a woodsy, masculine, Ithink, mahogany type of candle,
something that's going toinstantly make someone think of
a guy in their life orthemselves If they're shopping
for themselves and they wantthat woodsy, masculine type of
scent.
You got to have one of those inyour collection.
(04:24):
We would would.
If we started all over again, wewould also have like a spa
light, like a sandalwood,something fresh, something
calming that a lot of peoplewill enjoy.
It wouldn't be what I call anoffensive scent, something that
someone's going to smell and say, oh, I don't like that.
Something calming, soothing, soa spa light type of scent.
I would also have a floral.
(04:44):
Now, I wouldn't do like a lilacheavy, that type of floral.
I'm talking a floral that themajority of people will like.
We would do our.
We have a lavender breeze blendthat we do.
We would do that again.
We have done a lilac candle.
It was horrible.
It was one of our first 10 andit took us almost three years to
(05:07):
sell the last of those that wehad already pre-produced before
we started and opened up ourbusiness online.
It took us almost three yearsto get rid of that lilac candle
but a lavender candle.
We sell that every day.
So I would definitely go withthat type of having a floral.
So I would definitely go withthat type of having a floral,
but being a floral, that'ssomething that people will enjoy
(05:27):
.
That's common.
Oftentimes, I think we try toget too unique, too special with
what we're coming up with, thatwe forget that we have to be
(05:47):
able to relate this product toour customer, and so sometimes
some of these blends that peopleare doing and we're doing
blends as well, but it's notnecessarily going to resonate to
someone shopping online.
They may not know what it'sgoing to smell like.
So I would focus more on whatis my niche, what is my target
audience, and then give them acandle that they're going to
have a pretty good idea of whatit's going to smell like when
they receive it.
So that's why I would go with,like, a lavender type of candle.
And then, lastly, I would haveone of those staple candles that
(06:09):
people just enjoy, whetherthat's going to be a like a
blend of a vanilla.
We have a few different typesof vanilla candles that we sell.
We have like a toasted vanillafor fall.
We also, in our duo collectionwe mix a velvet vanilla and a
smoked vanilla.
We collection we mix a vellumvanilla and a smoked vanilla.
We have a ratio for that thatwe came up with.
That we really love that's ayear-round.
People smell it.
They really like it.
So some another staple type ofcandle for us it would be our
(06:32):
peace of mind candle.
So that is that candle, that isthat blend of eucalyptus and
mint and verbanum.
It's that candle that you smellit and you, you remember
smelling that before or verysimilar to that.
It's similar to like the greencandle that like bad than body
works has had since probably the80s.
That scent has been in a lot ofdifferent um bath products.
(06:55):
You can get body wash, you canget bars of soap, you can get
lotion.
That mint, verbanum, eucalyptusblend.
It's something that has beenaround for 20 some years.
So why not have that in ourcollection to be able to sell?
Now we blend all of our candles.
We're not selling the candlesjust out of the bottles, but
that doesn't mean that you haveto.
But that is a scent that youwould have to blend those items
(07:18):
together because, sure, you canget a freshman, you can get a
eucalyptus, you can get aeucalyptus.
You can get a rubanum, but eachof those individually wouldn't
be the scent I'm talking about.
I'm talking about that blendthat is going to be really
familiar for a lot of people.
So that's.
Tip number one is don't startwith 10 scents.
You don't need that many.
Start with just six.
See how it resonates with thecustomers.
Also, make sure that you caneven find customers, because if
(07:39):
you can't find customers, thengoing wider isn't going to do
that for you customers, thengoing wider isn't going to do
that for you.
I think that's a misconceptionof if I have more sense, I can
have more sales Long-term.
Sure, we want to offer oursuperfans and our core customers
more options, but you have tofind those people first.
(08:01):
So that's where you need towork on what your niche is and
what your target audience is.
Then sell them candles.
Once you know you havesomething going, then keep
adding to it.
That was number one.
Let's now talk about number two.
So number two, wholesale is notas hard as it seems.
Now.
A lot of people do reach outbecause we do a substantial
(08:25):
amount of wholesale.
We've been in the business nowfor three years and three and a
half years going on now andwe've had about 140, 145
wholesale accounts.
We have some big wholesaleaccounts.
We're in the internationalairports sports apparel company
that sells our candles in 45stores across the Midwest and
(08:48):
South in some of their locations, and the way it's going we
should be expanding even further.
We certainly hope so.
They actually have about 300stores across the country and my
goal is to get in all of them.
So we're doing a test now, asix month test in those 45
stores.
That seems to be going allright.
So how do you simplify wholesaleNow, all the wholesale we do?
(09:14):
We actually teach this in mywholesale course because it's a
really straightforward process,but it's all about you going out
and getting these wholesaleaccounts.
I know a lot of people will sayget on fair, which fair is
great.
We're on fair, we get orders onfair, but less than 10% of our
wholesale orders come from fair.
(09:36):
Fair is just like any othermarketplace that's going to get
saturated.
There's going to be a lot ofcompetition out there and you're
just waiting around hoping forsomeone to find you, and that's
not the way I like to operate mybusiness.
I want to go out and put myproduct in front of people and
show them why my candles arebetter than someone else's for
(10:01):
their customer and why theircustomer will want my product.
So I do outreach of all.
The majority of wholesaleaccounts that we get is from my
outreach and that's what weteach in our candle making
course.
But excuse me that in ourcandle wholesale course we have
a candle making course thatshows you exactly how we make
our container candles.
(10:21):
But I'm referring to ourwholesale course.
So let me give you some of thehigh level things to do.
I don't want to just tell youabout my course.
I actually want to give youwhat's in it that can help you
today without even getting thecourse.
So one of the things is stayvery organized.
We have a spreadsheet.
We offer this in the course,but you can just make your own
(10:41):
spreadsheet.
It's not complicated.
Make a spreadsheet and list acolumn for the store that you
want to reach out to theircontact information.
You would like to ideally havethe store manager or owner's
email address and then writedown that email address, their
name, their email address.
Also, go ahead and put thesocial media handle, whether
(11:02):
it's Instagram or Facebook.
Go ahead and put that there soyou can reference back and click
on it rather easy.
Also, have a line column forthe website itself.
Again, because you're going towant to go back and reference
this and you don't want to goout searching anywhere else.
So create a spreadsheet withall the information about the
store.
But also make sure that youhave something that is relatable
(11:23):
and why your product is goingto be good for their store,
whether it's because it's alocal store and you want to sell
to them by being a local candlemaker.
That's how we got started.
We were just reaching out tostores in our town and then we
just kind of went wider fromthere and now we do it by
different metropolitans all overthe country when I'm reaching
(11:45):
out kind of one by one to getour candles in the shop.
So create a spreadsheet.
Then you're going to email them.
You're going to email thatperson and this email it needs
to be rather short and sweet.
Don't fill it with a lot ofparagraphs.
They do not want to read thisinformation.
You need to not sell them onhow great your candles are.
(12:08):
You need to sell them on whyyour candles are going to be
great for their customer and whytheir customer is going to love
them.
I've seen a lot of people thatare doing wholesale and are
struggling with this concept.
I say you know, let me see theemails that you're sending.
And the emails that they'resending out is sort of like the
(12:32):
information that we're puttingon our website Um, 100% natural
wax, all clean fragrances, nophthalates and paraben, all of
those type of features, but notthe benefits.
So we're selling the featuresand not the benefits and, quite
frankly, the store owner ormanager probably doesn't care
(12:54):
about any of those things.
What they care about is sellingproduct to their customers.
What do their customersactually care about?
It's great to say that you'reeco-friendly and all clean and
this and that, however, you showvalue to your potential
customers that you're selling todirectly, but when you're
reaching out to online retailers, they're not going to care
(13:17):
about that.
They want to know why is thiscandle that you're selling going
to be good in their store?
Is it the design?
Is it the packaging?
Is it the price point?
All of these different thingsis what they're going to care
about.
You know, you don't find a storethat when you go looking at
what they're selling online,it's like okay, they're selling
these candles that are $15, $20and my candles are $60, $70.
(13:39):
Okay, there's going to be amisalignment there.
So it doesn't matter what youput in that email to them,
they're going with the price.
This doesn't line up with ourcustomers.
Our customers don't spend thatand it can go both ways with it.
Right, if it is a elevatedwomen's boutique, those are what
I love to go after.
I'm not putting my gourmand orthe foodie scented candles.
(14:02):
That just doesn't fit with thevibe of that store.
So I'm not referencing thosetype of candles right when I am
trying to sell to them.
Also, depending on which storeyou're reaching out to, some of
them aren't going to haveholidays, right?
So a women's um high-endboutique clothing store, they
(14:25):
don't have Christmas sweatshirts, uh, or sweaters, uh.
They don't have some of thoseitems there.
They're, they're.
They're selling dresses,they're selling formal wear type
of items going out date nights,cocktail dresses, uh, things
like that, where my fall senseand winter sense probably aren't
a good fit for that storebecause that store is not really
(14:47):
transitioning by holiday season.
They're transitioning theirstore by clothing seasons and by
what's trending.
So I'm going to put my trendingcandles facing forward to those
stores.
I'm trying to sell them onwhat's going to fit in that
store.
Okay, I'm not trying to sellthem on my lemon pound cake and
(15:10):
my orange creamsicle candle,right?
I want to sell them on what Ithink is going to work in their
store.
So keep that in mind.
So you have a spreadsheet thatyou list out all of these stores
you want to reach out to andthen you have your emails.
Here's the key.
The key to getting a wholesaleaccount is the follow-up.
You have to have a system inplace where you are following up
(15:32):
with all of these stores.
The reality is probably 80% ofthe wholesale accounts that
we've received have come on thefollow-up or the follow-up after
that.
Because here's what happens andI know this on both sides,
because we have three retailstores now we're staying busy.
I'm getting emails all the timefrom people wanting us to carry
their products in our stores,whether it's selling t-shirts,
hats, perfumes, greeting cards,stickers, all kinds of things
(15:57):
and oftentimes I'll get an email.
I'll see it.
I'll see a photo of what's inthis email to me, like oh yeah,
that was great, let me you know.
You know I'm going to get backto them later, cause right now
I'm making the schedule and I'mprocessing payroll and I'm
running a store and I'm busy, soI'm going to star that for
later.
And then about five minuteslater it will leave my mind and
(16:17):
be gone forever and I'll nevergo back and check that email
again and follow up with them.
So when they reach back out tome in a week and remind me,
there we go, now it's clicked.
Oh shoot, yes, I did like thatstuff.
Let me pull that up.
Let me spend five minutes onthis real quick and get them a
reply and see if I can get anorder in.
That is how wholesale works.
It's just the reality of it.
(16:38):
You have to follow up and keepfollowing up.
Remember, we're in the businessof selling candles.
We aren't in a business offeeling embarrassed about
following up too much or buggingsomeone.
You know what, when they don'twant me to email them anymore,
they'll let me know or they'lljust keep deleting those emails.
But eventually they're going todecide to tell me you know it's
(16:59):
not a good fit, not interesteddeleting those emails.
But eventually they're going todecide to tell me you know it's
not a good fit, not interested,check back in spring, check
back in fall.
Once they give me a response,then that is when I'm, when I
take them off of my list or wemove forward with an order.
So I'll follow them severaltimes and then I will just place
them on my list of justquarterly.
When I update my wholesalecatalog, I will send it to them
(17:21):
along with everyone else.
So until they tell me, no,don't bug me anymore,
unsubscribe me, something likethat, then they're still on my
potential list and you want tokeep track of all of this on a
spreadsheet.
Then you got to have thoseemails, then you also have to
have those good email follow-upsand you actually have to have a
really good wholesale catalog.
Now for us.
We offer our students that comethrough our wholesale course.
(17:42):
I hate saying students, we'reall peers, we're all doing this
together, we're all learningfrom each other, but you know
what I'm referencing.
So when someone signs up, theyget all that stuff.
They get my email templates,they get my follow-ups, they get
the spreadsheet, but they alsoget three different wholesale
catalogs because, based on thesize of your brand and your
collection how many candles doyou have we have formatted it
(18:03):
differently.
Also, as I was referencing abit ago, some stores you don't
want to try to sell thesecandles or these room sprays too
, because this is the only stuffthat's really going to work for
them.
So you're going to want to makea few different versions of
your wholesale catalog.
Or, if you're reaching out tosomething very specific, we get
into a lot of pet boutiques aswell.
People are, you know, arebuying a designer dog food and
(18:24):
bandanas and all this stuff inthese pet boutiques and we get a
lot of our odor eliminatingcandles in those shops.
And it's because my catalog ismade for pet shops.
The front cover looks like amagazine for pets, right, and so
it's eye-catching.
So when people get ourwholesale, course they get all
of those.
(18:44):
But again, you can make all ofthis yourself.
You can do all this yourself.
Just keep that in mind.
Have a good system in place forgetting the information about
the stores that you want toreach out to, and then how to
reach out to them, how to followup with them and what to
actually send them, and thenalso some different ways for
them to order from you.
So make sure you have all ofthat.
(19:05):
Let's get into the third thinghere.
That's going to be candle.
Math is not optional, so you'vegot to know your margins,
you've got to know your pricing,you've got to know your cost
per unit very, very early inyour candle business and start
thinking about the ways thatthose may not work eventually.
Sure, if it's just you and itcosts you, let's say, $5 to make
(19:29):
this candle, it costs you fivebucks to make this candle and
you want to go out to a marketthis weekend and you want to
sell it for $10.
Sure, totally fine.
You want to sell it to friends,family, coworkers, your
neighbor, the mailman, whomever,for $10.
So you only have a 2X, totallyfine.
But if you want to build awebsite, if you want to start
(19:53):
doing wholesale, if you want torun ads run paid ads on Meta, on
Facebook or Instagram if youwant to open a brick and mortar
store, if you want to hire anassistant to start helping you,
if you want to then hire abookkeeper to make sure that
you're doing your numbers right,if you want to start scaling
your business, you cannot sellthis $5 candle for $10.
(20:18):
You can't do it, it's not goingto happen, it's not going to
work.
You have to have all of thosethings right your pricing, your
margins and your cost per unit.
So get all of that figured out.
Make sure you know your numbers.
A lot of people I have found inthis space are very creative,
much more creative than I everhave been.
(20:38):
That's kind of why me and Chadare really good balance where I
understand the ins and outs ofthe business side.
He doesn't struggle with it.
But he's much stronger in thecreating and the creation of
stuff.
All of our 10 classic candlesthat we have he sent blends.
All of our like our 10 classiccandles that we have um, he sent
(21:01):
blends.
All of that stuff that hasthree, four, five different oils
all blended together.
He's the one that genuine,genuinely teaches our candle
making course and our bootcampthat we do.
Um, I, I'm in it a little bit,but he's really showing the ins
and outs of how he does it as aprofessional candle maker.
So I find that sometimes thesevery, very, extremely creative
(21:24):
people will sometimes strugglewith the math side of things or
the business outlook side ofthings.
But you have to learn it.
You have to learn it just soyou understand where you can
possibly go with your businessand so that you can make
adjustments on the front end.
If need be, get another candlemath.
(21:45):
That's all we got to do, or atleast have a connection with
someone that can look at yournumbers and do it for you.
We have inside of our innercircle, our membership with
other candle businesses.
People are always exchangingideas and saying, hey, does this
make sense, does this not makesense?
You don't have to be perfect ateverything we're certainly not
but you want to rely on peoplethat can help you out a little
bit whenever you need Next tipfor you.
Number four here is somesuppliers will discontinue the
(22:09):
supplies.
That makes sense, right?
We see new products coming outall the time.
That's how they have to operatetheir business.
They want to stay fresh and topof mind to us all as candle
makers.
But when they bring in newitems, something's got to go at
some point.
Keep that in mind when you arebuilding out your initial brand
(22:34):
collections, line of candles andwhat is going to be something
that will hopefully resonatewith your future customers for a
long time.
So what I have found hashappened it's happened to us a
few times.
Those first initial 10 centsthat I told you that we came out
with and then we created in waytoo many sizes, is those
(22:57):
ceramic Nordics that we hadpurchased.
Two of the colors ended updiscontinuing or going out of
stock for months.
So for us those didn't sellwell, so we ended up cutting
those from our brand.
But for the ones that did sellwell, we ran out and we couldn't
provide that to those customersanymore.
So I would be cautious ofbuilding out your brand in your
(23:24):
initial candle collectionsaround something that could
possibly go away.
So I look at building our candlebrand around just a glass
candle.
It is a glass candle that wecan get from multiple suppliers,
so if our supplier was todiscontinue or be out of stock,
(23:47):
I could probably go find itelsewhere.
Also, a line of candles aroundlike an amber jar.
An amber jar or just anothernine ounce straight sided jar or
vessel You're going to be ableto get from multiple places.
But if you buy something uniquefrom some of the suppliers and
we buy those candles as well, sodon't get me wrong when I say
(24:08):
this but if you're building yourbrand around something maybe a
little bit more elevated, maybemore luxury, make sure that what
you're selecting, especiallywhen it comes like colors of
vessels, make sure you look andsee how long they've been
carrying that, for If they'veonly been carrying it for a
season, it might be going out atthe end of the season.
(24:30):
We have found that to happenoften.
Colors of vessels are going togo away.
So try to find the ones thatare stuck around for a while and
ask the supplier.
Now, they're not going to tellyou if they're going to plan on
discontinuing it in a few months.
You can't reach out to these,some of these bigger suppliers,
because they're not going totell you if they're going to
discontinue it.
They'll let you know when theydiscontinue it, but they're not
(24:52):
going to tell you.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don'twant to buy that from us today
because, like, it's not sellingwell and it's going to go away.
But if you create your entireline up and that vessel goes
away, what are you going to do,honestly, when it comes to
something that you can'tnecessarily replicate too easy,
what are you going to do whenyou have orders coming in?
You sell out of something yougot to make.
(25:13):
More people are buying more.
You know you're taking off withyour business.
But now that vessel, you'retaking off with your business,
but now that vessel, you have tostart over, all over again, and
it's not just a matter ofswapping out vessels.
You're also going to have toretest, right, if you have to go
up or down a size, it doesn'thold as much volume.
You're going to retest all yourwicks.
Same thing happens withdesigner waxes, as I call them.
(25:34):
If you are starting your candlebrand with a designer wax, as I
call it, be cautious, becausewe see this happen.
It's happened a couple of timesthis year, in 2025, several
times.
There are oils that some ofthese suppliers that we love, I
love have discontinued their waxand they tried it, and again
(25:55):
they want to give us stuffthat's what's hot, what's fresh,
what makes them look like.
They are the go-to supplierbecause they're coming out with
the newest, latest thing, whichis perfectly fine.
There's no fault to thatwhatsoever, but it doesn't mean
it's going to work.
Some of those waxes are goingto be a lot more expensive, and
sometimes people just don't needthat wax.
(26:18):
There is a olive oil wax thatwas on the scene the last year,
year and a half.
That was fantastic and it burntreally well.
The pricing wasn't there for usto use it for our line of
candles, for our customers,because of where we were going
to have to put our prices of ourcandles.
It was a great wax, though, butnot enough people were buying
(26:38):
it, so it went away.
What are you going to do?
If you're the one person thatbuilt your brand around that wax
?
It's going to be a problem.
I would stick with your soy,your paraffins and even your
coconut soy.
I would be confident nowadaysbuilding a brand around coconut
soy because you're going to beable to find other um options.
(27:02):
If the supplier you're usingends up not continuing to carry
it, it goes away, you can findanother supplier Again.
You're going to have to do thetesting all over again.
Um but um.
You wouldn't have to change uplike where, if your brand is all
coconut soy and that is yourthing, you promote it, you
(27:22):
explain to your customer whyit's better and that supplier
doesn't have it anymore, you canfind another one so that
messaging with your customerdoesn't have to change, because
the messaging with your customeris one of the key factors of a
brand being an actual brand.
We go way into that inside ofour branding workshop inside of
the inner circle.
(27:43):
So that might be something, ifyou're unsure about your
branding, for you to check out.
But so that's what I'd becautious of.
Also, the other thing to becautious of would be the oils.
So I just mentioned at the topof this episode about the sense
that we would sell if we were tostart all over again what we
(28:06):
would start with now, this year2025,.
There are scents such asSantals, still some grapefruit.
There's some scents that areout there that are really
popular and that we're sellingwell in our shops and online,
(28:28):
but they're going to go at somepoint.
They're not going to be thehottest thing anymore.
Grapefruit was really big forus last year.
It's starting to go down, likethis this year, where mango
scent has been going up, and soour mango scented candle has
been going up.
So there's always going to betrends, right.
What I'm getting at is Iwouldn't base my initial
(28:52):
collection, when I'm starting abrand, around something that
might be a trend.
Sure, you can be popular andhot right now, but as soon as
Santal isn't popular anymoreright now, every supplier is on
that wagon Um, it's going to endup going down at some point.
Um, and you know, if your brandis all built around just that
(29:17):
and then you can't get that oilanymore, that's going to be a
problem.
Also, when it comes to, likeyour fall and winter candles our
fall and winter candles.
We've had the exact same fourwinter candles, four fall
candles for the last three yearsand to give you the honest
reality of why they're the sameis because that second year of
our business we were just aboutto open up our second storefront
(29:40):
and we were just busy anddidn't have the time, didn't
have the time to create anentire brand new collection,
which means all brand newgraphic designer labels, all new
custom blends that Chad had tocome up with, then all the scent
with, then all the scenttesting, and then all of the
wick testing for a glass, a tin,the wax melt, and then the
(30:00):
holiday times we'll have alarger vessel for those.
It was just a lot of work.
So year two of our business, webrought out the exact same ones
.
We brought out the fall ones,the winter ones.
They did well.
So this past year we opened upour third store.
Let's focus on what is reallyimportant, and as long as these
are still selling, it'simportant.
(30:21):
So what I'm getting at bymentioning this is, if you look
at any of the seasonal oils thatthe suppliers come out with,
nine out of 10 of those oils aregoing to be gone as soon as the
season is over and they're notcoming back next year.
That's just a reality ofseasonal scents.
(30:44):
Because they know the suppliersand manufacturers know that us,
as candle makers, love scents.
We love it.
We spend so much time trying tofind the best scents out there
and we want to have those togive to our customers, right,
that's why they come out with adozen.
And so when we have, we buyfrom like six or seven different
(31:07):
suppliers and they all came outwith between eight and a dozen
oils Like I, chad probablybought every single one of those
, right, and you will put theseinto your line.
You're going to put all thework into the labeling, all the
work into the vessels, all thetesting, and then next year
they're not going to have thatoil, that oil is going to go
(31:29):
away, and then you got to startall over again because you're
forced to, not because you justwant to.
So what I would recommend doingis basing those seasonal lines,
if you're going to want to havethem come back.
Base them around scents thatyou can build, that you can
actually put the pieces together.
So for our fall scents, just asan example, we have an orchard
stroll candle which is going tobe that apple cinnamon, right.
(31:52):
So again, we do all of our ownblending.
Anyone can do their ownblending, you know, reach out if
you have any questions, Icertainly can help you with it.
So we put the scents together.
We have an apple, we have acinnamon Apple and a cinnamon at
the suppliers aren't going away.
We have a pumpkin souffle,which has a little bit of
cinnamon, has some pumpkin, hasa couple other things there, but
(32:14):
all the ingredients of thatcandle are scents that are
always going to be around.
Right, our toasted vanilla youknow we've got a certain kind of
nut that goes into that, andthen a vanilla that we found
that we really like.
These are all just things thatat any time of the year we can
make that candle, because thesuppliers carry those scents
(32:35):
year round.
It's those unique, fancy onesthat the suppliers come out with
, that it's what's hot for theseason for them and they're
really focused more.
Those scents that come out arereally focused on those people.
That aren't going to be blendingthings together, which is,
again, totally fine If that'sthe direction you want to go
with your business, if you'relike you know what, it's just
easier to buy these four oilsand let's just, you know, think
(32:59):
about it for this year and nextyear.
We'll just worry about nextyear, when, when, when that time
comes again, totally fine.
But we spend a lot of time withour graphic design for our
labels.
It costs us a lot of money, andthen buying all those labels to
get them professionally printedcosts a lot of money.
So we bring the stuff back andthen we can use any of the
supplies that we may not haveused the previous year.
(33:20):
So just something to keep inmind there.
Okay, so number five not alladvice in candle groups are
gonna be good advice.
So I'm in a lot of candlegroups, you're probably in a lot
of candle groups.
You're probably in a lot ofcandle groups.
I enjoy being in those.
I enjoy helping out othermakers, other people that are
trying to turn this into abusiness.
Really, I love giving thatsupport.
(33:43):
But we're all going to comeacross some people that are
going to either disagree with usfor whatever reason, in
everything that we do, um, orpeople that will.
They want to just give helpingadvice on every single post, and
(34:03):
we can't all be experts ateverything, right.
So a lot of times we'll seepeople giving, let's say, how to
sell candles online advice, butthey don't actually have a
website they're not actuallysuccessful in, they're not
actually doing it right now.
I don't want to say successfulor not because I don't know
(34:24):
someone else's journey but youwant to be cautious on the
advice that you're taking.
Now.
If you are asking a question of, hey, I just got this new
Santal oil, what does it blendwell with?
Let the floodgates open andthat's totally fine.
Get some inspiration, becauseyou're going to get a lot of
(34:45):
responses to a question likethat, and that is totally fine.
You'll post about hey, I'mstarting with this vessel that
is three and a half inchesacross and I'm using CD wicks.
What wicks did I start with?
You're going to get some prettypretty good advice there, I
(35:05):
would say.
But as the advice starts towiden, you're going to start
kind of getting lost and caughtup in that.
Also, people are a lot of timesgiving advice on what kind of
business structure should youopen up.
Should it be an LLC, soleproprietor, things like that,
(35:26):
talking about DBAs, s-corps, allof that.
Like that's the kind of advicethat you don't want to take from
someone in a Facebook group,because everyone's situation is
completely different the wayours is.
We started out as a singlemember LLC, which was just Chad,
and then we ended up puttingmyself on there.
(35:46):
We had to.
We changed over to apartnership and then our
accountant, our CPA, a year anda half ago, because of the staff
and bringing people on thepayroll, switched us over to an
S-corp.
So that's the reason we've goneon a journey through a lot of
those.
So just asking and gettingadvice back on what you should
(36:08):
set up without someone knowingyour exact strategy and where
you are, what do you plan ondoing?
How much?
How much sales are you planningon doing?
A lot of those types ofquestions you're just going to
get a bunch of answers.
So sometimes it's about thatway.
We ask questions, but also wehave followed all kinds of
advice and when we first startedthat we shouldn't have, for
instance, like when Sully wasn'tgiving us the, the, the hot
(36:31):
throw that we wanted, when soywasn't giving us the, the, the
hot throw that we wanted.
And you, if you post thatquestion, you post how to get
soy hot throw better.
If you post that in an onlinegroup, you're going to get crazy
answers from add in a scoop ofcoconut to a triple wick instead
of single wicking it to just upyour oil, you're gonna get all
(36:52):
kinds of stuff right and you'regonna feel lost.
So you know, I try to to letpeople either in our CanaMaking
course or in our inner circle orjust in my own Facebook group
and in our community, you know,make sure that we ask follow-up
questions to understand what thetrue question is and see if the
(37:13):
person asking the question hasmore information they can give
us.
Just be cautious about goingdown.
If it seems like the advicethat you're getting is going to
make things complicated, thenseek different advice, because
we're making candles here.
This is not complicated.
We teach in our canning courselike this is what you do.
(37:34):
We're going to start with A toB and when you get to B, if B
isn't working the way it should,then it's either this or it's
this, and so that is very, veryeasy to understand and follow.
And so whenever you get to thenext roadblock, it's either this
, this or this, and this is howyou test all of that out.
(37:56):
So just be cautious of whoyou're getting advice from.
You know, see, you know we alllike to click up to those
profiles, see their candles,also see how long they've been
doing this for.
When someone's giving me advicein these groups again, I don't
know everything, I'm askingquestions as well and someone
gives me advice, I'm like, okay,I think I might be able to
trust that person.
I click on there.
I'm like, oh, they've been inthis group for 10 years.
I look at their profile.
They've been selling.
They didn't know what they'retalking about.
Always take advice from someonethat is doing what you want to
(38:19):
do.
If I want to know how to dobetter at wholesaling, I need to
follow people that are actuallywholesaling today, not someone
that's just giving advice orselling advice that are actually
doing it.
There are other people in thisspace.
I know I've I've referencedearlier that I have a wholesale
course, but, like we're doingwholesale every single week, so
(38:43):
I would think that I'm someoneto at least get advice from
right, um.
But there are people that aregoing to sell, you know,
products out there, um, such ashow to you know, build a Shopify
store?
Um, but if they don't, if theyhaven't sold candles on there,
they're not going to know theins and outs of it.
That's why actually building aShopify website is one of the
free workshops inside of ourinner circle so people come on
(39:06):
board.
Because when it comes to I'mgetting way off topic here, but
when it comes to building awebsite your website, I
understand you want to hiresomeone to do it, but then
you're going to go spend $2,000,$2,500 to pay someone to build
your website.
Even if you find someonecheaper than that, find someone
in five or 500 bucks.
That seems like a great deal.
Here's the problem.
You're going to change yoursense.
(39:26):
You're going to change yourvessels, you're going to change
the way you're going to wantyour website layout to be at
some point, and if you don'tknow how to do that, you got to
pay someone else to do it andmake those adjustments for you.
Also, if they end up screwingsomething up on accident, or
whenever that software theShopify gets an update, when
your theme gets an update, ifyou have to go and put some
things back in there, like thepop-ups and things on your
(39:46):
website to collect emails,you're going to have to keep
paying someone over and overagain.
So, even though some peopledon't like to learn the
technology side, I get it.
I would recommend learning ityourself.
That's why we put together it'slike a three-part workshop.
Again, it's free for anyone inthe inner circle.
And I actually I started fromscratch and I just built another
whole new candle business,connecting into my website,
going out and showing you whereto trademark your stuff, all of
(40:10):
that stuff, cause you want toknow all of that stuff as you're
going to open up a store.
So just be cautious of whoyou're taking advice from and
also make sure that you don'tlet what I call I call the
minions or I call the piranhasthose are the people that are
hanging out in those socialcandle groups that are just
always negative, right, they'realways just negative, always
(40:33):
talking down almost to othermakers and how they're doing
things, or critiquing.
You know, if I post a candleout here and say, hey, I'm super
excited, I just created this.
It is a sandal and sandalwoodblend together.
I, you know, I'm excited tostart selling this.
There's going to be that personthat's going to be like oh, did
(40:53):
you test it?
How many tests did you do?
Like, I'm not asking abouttesting, I am just showing a
creation that I am proud of.
I wasn't asking for anyone'sadvice.
I just wanted to share with thecommunity, because we're all
here to help each other outright.
So that's something that neverflies in our Facebook group.
I think that people reallyenjoy that.
(41:14):
We moderate it really tight.
It's free.
Come and join us.
There's a link below here inthe notes.
Come join in, hang out with us.
It's a good group of people andyou're not going to get any of
what I call the piranhas thosepeople that are just always
miserable, right?
We don't need miserable peoplein the communities that we're in
, so we just we we had to justget rid of those people that are
(41:35):
like that.
All right, so that is tips onethrough five.
Next week, I will be back withtips six through 10, or, if
you're watching this on YouTube,there will be a additional part
two video for you to watch thatis going to have tips six
through 10 plus a bonus for you.
So please come back, check thatout.
If you have any tips for us,leave them in the comments below
(41:58):
.
I would love to start adiscussion there.
You can also come and join usinside of our Facebook group.
It's completely free for anyoneto join that.
Come hang out, where we'realways sharing tips and tricks,
not only on the candle makingbut on making your business move
forward.
Thank you so much for listeningto the Candle Business Pro
Podcast.
If you found this episodehelpful, we'd love it if you'd
(42:19):
leave us a rating and a review.
It really helps us reach moremakers like you.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Have a great day.
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