Why Most Candle Businesses Fail (And How to Actually Succeed)

#038. Thinking about starting a candle business but not sure where to begin?

In this episode, I answer real questions from new and growing candle makers about how to actually build a profitable candle brand. We cover choosing the right sales channel, Etsy vs Shopify, finding your niche, standing out in a crowded market, wholesale strategy, social media presence, and even practical tips for working with 464 soy wax.

After building our candle company to over $2 million in revenue in under four years, I’m sharing what actually works and what most beginners get wrong.

If you’re serious about starting a candle business, this is a must-listen.

Free resources and supply list are linked below.

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Transcript

How Beginners Build Sales Confidence

Picking Sales Channels That Fit You

Define A Real Customer Niche

Wholesale As A Growth Lever

Soy Wax Temps And Fixes

What Actually Matters With Sinkholes

Branding That Truly Stands Out

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome everyone back to the Candle Business Pro Podcast. I am your host, Sebastian Garzinet, the co-founder of Garzinet Beacon Candle Company, where we just passed$2 million in revenue. Super excited about hitting that. It wasn't necessarily a goal, but it's a big number and it's a big number to hit and we're just going to keep going. And so we're super excited to be in this industry. We have done this for almost four years, so you can do the math on that. Next month here, if this comes out in February, will be the month that we started four years ago. Today we we are going to be answering questions from viewers like yourself. So don't hesitate to drop questions in the comments below. You can ask them inside of our free Facebook group, or you can reach out to us through our website. So before we get into this, I do want to remind you, we do have lots of free resources for you in the show notes below. We have our supply list. We have a guide on starting your candle business from home. There is likely a guide for how we get started in wholesale as well. If not, you can always find those on our website. So hopefully those resources are valuable to you. All right, so let's get into this. The first question here is from Heather Hawking. And her question is, I've never made a candle before. How do I know if I can succeed at this? The jump from selling five candles on Etsy to making a livable income seems enormous. especially since I'm not that great at selling myself. Any tips or confidence tips boosters, you got to start somewhere, right? When we first started, we opened up an Etsy store. But there is a big difference between an Etsy store and having your own website, a Shopify store, right? Etsy sends traffic your way if it's a product that the customers want. And with a Shopify, your own website, you have to get the people there, whether that's organic through ads, through social media leads, all of that to get them to your website. And I have videos on Shopify versus Etsy. When we first started this, we We went into candle making as a business. It was not a hobby for us. It was, we were determined for it to be a business. So we looked at the different ways of selling and we picked the selling channels that we were comfortable with. You have to sell, you have to sell your products. Do you want to do markets? You know, I wasn't good at markets when we first started. Now I think I'm really, really good at doing markets. It's just about being comfortable, being easy to chat with. You know, that's what makes the sale more than the product itself. The product is what they're buying, but it's the story that we're telling. And it is the communication with us that gets them motivated to spend money with us. And of course, you have to have a good product as well. But you have to decide a sales channel that you're going to put all of your energy into. So is that doing markets? Is it doing SEO and optimizing your website? Now that's a long game. So I wouldn't recommend that being your only means of selling. Are you good at social media? You need to be able to get your products out there. Now you don't have to be an expert on social media. Our social media followers is in the low thousands. It's not, we don't have 10,000 followers. I don't think we even have 5,000 followers. Actually, I think we're two or 3,000. Like it's not a lot, but yeah, Those followers are our customers. Those are people that have discovered our brand. We're not trying to go viral with a video. We are trying to intentionally grow our channels with people that want our products, right? I don't want just random people following us because we're making fun videos. I want people to follow us that want our products. And that means hanging out in the spaces where they're at. A lot of what I see and the difference between the brands that are successful and the ones that are struggling is not having an identity. It doesn't matter how beautiful a candle. It doesn't matter how well it burns. That stuff doesn't matter if you don't have anyone to buy it. And to have someone to buy your product, you need to put something out there that they identify with. Don't try to make candles for everyone. That's when you end up pleasing no one. Make a candle for a specific person and don't use that overall vision that a lot of candle makers tend to have, which is my target audience is someone that wants to relax. They've had a long day of work and they want to light a candle. That's probably 95% of us, right? Like that's all of us, right? We need to go deeper than that. Who are they? Why is this candle label and packaging size ingredients? Why is this all going to relate to you? What is it you're looking for? Are you looking for sustainability? Are you looking for, what niche do you want to be in, right? And go beyond just like sustainability because so many, that's just a saturated subset, right? That's just, we're all going for clean, environmentally friendly, all of those kind of terms within our marketing. Are you targeting single dads that have zero time because they're running their kids around to sports after work, right? Or are you dealing with single moms that are now Or just mothers in general that maybe are experiencing, you know, postpartum depression. Like, are you in the metaphysical space and you're selling candles that have different things that relate to that? Are you a world traveler? And so all of your candles are for... World travelers, so they're going to be named after exotic destinations. Like, that would be a great niche to be in. I wouldn't do it because I don't understand it because I haven't done that, right? I haven't gone to all these exotic places across the world. So I would find a niche that you... are passionate about so that you can relate to it. So you don't have to do a lot of research on it. Just what is it that you can relate to? You know, I'm part of the LGBTQ community, right? Me and my husband could create a whole line of candles around that if we wanted to, right? And we would have our people, right? That would support the brand. You know, we don't do that as a brand. We wanted to think outside the box further than that. But you can... If you start with something that you're part of, it's gonna make it a lot easier than just throwing random candles out there because when you throw random candles out there, that's what everyone else is doing. So be intentional about it. And then when you're intentional about where to go and get customers, go and hang out in those groups, go and follow those blogs, go and read those stories, start writing blogs and posting those on your website so that you're gonna start getting traffic for those specific people. So that's what I'd recommend doing. But also don't think this is an overnight get rich thing. It's not. Once you do have a product line developed then you can start doing lots of different things. And I recommend people getting into wholesale. When you first start out, it is going to be a slow game. Once you have a collection and a brand established, of course you want to sell direct to consumers, but that's where I recommend people getting into wholesale. Because wholesale, you can go after boutiques that already have the customers. That's the advantage of wholesale, is you're taking advantage of someone else already having an audience. You have the product that that audience is going to want to buy, so then you reach out to the stores that have that audience that you're looking for. And so a All of the stuff that we dove into. You can get a free guide on my website. It is panelbusinesspro.com slash wholesale101. And there's a free guide of getting started with wholesale if you'd like to get that. So the next question here is from Stacy Pork. And Stacy's question is, I am working with soy, 464. So trying to learn all the tips and tricks. Now, usually I don't spend a lot of time on the making site on my podcast here. But since we work with 464, I am happy to touch base on this kind of quickly here. So the tips and tricks is find the right temperatures to pour at for that that works with you. We like to do like 187. For our heating temp, and then we pour at 184, 185, and we let it cool under 140. The lower, the better for us. Also, don't get so concerned with wet spots or sinkholes whenever you make the candle. Pouring at a lower temperature is going to mitigate that a lot. But it's still going to happen because with soy, this is a tip that I think doesn't resonate for a lot of people until they're in it and they understand it for the season, is that with soy wax, it's going to contract and expand all the time. You can have a perfect, perfect pour. It looks beautiful. And there's no wet spots. The adhesion on the glass is perfect. And the temperature in your space drops five degrees, right? Which is pretty normal. you're going to start getting wet spots and then it's going to warm up. And then the, the wax is going to expand and then they're going to go away. Don't be so concerned with wet spots. Also a way, if you are concerned and you're using glass like we do, if there is a wet spot somewhere that seems to be kind of prevalent, that's where we will just stick our label over it. But, We've never had a customer pick up a candle, see a wet spot, put it back and grab the candle behind it instead. It's just not something that happens. With sinkholes, sinkholes are always going to happen, especially with soy. It's just because of how fast the soy itself, the wax itself, cures. Regardless if there's a sinkhole or not, we always heat gun it because the sinkhole is going to be right under the surface of the wax. We do not go and poke holes with skewers and all that stuff through it. We're just going to do a light, an eighth of an inch at the most, probably a sixteenth of an inch, just a couple of millimeters of a nice smooth heat gun. across the top. Because the reality is, and people get, you know, hype up the sinkhole so much, the reality is, the only time a sinkhole is going to affect your candle is if it's right underneath the surface, right around the wick at the very beginning of the burn. That's it. Nowhere else in there that there's possibly a sinkhole that's ever going to affect your candle. Because as the candle's burning down, the melted wax is going to fill in any holes that are below it, right? The only time there would be an issue is if it's right around the wick. and it would be right when you light the candle, where if it opened up a sinkhole, and then there is a gap between where the flame is and where the wax is, that's when the candle could potentially keep going out. It's not staying lit because there's not enough wax that has fragrance in it, which is the actual fuel to keep it lit, would be. Just keep that in mind. A sinkhole to the side, down below, anywhere is not going to matter. It would have to be right at the top, right around this wick. So, we're heat gunning for appearance to make it look good as well. So hopefully that helps you out there. Next question here is from Dana Gonzalez. And her question is how to stand out in a crowded candle market. And that kind of goes back to the first question from Heather is have a fun niche, have something where you're going to stick out. One of the Inner Circle members, the Candle Business Pro Inner Circle that I host, one of our candle makers, her branding, it's Meep Meep Candles. You can go and check it out. Her name is Chandra. She is amazing. Her candles are fantastic and they've got cats on them. I'm a dog lover. And every time I see her branding, I'm just like, gosh, how so creative. She has these fun cats on there. They have fun sayings on them. And she's targeting cat lovers only. It's a fun candle. If I'm out at a random market and I came across her products, I'm buying them because they're beautiful. They're great. They're fun. They stick out. They're not that beautiful, nice vessel with a minimalistic label on it. That is just kind of, that's what I feel is saturated, right? Everyone will go for that same white labels with cursive handwriting on there, the same block text, all of that. Be fun and be unique. That's how you're going to stand out. Um, and, and stand confidently behind your brand, um, in what you do. And then whatever that niche is that you dial into, go hard at it. Just, just keep doing the same thing over and over again. And that really leans in the, to the consistency side. And that's where you're going to get some traction. If you look into a store and that you would love to have your candles in and you say, oh yeah, my candles would probably fit on, on that shelf. That's, that's okay. But you want your candles to stand out on that shelf, right? So you want to make sure that you're standing out amongst the crowd. You want it to fit on that shelf, right? When we first started, we went in, we want our candles in women's boutiques because there is a disposable income for the certain age rings that we're going for. They're spending more because they're in these more elevated shops. And so they're not going to be as price sensitive as some others, right? So we have specific stores that we wanted our candles into. So we went into those stores. We picked up every candle they had, all the brands. We looked at them. What is the size? What is the style they're going for? How are they all the same? And how can we stick out from that? And that's exactly what we landed on. We didn't need to get big, fancy vessels. We wanted to get between an eight and a 12 ounce candle. We wanted to be in the The high 20s to low 30s in the price point or mid 20s to mid 30 price point range. So we had the price right to get into those stores. We had the size right to get into those stores. And then we looked at what they all had in common and thought, how can we stick out from that? They were all the white labels, minimalist, you know, cursive, pretty, you know, modern writing on there. So we decided to go with bright, colorful products. against that. So there will be some contrast. And then when we are reaching out, especially during wholesale to those shops, we can say, Hey, we love your collection of candle brands that you have. Ours, I really think are just going to stick out. They're colorful. They're beautiful. Check out my catalog here. Let me know if you're interested and go from there. So hopefully that helps you out on that there. Next question here is from Shannon, Shannon Bartley. And it says, where's the best deal on supplies? Okay, best deal on supplies is going to be somewhere you can go and get supplies yourself because shipping is going to be what kills you on supplies. That is what you spend the most money on. Now, we have a completely free checklist of all the suppliers that we use. So you can grab that in the show notes below. It'll say all the tools and supplies we use to run our candle business. And it's going to have suppliers on there, even some discount codes for viewers and listeners. So you can get that in the show notes below. But usually it's going to end up being even regionally where you're at, right? If you are on the East Coast, there's going to be a lot of suppliers on the East Coast. If you're down South, suppliers down there because shipping is so much. And if you can find someone where you can drive and pick up, that's going to save you tremendously. But check out the... supply list that we provide because all the suppliers we use, I think, have pretty reasonable supply pricing. So definitely check that out. Next question here is from Kimberly. Is it Kimberly Bounds, maybe? It says, how to start a social media presence? Well, you simply just have to start. Simply create your business pages and do it where you don't have to be on all the social media platforms. Do it where You think your customer is. Who's your customer? Who's that avatar that you are trying? Once you have your niche decided on, build a customer profile. Is your profile, okay, it's Jenny. She is a mother of three and she's a stay at home and she is 45 and she buys candles for this reason, right? That's just one example, okay? Well, where is Jenny going to be hanging out at? That's where you build your social media platform. Is she on TikTok? Is she on Instagram, on Facebook, on Snapchat, on Pinterest, on LinkedIn? Where is that person hanging out at? That's where you start. For us, our customers are going to lean over 30. They are probably actually over 35 to 40 is where we target. That customer for us is generally going to be on Facebook. and Instagram. Facebook heavier than Instagram. A little bit younger than that, I think the early 30s in late 20s is probably more focused on, they were Instagram, right? And Facebook was kind of like, oh, like we're into the images, right? The pictures and the videos and not the text-based Facebook. So that's where they're going to hang out. That's why I would start there. Or if it's a much, you know, a younger generation, much younger than me, you know, college age, the mid-20s and all that, the TikToks, those scroll-stopping type of platforms is maybe where you want to go. And can you create those type of videos that connect with that customer? Now, people of all generations are on TikTok and on these other platforms, but I say this because you don't want to overwhelm yourself being on everything, right? We aren't on Twitter or X. We aren't on Blue Sky. We're not on LinkedIn. We're not on Snapchat. We're not on TikTok. I am just on Facebook and Instagram with our brand. Personally, you can be on all of them yourself and hang out wherever you want to hang out in your time. But where's your customers? Stick to two at the most, I would recommend, at first. And you just have to show up consistently. Have a cadence. Have a cadence laid out of when you're going to post. And it doesn't have to always be selling. Just keep that in mind. You need to dial in what your niche is and talk about those different types of topics. If you're a world traveler, talk about world traveling, right? What are the easiest ways to get started if you're going to be out in your community and out and doing markets, you know, during the nicer months? Post about community activities. You can create and post on your website a top 10 things to do in Holland, Michigan, where I live, right? And I have articles on my website about things to do in Holland, Michigan. And people discover my brand that way. But then also on my social media, I'll be like, hey, this weekend is Winterfest and talk about some stuff. So people in the community end up following my page for information, but I'm not always selling them something. I'm also providing them with some value. And then as you grow and your audience expands, and maybe some of those type of posts aren't going to be as relevant anymore. I wouldn't necessarily want to post about local happenings anymore as our brand has expanded. So just keep that in mind there. But it's a great way of getting started, especially as a local brand. You want local support, support your community. And it becomes a win-win for you on social media. Hopefully this episode has helped someone out here, been really candid, is going through some questions that people submit it again, comment questions below and I will get back to you. I will get them answered on an upcoming episode. If it's something with a super quick answer, I'll always just hop into the comments and give you an answer right away as well. And then come join us inside of our Facebook group and come hang out with us. We're posting daily tips on Instagram as well. So hopefully this has been beneficial to you. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Have a fantastic rest of your week. Take care.