How to Start a Candle Business (While Working Full-Time)

#039. In today’s new video, I’m answering questions from makers just like you, including:

• How to grow when time is limited
 • Whether wholesale makes sense part-time
 • The biggest mistake we made when we launched
 • And how to get a stronger scent throw

After building our candle company to over $2 million in sales, there are a few things I would absolutely do differently if we were starting today.

And one of them might surprise you.

If you’re in the early stages or feeling stretched thin trying to juggle everything, I think this episode will help you breathe a little easier and focus on what actually moves the needle.

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Transcript

Welcome And Credibility

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel. I am your host, Sebastian Garznet, the founder here at Candle Business Pro and the co-founder, alongside my husband, Chad, of Garznet Beacon Candle Company. We started almost four years ago. We are almost at that four-year mark, and we have now surpassed over two and a half million dollars in sales of our candles. And I am here to help you out on your journey as well. So we cover everything from the candle business we heavily focus on, but we'll also answer some questions on candle making as well. If you are on your candle making journey just starting out, I recommend checking out our website, candle busistpro.com, where you can get checklists of all the supplies that we use to run our business with. It talks about all the suppliers that we use, all the tools that are kind of must-haves to start out. And then also those things that as you grow, things that aren't a must-have at the beginning, but would be nice to get eventually. Um, we map all of that out for you. And we also have our candle making course that so many people have found incredibly uh helpful. We help you out with that. It's not something that you just get and then you are left to figure it out. We are with you, uh, helping you out along the way. So let's dive into this week's question. All right. So let's start off with a question here from Jodi Yokoyama. And her question is what is your advice for makers who are also having a full-time job and less time to devote to their candle business? So great question. Um, go in strides. Don't take on too much. Uh, oftentimes when we are starting a new business while we are supporting ourselves with our current job, our current career, we are eager to get into this new business, but it's gonna take a while. It's gonna take a while to figure out what product is gonna resonate with our customers, um, what direction the brand is going to go, and where are we gonna feel confident in consistent sales and consistent growth? And that can be a lot of different avenues. I know people that make a full-time salary just doing markets on the weekend. They are doing fantastic just doing markets, but you have to be in a location that's gonna be able to support that. Here in Michigan, that you can support that. There's enough markets in Michigan across the state. Now, you may have to travel an hour or two each way on the weekend to get to that market, but there are enough of them. And thankfully, there's enough summertime, even though the winters here are very long. There's enough summertime or indoor markets in the winter to sustain someone to do this full time. And so they travel, they do the shows on the Saturday or Saturday, Sunday. And then Monday through Friday, they are working on building their online presence, or they're just doing production, or I have some that have don't even have a website and they are just selling at markets on the weekends and making a hefty salary doing that. So depending on the direction you want to go, Jody, is going to be what I don't want to say how hard you have to work, because you definitely have to work hard in this, but it's going to depend on how long it's going to take to see a result. If you are just going direct to consumer, meaning you figure out your candles, you got your candles, and then you open up a website, and your only way of selling that is to promote it on social media, try to get people to your website. Unless you have a budget to spend on ads, that is going to be an organic way of growing your business. And that's going to take some time. But if you want to go down different avenues, and I talk about this a lot, especially in terms of the workshops that we do in the inner circle, is all the different avenues of selling candles. You have obviously the direct consumer through your website and social media. Um, but then you also have the markets that I just talked about. But wholesale. We started in wholesale right after we launched our candle business because we launched our candle business in February. And so it's the middle of winter here. We can't do any markets, and I was ready to start selling. So I put together through some trial and error an entire wholesale package of how I'm going to present this and how I'm going to create this as a wholesale business. And that is something that we have done tremendous at over uh the last few years. We are now over 160 accounts. We are in international airports. We have one of our accounts as 44, 43 locations that we are in across the country, mostly here in the Midwest, uh Chicago, Texas. Uh is Texas considered the Midwest? Maybe just down south. Uh we're not really on the East Coast or the West Coast with them. It's called Rally House. It is a company, it's a sports apparel, like a hometown sports apparel uh location. We landed that account. Uh, that's a big one for us. Like I said, we're in multiple airports. So um we do a lot of fundraisers. Fundraisers is a great way of getting your name out there, especially in your local community, if that is an avenue you want to grow. And if you want to grow locally, doing fundraisers is fantastic. We do workshops on that inside of the inner circle as well. Uh, you can also do a lot of private label and corporate gifting. They're a little bit different. They're definitely different from wholesale. Wholesale is when you take your product, you sell it to a retailer at generally half retail, and then they market up to retail, so they're doubling their money. That's gonna be wholesale. Private label is when you're working with someone more one-on-one on creating a product that is going to have their branding on it. So you're gonna take, take your, you know, your supplies, the stuff, your ability to create and create something just for them. And that can be retailers, but it can also be a lot of different things. Um, and so I call it corporate gifting. It can be for uh team culture. I I reach out to factories and sell them in bulk our candles that they then give out to their team as like quarterly gifts and things like that, or end-of-year gifts. We have a there's a national car wash chain, I guess, uh that franchises all of their locations. They've got like 350 locations now across the country. They're called uh Tommy's uh car wasp or quality car wasp. Uh Tommy's Express or Quality Car Wash. Uh, they're located here in Michigan. And we uh came to an agreement with them. So they now buy our candles every year to uh send out to all of their franchise locations. Uh it goes into a box, right? That goes out as like a thank you uh into the year. They put like their annual report in there, and then they also have like a bottle of wine, and then they have our candle. So they gift this, their corporate headquarters gifts it to their locations across the country, and they went with our candles. Chad actually recreated that scent as you're going through an automated car wash, you know, and they're spraying all the colorful soaps and things on your car. That scent, he worked with them on recreating that. And we gave it to them. They sent it out to all of their locations. Then we started getting calls from different locations saying, hey, we would love to carry some of your candles uh to give out to maybe some of their VIPs at that specific location. So lots of different ways. Once you have a product, there's so many different ways that you can sell. So going back to your question, Jody, find a lane that you want to be in that works with your lifestyle. And if you're going to keep the full-time job that you currently have, that's totally fine. Find something that works around that. Doing the fundraiser works around that very, very well. Uh, doing just private label corporate gifting would work around that very well. Opening a retail store wouldn't work around that very well because obviously there's the time commitment of being at that retail location. Markets on the weekends can work around a nine to five job. You'll be able to do it for a couple of years until you're like me, and then you would get burnt out from working nine to five during the week and then working the weekends on uh candles. You but for the first couple of years, if you can do it, I highly recommend doing it. It's just great to be in front of customers and getting that feedback. Um, wholesale, we actually have a wholesale course you can take. Uh, you can get uh information on that at candlebusinesspro.com slash wholesale. And you can learn all about how we do our wholesale. And for us, we have the resources to do it. If I was just say wanting to run my business part-time, wholesale is gonna require full time because you have to make all that product. You're selling that product at half off retail, so you got to sell a lot more of it. And if you want to go full time, wholesale is a fantastic fantastic way to go. If you want to stay part-time, I would go more of that private label corporate gifting direction I mentioned, because you're not giving them 50% off um of retail. So just keep that in mind. We talked more about pricing in the inner circle, but you do not give them 50% off. So you don't need as many accounts as you do with wholesale. With wholesale, you need a lot of accounts because you're giving them such a discount. Uh, so just more ways of just mentioning how you can sell your uh sell your products out there into the world. So good luck, Jody, on uh uh on your journey. Next question here is from Talia Plant. And Talia's question is what's the one thing you wish you knew at the beginning of your journey? Great question. The one thing that I wish we would have done is start smaller. It seems like not a big deal, but it was such a big deal. When we first started, we had 10 cents in our initial like classic collection, right? We had 10 different cents. We had them in three different sizes. So we had them in the like a uh a five-ounce tin, 10-ounce glass, and then a 12-ounce ceramic. And in the ceramic, we had it in three different colors. We had them in black, gray, and white. They were the candle science uh Nordics. I believe they just just they ended up just discontinuing. We always had issues with them being in stock, so it was it was an issue. But we we also had wax melt, and then we also had room sprays. So 10 candles, three different sizes, uh room sprays and wax melts. Way too much. Way, way too much. By the time we launched, I was exhausted. It was just like, dang it, Chad, let's just get these out there. Stop worrying about set number 10 or number nine. I just want to get this out in the world. I'm tired of spending all this money and not selling anything. So if I was to start all over again, I highly, highly recommend that you don't want the more than six. Five or six cents is all you need to launch with. And that's the direction that I would uh suggest anyone go with. Once you have those six, five or six cents, whatever your best sellers are, and just make something very, very similar to it. R out of our ten cents uh that we have, two of those ended up doing horribly, and they were the ones that we added in at the end. Uh so we ended up having to cut those. And so we did all the extra work there at the end for something that didn't necessarily work. But what we found was our citrus candles did fantastic. So we will start making other citrus heavy candles. They all do well. It just works really well with our customers. So start small, let your customers basically tell you what they want. And what I mean by that, I mean let the numbers tell you. Don't let someone actually tell you what they want, because that is another thing that will get a lot of makers distracted. Is oh, I have a coworker that wants this scent. What do you guys recommend? Well, by the time you go out and find that scent for that one coworker that wants it, and you buy that oil and you make it, and maybe you sell that candle to them, but it's not even going to cover the cost of that oil, most likely. You've got to sell a lot more than just one candle of that. So don't chase after what everyone wants. Don't try to make everyone happy. Stick to your niche, stick to what's on brand for you, and cut out the rest of the noise that's out there. I also, one of the things that I would recommend uh not doing when you first start is don't chase the latest oils that come out onto the market. It's just not something that you want to build your business around because that seasonal line of oils that that company just launched uh here to say in spring, those 10 oils that they just launched here in spring, by fall, eight out of those ten are no longer going to be on the market because they're gonna turn over just like you know, just like any business would, right? Their goal is to turn over, give us new products, right? They're not stocking their entire back catalog. If it does really well, they'll keep it on. So I would say in our experience over the last four years with the major suppliers, if they were to release 10, I would say they keep two of those cents going into the next season. Um sometimes it might not even be that. So I I would be cautious of chasing the latest trend when it comes to oils and also vessels. That's the other thing that I we luckily didn't do. We we started with a clear glass uh Libby, is what we started with. We did have the ceramics I mentioned from candle science. We had them in gray, black, and white, but then there's inventory issues. And if they run out of stock or run out of a color or discontinue, what are you gonna do? You're gonna have a business that now has to pivot and you have to go find something similar. So I would be cautious on chasing unique vessels. Now, there's places like Makesy. Uh, they have the Aura um vessel and the beautiful. We sell tons of those. We love those. But I would not chase the latest color or the latest variation. I would stick to the ones that they've had for several years and reach out to a company. Say, hey, I'm new and I need to build my brand around something that I'm confident I'm gonna be able to get my hands on in a year from now still. Can you tell me which colors? I need five. Can you tell me five colors that you're confident you'll have a year after year? And most places will be like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like, hey, you know what? Like, maybe stay away from these. Um, but you know, because these are the ones that are popular or in season right now. But here are some that are our year-rounds, they always do well. We have we don't anticipate them going anywhere. I think a lot of the suppliers will give you um their recommendation. And I would recommend doing that because we all like to see the the new stuff that comes out and buy some of it. And we do, we buy a lot of the new stuff that comes out, but we then release it to our customers in a limited edition, right? And because if it goes away, it goes away and it's okay. It's it's it's it's not no harm, no foul, I guess at the end. It's like we we um plan for what we're going to sell, we create that, and then if it goes away, it it's okay, you know. So that's that's the way that you can stay having fun and staying creative. What we do is for the oil side, is every month we do a candle of the month. So we have a subscription business where people on the first of the month, we mail out uh the candle of the month, January, February, March, April, you know, every single month. Um, which by the way, uh is something I recommend candlemakers do. We do a workshop on this in the inner circle, and it's fantastic, especially when it comes Mother's Day. Um, Valentine's Valentine's Mother's Day in Christmas season, it's fantastic for gifting um too, because people buy candy, flowers, all that stuff. Getting someone a candle subscription is fantastic. Or just for their own uh buying for themselves and some self-care. It's always great to have that too. Um, and that's a way that we can be creative with um oils. So those new oils that came out, we want to test them, we want to sample them. Oh my gosh, yeah, this smells fantastic. Okay, great. We're gonna put that into our next candle subscription, our next candle of the month. So, because we're confident that that oil is gonna be around for at least a month, right? If it does really well in that test, then we can consider keeping it as part of our long-term um in one of our long-term collections. A year and a half ago, we did a blend of uh uh we we call it oak and leather. And it's uh it's a couple different oils that blended, and it did it did really well with our candle of the month. That this past fall, we introduced it just as a fall limited edition candle in a in a much bigger, a large wooden wick, uh, a more elevated candle, right? So instead of our typical candle of the month that's gonna cost like$28, we're selling this for like 46 as it was in a bigger uh container. And it's just done phenomenal to where now it's just it's just a standalone candle that we just have in our business. It's on our website right now. It's different from everything else, but it's just done so well. And so as we test out something in a smaller market during our candle of the month, if it does well, okay, let's introduce it as a different vessel, different container, different packaging, and let's reintroduce it in a different version of it. And so now it's kind of a standalone product, and that is okay. It doesn't have to fit into a specific collection. So something to keep in mind uh there for you. Next question here is from uh Beatrice Nemeth. And the question is how to best sell to retailers. So you have to have a wholesale plan together. We have a guide for you. We have a course as well if you wanted to go through and get the extensive version of exactly how I do it, including my spreadsheets, my uh emails, my actual wholesale catalogs. I give you three different versions of it in our course. But just to give you an overview, uh, we do have a free guide. It is at Cannabis Pro.com slash wholesale 101. There'll also be a link in the notes below where you can just click on that. And that'll just kind of give you an overview of the steps of doing wholesale. And if this seems something that you are wanting to do, then I would suggest hopping into our uh wholesale course. Uh the cost of the course you'll make back as soon as you get your first account. So just keep that in mind. Um, and so something that's you know, it's an investment to uh get started wholesale. You have to create your line sheet, you have to put your email together, you have to have a plan. You have to have the time commitment to be able to do that. But it's a fantastic way of launching your business. So I recommend that. So the way to sell to wholesalers is reaching out by email is what we have found being the best. Sure, if you're local, you could show up to a store unannounced. I never like that in my store. I have brick and mortar stores and I have people coming in to whole sell their soaps or their artwork or all kinds of different uh clothes and stuff for us to carry. I don't like being caught off guard or unexpected. It's just kind of an awkward thing. Um, I prefer emails, but some people don't mind that. So locally, that might be an option for you to go in there, but be prepared. Be prepared with samples to show them and then be prepared with a really nice catalog to leave with them that explains all of your pricing, your terms, your conditions, um, and all of that. And the thing about that is though, you have to think ahead of when you expand. That's fine in a local city. But what happens when you kind of gone through all the retailers in your city and you got to move on to the next one? You're not necessarily driving to go to all these locations. So getting a solid email wholesale system in place is what I would recommend. It's that's that's what we teach in our course is how to do all of that. Just what we do. And it talked about your pricing and all of that. So make sure your pricing is set up right. Make sure your um wholesale prices can you can afford to do wholesale? That's one of the things. If this candle, as an example, I wholesale or I retail for 26. I whole so you got a wholesale for 50% off of that. Uh, so that's gonna be a 13. How much am I gonna make this product for? And is the difference between what I make it for and what I wholesale it for going to be enough of a margin for me to be happy with that? If this cost a candle costs me five bucks to make, I'm wholesaling for 13. That means I'm making$8 a candle. Sure, I will do that all day long and I'll expand my wholesale business. But if this candle is costing me$9 to make and I have to wholesale for$13, I'm making$4 a candle. I don't know if it's gonna make sense uh to do. So you have to make sure that your numbers, your cost of goods, um, and your pricing makes sense to do wholesale. So one thing to take a look at there. Next question here from Shirley, and that is how to make the scent stronger and last longer. Great question. So for a stronger scent, we've got to make sure that we are setting our expectations. If you're used to buying Yankee candles, Bath and Bonnie Works candles, and you go home and get some soy wax and some oil and make a candle, you're never going to replicate what you're smelling in the stores when you're buying those uh candles at the mall that are generally gonna be a paraffin um or a paraffin blend. They might say it's soy blend or a coconut blend, but it's gonna be heavy on the paraffin side, uh, is where they're gonna be getting a lot of that hot throw from. So just keep in mind for your expectations and making sure to manage your expectations. If you want to replicate those super strong candles, then you got to make them the same way. You've got to use the same type of wax to make those width. Um, so for us that are not using paraffin. Well, we are using so 464 does not have paraffin in it, but on our coconut soy does have a little bit of paraffin in it, but just that little bit um does make that scent throw stronger. So if you are wanting a strong, long-lasting scent, you're gonna want to stay away from a 464. Here's the thing: we sell a ton, 90% of our business. We've sold over$2 million in 464 soy-based candles. We're not promoting these candles a lot as a high-intensity hot throw, we're promoting our candles as soy, uh leaning more into the eco side versus the potency of our uh candle throw. So it's depending on who your customer is, who you're making candles for. I like a stronger scented candle, but I tell you this when customers come into our store and they're looking at our candles, the question that we're going to get is what are your candles made out of? When they ask us what are our candles made out of, and we tell them soy, they respond with, okay, great. Okay, good. Oh, good, that's great. I don't want that other stuff they're referring to, like paraffin. Now, I'm not promoting that soy is good, paraffin is bad. That that's just I'm not a scientist. I am not, I didn't I don't get into those debates on what is actually bad or good. I know a lot of paraffin has come a long ways. Uh, and that's just not something that I get into. I am making products that my customers want. I have found that I can sell to customers that want soy candles because they come into my store, not know anything about my business, and see my candles, ask what they're made out of, or they say, is this soy? And when I say yes, they say, okay, good. And then they open up their wallets and they buy that candle, right? Um so keep that in mind, depending on the direction you're going. Uh, there's plenty of fantastic businesses that make all their candles with a paraffin wax. Fantastic. The other type of candles that we make that we are leaning into is going to be a coconut soy blend. So it is gonna have a small percentage. They don't roll, they don't tell us exactly the percent, they just will say a small percent of like food grade paraffin, right? Um, but it's it's gonna be coconut soy and a little bit of paraffin. And we market those as coconut soy or coconut blend. We never use paraffin in our marketing, in our description, right? Um, it's not food. We're not releasing every individual specific thing that goes into it. Or like our oils would have a list of like 50 things minimum, right? Um, so on the front of our candles, uh like this one here, it says soy wax on it because you got to say what's in it. For a coconut soy candle, even though it might have some other stuff, it just says coconut blend or coconut wax um on there. So if you want a strong hot throw, grab a paraffin wax. If you want a mid-grade, um still throws really well, still looks really well, uh, burns nicely, I would go with a coconut blend. Um, and if you want something that is easy to market to customers that are that they have that mentality of soy is best, then I would just go with a soy candle as well. Also, soy is the least expensive generally to work with uh because it's the most common one out there. There's plenty of suppliers that carry it. That's the other thing to keep in mind when you are uh growing your candle business, is the wax that you use and being sure that it's something that if the supplier you have discontinues it, that you can get it from another supplier. That is it for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, all of those um guides for you will be in the notes below. Uh, and come hang out with us inside of our Facebook group, uh, Candle Business Pro. You'll find us right on Facebook if you would like. It's a fantastic group of people. We're in there just about every day. Uh, Chad is definitely in there. He is helping out a lot on the candle making side of the business and giving out some super valuable tips. Uh, also, you can find us on Instagram as well. So thank you so much for tuning in. If you've enjoyed this, a like, subscribe, follow whatever you can do on the platform you're watching or listening to this on. That would be super appreciated. Have a fantastic day. Goodbye.