Jane42

We received a case of 4630 that was a little "off" in color and did not perform the way it had in the past. We finally pushed that one aside - used it for some wickless jars. The scent was still good, but the wicking was all wrong. When we received our next cases, all was back to normal. Not a very nice thing to do to two newbies...like we weren't confused enough! Anyway, I really don't want to go through that again, but I am sure the possibility is always there...

The shopping boards that I am on has a separate thread JUST for freebies. I have shopped online for years and even the big companies get bombarded as soon as someone posts it on a shopping board.

We have been using my husbands Ford F150 for shows. He did have a cap on it (which was nice...everything fit great), but he got tired of trying to manuver with the top on and replaced that with the snap-on cover. It is difficult to carry everything in it (two tables, buckets of votives, melts, jars, etc.) without the cap, but we did manage to do most of our shows without having to take a second vehicle. I ALMOST had a 15 passenger van that I think would have worked well, but it was being auctioned and I missed the deadline. That would have been sweet!! My Santa Fe is just not big enough to get everything in.

We met with an accountant on Saturday and it went pretty well. We did find out, though, that although we have all the information he needs, it is not quite in the form that he wants it...:rolleyes2 LOL Even though we both work with excel in our regular jobs, neither of us has set up the spreadsheets we work on. We are unfamiliar with actually creating the formulas (except for very basic ones), etc. Is there anyone here that uses Excel and can give us some advice on how to set it up to work with our candle inventory, invoices, etc.? We think that if we could actually see how someone has used it to track everything, we may be able to figure out how to create our own spreadsheets. As always, I appreciate the help!! Jane

We have found this little tool to work great. You can find it in any kitchen specialty store/outlet. The one we have is ALL metal...where the black handle is on this, ours has is just rolled metal. It's called a scraper/chopper. We pile the slabs of wax on top of each other in our rubbermaid container, then just slice off what we need with this handy dandy chopper. Just push through the first slab and wiggle it a little - alot easier on the hands too!

Oh, good grief, as if it isn't confusing enough!! lol Thanks, Scented.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for your response!!! I really appreciate the help! I will definitely download the Quickbooks when I get home from work. If I can figure it out, it should definitely be called "Simple"....lol

...And we want to make sure we have all the information he would need. We have been selling candles for approximately two years. At this point, we have a DBA, NYS sales tax number and insurance. We are not sure what kinds of questions to expect. We really want some guidance as to how we should be handling the "paperwork" side of our business. We have never put any of our business gains/losses on our personal taxes. Any suggestions on what we should expect...what we need to ask...:embarasse Jane

This is the process I am thinking about also. Since we are a small, small business, we have our votive "batches" at 5 lbs each - so putting that all in a pour pot and mixing then pouring sounds difficult. Since we don't have a heating plate to put the pour pot on, I was also thinking of using the Masterbuilt to melt the wax, pour the 5 lbs into the presto then then add color, fo and uv, then use the smaller pour pots to pour the votives. We also use a turkey fryer to warm our pour pots and to melt excess wax off to clean them. A 5 lb pour pot would not fit into that. Maybe when we become larger, we will actually be able to afford SEVERAL large pour pots, a heating plate, etc......

I agree with this...people will test theirs, see the mark and go no further. We had so many people questioning us about lead wicks when we started out - we were using zinc then - that we switched to LX's. I think everything has been more difficult because of that, testing, etc., but we just didn't want people not buying our candles because they THOUGHT they were lead wicks.

I didn't spend much time on the site, but apparently the "sides" stay and it burns down the middle - so you always have the embeds showing throughout the burn....

We use the "cheap" looking brown kraft boxes from BCN....lol We had a printer makes labels that cover the entire "flap" that stands up when you open them to display. For us, at this point, it is the easiest to work with. Since we have around 30 scents, and we use them for both votives and melts, they are lighter to carry to the shows. Those tubs are heavy enough without using wood or plastic display boxes!! Good Luck on your search, though, and let us know what you find. It is always interesting to see what someone else comes up with for displays!

They are terribly sharp! I have worn gloves while wiping them out and they have cut right through my glove and into my hand! I don't wipe them out anymore...just pop them in the oven upside down on a lined cookie sheet and let the wax melt off. Occasionally, some wax will stick - then I carefully wipe it out with a HUGE piece of paper towel so my hand gets nowhere near the edges...lol

The silicone mold I have been looking at is a "grubby" votive mold. From what I understand, the bottom of the mold is going to actually be the top of the votive (does that make sense? ) I have not emailed C&S yet, but when I asked this question here awhile ago, it was suggested that I put the votive pin through the mold. That way, when the votive comes out, the hole will be there and I can pop the wick in. Inserting the wick before the wax sets does not look like an option. Drilling each votive doesn't thrill me either.....lol Does anyone do that? We are only making 40 votives at a time, but that seems like such a time-consuming job.

It is threads like this one that make me wonder if this is all worth it. :undecided This started out as a hobby, which then turned into a business that my friend and I have invested heavily into (as many of you have). To think that we could lose everything because a customer did something stupid is pretty darn scary! We have researched extensively, put warnings on everything, and we have insurance - and I still wonder - is it really worth it??

We use LX's for our votives and container candles. For the votives, with IGI4794, we found the LX10's worked well. We did test them all - we use C&S, JS, Peaks and Cajun's FO's. Have fun!

Well, that is what I get for "jumping the gun"!!!!! LOL I did see that NG carried one, and was going to check some of our regular suppliers to see if I could combine an order (BC is one of our "regulars")....that would have been the SMART thing to do! The problem is, I go to a site to look for something specific...then I see something else that really interests me.....then I start looking for that item on different sites......well, you get the picture. Can you say "Attention Deficit Disorder"??? Anyway, thanks so much for responding! (uhmmmm, vanilla stabilizer????? - LOL)

I am so impatient - lol - I went ahead and ordered the Melt and Pour Soap Kit from Cierra Candles. I am going on vacation and wanted to make sure she had her gift as soon as possible!!

My business partner's christmas present that i ordered was cancelled so I have to come up with something else! She has always wanted to make soap, so I thought I would buy her a kit to start - that worked well when we started making candles. Does anyone have any recommendations? I am looking for something fairly easy - don't want to burn her out before she even gets started!! lol I checked out Cierra Candles and they have a glycerin soap kit. Can you use a mold with this, so the soaps are a little fancier. Or maybe a CP kit? Any advice out there from people that have started with a kit? Thanks so much! Jane

Hmmm, that looks like something I found on the bottom of the glasses left in my son's room when he left for college.......YUCK!!!!

I don't have the numbers in front of me but Christmas Mulberry from JS was, by far, our best seller - and it was our best seller last year also. We don't offer Chestnuts and Brown Sugar but I see that as being a top seller alot of times, so that is one I really want to test for next year.

When I buy a gift certificate, there is no tax. When I go to redeem them, in a store (not online), they tally up what I am purchasing - with tax included - then subtract the gift certificate. A gift certificate is just like cash.

I have never paid sales tax on a gift certificate/card that I have bought from a store.