Common Scents

I use parraffin and it is awesome for me too!! I was using it from another supplier and switched immediately! Its one of my JS favs!

I use J300 too and I'm in love with it!! LOL! I am looking to change over to a soy/paraffin mix though cuz I have a lot of people wanting soy! I sure hope they don't discontinue my J300 though cuz I'm in LOVE! AND I am actually burning that very scent right now here at work and just had a lady from next door order 3!! LOL!

Mine advice is much of what has already been said! 1. Learn to say NO! Saying no will save you money!!! 2. If you are going to do a fundraiser, make darned sure you have every detail nailed down with the group you are doing it with. My two fundraisers have been WAY too hectic and unorganized and its ended up costing me $$$! 3. Make time for your business! If you are seriously going into business, you need to treat it as such. I think this is the biggest mistake I have made. I haven't been the best at keeping my books & its cost me lots of headaches and its all because I procrastinate and say oh I'll do it later. You also need to make time for your business. If its a few hours every day, a few days a week or whatever. You need to have a set schedule to say Ok from 2-4 this afternoon I am working ONLY on business stuff. That's another biggie for me because I'm the ADD QUEEN and usually end up completely side tracked!!! 4. NEVER EVER DELIVER THE PRODUCT WITHOUT THE $$ FIRST! Not to your mom, not to your best friend, not to ANYONE! I have 3 people who owe me $$ from Christmas orders. One is my best friend, one is a co-worker of my MIL who has burned me REPEATEDLY, and the other is my MIL's best friend. Now granted its not a lot of $$ but its the principal! So I am now updating my website and saying under no circumstances will orders be delivered without payment first...NO COD!! 5. The ever popular, you can't please everyone! I tried that and it does NOT work! I had one girl keep asking for different scents or different tarts and I basically said how high when she said jump. It was ridiculous. If I happen to have a sample of that fragrance then I'm more than happy to help but I no longer do custom orders with fragrances OR colors! I hope that helps! I'm no expert because I am STILL learning everyday. And I learned a lot of these the hard way! Good luck to you!

I can't help with those but I can tell ya that her Buttermilk Pancakes is AWESOME! Its the strongest throwing scent of any FO that I use! And its been a best seller for me for over a year!

I use J300 and I have used a few of their FO's. The only two I sell are their dreamsicle & Fresh Linen but I am looking to get those from other places too.

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone uses Just Scents 50/50 blend wax? I'm gonna order a slab to play around with but just thought I'd see if anyone had any input. Right now I use J300 but a lot of my customers are soy fans. I tried just plain soy & we didn't exactly get along so I thought a blend would be a good start! LOL! Thanks! Callie

What I do is take inventory of everything I have for sale before the show and then take inventory again after the show. My sales tax is figured into the prices of all my products so I don't have to worry about it. It is so much easier to do it this way! However, I am looking into getting a cash register just to make things that much easier.

I got a sample the other day too but couldn't stand it OOB. I guess I'll have to put it in wax before I write it off! I used Peaks Cappuccino Hazelnut too so I'll have to do a comparison! LOL!

Well its hard for me to compare because my first full year of busines was last August to this August. And last year I only did two shows in Dec. for my total sales. So this year was DEF. up! LOL! I have completely changed everything...last year I started out with 3 diff types of containers...now I'm down to one. Last year I did votives tarts and tealights and now I don't do any of those. I added aroma bead air fresheners this year and my milk baths are soon to follow. I can't wait to close out my books (my last show is Friday!) and see how I did at what shows and find out where I can trim some fat, although I think I have done a lot already! New for the coming year for me is of course my website which just opened, I'll be adding 10 additional scents to get my # up to 40, and I'll be doing a few new bigger shows too. For my first year in business I know I have come pretty close to breaking even...just a wee bit in the red! Can't wait to see how others did!

Haha Trish has a storage unit that she uses to keep her 87324792837429834 FOs in! LOL! She has to drive across town whenever she needs one though! LMAO!

Thanks for all the input guys! I will do some tweaking with the pics too! I want to retake them completely or get a pro to do them or something. I was unhappy with all of them though so they leave something to be desired for me too! LOL! As for my prices, that is totally because of my area! My main comp. is HI around here. Yea there are some other candlemakers around here but the main comp. is still HI, Yankme, and PL. So I am lower but I do plan on increasing my prices within the next year. However, yea I still make a profit and pay the bills! LOL! So thats the story in a nutshell! Thanks again guys!

Thanks for catching that for me! I had a TEAM of spell checkers from work and they musta missed that one!

After many hours of frustration and hard work, ITS DONE! I don't have ALL the finishing touches done yet but this is basically it. www.northmountaincandle.com I would appreciate any comments, input, suggestions, etc. I've NEVER done anything like this before and I did all of this myself and boy was it an experience! My milk bath will be added next week (waiting on some packaging to get here!) and I am still working out the kinks with my links page. So take a peek and share your thoughts!

Wow what a great thread! I am actually going through and doing all of the things that guppygirl said! And boy is it a task! But I sure do have a LOT more space than I thought I did! One example is that I already have two sets of the plastic Rubbermaid shelves...one is for supplies and the other was just for "stuff", well I went through the "stuff" and now I have a set of shelves to use as I please! The funny thing is that I was going to go buy another set of shelves because I was convinced that I needed more space! What I NEEDED to do was clean! LOL! So this weekend I am going to take the OODLES of trash out that I have accumulated in my cleaning (its snowing now so I cant!) and I am going to set up a new area for labeling, packaging and shipping. I'm also gonna get a bulletin board to keep track of my orders that I am working on and I'm gonna invest in some new light weight tables for my showes. I am working to keep things simple and organized. I am also working on a new way of keeping track of all my paper work. I'm really hurting in this department right now! But in my cleaning I found TONS of binders not being used so they will be used for that. I guess my suggestion is to honestly clean! You never know what you will find that you CAN use and save money instead of buying more of it!

I LOVE this post! LOL! Like you guys, my #1 priority right now is getting organized...and that's across the board from my business to personal life. hehe. Other than that, my website will be open any day now (just gotta get the pics up and I'm done) so I want to concentrate on it a lot this year. Another goal I have is a carry over from last year, writing my business plan. I just keep putting it off and its not good! I have set my schedule of craft shows for the year already. And in two weeks I am going to go through my scent list and get the spring list ready! I MAY be adding ten more scent to my line. So lots of goals, but the organization thing is the biggie. I'm getting better but I still have a ways to go!

That is amazing! Congrats to you! I bet that was so exciting!

Thanks for all the complements! I am so excited for the next shows! I gotta order wax though cuz I'm out and need to make candles! LOL! I'll keep ya posted on the results when I do inventory tomorrow and see what my best sellers were!

Congrats to ya! Don't ya love it when you stick it to the competition??? HEHE! Love your shirt by the way!

Hey everyone! Well last night was the first night of Dickens of A Christmas here in Roanoke. Its the first three Friday nights in December. Last night's big event was the lighting of the city's Christmas tree. I did only one night of this show last year and did REALLY well so I signed up for all three nights this year. I did really well. I paid $150 for all three nights and made that last night so the next two nights are pure profit for me! I had a better location this year that I really like (MUCH closer to the main area, food, the Christmas tree, and bathrooms! LOL!). This is an outdoor show all three nights at the city's farmer's market and is really neat. The vendors next to me didn't seem to do so well either. I was the only candles in my immediate area. There were some soaps near by though. I know there are other candles there I just didn't get a chance to look! I had one of my Warm Apple Cobbler candles burning all night and had people coming from the other side of the market saying they could smell it (over the kettle corn!!!). So the wind was in my favor! LOL! I did sell to our local TV weather man and to SANTA! LOL! That made my night. I didn't take much, just enough to get a feel for what would sell so now its time to get makin! Sorry for the novel! I'll take some pics next week! Thought I would let yall know what my best sellers were:Cinnamon Buns, Christmas Splendor, Chestnuts & Brown Sugar, Sweet Pumpkin Spice, Hot Apple Cider, Warm Apple Cobbler, Granny's Kitchen, Cozy Vanilla, and Frosted Carrot Cake. Last year it was Candy Cane & Gingerbread Cookies so go figure! LOL!

Well I do a tri fold and I dont have either on mine. On the front I have my name, logo, & website. On the inside, each panel is devoted to a different product: the first one is candles, it has a pic & the scent list and price; the second one is air fresheners with the same info; and the third is milk baths with the same info. On the back I have info about my gift baskets, fundraisers, wholesales, custom orders, and home shows. And on the last back panel I have a little paragraph about my business and all my contact info. HTH! P.S.: I do have a full scent description on my website and I will be adding a candle safety page too!

I make the 9 oz ones and use a 2 x 4 kraft label on the glass and a warning label on the bottom.

I used Cierra's Hollyberry last year and was very happy with it. It sold well but not good enough! HTH!

Aww! Thats adorable! Congrats on a good and FUN show!

Well I use paraffin so I can't help ya there...but the Christmas Splendor is really good! Its got some apples, spices, and maybe some evergreen in there...all things Christmas! LOL! Love the Chestnuts & Brown Sugar too. Those are the only Christmas ones I've tried. Have fun with your samples!

When I started out I carried 3 container candles...8 oz jelly jars, 8 oz square masons, and 9 oz hex. I sold hardly any jellys & masons so I got rid of them and just do the 9 oz hex. They are very popular around here because they look like the HI candles so people go crazy over them. I now carry the 8 oz square mason and use it for my aroma beads. My price for my 9 oz hexs are $5 each or 3 for $12. To some that may seem low but at almost every show I've done there has been an HI vendor there so I have to compete! HTH! Good luck!