Trae

I have a bazillion things cooking this weekend. I have my annual open house the first weekend in December and the day after I have to set up for the Secret Santa shop I do every year at a local elementary school. Soooo....this weekend I'm going to finish up my M&P soaps with what supplies I have left. I'm also making gel candles with holiday and sports embeds. In between I have to package and label some things I have completed and try to find a place to put them until I get my basement straightened out. I have 4-step displays on order and can't wait till they get here so I can start setting up. Hope everyone gets lots done and good luck to those with shows! Trae

I use ProPay and a manual swiper. I only do home shows so accepting CC's works out well for me. Trae:)

I make mine with pinecones and paper cupcake liners and sell them 2 for $1. Sell out every year. Trae

I get a lot of mine from Candles & Supplies. Also a few from Rustic Escentuals. The Hot Apple Pie from Rustic Escentuals is yummy! HTH. Trae

I saw on another board that someone has been trying to get their money back for months now with no luck. If you don't give them a firm NO when they call you, they will hound you for weeks. Now I'm getting the e-mails instead of the phone calls. Trae

I just make sure that I don't hold the heat gun over the wick for too long. I've only lit the wick once with the heat gun! LOL! If you're worried about it, maybe clip a clothespin over the wick and then melt the top with the gun. Trae

Did you try two 51's? That usually works for me. Trae

I would definitely zap that with a heat gun because that "little" hole can actually turn out to be a canyon once you hit it with the heat gun. You can get the gun at WalMart in the hardware section. HTH! Trae

You could plug up the wick hole of the mold, fill with water, then pour into a measuring cup to see how much it takes to fill the mold. That's wat I've always done. Trae

Dollar Tree has some cute gingerbread/candyland type mugs and containers.

I use IGI 1260 with stearic or luster crystals to whiten up the wax a little. I also use this wax for my hurricanes. HTH! Trae

My 8oz jj's are $6 and the 4oz are $3.50. If FO's and wax keep going up I might raise them after the first of the year.

Did you use a primed wick? Sometimes the wax can melt off the wick and float around in the gel.

They work great for cutting up gel wax, but horrible for paraffin. Trae

I use my cell phone as my business line. Figured it's always on me so that was the way to go. Trae

Mine do that sometimes too. I just zap the frost marks with a heat gun and that takes care of it. HTH.

Years ago when I went to business school, we learned that one selling option was to go by what you grossed the previous year and make that the selling price. Considering all the testing you've done, you could probably add on a little for that too. A lawyer would be a good idea.

Try here: www.gershelbros.com Search for 2 hub spinner and it should be what you're looking for.

I've used this wax for votives and it worked fine. No problems coming out of the mold either.

I've done several order-only parties and they did well for a few years, but now I'm finding that people like cash & carry much better. I'm planning on having cash & carry for my holiday open house this year and see how that goes.

I ususally run mine for 5-7 days. I send about 10 brochures & order forms and a letter explaining how to run the "party". The letter also explains that any orders received after the closing date will not be credited toward the hostess percentage. I have a 2 week time frame for filling orders, giving myself a week to gather supplies and another to get the products made. I give the hostess 10% of the total sales, plus another 10% for every $100 in sales after the first $200. I also give 50% off any one item for each catalog or home party booked. I've had many of them and they've done pretty well. Good luck!

I use www.decal-paper.com and get the white or clear candle paper. It's not rub on, you dip it in water and smooth it on. I use it for all of my photo hurricanes. HTH. Trae

I get all my wicks from them. Never had a problem, even when the zincs were getting goofy for many people a few years ago. HTH. Trae

When I first built my site, I listed it with www.dmoz.org, which will help you get listed on most of the major search engines. It takes about 6 months but worth it. I also listed thru www.add-me.com and that helped as well. Some people don't agree with it, but I also joined a lot of link swaps. It really does help. I did most of the swapping thru www.linkpartners.com. Besides alol that, just make sure your meta tags for your site list everything you can think of so when people use a certain keyword to search for your products, they will come up. Hope that gives you a starting point. Trae

Candle safety is the topic for fire prevention week around here. There was an article about it in our local paper naming several house fires caused by candles. Just about every instance was caused by negligence. Two were people leaning over lit candles and their clothes caught fire, one was a candle placed too close to curtains and one was an unattended candle left in a teenager's bedroom. People wonder why we stress reading the warning labels and literature we give them! And guess who is coming to the preschool where I work today????? The fireman and fire truck! Guess I'll have to bite my tongue during the lecture on candles! LOL!