David Fields

You are not weird. We learned the hard way that YOU must determine your wholesale business requirements and not your customers. They either conform or they go somewhere else. Giving in to their special requests creates problems for you. You cannot be all things to all people. We have found that successful busijnesses that want to establish accounts don't mind your rules and are more than willing to accept them. Small conerns who are more concerned with the opening order amount and want exceptions to your business rules generally are not going to succeed and will only order once or twice. So, my advice is stick to your guns and offer terms and conditions that benefit you.

Instead of Candle Warmers, try Ambiescents (may still be listed as Scentsationals). We bought CW for years and had a myriad of problems with the warmers, the bulbs, the invoices, breakage, etc. etc. We switched to Scentsationals (now Ambiescents) and have never looked back. To see how they would sell we put Scentsationals warmers on one table and CW on another at the same price. We sold 6 or 8 Scentsationals to one CW, so we were convinced. Their warmers are very nice with the same type of bulb as Scentsy. As I recall (I don't order) the larger warmers are $9.50 which is more than CW, but the shipping is less; makes the price about the same. Replacement bulbs can be bought at Home Depot at 4 for $3.87, where CW bulbs are around $5 each. We have almost no breakage or unit failures with S, unlike CW. The invoices can be read, unlike CW. Can you tell we don't care for CW? The people at S are very nice and helpful. As I recall, an account is very easy to set up. Check them out first before CW.

We would like to help others with their business decision making so you don't repeat our mistakes. So, please ask. I hesitate to offer, because in the past when I did, we got a flood of people who wanted us to turn over formulas, suppliers lists, etc. A couple drove to see us, but only wanted some kind of help to jump over all of the learning/growth steps to grossing 150-200k/yr. That does not happen. We have seen lots of candle makers try to make a living with their craft and failing. It is heart-breaking for us. I can't help you with why your candles don't throw or where to sell them or which jar to use or which wick/wax to use; we had to figure all of that out ourselves, and so should you. It's like trying to teach Algebra. A teacher can teach the concepts of Algebra or give out formulas where you plug in the variables, turn the crank, and the answer spits out. The first time something goes wrong, you don't know what happened or why. Spend the time learning the concepts of the craft. I pray I don't sound arrogant or prideful. It is not intended. If you want to make a living out of your craft, you have to realize that 1. You cannot work full-time or maybe even part-time and nurture a full-time business. 2. Decide how much you would like to make before taxes, then back into how many units of your product (after cost of goods and your other expenses) you would have to produce and sell. It's a scary number. 3. Don't have a Field of Dreams business (pour the candles and the customers will come). 4. You have to have either a product that is better and/or cheaper than your competitors or unique. You fill a nitch that no one else has found. Otherwise, you are going head to head with others just like you trying to make a buck. What I am talking about is a business plan. It does not have to be formal; it is just an exercise to get you to think about what you are doing.HTH, looks confusing to me. lol

My wife and I do (sort of). I get a pension, and my wife get Social Security. That amounts to about 20% of our yearly income; the other 80% comes from our candle business. We have been full-time in the business for eleven years. We have a store and a warehouse/factory. Three employees work for us at the store, and one works at the warehouse/factory. We started our selling to friends and family, then graduated to craft shows, fundraisers and candle parties. At the time we lived in the country and later built a building because we had outgrown our home. About this time we both retired (2001) and started candle pouring full-time. We opened a store in 2002 and closed it in 2006. We opened another store in 2005, and that's where we are now. We quit craft shows, fundraisers in 2006 (no time). Presently we have a bunch of wholesale accounts, but still get the majority of our business income from retail sales. We should gross a little under 400K this year. BTW, the couple who started Circle E candles started out about the same way. We have learned a lot over the years, but give God all the praise. We have been able to see His Hand in so many of the decisions we have made. We are truly blessed.

Beth, Holly, hmmm. Don't know how to respond. We use Status jars as one of our two line jars, and it's great. This is from repeat customers of the jar and our own test burning. We order by the pallet, btw.

We wholesale our clamshell for $2.00 and retail for $2.95. Our cost each is .60.

When we order wax, we only order from one supplier because they have a contract with R&L Freight. We pay $130.00 (I think) per pallet, where all other wax suppliers charge at LEAST $225 per pallet, plus $75 for requesting a lift gate. Suppliers can't just negotiate a lower price btw; they get the lower prices by using the shipper a lot. It is an annual thing. If their dollar usage falls below a specified amount, their shipping price goes up; that way the freight company gets a dedicated company, and the shipper gets a lower price for their customers. UPS does the same thing. We have a contract with them. The more we ship weekly, the lower our shipping costs. One more thing. Handling. Lots of companies charge a handling fee. So much per order, an added percentage, or a flat amount.

No. I retired from the PO. The Post Office has been a political football ever since it divorced from the government. The PO threatens to close small post offices, cut Saturday delivery, etc.; scared people contact their congressmen and senators and cry, and the ball gets kicked a little further down the road until the next time. Sound familiar? This time, Congress is afraid of "bailing out" the PO and has waited until it blew up. Now they will act because their "hands are tied", and the voting public will not blame them. Congress years ago made the PO problem worse by raiding it to the tune of billions a year. They take, I think it's 11 billion from the PO to put in the general fund. So, no. don't fret. This will all work out.

now. just like jackbenimble.

I break them like IwantitGreen does. Scoring, then snaping.

It starts with volume selling. When you are selling enough to justify buying raw materials in larger quantities (lower cost), then you try it. Lower costs, higher profit.And so on. You also have to look at where your costs are and what increase in ordering will net you. For us, wax is as cheap as we can justify at the pallet rate. The next price break does not equate to greatly reduced costs per candle. Or not enough to justify the outlay. Tart clamshells, on the otherhand, definitely justifies the increase in ordering. At the 10, 000 unit level our cost is 12.1 cents, including shipping. We don't sell enough yet to justify the next price break. Same with jar labels. 10,000 labels are 5.4 cents each. And so on... So, look at each component to your products to see if increased buying will significatly lower costs. Again, the sales have to be there first.

Just my thoughts on the thread. We have been selling candles a LONG time. successfully. Things we have seen over the years: crafters who think that because they have been making soaps/candles for a year, they are experts. So, they go head to head with more experienced crafters and then wonder why they sell so little. Crafters who put a piece of ribbon and a little glitter on something, then triple the price and can't understand why no one buys their products since they are "so cute". Crafters who do not perfect their craft, but spend tons on display, labels, web sites and advertising and don't understand why they can't get repeat sales. Basically,it's a Field of Dreams mentality. If I produce it, everyone will be falling over themselves to buy it at any price. We have talked to many beginners about this, but most don't listen and either drop the business and craft or struggle for a long time/forever. Rereading this I see that I am a little ray of sunshine. Seriously, There are many reasons why someone is successful or not. First, you have to have a way to get people to look seriously at your products. Then there has to be a reason why someone with cash in hand will want to buy your product over someone else's (price, packaging, scent, display). Next, your products have to be good enough to bring people back over and over again. It is not luck. It is hard work with lots of study and thought behind the decisions. When we have a vacancy in our store, we accept applications for a couple of days. I wish I could video the people who come in to apply. Most are scratched off immediately. Their presentation, Their use of the English language, Their attitude, Their inability to compose sentences or to spell. On and on. A very few deserve a second look. I am sure that some of the ones we immediately dismiss might turn out to be great employees, but why should we take the chance when someone else is right there and better. Same with your products. Why should someone buy from you and not your competitor? Bottom line for us is God. He has helped and guided our decisions from the beginning and He gets all the credit; we are just along for the ride.

We charge exactly what it costs us to ship. We eat the packaging and time. The way we look at it, we make enough profit to offset what a shipment actually costs us. We prefer sales from the store but never (rarely) turn down business. We carefully check shipping costs on our raw materials and drop companies that charge more than they should in a heart beat. Always do what is right.

Boy, I should post in red letters. Issues with them? You bet. For a number of years we ordered around $10K in warmers and plug-ins from them. Many issues with their products; but must say they were good at making them right, somewhat. Then we had major issues with the switches on the plug-in being faulty. We sent back I think a hundred or so and quit carrying them. At the same time we found Scentsationals. Slightly higher price but greatly reduced shipping costs compared to CW. So, the price becomes comparable. Great service. Invoices that arrive on time. Great products. We have been with them almost a year, and have maybe had one or two warmers come back that were defective. And the bulb is not the expensive, hard to replace kind. Same/similar to Scentsy; replaceable at four for $3.87 at Home Depot. We love them. We have tried several others but did not care for different things about them. So, check out Scentsationals. They have a website. Don't remember it. Oh, for a while until we sold out, we carried Scentsational warmers along side CW warmers. Wanted to see what our customers would say. We sold 9 or 10 Scentsationals warmers to one CW. We finally dropped the price to move them out. hth

Our policy is pretty much like Vicky's. Except we no longer have a 30 day return policy and no longer carry bulbs except for the plug-in bulbs that you can't find anywhere. We found that when we carried bulbs, customers constantly came to us saying that their bulb only lasted a day or two then burned out. Some demanded a replacement, some hinted. We gave away more bulbs than we sold. Once we quite carrying replacements, the number of people coming with burned out bulb problems dropped to almost none. Amazing. On the warmers, we go over the warmer at time of purchase to make certain that it works fine, no chips or cracks and that the bulb works. Then the warmer is the purchaser's. Everything was fine when it left us. We still have people try however. A lady brought a warmer back that she admitted to buying over a year ago and wanted a replacement. She said it quite working almost immediately but she just had not had time to bring it in. She went away unhappy. Find with us; we don't want customers like that. They can go to Walmart.

We would never go back to making wicks ourselves. Never. We started out doing it; then, it seemed like all we were doing was making tabbed wicks. Finally I laboriously figured out the actual cost per type of wick and found that it was either a breakeven or marginally cheaper to make them ourselves. And that did not include our time.I still remember the first time we got pre-tabbed wicks from Atkins and Pearce. My wife and i both laughed and said never again. Plus, when you start ordering at larger quantities, the pre-tabs are much cheaper. It really is about how many candles you pour. Few, tab yourself. Many, at a point it becomes a no-brainer.

If your gross sales are not over 500K/yr, honestly a POS system is a waste of money. A rule of thumb in business is: you don't spend money on anything unless it will make you money. A POS system is very nice to have but will not make you money. Inventory control by hand is easy enough until your inventory and sales are large. IMO

Here's the deal with using a professional to do your taxes. YOU still have to gather all of the data they will need and give it to them in an organized way (or they charge more). You have to do the exact same thing to file using Turbo Tax. Then you simply fill in the blanks, same as the professional does with their computer program. Once, a long, long time ago my wife said we could save a lot of money by using a professional rather than me. So, we paid $225 ( long time ago ), and I did it by hand (before Turbo Tax). The results were identical. If you are just starting out, IRS requirements will be few and your knowledge of business taxes will be small. Over time your knowledge will grow with your business till it's no big deal. Plus, in doing your taxes yourself, you will know each year where you can save tax dollars.

We have been in business for fifteen years, and I have always done our taxes. I use Turbo Tax and love it. I also do our personal taxes on it as well. You can only use receipts for business purchases in the same tax year; prior years' receipts can only be used if you file an amended return for the year in which you bought the item(s), Tax preparers charge way, way too much for a simple task. Once you start doing your own taxes you will see. HTH

We have used painted glass jars in the past. Inside or outside. They work fine with no problems. We get them from AAA Candles in one of the suburbs of Dallas. Google them. You select the jars, color, and style you want. AAA sends them jars to a company where they are painted then sent directly to you. The paint jobs are perfect. We don't use them any more because they didn't sell well for us. HTH

.I use both types of molds and like both equally. Each requires a different technique and can produce different looks. That's why I like both types. Don't use wick pins for pillars, never have. Use pins only with votive molds.

Just a few thoughts... Cold-calling is TUFF. Years ago I beat the bushes and handed out samples and a sales pitch. After two weeks non-stop I had picked up one account. Later, after we opened a brick and mortar store, I was always amused to have people coming into our store cold-calling. We bought a time or two but generally said no thanks. If the person(s) were not well dressed, confident and had professional looking brochures I learned to dismiss them immediately. When you have a store, you must have a consistent supply of good, quality mdse backed up with great customer service from the supplier; we found that for the most part, mom and pop enterprises couldn't cut it. About that time we started attending the Dallas Market twice a year during their major shows. We saw the same type of people spending thousand of dollars to set up for retailers. Sort of a stationary cold call with retailers coming to them. Same thing. Cheap displays and brochures along with poor quality products and generally high pricing meant the people sat there for a week and sold little or nothing. The vast majority we see only once at market. As I see it, there has to be a reason, a very good fiscal reason for someone to try you and your products on for size. Selling wholesale is tough, but so is selling retail. Tons of people are trying to sell wholesale, so give the retailers a reason to help you while they help themselves.

Alajane, check out Scentsationals. Their warmers are the best we've found at a reasonable price. Customer service is great. Replacement bulbs can be purchased from Home Depot for $3.87 for a pack of four. We have sold OBI and Candlewarmers in the past, but Scentsationals are the best. Price is a little higher than Candlewarmers, but the shipping is less making them about the same. Quality is light years ahead of any others we have found. The warmers resemble Scentsy's.

I will offer a different opinion. We have benn selling warmers and melts for years. We sell close to a thousand large warmers a year plus at least that in plug-ins. The melt sales are in the thousands, don't have a clue. This is just to let you know that I know what I am talking about. So, of course we have unhappy customers at times. We used to sell replacement bulbs until we noticed that we were having many customers coming back with bad bulb issues. We quit carrying the bulbs, and the number of customers saying they had bad bulbs dropped to almost nothing. Oh, when our warmers come in, an employee checks each one for chips, breakage and functioning bulb and switch. When a warmer is sold, the employee checks it again in front of the customer, and makes sure that the bulb works. We also explain that wax drippage onto the bulb will burn it out. If a customer emails or calls us about a problem, they are told they must bring the warmer in. They are also told that we only replace defective warmers, and only for thirty days from purchase (a receipt must accompany the warmer). Bulbs are not warranteed at all. They leave us working fine. This has reduced our warmer problems to almost none. We replace a warmer maybe once every month or two. Customers who get upset can go to Walmart. We don't want them. We have a growing customer base. Our melts are first class. We have many Scentsy DEALERS who buy and burn our melts but sell Scentsy. We have had customers who say the scents are weak or don't last. But we bounce their complaint against the many compliments we get. We do question them about how they burn them and have not had an issue that was our fault that I am aware of. We have tried scents from new distributorsj and have found no throw with a warmer. I gusss bottom line is that we are not Walmart who takes everything back, no questions asked. If we are a fault, we bend over backwards to make it right. But long experience has been that there are a lot of dishonest people out there.

Annie123, I hesitate to post this, for what should be obvious reasons. My wife and I make way over $100K in profit, after taxes, from our business. We should write a book about what we have learned. This post is just to answer your question. I would prefer not to get queries about how we did it, etc. Bottom line, we didn't, God did it, and we just followed where He led us.