Dana

That MP in the photos is way high and you can downwick a lot, especially with soy. I would have to disagree. I think the MP with the candle on the right is perfect. Soy will produce this crisp line between the solid and melted wax. I would power burn though to make sure it didn't get to much deeper.

Crap.

I decided not to fight that battle. I have a pour pot (or three) for each scent I carry! Each pot holds 6lbs and I have over 50 scents. Yes, that's a lot of pour pots, but it saves MUCH time, water, electricity, soap, etc. Ya gotta have the space though!

I don't understand how you can afford to pay a rep. If an 8oz. candle retails for $8, wholesales for $4 then you pay your rep 15% (.60) you end up with $3.40 left. It costs me $2.54 that is last years costs for raw materials only, not insurance, electric, labor, etc. I haven't even figured this years raw costs up yet. You end up with less than .90 per candle. Is it really worth it? Plus, who pays for this sales reps gas milelage?

I poured 30lbs. of Lilac on Monday.....love to pour it, love to sell it!

What kind of market is it? Lake a farmers market, craft fair?

By the time all the fees are taken out from etsy and paypal it is like selling at wholesale prices, but in onsies and twosies. I don't have time to do all that work, listing, packaging etc. for wholesale dollars. So I have really slowed down on etsy. I did like it at first though.

No, you don't have to purchase 25lbs. But I just had a few samples sent (took them FOREVER) and then found out the pricing (took FOREVER too) and they are not less expensive than any other supplier would be. They wanted like $20+ per lb. I thought going through a manufacturer would get me real wholesale pricing....wrong.

OMG thank you! I didn't know they had a fb page....I guess most folks do these days, but I just never thought of that! Thanks!

I am placing an order with NG and only need one bottle of MC's Seaside. Is there anything similar from NG? TIA

Thanks EricofAZ, I do have a nice market outside my local area. I am going to have to funnel my energy on that. It all just threw me off kilter this weekend. I am finished crying and worrying. Gonna move on and take all of your great advice. It just goes to show you if you start a new business just for the money, you are heading down a dead end. (usually) These days it takes many many hours of unpaid work and struggles to get a business off the ground. His heart is not in it. He was just in it for the money, and when he realized the money wasn't going to come that fast he panicked. I tried to make him realize this before we got started, but he wouldn't listen. In the carpet business we were bringing in 80K a month with only 3 people on the payroll. That was what we were used to. Maybe his new business will work out. But it is starting to look like desperation by them doing this. I am not going to make any drastic changes to my candle line, because that means they got to me, and I am proud of my candles the way they are. It does make me wonder though, how the scent throw is on the Swan Creek candles. I will have to just spend the money and purchase one online to try it. It will be worth it to know. I haven't spent any money on R & D for a while, lol.

Jeana, I tried to explain better in those posts that wouldn't take, lol. I left on bad terms and TOOK my candles out of the store. He wasn't paying me because he didn't have the money. He got in way over his head. I wanted to start small in the smaller building across the street, but he wanted to use the 3000 sq. ft. building. It takes 80K to 100K to fill a store that size. I put all of myself into it and he asks me "What have YOU been doing while my wife had to come here and mark things." I explained below what I all did in 2 months working only 3 days a week. The rest of that got done at 2:00am on the computer while I was waiting for wax to cool, on my own time. As for special orders....he didn't want my full line. I carry 6 jar styles and sizes, soap, lotion, warmers, tarts, 50 scents. So it was bound to happen. People come into the store, don't see their favorite item and ask if I can get it to them. What am I suppossed to do? It was like I was working for my competition, ya know? I gave him a price on the whole line. He didn't have the money. He COULD HAVE made a profit on the other things people wanted. IF he stocked them in the store. Why would I give him some of the $ for my business? I would if it were just a different scent that he didn't carry in this particular jar, but not an entirely different jar, scent, etc. The perks and trip came with the carpet business,before the wanted me to start the gift shop. Actually the carpet manufacturers gave the trip for the best sales, but he allowed me to go since I did most of the selling. I had an invoice in the office the day I brought them in. He just decided to not pay me. I do like your ideas.....I was thinking of making some changes this summer before this happened anyway. Now I just don't want it to look like I changed because of them. And, those sold well, obviously, lol.

What really hurts me too is that I put that whole store together. I came up with the cute name, logo, hang tags, decided on all the decor- trim, light fixtures, paint, wall art, furniture, venues, planogram- everything. that store had ME written all over it. I really put myself out there. People would come in just to see how I decorated the place and buy candles. Of course I choose merchandise carefully too, so as to keep it interesting to shop in. Then on facebook she brags about "her store" and "partners w xx company name" it just kills me because I was that person. Not that I bragged like her, but I had the recognition, the money, my kids had money for nice clothes. Now she has my life and wants my candle business too! Well, I knew when I left I was walking away from a very comfortable salary. I knew I was walking away from all I created. I just never thought they would want this from me too, after all I had done. I even saved her from her old employer of 17 years who, according to her, was just awful and treated her so badly. How could she purchase this new line, just like mine, on purpose, and not think about how it would affect me and my business? After what I have all done for her and that shop. Oh she had to have given it lots of thought, and that was the choice she made. That's what hurts. I was expecting them to get a line of candles in. I expected them to be competitive. That is healthy business competition. But this, this is low. Like twisting a knife in my back.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will impliment many of them (except the one about taking a bb bat to him, lol). And I will not bad mouth them whatsoever. In real life, I keep to myself, am kind and a faithful person. In fact, besides my husband, you people were the first to hear about this and I left working there back in November. If that tells you about the type person I am. I just don't gossip and bad mouth. In fact when people ask me why I did all that work putting that store together and don't work there anymore, I just say "That type of business just wasn't for me" So no, bad mouthing isn't in one of my strategies to get through this.

Ok, so I have tried to send a really long post- twice and it wouldn't take. Sooooo to make a very long story short the answer to the question of why didn't I get the money up front? Well, this man claimed me to be his "business partner". He gave me bonuses, profit sharing, and let my husband and I take a trip to the Virgin Islands because my sales were so good. We were friends, I thought. There is way more to this story but this temp forum won't let me send a long post...

Believe me, I have thought of all of the above, lol. But the last one would actually benefit him....you see he took out a pretty nice size insurance policy on an apartment complex he owned and it mysteriously burned down. The bank tried to keep his money since he owed so much on other loans...he had a huge fight with the bank and well, needless to say this is right around the time he started "squirming" and turning into the person I didn't recognize. He is a recovering alcoholic but claimed God "saved" him and now he is a new person. I think his addiction reared its ugly head again. Maybe not in the form of alcohol but money. He will do anything and I mean anything to get gain power and money. He never used to be like that. I hope people see through him and if I don't cause any drama and just keep plugging away my business will survive. He is know for only sticking with a certain business idea for a few years and then changing it and he has had many different business partners that have gotten in law suits or have dissolved because he won't stay focused. I am hoping this will be the case this time as well. I just have to last through a couple of rough years, lol.

I live in a small town and I had to quit my job back in November due to the fact that my boss decided to turn a carpet warehouse into a floral shop. I had my candles in there selling like hotcakes for about a month, but my boss wouldn't pay me for them. He thought I should price them higher and I live right down the street and told him I need to keep them at the price I sold them for. It really started getting ugly when customers came in for special orders that we did not carry at the store. They would come in and ask for certain styles, sizes and scents. I would take down the order, but make arrangements to deliver. But sometimes they wanted to pick it up at the store since they were coming for flowers the next day anyway. He always let me sell at the carpet store all the time- for 4 years. Then money got REALLY tight when he started up the flower shop and he wanted money! I made a deal w him- not quite 50% off, so he could double his money though. Like I said I live right down the street and didn't want to loose my customers at full retail to give to him. So I thought my deal was a good compromise. Well, needless to say he let TONS of candles be sold first, then when he noticed how well they were selling he wanted MORE MONEY! And he didn't even pay me yet for the first batch. Anyway, I decided to leave because he was getting to be someone I didn't recognize any longer. I didn't want to work for a flower shop in the first place- Very high pressure believe it or not. It did not end well at all. The florist I hired was lying to him about me and she just went through her husband cheating on her so she just really needed some validation on who she was and her so called talent and creativity. She did some really cruel things, but I believe it was because of her personal life so I moved on and dove into my candle business. I have worked really hard for close to 8 years on this business and now I could really do what I wanted with it since I had the time. Sales have been really good and although it took me a few months to get over the depression and anger about the whole flower shop I was excited about some new changes to my business. Well, then the bottom fell out. On Friday in my local newspaper I see that the flower shop has just announced they just brought in Swan Creek candles. My SAME JAR, SAME WAX (soy), SAME LID, and some of the SAME SCENTS. I have just been beside myself. I can't believe they would play that dirty. He was bound and determined to get my business one way or another. Since Swan Creek is within driving distance he can pick up orders so pricing can be very competitive. They obviously did their homework on finding something EXACTLY like mine. The funny thing is the florist gets on face book and braggs about how creative she is, and how hard she is working to be different and about her original designs, blah, blah, blah, and then she goes and does this! COPIES ME! I think this could be the end of my business. I just ordered a pallet of wax and a pallet of jars and $1300 worth of fo's. How can I fight back? I want to scratch someone's eyes out. I worked for 8 years to get to this point- to do this full time and with a few clicks of the mouse they have my business? I know what she googled too to find that company. We are the only 2 companies that come up. I just can't believe someone can stoop that low for the almighty dollar. Remember, I live in a small town, so this is a big deal. Maybe people will think they are ridiculous for trying to copy me? I don't know....are Swan Creek candles any good? I will have to try one, but it is $17 to ship one from their site.

HorsescentS, I believe you might want us to do your homework for you, lol. In a similar post you ask which has the strongest throw 4627 or 6006.......Everyone has a different opinion, so just jump on in and order a few pounds and start experimenting! It is going to cost you money. No doubt about it. But you will have to decide for yourself which of all these waxes has the better hot throw for YOU! Because after all that testing, sometimes even the one with the strongest throw won't be the one you decide on because of wicking issues, or set up, or price, shipping and the list goes on.

It will be expensive no matter what wax you choose! ANY wax needs to be tested with every scent/wick/color combo. Beginners have no less money than those that have been at this a while, lol

Sorry for the highjack....and the rant. I guess what I was questioning was if anyone puts the retail price in the contract. It sounds like the answer is "no" which I don't either, but was wondering if I should have. I too, do not care what she is getting for them. I let her all sell them for whatever she wanted all these years. It is just now all of a sudden she is concerned about my retail price on my candles. I do have my company info on my warning labels. Always have.

Do any of you that wholesale set the retail price for your candles? Just wondering because I have a client that was a little upset finding my website prices to be lower than her retail- which she set at double PLUS 10% PLUS a little extra more to round off the price. They cost me $2.43 (not including time, electricity, water, insurance, etc.) I charge her $4.85, she prices them at $10.99. She wanted me to raise my retail to match hers! In my location they sell very well for $8. I don't charge her $4 because I private label, and deliver sometimes 1 hour away and sometimes we meet half way. I also do a private jar for her in another size that is a huge 26oz. jar so LOTS of testing and using up wax for private scents. She makes $14.14 on those and I make $6.94. She really marks those high. I let it go for 5 years and now all of a sudden (her business is really struggling) she is concerned about me under cutting her. She was like "If my customers find out about your website, I will lose business!" So yesterday when I dropped off her order I said well if you want our prices to match here is what we can do.....first, you gotta lose that extra 10% and then rounding part...then we gotta go with MY label and I get to choose the scents. Then you have got to price them at my retail. She didn't like that. SHE wants to set the retail price. So do any of you set the retail price and put that into a contract? The reason she thinks she can price them for whatever is because she has no competition because she says that is HER territory and she has the private label...and she is actually getting that much for them so why not? Well, they will not sell for that much at shows and on my website, so I can't mark up my retail to match hers. She is making WAY more than I am and I have all the hard work and time. I am just not sure what to do.

Oh is that what that is?! I saw one at the Goodwill and didn't know what it was! I will go back and see if it is still there.

Just a heads up- Candlewarmers plug ins are (almost all colors) on backorder again!

Same here, but like usual I got a few I wasn't planning on getting instead!

Shipping stinks from Candlewarmers...at least for mein Ohio. Plus, they can't tell you how much it will be until they ship, which is usually a couple weeks because of backorders.