southern.scents

I guess you guys are atleast lucky all they did (that you know of) is edit the index page. They could have deleted your entire site....

I would seriously get on diyestores about upping their security or change to someone else. It sounds like their must be a exploit in their software for one hacking crew to keep getting into just their clients. I know of several people who were hacked as well in the past couple of days by the exact same hacking crew.....all with diyestores. Hopefully there is something they can do to up the difficulty of these folks getting in.

Added to say, its not just people with diyestores. It seems to be people using the FeatureCart to build their stores which is what diyestores as well as several other diy builders use.

MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS OFTEN!

Nope, it's CP. But, thanks for looking.

Oh well, either way, it looks nice.

I am glad you guys like them. I use an inkjet printer. I wanted a laser printer but the expense was just too much for me. Time I bought the printer for 100-300 dollars and then the toner....it was just too much. We found a great deal at a closeout store on an Epson R280 (Made for printing photos.) I think we paid $30. Your sitting there saying ink must be outrageous. It actually is so we bought this. It contains the equivelent of 60 ink cartridges and only cost $50. The ink quality is really good and it is so affordable that I can print all of my labels on the photo setting. I even use high gloss photo for my apothecary jars, soap, lotion, and linen spray. It looks like I had them professionally printed without the expense. It may not be the solution for everyone but it works great for me.

I do clamshells and love them. They are super easy to make...no molds. You don't have to wrap them and they even have the little hand tag area so you can easily display them. I don't even make a label. I print my info on regular paper, cut it out to the size of the front and then close that inside. The paper is cheaper, it is protected inside the clamshell's lid and the lid gives it a glossy look. Check it out for yourself.

Is it HP? It sure looks like it.

Make sure you get full payments before starting production.....

I really like them but I would get rid of the pinking on the edges.

Thanks (:

As to your first question, I got up the courage and started pursuing wholesale accounts. I've really dragged my heals on this, but I know that what I do is good, so I should promote myself in a way that my business can handle.

Regarding barcodes, if only it was that easy. There is only one agency that you can get legal barcodes from, which is GS1. I believe the others are just for personal use, and aren't accepted by the bigger chain stores because they cannot be read globally.

No, buyabarcode.com is through GS1 so you can use them.

Hi SM,

Your math is just a little wrong. If you can do three candles per minute at $12 per hour then your would add about .06-.07 cents per candle.

As SM said, you should get samples of the packaging and just see what the difficulty level will be.

You should ask for a sample of the box and the label. It might sound dumb, but the difference in boxes and labels can affect the speed with which you can work with them and therefore, affect your profits.

Most regular boxes will arrive flat and require you to manipulate both ends to close it. There are other options though and one of them could be a box that would require you to glue flaps on the bottom or top, which would require more effort and more time.

How many labels are they giving you to apply to each candle? Labels could arrive on a roll, a sheet, or might be loose. They might have a crack and peel back on them, which is easy to use, or they might not, which could slow down your packaging process.

If for some reason they can't provide you with samples, you can go through the motions without them and time yourself. If, for example, it took you 20 seconds to package one candle, that means you should be able to pack 3 in minute, or 18 an hour. If you give yourself a wage of $10 an hour, that would give you a labor cost of .55¢ per candle to package it.

Is that too much or too little? I can't say. If you're wholesaling your candles for $6 each, it amounts to about 9% of the cost. To me, that sounds reasonable; but if you're wholesaling them for $3 each, the amount goes up to 18% which sounds like too much.

The determining factor in this is how much you should be paid for that particular aspect of the job. In my part of the country, someone performing that type of job would probably only be earning around $7-$8 per hour, not $10, so that really drops the price per unit substantially if you lower the wage. In your area, perhaps the numbers you gave are good ones. Just do the equation using wages appropriate for your area and you should be fine.

That is very pretty and it was super kind of you to take the time to make it.

Everything looks good. Just FYI, tarts is Reserved by Yankee so you need to change tarts to melts.

Cara at papersprintsandpixels.com does AMAZING work. She is also very reasonably priced. I highly recccomend her.

My tax ID is setup in my name so I can legally run any businesses under I would like. You might try that.

Okay, here is how most see it. If you spent over a thousand dollars to have your site built and spend $50 per month to keep it running (as the link at the bottom of your page suggests) then you should have the knowledge and the know how to go lookup answers to all of these questions. NO ONE here should have to do that for you. Also, if the is indeed documentation to prove that those candles DO cause you to lose weight then you need to add that documentation to your website. If not, you need to place a note on your website that no documentation of weight loss has been made. I'm gonna shut up now.....

There is a center in the brain that senses satisfaction. Not all satisfaction is done with your tongue or your stomach. This is why you can begin to feel satisfied just by eating warm foods - because the aroma begins to satisfy you before you have even taken one bite. The purpose of the weight loss candle is to satisfy small hunger pangs that occur between meals, because it is this type of snacking/grazing that is a huge contributor to weight gain. It's not as if the scent is something like chocolate brownies. Actually, it is a unique combination of scents, each of which has been shown in studies to help satisfy that center of the brain. And encouraging someone to smell something when they are feeling hungry between meals also makes them more conscious of their actions and can additionally aide with the weight loss. Just because you haven't seen at in the tabloids at the supermarket check-out doesn't mean it isn't valid.

On a second note, I thought this forum was put in place to help out each other. I don't feel like some of the comments I have received were meant to be helpful, quite the opposite. I did not realize that by posting something in here, I would just be making myself a target for unconstructive criticism. Thank you to those of you who did make helpful suggestions, but to those who did not, I feel badly for anyone who posts questions here that doesn't have tough skin.

:tiptoe:

Well, I would do this. Charge her for the sample candles and but tell her that if and when she does place a wholesale order, the amount of the samples will be deducted from her order. Then it works out for both of you guys.

Ooooh. Really good ideas there. Crumble or cut them up for melts or make chunky pillars and votives out of them. They both sound like the best answer for your situation.

You could do that or just melt them down and pour again. I personally don't like displaying damaged products.

Thanks everyone.

Great article, Adam.

Althought I don't see CT mentioned anywhere...

Hold up now, I mentioned internet :smiley2: . I thought that we weren't trying to create our own competition:wink2: .

Adam, Congrats! Wow I never knew your age or anything until yesterday evening when I was looking at your candle site. You are doing very good for yourself, not only with candles but with your hosting site also...I cannot brag on you enough about how much help you have been with my website. (and he charges good prices to, along with top notch customer service)! I think the article was really good. I remember how excited I was when I had a write up in the newspaper about our candle company! Be happy and keep it as a reminder of all that you have accomplished!!!

(now get back to working on my site!!!! ) Just kidding!!!!!!

LOL, thanks. I just wish they would hurry up with that domain transfer. It is taking FOREVER...

Thanks everyone for the good comments.

I don't know why but the 3rd time I tried it opened! (you know what they say about trying again and expecting different results ) Anyway, yes the title was a bit wonky but that was a great article! It shows your humor, your professionalism, your commitment - good stuff. I can understand your disappointment, but you got the exposure - now it's up to you what you do with it. I hope you get tons of business from it. Do you have signs at your retailers, "as seen in Today in Mississippi"?

:embarasse No. Most of my wholesale customers are upset because only two got named in the article....

It's not working for me.

Did you give it time to load? It is a PDF file.

Thanks again everyone for the great comments. I reveived a printed copy today and it looks much better printed than it does there. Thanks again.