Ramaroa

'Freebies' are a whole industry these days, people just like to see how much free stuff they can get hold of. I've signed up for some of those sites and requested samples and freebies for things I would never consider purchasing, because I can. I feel there's no moral wrongdoing, there's no obligation on me to buy something, just because someone gave me one for nothing.

You should at least charge the postage, as it requires at least a bit of comittment from the consumer and more likely to attract the people really interested in your product.

Even if you are only giving 1 in 20 away, imagine you could get another 5000 hits or more and what that will cost you? The WWW is a huge place and news travels at a great speed.

Looks interesting, is it as easy to transfer over as they suggest? I'm looking for a change as I'm a bit disappointed with the current 'package' I have, which includes sitebuilder software and templates. Do they have a decent set of generic templates, or is it a case of starting out from scratch all over again with or own design?

Does anyone have an example of a site they created using their graphics?

I feel it is a good thing to be afraid and have some respect for the damage a heat gun can do. I am terified at the very thought of burning myself, so it's always kept safe and unplugged as soon as I'm done with it.

Just gorgeous! Love the colours.

I guess that's why we keep plugging away and for every timewaster out there, there are some genuine requests.

You didn't put the trace on the package, but he doesn't know that does he, or would he know by how much you paid? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we all have to learn our lessons somehow, often to the detriment of genuine folks out there. I had a very similar situation, and I sent two candles to someone I was very unsure about, I was sick with myself for ever thinking anything good would come of it and somehow I 'knew' in my own mind what this person was up to.

Call it gut feel, whatever, but always trust your instincts.

Inevitably my lady's parcel never showed up after 10 days, amazing that isn't it, when all the paid ones arrive at their destination?

Once I told her I had asked the post office to put a trace on the parcel, miraculously it turned up and sure enough I never heard from her again.

There must be some kind of scam school out there, where these people go to learn what stunt to pull next.

Ok I'm sure I missed reading something, but i put together my container candles in soy, then when they are used, the wax of course all melts

People will need to know container type / size and wick size to establish the problem.

Do you really mean all the wax melts? I'm not sure how that can happen, do you have a really shallow container and a huge wick?

Often when testing I don't stick wicks to containers and even then the wick doesn't move until it gets very near the bottom and the sustainer starts floating about in the last of the melted wax.

I'm sure all your hard work will pay dividends - have a blast!

I really wanted to go colourless from the very start, but somehow got persuaded from the opinions I sought, that more people would prefer colour. So rather grudgingly I do offer coloured, but went for a half way thing and chose quite a few scents that were more suited (IMO) to white. I am however, becoming more and more convinced that completely colourless is going to be the way forward for me.

I recently made a fairly big order of tumblers in many different fragrances, all in white and I was so pleased with the look of them, that it convinced me that I should have followed my original instinct.

I haven't a clue other than to suggest you just do one at a time and quickly sprinkle each one as you go.

I saw Christmas cards for sale in the shops two weeks back so you're hardly sad at all.

Aww you poor thing, hope you get well soon!

I'm sure some kind soul could come and hack you a few small chunks of wax, it's the worst thing ever, being incapacitated or told that you can't do the things that you want.

You were right

...or try it another way 1 Kilo = 2 pounds 2 Ounces ( Total 35 Ounces)

35 ounces divided by £4.00 = 11.4 pence per ounce

11 ounces would be £1.26

Heck I'm gonna patent that, whaddya reckon to 'Hobbit Poo'?

www.ramaroa.co.nz

If it's just a one off, I would establish the quantity required and work out your pricing very carefully, making sure you count and cover your costs for absolutely everything very carefully and then give them a small reduction for a bulk order. Don't be tempted to undersell yourself. Although, this may bring you some regular repeat business in future, at this stage I wouldn't offer too much out of the ordinary, they are asking for a price and they may well come back to you and ask for a better price if they buy more.

Sometimes I could kick myself, because in the panic to get a price out asap I missed the cost of something out, or underestimated the quantities of materials.

I can top that. Checkout Jo Malone's candles for a mere £260 thats about $520 for you US chaps.

Click here to see what I mean :shocked2:.

Ruby

Those candles don't give much details of size, but says they weigh 2.5 Kg Must be huuuge? So converted that's 5.5 pounds or 88 ounces, which makes them a mere $5.90 per ounce, still I don't think I'll be buying very many.

Another wow from me too, the label is just perfect and suits your candles perfectly. Nice work.

They're looking way better than my pathetic efforts.

If it's confession time, then yes, hands up guilty as charged.

I committed the ultimate sin last week: got up for work to find one of my candles burning merrily away on the dining table. OMG I did such a double take and nearly had heart failure. I couldn't blow the darn thing out quick enough; it had been going all night, approx 14 hours in total.

:tiptoe:

Thanks natt- i would really like the name heaven scent candles - but what you said makes sense. So it looks like i am back to square one, just when i thought i had finally decided. Oh well i am in no rush- will not actually have the time to built the site for another month or so.

My wesite will have little primitive ginger men with hearts so perhaps i could incorporate this in to the name? Dont know how though?

You made me think of 'Ginger Kisses' or Ginger Kiss (Gingerkiss.co.uk -sounds nice)

They are little bite sized ginger sponge cakes that we have in NZ, sandwiched together with cream.

which is great if you've saved your invoices from the beginning I've things I've bought stock wise that I've not got invoices for

I do need to do some kind of spreadsheet with costs per candle etc on' date=' will have to make something up[/quote']

If you've bought from companies and they are significant amounts of dough worth chasing up, you can backtrack and request a copy invoice. Most of my shopping is on-line and I keep all my e-mails, which usually have receipts or copies of orders etc that you can match up with your bank statement. If it's bits and bobs you have bought with cash from the shops you will have to chalk it up to experience. As for your costs you shouldn't have to make too much up, as you can easily check out prices of stuff on-line, if you can't remember how much you paid. You use whatever figures you like for costing and you don't need physical hard copy invoices to do that.

It's a good idea to work out costs before you commit to buying stuff, so that you can establish a selling price and see whether the numbers work; making sure you end up with a reasonable asking price and profit margin for yourself. If you don't know how much your product is costing you to make, you can't know what price to charge or whether it will be profitable.

You don't need anything else with the invoice unless you intend to account for profit and loss for each candle you make. Just do as you are doing keep a record of all income and outgoings and then periodically, you tally up the sales versus the cost to ascertain your Gross profit. You will have stock on hand that is not accounted for, so you need to keep a record of how much £s you value your stock at: be that in raw materials, unsold candles or work in progress. Really it is only an issue at the end of the tax year when you have to cough it all up to the tax man.

Edit: Any costings, spreadsheets you wish to do are your workings for your own purposes, in order for you to decide upon a selling price. These are your business only and you do not have to declare or show them to anybody whatsoever. All you have to show anyone externally is the amount of money you have received and how much you have paid out, nothing more than that.

Congratulations on your first sale - I still get a thrill when someone I don't know buys something from my website.

Yay, I told all my friends about LBTS. Considering that I am at least 12 hours flying time from USA and 18 hours ahead of most of you guys. My parcel was delivered within FOUR day and I was absolutely floored to see the courier man at the door with my parcel so quickly. Stunning service, I'm hard pushed to get a local delivery across town that quickly. Only today I have a customer across town complaining that the parcel I posted on Sunday has not arrived today (Thursday).

Buy plenty more labels than you think you will ever need, as you waste so many testing, making mistakes etc. Max out the postage and get as many as you can for that price. If you are buying by the sheet, you could also get a selection of colours, sizes and shapes, to see what works best for your jars. I use different lavels for different things and still working on something that I'm completely happy with.

This was when I was playing with frosted labels, but I have since changed to round labels on the lids with these jars:

They are a bit more see-through in the flesh, than they appear in the photo.

Ooops99, that is exactly how I started making candles. :rolleyes2 Be aware, be very aware that once you start down this road you simply cannot stop, so welcome to the club.

My very first endeavours into 'candlemaking' was to find some wicks so that I could melt and repour stoopid shop bought citronella candles for the garden that were always left with half the wax in the bucket. I bought some wicks, chucked the old wax in a saucepan and melted it outdoors on the BBQ; because then I had no idea what I was doing, but it seemed like a good plan and it worked just fine. I'd definitely be a bit more wary these days about shoving a pan of wax onto a gas flame, but hey ho you live and learn. You just have to find something suitable to melt the wax in and away you go.

Have fun!